Phoenix

by Crouch, Janie

  Why would someone do that? How would someone do that? Only she and Anne had had access to the file.

  Riley’s fingers traced across the top of Boy Riley’s file, stopping where a tiny water stain still showed. A tearstain.

  She frowned, her eyes narrowing, as she grabbed the reports Baby and Riley had given about the rappelling accident.

  Riley had been so angry at Bo. Bo had been the last one up at the rigs, alone after Damon had gone down first. He’d definitely had time to sabotage the rappelling gear. And Bo had been the one to say the left rig was the fastest.

  Except he hadn’t. Amber had been the one to tell Riley that Bo had said the left rig was the fastest. The last one to see him before the accident.

  She’d also been the only one to have access to his medical file, just before a vial of penicillin went missing.

  Riley looked out the window of the RV and remembered Phoenix sitting out in the rain, the awkward, falling hug Amber had given him.

  The perfect time to inject him with penicillin without him realizing it. The anaphylaxis had begun to set in less than an hour later—Phoenix would’ve been dead if Riley hadn’t turned out to see him one last time on that rope bridge.

  I want to do something about Felix’s death. I’m here to put the past to rights.

  Amber blamed Riley for what had happened to Felix.

  What if she hadn’t entered WAR to honor her brother’s memory? What if she’d done it to avenge her brother’s death?

  And today’s section of the race included a shooting range. Way too much opportunity.

  Riley ran out the door to find Zac and Wyatt, praying she wasn’t too late.

  Chapter 24

  For the first three miles, Riley pushed himself as hard as possible. In order to win, he was going to have to make up a lot of ground early.

  This stage was a particularly brutal ten miles, then the shooting range, and finally ten more miles. It didn’t matter who crossed the finish line first today, it was the overall combined time that mattered. So, if he wasn’t at least forty-five minutes ahead of Bo when he crossed the finish line, Riley wasn’t going to win.

  Winning was what everyone was telling him to do. Anne when they’d talked. Zac on the way out of camp. Baby had whispered it to him this morning before the start. The mom of four teenagers in her forties who’d given him an MRE so he’d have some energy to burn as he ran.

  Hell, even Riley had told him to win yesterday.

  That was what he was here to do. Win.

  Except…

  He’d sprinted another half mile before his brain actually finished the thought.

  Except… he hadn’t come here to win. At least not the race.

  That had never been his plan. The race didn’t mean anything to him. He’d only decided to try to win because Bo was talking so much shit.

  The only winning he’d come to Wyoming to do was winning Wildfire back.

  He was running in the wrong direction to do that.

  He stopped. For the first time as a professional athlete, Phoenix stopped in a race he could win.

  Phoenix was a winner. Phoenix was competitive. Phoenix didn’t lose.

  But Riley didn’t give a shit about Phoenix right now. Anything that was causing him to run away from the love of his life was something moving him in the wrong direction. Especially right when she needed him most.

  She meant more to him than all of it. She wanted to argue that their lives weren’t compatible?

  Then he would change his life until they were compatible.

  Zac and Wyatt had been right yesterday when they’d said she needed to cross that bridge by herself.

  And there would be other parts of navigating her MS she would have to do alone. But goddammit, he was going to be with her for every single part she didn’t. She was going to know that whatever bridge she crossed, he’d be crossing right behind her. Or in front of her. Or beside her.

  He wasn’t going anywhere. Not without her.

  He turned around and headed back toward camp, feeling lighter and happier than he had since he’d started this morning—hell, since Wildfire had broken up with him. He didn’t deceive himself into thinking this was going to change her mind, but it at least was going to show her he was serious about his intentions.

  She didn’t want him to have to change his life.

  He didn’t want to live without her in his life.

  They were going to work that shit out.

  And they would.

  Bo, no surprise, was the first person he passed on his way back. He was probably about twenty minutes behind Riley, slower because of his backpack, and because he was just slower.

  Shock slid across Bo’s features when he realized it was Riley and that he was moving in the wrong direction.

  “Decided you couldn’t put in the effort to beat me?”

  “Decided my efforts were best spent in a different direction.”

  Bo rolled his eyes. “What is this, Harrison? Your way of being able to say you didn’t try? That I didn’t win fair and square?”

  Riley wasn’t going to get into the concept of fair and square after what Bo had done with both the rappelling equipment and hiding the puzzle clues.

  “This race is yours to win or lose on your own, BoGo,” Riley finally said. “Either way, I’m out.”

  “You don’t think I’ll take the win?”

  Riley narrowed his eyes. “I think you were willing to do whatever you had to do to take the win. I’ve just got more important things to do than to prove I can beat your cheating ass.”

  “Whatever, Phoenix.” Bo spat out the word. “I didn’t have to cheat to beat you. You beat yourself.”

  Bo took off without another word.

  Riley wasn’t even tempted to go after him just to prove who really was the winner.

  Riley was already the winner. The prize was just back at base camp.

  He passed others on the way. Damon, Baby, Iceland, some other competitors, they all slowed down to make sure he was okay, but he sent them all on their way. Just told them he’d decided to drop out of the race and would explain the details later.

  Maybe one of them could still beat Bo if they pushed.

  There was only one person who stopped to talk to him and really find out the details about what was going on.

  Amber.

  “You’re quitting?”

  He smiled. “Yeah. There’s something I’ve got to handle, and it can’t wait. You go on ahead, and I’ll see you at the finish line. We can talk later.”

  “Actually, I’m in no huge hurry. The first place woman is at least an hour ahead of me in overall time, and then the other women are at least a couple hours behind me.”

  He nodded. “Second place. That’s amazing, Amber. Felix would be really proud, you know.”

  “I guess I’ll never know.”

  He grimaced. “I’d really like to talk later. About more than just the race. About Felix and your family. About whether there’s anything I can do to help.” Way too late, but better late than never. “But really, you should get going. There’s no need for you to waste time with me. My race is over.”

  Because he had a much more important one to run now.

  Amber gave him a sad smile. “You know, I heard you and Girl Riley broke up. Maybe you and I could go have a drink or something sometime?”

  Shit. He wanted to handle this with care. He wasn’t interested in the least, but she’d already been through enough. “I’m flattered, Amber. Truly. But Riley and I are trying to work things out.”

  Or they would be once he sat her down and refused to let her get back up until she saw reason. He was going to do that, even if it meant literally sitting on top of her.

  “That’s actually why I’m on my way back to camp, to talk to her.”

  Amber’s face crumbled right in front of him. Without a word she turned and ran off the path farther along the ledge.

  Shit.

  He ran after her. He
couldn’t leave her like this. “Amber, please don’t be embarrassed. This development with Riley and me getting back together is very new.”

  She just kept running. Now he was getting concerned about more than just her emotional well-being. If she wasn’t careful, she might slip over the ledge.

  Just like her brother. Jesus.

  “Whoa. Hey, be careful, please. Stop and let’s talk.”

  She stopped so close to the edge, one of her feet actually slid off.

  But at least she’d stopped running.

  He gestured for her to come back toward him, even though she wasn’t looking at him. “Please be careful of that ledge. You’re too close.”

  He stepped closer—could he reach her if she lost her balance and began to fall?

  But she didn’t lose her balance, she just began to laugh.

  “Um, are you okay?” Now she turned to face him. There was no sign of discomfort or embarrassment on her features.

  Just full, unadulterated hatred.

  “No, we wouldn’t want me to fall off the ledge, would we now? You were the one who was supposed to fall off the ledge. Not get a happily ever after with your girlfriend.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  But he knew. Before she said another word, he knew.

  Before he looked down and saw the gun in her hand, he knew.

  Amber was behind everything that had happened to him this week.

  “Felix idolized you, did you know that? Like, full-on man-crush. All the stupid stuff he did was because of you.” She brought the gun up from her side to point directly at him.

  Riley kept his hands out low and in front of him, not wanting to give her any reason to pull the trigger. “I didn’t know him very well. Not as well as I should have. But Felix knew the risks of what he was doing. Everybody who goes out there knows the risks.”

  “Someone should have sent him home! You should’ve sent him home. Felix had no business being out on those skis on that kind of slope.”

  If memory served, they had told him to go home, but Felix hadn’t been interested in anyone else’s opinion. He’d had something to prove, and nobody was going to talk him out of it.

  God, in his younger days, Riley had been that person too many times to count. It was common among athletes of their type—ones who stared down danger every chance they got, convinced of their own immortality.

  Felix had been one of those too.

  But telling that to a grieving sister, especially one with a gun in her hand, probably wasn’t the best plan.

  He nodded instead. “You’re right. Someone should’ve taken a hard line with Felix. I should’ve taken a hard line with him and told him he wasn’t ready.”

  Riley ran a hand through his hair, then quickly held it out to show her he wasn’t doing anything fishy when she jerked the gun in his direction.

  She didn’t understand the reality of how stunts worked. Didn’t understand that, although the finished project may have looked like it was just Riley and a couple of buddies haphazardly filming, in reality, there were sometimes dozens of people involved. Beyond that, there were sometimes fans who came out to try to get in on the action too.

  It had been that way on the mountain that day. Riley had known Felix in passing, but not well at all. He’d never had a full conversation with the other man.

  But Felix, like so many fans sometimes did, thought he really knew Riley, had built up a pretend connection in his head until he’d convinced himself it was real. That they had a relationship. A friendship.

  It was called parasocial interaction, when people felt an attachment and formed an imaginary relationship with celebrities, convinced it was real. He could thank his sister, Quinn, and all her college degrees for providing him with that knowledge.

  Not that it was going to make him any less dead if Amber decided to fire that gun.

  “And after his accident you should’ve been there with him. It was your fault he was paralyzed, and then he just gave up. He would’ve listened to you. He would’ve tried if you had been there to encourage him. He wouldn’t listen to me. Didn’t care about anything I said. I wasn’t the great Phoenix.”

  Now that he couldn’t argue with even if he’d been planning to argue. He should’ve gone to see Felix, whether he’d known the man well or not. Should’ve made the time. “You’re right. You’re right about it all. I should’ve been more aware and done more after the accident. I should’ve made Felix a priority.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Is that supposed to be enough? Just…you’re sorry? You’ll do better next time? That’s not going to make it right. I came here to make it right.”

  “What will make it right?”

  “It was supposed to have been you on that rappelling rig. I didn’t even know Baby was up there.”

  “Because his stomach was upset.” He shook his head, barely able to believe it.

  “I knew if I told you Bo said that left rig was fastest that you’d choose it. I had no idea he was already up there.”

  He needed to keep her talking as long as possible. Give himself time to figure out…something. A way to talk her out of this? A way to get the gun? “It’s not too late, Amber. Just put the gun down. Nobody has gotten hurt, and we can still work things out—especially given the circumstances.”

  “Circumstances such as you murdering my brother?” she sneered. “You’re pretty damn lucky, I’ll give you that. When I found out how allergic you were to penicillin, I thought my little gift to you yesterday would certainly do the trick.”

  “That was you?”

  “It wasn’t as good as you falling, but dead is dead. Except your Florence Nightingale saved you, did she? And now you say the two of you are getting back together?” The gun wavered. “You don’t get to have a happy ending! You don’t get to ride off into the sunset with the girl when my brother died because of you.”

  There was definitely going to be no talking her out of this.

  She firmed up her hold on the gun. “I want you to fall, Phoenix. I want you to feel what Felix did as he went over that cliff. I want you to know those few seconds of abject terror and knowledge that even if you somehow survive, nothing is ever going to be all right again.”

  Riley crossed his arms over his chest. He wanted to look still and firmly planted, not about to make any moves. But he kept his weight on the balls of his feet. There wasn’t going to be a good time to make a move for that gun. All he could do was choose the least bad time.

  She pointed at the ledge with her free hand. “Jump. I want you to dive headfirst over the edge.”

  “No.” He said the word simply. Not adding the insults he’d like to tag on. “I won’t do it. I’m sorry about your brother, I really am. Believe me when I say if I could go back and do things differently, I would. But I’m not jumping off that fucking ledge.”

  “Then I’m going to shoot you in the face.”

  “You know if you fire that gun, everyone is going to hear it. People will start running in this direction.”

  She shrugged, unconcerned. “There will be more questions, and I’m afraid poor Bo might be under quite a bit of scrutiny. But let’s face it, nobody is going to suspect me. I’m the amazing one, remember? So strong, so noble to do this in my brother’s memory.”

  She took a step closer.

  “I am doing the best possible thing for his memory—making sure someone as reckless as you doesn’t run around anymore. Maybe after you, I’ll make sure Damon and the other members of your team learn an important lesson too.”

  Jesus, she really was crazy, and even worse, serious.

  “I’ve got your attention now, don’t I, Phoenix? I can see you measuring the different options in your head. Can you get the gun from me before I kill you with it?”

  “Amber…”

  In the tree line just over Amber’s shoulder, a sound rang out from the woods. To anybody else it would’ve sounded like some sort of wild bird.

  More importantly, to Ambe
r it sounded like some sort of wild bird.

  To Riley, it sounded like one of the Linear Tactical signals. He’d been in these very woods enough with these guys to recognize the call.

  He had no idea who it was or how they’d known what was happening, but help was here. He just needed to buy them as much time as possible.

  He shrugged, dropping his arms. “You can’t blame me for trying to come up with some sort of self-rescue plan.”

  She tilted her head and gave him a smirk. “I would expect nothing less from the great Phoenix. Too bad you couldn’t put that sort of effort into helping my brother.”

  “I’m not going to jump, Amber.” Riley shook his head, keeping her attention on him. “On sheer principle, I’m not going to give you the pleasure of swan diving off of this ledge.”

  “Oh, you’re going off of the ledge. I can shoot you and drag you off, or you can jump and possibly survive.”

  Wyatt stepped out of the trees about ten yards behind Amber, his weapon trained on the back of her head. He tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders at Riley.

  Riley understood. Wyatt could take Amber out and end this right now if Riley wanted him to.

  Riley kept his gaze trained on Amber but shook his head slightly.

  He was taking a risk. He knew it, but if there was any way to resolve the situation without body bags, Riley wanted to try it. He owed Felix that much.

  “How about if I make you a deal, Amber?” Riley actually took a step closer to the ledge. She did what he’d hoped she would do: turned more fully toward the ravine, leaving her back more exposed to the woods. “I’ll jump. Like you said, there’s at least a possibility I’ll survive. But if I do, you let this die with me. You don’t hurt Damon, you don’t go after Girl Riley. I was the one responsible for that skiing stunt, and I should’ve made absolutely certain everyone was qualified to be up there. So you let it end with me.”

  She lowered the gun to her side as Riley deliberately took another step toward the ledge. Over her shoulder, Zac stepped out of the woods too.

  Riley turned back toward the ledge. The best thing he could do now was keep Amber’s attention focused on him and believing that he was about to jump.