Wilder (The Renegades) (3 page)

“What?” I squeaked.
Don’t look down. Focus on him.

“Bambi, you know…because you look like a deer in the headlights,” he answered.

“Bambi is a boy, and what the hell would I need a harness for?”

“That.” Landon pointed toward two thick wires Paxton was inspecting, which led from the top of the tower to—
no fucking way
—a wall at the end of the pool. On the ship. Our ship. The one in port at least six stories beneath us. “We’re zip-lining into the set-sail party,” he said with a grin, as if I’d been given some kind of gift.

“No. Nope. Not happening,” I said, shaking my head, trying to back into the tower.

“Wilder, we’ve got a no-go,” Little John called out.

Paxton looked over from where it appeared he was securing whatever contraption wanted to kill me. He took me gently by the arm to the side of the tower where the cameras weren’t pointing and, for once, my thoughts weren’t on how hot he was but rather how quickly I could kill him and bury the body.

“There’s no chance I’m doing that.” My words ran together. “I don’t even know how to do that, nor would I ever
want
to. It’s insane.”
And dangerous. And so high.

“It’s fun,” he promised and knelt in front of me. “Step here,” he said, guiding my feet.

“It’s not fun, it’s death, and I want no part of it.”

“It’s perfectly safe. Step again.”

My legs acted on autopilot, my eyes firmly focused on the zip line. “Why the hell would you even do something like this?”

“Because no one has,” he answered, as if that was reason enough.

“Did you ever stop to think there’s a reason no one has done it? Maybe it’s dangerous? Or illegal?”

He laughed and stood, pulling something up my legs and fastening it around my waist. “It’s actually safe, I promise. I’ve done it hundreds of times. Never onto a cruise ship, but through jungles, off a parasail, that kind of thing. Zip-lining is one of the tamer things that I do.”

“Then you’re mad.”

“So I’ve been told. Arm?”

I thrust it out. “Well, I’m saying no. I’m going to walk down this deathtrap tower and get on the ship.”

“You can’t.”

“Excuse me?” I fired back as he snapped the clasp over my chest. Holy shit, I was in the harness. “I am a fully grown woman, I most certainly can say no.”

“Oh, that you can. But they’ve already shut the doors and begun the launch, see?” He motioned behind him.

I leaned around his massive shoulders, my fingers digging into his taut, inked skin to avoid falling over the railing. He was telling the truth. The hatches had all shut, the ramps were down, and the engines were on.

“You have
got
to be kidding me.”

“I’m not,” he said, his nose wrinkled in apology. “Look, Leah, I made a wrong assumption. I never thought you wouldn’t want to do this. I figured the minute you agreed to come with me, you knew what you were getting into.”

“What?” My head snapped back. “Because I should automatically assume someone is going to zip-line onto our cruise ship?”

“Well, I’m not just anyone,” he said. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“Oh my God, could you be any more arrogant?”

“Yes.”

I scoffed. “Hard to believe. What am I supposed to do?”

“Ride tandem with me,” he answered with a dimple-deepened grin.
Asshole.
“It’ll be fun. Plus, it’s the only way to get on the ship, because it leaves the minute we land and they cut the line.”

“Wilder, we’ve got to go!” Landon called out, already latched on to his wire.

“So my options are I slide down the death-wire with you, or I go home?”

“You could always meet us at the next port. I think it’s four days away, right?”

“I’d miss a whole week of class!”

“Well, there is that.” He shrugged.

“I. Do. Not. Like. You.” I spat out every word at Paxton as Little John came over with two helmets.
Hold on to the anger, it’s safer than fear.

“Well, I actually kinda like you, so that’s enough for me. Then again, I’ve always liked firecrackers.”

Unbelievable.

“Let’s go, kids,” Little John called.

“Come on, live a little.”

“That seems more like a quick route to death. Unless you have some foolproof method of keeping me safe.”

He took the helmet from Little John, slipped my hair tie free, and ran his fingers over my hair. “You have gorgeous hair, Leah.”

“You have a huge ego, Paxton,” I fired back.

He slid the helmet onto my head, adjusted the chin strap, and snapped it before doing the same to his own. “If there was one thing you wanted from this trip, what would it be?”

“Not to zip-line right now.”

“Not an option. Tell me. What’s the one thing you’ve been looking forward to?”

I swallowed and focused on what I’d been dreaming of for the last six months. “Mykonos. We have an optional shore excursion that week, and I want to go to Mykonos.”

His eyes flashed with surprise, but he quickly masked it. “Really?”

“Really. My dad proposed to my mom on Kalafatis Beach.” She’d always been scared of marriage, commitment in general, but told me once that there was something about being there with Dad that made her abandon her fears and embrace her destiny. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t let go of the hope that maybe if I stood there, I could do the same. But as of right now, that fear was holding my feet firmly on the ground and off that zip-line.

“Done. I will take you to Mykonos.”

My breath caught, knowing how much that shore excursion cost, and that it wasn’t included in my scholarship packet. “Why?”

“Because I need to get my tutor on that ship.” He looked past me, and the cocky grin was back in place seconds before a lens came over my left shoulder. Our privacy was at an end. “It’s up to you, Firecracker, but you’ve got about a minute to decide.”

Wasn’t that the theme of my day?

He walked me back through the crowd to where Landon stood on a platform, looking more than a little irritated.

My mind raced a million miles an hour, but it slowed the minute Paxton put his hands on my shoulders and demanded my attention. “If you do this, I’ll take you to Mykonos. I will personally make sure that this is the trip of your life. But you have to accept the agreement. The tutoring, the suite, the cameras, all of it.”

“And if I don’t?”

His tongue swiped across his lower lip and, as sexy as it was, it seemed more like a nervous, subconscious motion. “Then I’ll fly you home, first class, on me. You can think of this as that one day you almost did something insanely stupid.”

“And what happens to you? Nothing, right? You pull the next name out of the tutor hat?”

He shook his head. “Every other tutor is assigned. And besides, you were hand-picked for me for your academic strengths. If I lose you, I probably fail. All these people”—he gestured to the crew around us and leaned in to whisper—“they all lose their jobs.”

A heavy weight settled on my shoulders, and I wondered in that instant if that was what he’d been thinking of back on the ship, if that was what made him so pensive. “How long does it take?”

“Five seconds, max.”

My heart started to pound, as if it already knew the decision I was coming to.

If I kept my eyes closed, it would be over before I knew it, right?

He gently tucked my hair behind my ears, clearing it of the helmet’s ear straps. How could I tell him what he was putting me through without laying everything bare and looking like an idiot? Without going into that night…and the following morning? Without seeing the cocky way he looked at me change to the inevitable looks of pity and morbid curiosity?

How could I ever get past it if I didn’t get on that damn ship? Was it better to stay safe, locked away in myself?
Yes.

But the crew around us? The ones who would lose their jobs?

I looked up into Paxton’s eyes, and we lingered there, wordlessly exchanging something I hadn’t had in years: trust. He would keep me safe. I somehow knew it with every bone in my pieced-together body.

“What do you say, Leah? Are you ready for an adventure?” He questioned me softly this time, as if he had somehow realized what he was asking me to risk.

I gave the one word that I knew would change…everything.

“Yes.”

Chapter Two

Paxton

Miami Port

She said yes. I didn’t realize how much one word could mean until it slipped past her pursed, pissed-off lips. Lips that had my attention from the first second I saw her. I brought her up to the platform where Landon waited, subtly shaking his head at me.

I’d had easily a dozen girls beg me to tandem them on this, and he knew it. Instead, I’d told them all, including Zoe, to basically fuck off, and brought my uptight tutor in the hopes that it would win her over. Leah looked anything but won over.

She’d stiffened even more as I buckled her in.

Once John secured the rigs, he gave us the lowdown. “Okay, drop zone is marked. Pull the kill strap, and you’ll fall. It’s about ten feet and thickly padded, so don’t worry.”

“Wait, we’re falling, too?” she squeaked, her hands white-knuckling the harness. “You didn’t say fall. You said safe.”

“It’s into a huge pad, Leah. It’s either that or we slam into the wall, right? We have brakes, I’ll slow us down, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry, he says,” she muttered. “Safe, he says. Asshole.”

“Hey, I heard that,” I sputtered. It usually took me dumping a girl the morning after I fucked her to get that kind of label. Not that I’d mind fucking Leah—hell, I was already itching to get my hands on her incredibly perfect ass—but that would ruin any chance of me getting through this year with the GPA I needed.

“Good,” she spat back.

“Oh, I like her.” Landon laughed.

“Shut up, Nova,” I threw back with his stage name, knowing the cameras were on us, and reminded myself to warn Leah about how he got that “Casanova” nickname in the first place.

I buckled in behind Leah and pulled her tight little body back against mine by her harness. The minute she made contact, she nearly sagged against me, and I had the strangest instinct to wrap her in my arms and carry her back to the ship, fuck the stunt, the cameras, all of it. Something told me that all that anger thrown my way was masking another emotion—fear. “Are you sure?” I asked, my lips brushing the shell of her ear.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she whispered.

We moved forward to the edge of the platform the Renegade team had built, and she stiffened again. “I…I don’t do heights.”

Now she fucking tells me.
God, I was an asshole. “Say the word, and I’ll call it off, Leah. We’ll find another way to get you onto the ship.”

“No.” Tremors ran down the length of her body, but her voice was sure and strong. “I’ll do it. Just…” Her breathing picked up, and I wrapped my arms around her, nearly enveloping her tiny frame. “Just don’t let me fall.”

She trusted me. An almost unrecognizable feeling unfurled, stretching through my limbs, the need to protect her making me feel simultaneously like a prick for putting her through it and as strong as Superman with her in my arms.

But why did I suspect this slip of a woman was going to be my kryptonite?

I shook the stupid thought out of my head. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I swear it.”

“Okay, then let’s get this over with.”

I gave the thumbs-up to Landon. “Nova?”

“Good to go! Wilder?”

“Let’s rock this!”

A running leap and we were airborne, the exhilarating rush racing through my veins in a familiar hit of the only drug I was addicted to—adrenaline.

Leah’s breath stuttered in her chest, and then she let out a gasp, her hands not reaching for her own tether, but my arms still wrapped securely around her waist. I should have let her go, given her the foot or so of space that safety dictated, but something told me she’d be safest closer to me.

Or maybe it was my own insane need to get a little closer to her.

We passed over the bow of the ship, then the bridge, until we neared the top deck, the bass from the party reaching up to welcome us to our temporary home. The thousand or so students on board partied beneath us, cheering as we soared overhead, passing too quickly for any of them to come into focus.

The drop zone was before the pool, a huge air cushion with a giant
X
, as if there was any chance I was going to miss it. I reached up right around the same time as Landon to apply the brakes and slow us down.

I pulled, but nothing happened.

We flew past Landon, and I pulled harder.
Fuck.

Don’t panic.
I reached forward for the separate braking mechanism on Leah’s harness, but it gave way with too much ease. If anything, we were moving faster.

The drop zone would be on us in one second, and we were going way too fast.
You promised her she’d be safe, that she wouldn’t get hurt.
At this speed, she was in real danger of hitting the air cushion and flying straight off it into the crowd, or worse, off the boat.

“Can you swim?” I shouted, squeezing her ribs.

“Yes?” she responded.

“Good!” The drop zone sped underneath us in less time than it took to breathe. “Hold your breath!”

I felt her chest expand. Right before we reached the pool, I grabbed both of our kill straps and pulled with all my strength, saying a little prayer those worked. They gave way.

We fell.

I tucked her into me and raised my knees so I’d take the brunt of the impact.

Fuck, this is going to hurt.

We hit the water so hard I was astonished that we didn’t bounce. My breath abandoned me and pain shot up my back, but I didn’t let go of Leah, not until my ass hit the bottom of the pool. Then I pushed her up with all the strength I had so she popped to the surface.

I kicked my way to the sun, then filled my lungs with pure, sweet air. “Are you okay?” I asked Leah, who treaded water next to me. Her eyes were huge, her breaths choppy and verging on hyperventilation. “Leah?” I closed the distance between us and pulled her against me, moving us back to the shallows until I could touch the bottom.

Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound emerged.

“Dude, that was epic!” a student called out from the side of the pool, and I became aware that we were very much in the public eye.

“Renegades! Renegades!” A chant erupted.

For the first time in my life, I didn’t give my wild Renegade grin to the camera, didn’t throw my hands up in victory. Instead, I cupped Leah’s face in my hands and tilted her chin so I could meet those whiskey-colored eyes. “Leah, I need you to say something. Anything.”

She took a full breath, and her tremors stopped as she brought her hands to my chest. “You. Are. An. Asshole.”

Well, I guess that was something.

Then she shoved me backward. My feet slipped and I went under, water shooting up my nose. I got my bearings and came back up to Leah walking out of the pool, her wet T-shirt clinging to every one of her petite curves, her jeans pasted to her thighs. Why the hell was she wearing jeans in the first place?

She was okay, right? She wasn’t limping, and I thought I’d done a good job of cushioning the drop as much as possible, but still. She looked okay. Pissed, but okay.

“Wilder, you’re on!” Bobby shouted from the side of the pool, his clipboard and earpiece fully in place.

I took off my helmet, raked my hair back from my face, and forced myself to walk in the opposite direction of Leah, toward the stage where Landon dwarfed Penna’s slight frame next to the DJ. The music was drumming a deep beat, and usually this was the pinnacle of my high, reveling in another stunt accomplished. Girls, guys, they all touched me or slapped me on the back as I made my way to the stage.

I plastered my fake-ass Wilder smile on my face and took the stairs two at a time. “I want both those fucking rigs,” I said quietly to Bobby as I passed him.

His eyes widened, but he nodded. “Sure thing, Wilder. I’ll have the crew grab them.”

I needed to rip those brake assemblies apart and find out why the hell they both failed. God, that stunt could have gone wrong so easily. I could be carrying Leah to get a broken bone set, or worse, scraping pieces of her skin off the wall where the end of the line was mounted.

Penna gave me a million-watt smile and raised her hand for a high five, but I saw the worry in her eyes. I pulled her into what looked like a celebration hug, keeping my hands way above her waist. Putting my hands on her while she was in a bikini was always weird. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

“Yeah. We need to meet up after. No cameras.”

She nodded and pulled back with a huge smile, then brought the microphone up. “Talk about a wild ride, huh?” she asked with a contagious laugh.

The crowd of students cheered, and Landon raised his hands in victory, but he arched his eyebrows when he looked back over at me. “Later,” I mouthed, and he nodded.

Penna passed me the mic, and I was on. “What’s up, Renegades?”

The crowd went wild, and I shot them the grin I was famous for. “In case you hadn’t caught on, I’m Wilder, this here is Nova”—I motioned to Landon who raised his fist—“this is Rebel”—Penna gave her signature wave—“and we’re the Renegades.” Another cheer went up from the crowd. “We figured since the Summer X Games are over, we’d take a break from winning medals and doing stupid shit you guys like to watch on YouTube and sail around the world with you. Luckily our sponsors agreed. What do you say?”

The crowd screamed.

Landon took the microphone. “Now don’t go expecting any crazy antics on board. We promised to be on our best behavior.”

“As you can see, they’re already obeying those rules,” Penna said into Landon’s mic, and the crowd laughed.

The ship moved away from the dock, and Landon handed me the mic. “This is it, guys. Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?” I asked, using our signature line.

“We’re ready!”

“You little Renegades,” Penna teased with a grin.

“Then let’s get this party on!” I shouted and cued the DJ.

The music returned to full volume, and the students all started to dance, drinks waving in hands. I handed the mic to the DJ and motioned Penna and Landon to the side of the stage before the cameras could get there.

“What the fuck happened?” Landon asked, all business.

“The brakes failed. Both of them.”

A knowing look passed between us. “Before you even ask, I double-checked the assemblies in my room before we left for the tower.”

“Before or after you brought your new Twinkie into the picture?” Penna asked. “She wasn’t part of the plan, and you know I hate it when you go off map.”

“She’s my tutor. Nothing more. And you both know if she isn’t fully invested, I’m fucked. We all are. I was hoping to get on her good side.”

“That plan kind of backfired on you there, brother,” Landon added.

“Tell me about it. Look, I’m not going to get paranoid, but until I get my hands on those rigs and figure out what I missed, we all install our own gear. Deal?”

They both nodded. I hadn’t messed up a rig, and they both knew it, but the only other option was unmentionable, and I refused to think that someone had deliberately sabotaged the stunt, especially once I’d put Leah on there tandem with me. That was the least risky stunt we’d pulled in the last two years, but it easily could have had the worst ending.

“Eyes open, and let’s try to meet up later to talk about the next site. And not a word about this in front of the cameras. Or Leah.” I looked them both in the eye until they nodded.

“Wilder.” Bobby jogged over, his forehead all puckered. He’d been producing our footage the last twelve months or so, and I’d never seen him stress.

“What’s up?”

“The rigs are gone. I don’t know who removed them, but there’s just empty cord. Nova’s is still swinging, but yours are both gone.”

“Fuck,” I swore.

“Eyes,” Penna said, motioning behind me, where the camera crew had caught up.

“We’re all done here guys; you can film the party and stuff, but I’m going to head back to my room and make sure everything is in order to start classes tomorrow,” I said.

“Class…yay,” Penna added with false clapping.

Landon rolled his eyes and walked away, no doubt headed to find the next girl to add to his Casanova legacy. I normally didn’t give a shit about my friends’ sex lives, but Landon’s was borderline self-destructive. The guy he’d been slipped away a little more with each of his conquests, his eyes a little dimmer, more vacant. And, of course, I didn’t get to say a fucking word about it, not until I could fix what I’d broken…if he was still fixable.

The camera crew took the invite to check out the bikini-clad co-eds and left me standing with Penna at the end of the stage.

I scanned the crowd, but it was stupid to think I’d be able to spot her in a crowd of a thousand students.

“She left,” Penna said, smirking.

“I just need to make sure she’s okay. I think I may have royally fucked up when I put her on that line. It never occurred to me that she’d be that terrified.”

“Not everyone is built like we are, Pax. Most people are cool with watching us pull stunts, jump bikes, ski insane slopes, but they’d never actually do it. Plus, from what I saw in the suite, she didn’t exactly know who you were. Even the famous Paxton Wilder has his limits of reach.”

I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, point taken.”

“Plus, if you want her to have some privacy, you might consider not putting her in the middle of a stunt, jackass.”

“Yes, Mom.”

She smacked my chest with the back of her hand. “Also, don’t go to her suite through the front door. You’ll start a rumor fire you can’t put out, and she didn’t exactly strike me as the kind of girl who wants the attention you bring, so go through the balcony.”

“Good idea. What would I do without you?”

She leaned her head on my shoulder. “You’ll never have to know. Now go. If you mingle with the crowd they can get some good shots, and you can sneak off by the bar to check on her.”

I hugged my oldest friend. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said as we broke apart. “And yeah, the girl was terrified, but she’s stronger than you think.”

“What makes you say that?” She’d been shaking, hardly breathing, and I had white sheets with more color than her face when we’d splashed down.