Page 40 of The Heat is On

What?Really?Rio’s mouth opened just a fraction, and Archer met his expression.

Clearly Rio wasn’t the only one with secrets.

Or maybe God was closer than he thought, in the most unlikely of places.

Rio nodded, turned back, and followed March out onto the bridge.

The shot came from the ridge, ripping through the morning air, scattering birds into the brushes.

March swore, grabbed Skye, and pushed her to the other end of the bridge. She screamed, and Rio wanted to also when March shoved the gun against her temple. But Archer had Rio by the collar, pushing him off the bridge and into the trees.

Archer hooked an arm around Rio’s neck, his voice close to his ear.

“Give it a second—then we’ll take him together.”

Rio didn’t stop to sort out the words, to piece together Archer’s motives. He just yanked Archer’s arm off him—“No—!”—and raced toward March.

He grabbed March’s arm and forced the gun away from Skye, pushing her hard.

The gun reported—thank God, into the sky—but March rounded and slammed the gun, like brass knuckles into Rio’s face.

Rio went down, the blow just in the right place to turn his vision gray and splotchy. The world careened at sharp angles and he shook his head, fighting to clear it before March could get another shot off.

Then someone roared behind him, and he just barely fit together the image of Archer tackling March. They hit the rocky dirt, fighting for the gun.

Rio found his feet, his hands on the ground, still woozy when he felt Skye’s hands on him. “Rio!”

He gripped her shoulders, his vision clearing.Skye.“Are you okay?”

She nodded.

And shoot, but this was it. His gut clenched with the swift, brutal realization that just maybe God had answered his fleeting prayer.

“Tell me you can swim!”

Realization came fast in her eyes. “Yeah!”

He ignored Archer and March grappling and pulled her to the river. She nodded—oh no, she thought he was jumping with her—

“Sorry, Skye.” And he put everything he had into his eyes, one flash of a moment. The rush of hope, the flicker of light, the sense that she’d truly seen him and not flinched.

In a different time and place, he could fall in love Skye Doyle.

Maybe already had.Please live.

He wanted to kiss her, but Archer just might be dying behind him, and Darryl had fled, so—

“I’m sorry!”

Then, with a hard shove that would ensure she cleared the rocks below, he pushed her into the river.

Rio had pushedher in the river. The freezing rapids.

Alone.

Skye had even see the idea form in his eyes—had agreed. But that was when she’d thought Rio would jump in with her.

She surfaced, gulping, the spray blinding her, the water a thousand needles tearing into her skin. Her feet scraped bottom, but the current jerked her away from the bridge, slamming her against a boulder, spinning her, thrusting her into the foamy maw of the river.