Cabo San Lucas
What the hell had I gotten myself into?
Maybe it was time for a quick pro/con list.
Pros: It was beautifully warm here, and I was sitting on top of a tricked-out ATV in the middle of nowhere outside Cabo. I liked ATVs, so that was definitely a pro. There was a camera in my face—definitely a con. Oh yeah, that had been one of fifteen different waivers I’d had to sign—another con.
Penelope was ten feet away from me, wearing loose, protective pants and a tight-as-hell tank top, with her hair braided long down her back and covered with a pink bandana. She looked like a sexy, confident badass, and I wanted nothing more than to pull her in front of me on this ATV and kiss her senseless. I’d have to say that her being here was a pro.
Being this close to her constantly and knowing I couldn’t touch her? Definite con.
That other girl? The one who looked at me like I was dinner—I think they called her Zoe—she was another con.
Rachel incessantly shooting me side-eye and blocking any potential path to Penelope? Another con.
“You clear on your job here?” the producer, Bobby, asked me.
“Keep up,” I said, and saw Penelope smile in my peripheral vision.
“That’s pretty much it,” he agreed. “Don’t get in the way.”
“Is that what you said when that kid almost got killed in Nepal?” I questioned. “Because I can blame a lot of that foolishness on the fact that these kids are what…twenty-two? But you look like you’re in your forties, so there was at least one adult who should have had better judgment on that mountain.”
His eyes narrowed into tiny slits.
“I’m well aware of what these guys, and girls, are capable of. I looked them up online, and I paid attention. But if I see something that’s going to get one of them killed for sure, I’ll pull the plug. I’m not having one of their lives on my hands.” Especially Penelope’s.
“Just stay the hell out of the way,” he grumbled and took off to harass someone else.
I knew my job. They’d almost gotten someone killed in Nepal because they were young, stupid, reckless, short-sighted, and did I mention reckless? They also were damn good at what they did, so unless I thought they were literally going to break their necks, I was keeping my mouth shut.
“Time to go!” Wilder shouted, buckling his girlfriend’s helmet.
I glanced at Penelope to see that she had her own helmet fully under control. Hell, I was sure she had every element of this under control. Except maybe that snowboarder who kept eyeing her.
I don’t go soft and doe-eyed for boys because I worked too damn hard to get where I am to be a piece of ass for some guy on the circuit. Her words brought me a measure of comfort that I didn’t have a right to. So what if she dated these boys? She should date these boys. They were ten thousand times better matched for her.
But there was this loud, nearly screaming instinct that clawed through my chest, telling me that no one was better for her than I was…or would be in about a year from now.
“Renegades, let’s roll!” Wilder called out with his girlfriend on the back of his ATV.
I highly doubted Penelope would ever ride someone else’s ATV.
She pulled up next to me, as if she heard the direction of my thoughts, and yep, she had her own ride. “Channel six if you want everyone,” she said, motioning to the radio button on the outside of my helmet.
“Noted,” I said, cranking the dial.
“Want a private channel for just me?” she offered, the nervous motions of her hands at odds with the confident tone of her voice.
Temptation, thy name is Penelope.
“Someone could listen in,” I said softly, wanting to accept her offer more than anything.
She glanced around us for a second and then sighed with a giant nod. “You’re right, of course. God, what was I thinking? What am I thinking?”
“Pen—”
“Do you remember what I told you back on the ship?” she interrupted me.
“Keep up.”
“Yeah. Do that.” She slammed her visor down and took off, meeting up with Wilder at the front of the convoy, just behind the damn cameras.
I turned the radio to channel six and slipped the helmet onto my head, the voices of the other Renegades filling the small space.
“Okay, follow the leads out and don’t do anything too stupid,” a voice that I assumed belonged to Wilder called over the radio.
I joined in the dozen-member convoy, and we took off across the desert of the Baja peninsula, headed toward the ocean. The trail was solid as we traveled along a dried-up creek bed, the monotony of tan broken only by green cacti, yuccas, and a crystal-blue sky.
The convoy raced through the creek bed, and I had the full throttle on more than once, thankful for quick reflexes as they wove in and out of one another’s paths, barely missing collisions. As the bed took a turn to the west, we rode up over the ridge, leaving the path behind, and were rewarded by a sparkling Pacific Ocean.
“Now, that’s a view,” Penelope said, and several of her friends agreed.
“You keeping up okay back there, Doc?” Landon called.
“If you’re referring to me, then I am just fine,” I answered as we raced along the sand beaches toward a set of bluffs.
“Doc, I like that,” Wilder said.
“It can’t be that easy,” Penelope argued.
“If he wants a nickname, he’s going to have to earn it,” Rachel added.
“Who said I wanted a nickname?” I asked. “I’m just here to make sure no one dies.”
“We’re riding on a beach. Are you scared a whale might suddenly rise out of the ocean and squash us?” Penelope asked.
My jaw locked momentarily, biting back the instinct to playfully banter with her. “Knowing this crew, I wouldn’t doubt it,” I said.
There was muffled laughter, and then we drove even faster, the sand flying under me as the waves rushed toward us in rhythmic intervals.
Pax pulled up in front of a giant white tarp that looked to be at least thirty feet by thirty feet, and his girlfriend got off the back of his quad.
“Rebel, this one is all you,” he said through the headset.
“Right.” Penna turned on her quad, and I noticed for the first time a pack strapped to the back of it. “Let’s get this on.”
“Are you sure about this?” Landon asked as he walked over to her.
“As sure as I ever am,” she answered.
A ping of foreboding hit my stomach, low and twisting.
“So Cruz,” the brunette they called Zoe started, doing her best to give me a view of cleavage I had no desire to see.
“Yes?” I asked, making myself look away from Penelope before the girl caught on.
“What’s that short for?” she asked, then bit her lip in an overly flirtatious move. Maybe back in college that would have gotten to me. Eh. Maybe high school. But not now. Now, I preferred a woman who didn’t realize she was flirting, or who tried but was so damn cute in the attempt that it hooked me in a completely different way.
“What’s what short for?” I asked, trying to clarify.
“Cruz, silly.” She beamed a smile at me.
Seriously?
“It’s just Cruz.” My eyes flickered to Penna, who had stepped into a harness. What the hell were they doing? They’d prepped me for a simple ATV trip, and Penelope said she wasn’t even getting off her ATV.
“So it’s not short for something super-hot and Mexican?” Zoe asked.
I internally sighed and reminded myself that this girl was only twenty or so before looking back at her. “Actually, I’m Cuban.”
“That’s even hotter!”
“You know I’m a teacher, right?” I folded my arms over my chest. The last thing I needed was a student chasing after me.
Unless that student is Penelope.
“You’re not my teacher,” she answered.
Pretty sure I was sporting a what-the-fuck face, because her smile faded really quickly.
“Leave the man alone, Zoe,” Rachel said. “I think Pax needs you.”
“Till later!” She blew me a kiss like I was fourteen and rode off.
“Thank you,” I told Rachel as she glared over at me.
“Yeah, well, Zoe has a habit of sleeping with inappropriate men instead of dealing with her daddy issues.” The petite, purple-haired girl openly evaluated me with a deep sigh. She kind of reminded me of a grenade—small but deadly when the pin was pulled. “Unlike Penelope, who stays away from guys in general.”
Direct hit.
“I don’t know what she’s told you—”
“Nothing. She’s said nothing, which is the problem. She’s tighter-lipped about you than she was when Brooke…left.”
“Left? Or was taken away?” I responded before my brain caught up to my mouth. Damn it.
“Exactly. She talks to you. Look, I’m not one to judge.” She glanced over to where the Originals were gearing up. “I know more than I should about crossing boundaries.”
“We’re not crossing boundaries,” I told her truthfully, making sure she saw it in my eyes.
Hers narrowed in contemplation.
“I’m serious.”
“I can tell.” Her eyes flickered to the right, and I saw a camera team approaching us. “I also see the way you look at each other and know how quickly good intentions turn to…well—” She shrugged and then plastered a smile on her face, turning to the camera crew. “Don’t you guys have better things to film?”
“Whatever, Lucky Charm,” the guy with the camera said. “We wanted to see how Doc is doing on his first Renegade outing.”
“Considering all we’ve done is ride some ATVs in the desert, I’m pretty sure this won’t be going on my list of most memorable events.”
The hum of engines got my attention just in time to see the three Originals take off toward the bluff that rose above us, the guys each with someone on their back, but Penelope was solo. A camera crew raced off after them.
“Did you guys get stuck down here while the A crew got to follow them?” I asked, nodding toward the expedition.
“Just capturing a better angle,” one of them said.
I looked from the crew to where Penelope rode with the others, making her way up the bluffs on the switchback trails. “Better angle for what?”
“You’ll see. Best thing about the Renegades is they’re never boring.”
“I can definitely see that.”
The camera crew took off, positioning themselves at the edges of the white tarp. That sinking feeling in my stomach became more pronounced. What the hell were they up to? I jumped up on top of my four-wheeler to get a little more height and cursed.
That giant white tarp had a bull’s-eye painted on it.
She was going to jump off that bluff.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Leah asked, coming to stand next to Rachel.
“By golly, I think he’s figured it out,” Rachel sang.
“They’re jumping,” I said in monotone.
“They’re jumping,” Leah agreed. “Don’t worry. They’re experts.”
“Oh, I’m more than aware of their expertise,” I said through gritted teeth. She’d be fine. It wasn’t like I’d never seen her jump, and this was a hell of a lot higher than the High Roller. She’d have way more time to pull that chute.
“I think he’s cranky that they didn’t tell him. Seeing as he’s their sponsor now,” Rachel mock-whispered.
I sent the girl a look that made her smile disappear.
“You’re pissed.”
I didn’t bother answering her. If I had known, I would have checked the height of the cliff, the weather forecast, wind speed, direction, all of it. Like you did in Vegas? I shut up my inner daredevil. I was the adult here, and it was my job to make sure she was safe—that they were all safe.
Tucking my thumbs in the pockets of my pants to keep from reaching for the throttle, I reminded myself of every single reason I couldn’t drive up there and yell at her. After all, we’d done something far more dangerous a month ago.
“Why aren’t you two up there?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to drive his quad back down and miss the stunt. I’m not his errand girl,” Rachel said with a shrug.
“I’m not a big fan of heights,” Leah answered. “Besides, the view should be spectacular right here.”
“No one else is jumping with them?”
“The others will go after the Originals test it. They don’t stick the rookies up there—or even the more experienced Renegades—until they make sure it’s safe and doable. They’re actually very responsible,” she finished with a hint of defensiveness in her voice.
“Oh yeah, they’re regular icons of safety,” I responded.
Two figures approached the edge of the bluff and looked over.
“Look! There they are!” Leah said, pointing up.
My chest expanded with a breath that didn’t release as the guys ran back from the bluff’s edge only to race toward it and fly off.
One. Two. Three. I counted in my head until I saw their chutes deploy, bright white against the cloudless blue sky. Only then did my breath release. Penelope hadn’t jumped.
My relief turned to anxiety. Was she okay up there? Was she struggling? This wouldn’t be the first time she’d jumped since her accident, so it shouldn’t have been that.
Wait. I was seriously worried that the woman I was more than a little infatuated with wasn’t jumping of the cliff? She’ll never bore you.
Her friends unclipped their harnesses and gathered up their chutes before walking over to us, but my eyes remained firmly on the top of that bluff.
I vaguely heard them greeting their girlfriends but didn’t listen in until I heard her name.
“—but there’s no arguing with Penna when she’s determined,” Wilder said.
“She’s Rebel for a reason,” Landon agreed, his arm around Rachel.
“So she’s jumping,” I said, tearing my eyes from the bluff to stare down Wilder.
He shifted, having the awareness to look a little sheepish. “We should have told you.”
“We’ll talk about this later,” I growled.
I didn’t miss the side-eye the team gave one another, nor did I comment on it. Once she was safe, we’d have a nice little talk where I’d explain to them that this shit wasn’t going to fly.
I heard the high hum, the revving of an engine.
Then Penelope rode off the cliff.
My heart stopped, the blood froze in my veins, and every muscle in my body locked up tight. She fell so fast, I didn’t even count, didn’t pray. I couldn’t think or move.
Then her chute deployed, and she was violently jerked, but kept the ATV straight as air filled the canopy, dramatically slowing her descent.
Cheers erupted around me about the same time my lungs decided to function and my heart picked up a faster than normal rhythm.
“The chute is rigged to both her and the ATV,” I said absentmindedly.
“It’s her design,” Wilder said with pride. “We worked on it her last day in L.A.”
The day after Brooke wouldn’t see her.
Did her friends even realize what she was doing? It was so plainly clear to me—using the adrenaline to soothe, the stunts to hide. She was shoving everything Penelope under the Rebel mask, and they were too fucking absorbed in their happy little relationships to see it, otherwise they would have stopped this.
She landed just outside the tarp, and the guys were off running, their arms in the air in victory. I remained on top of the ATV, able to see her smile clearly from here, but not moving. Fighting my instinct to get to her, to untangle her from the rigging, to shake her and then kiss her senseless took every ounce of my strength and concentration.
They unhooked her, and she hugged both of her friends, that mega-watt grin in place for the cameras as she did a quick interview with Bobby about the massive stunt she’d just pulled off. Solo. With zero backup, since her friends were already down here.
As the other ATVs returned and parked in a line near me, the trio walked over. Penelope looked up at me, her eyes as radiant as her smile. “What did you think?”
That I want to simultaneously throttle and fuck you.
Closing my mouth was the smartest move I could make. Pressing my lips together, I sent her a look that took that smile down to almost nothing. Then I looked past her to where Wilder stood with Landon.
“The three of you will meet with me as soon as we’re back on the Athena.”
That got their attention.
“That’s right. I’m not some pushover, and I’m not an idiot, and that shit”—I pointed to the bluff—“will never fucking happen again on my watch. Not without you fully filling me in. Do you understand?”
“We were perfectly safe—” Penna started, but I couldn’t look at her. Not when I was this angry, this raw from what she’d just put me through.
“Do. You. Understand?” I repeated softer, in a tone that left no room for argument.
“Dr. Delgado—” Penelope tried again.
My eyes flickered to hers just long enough to let her know she was walking in a mine field. “One change in the wind. One more second without deploying the chute. The mass of that ATV built with the speed you’re traveling. One snap of a carabineer, and you would have…” I snapped my attention to the guys. “That’s why you were down here. In case she didn’t land it. So you’d be closer when she bled out on the sand.”
“We had a medevac standing by. This isn’t our first ride at the rodeo,” Landon quipped.
“Just like the one who had to airlift your snowboarder friend?”
He paled.
“Tonight,” I promised them in warning.
Then I walked the hell away before I did something I regretted, like pulling Penelope into my arms just to feel her heartbeat.
At the period in my life when I needed to stay put together more than anything, that woman was doing her best to unravel me one nerve at a time.
