“Where are the rescue teams?” Ember asks, glancing helplessly at Rhett. “He could still be alive.”
“No way he’d be alive,” Rhett tells her. “They’re on their way, we needed to see for ourselves what was going on first.”
“He could have been alive,” she says, her eyes wide, “you could have saved him.”
Rhett ignores her, but I must admit she makes a valid point. Why aren’t the rescue teams here already? There should be no reason they weren’t called right away. They should have made it up here before Rhett and the guys. Nothing is making sense.
“What happened?” Lake asks, his eyes scanning over me and then the other ladies.
“We were just sitting on the edge when we looked down and saw him,” I answer. “He went off on his own, saying he was going for a look around.”
“Nobody saw anything, heard anything?” Rhett takes over the questioning, his eyes narrowed.
“No,” I grind out. “And if you’re thinking it was us, you’d be wrong. We have zero reason to hurt an innocent man. We might have been in prison, but we’re not murderers.”
“You might not be,” Rhett grinds out, “but her I’m not so sure about.”
He points a thumb at Fallon, who stares with wide eyes.
What is he talking about?
“She went away for suspected murder, and even though she was cleared and released, it still poses the question ...”
Fallon went away for suspected murder?
“She was with us the entire time,” I say, my voice shaky.
“How dare you,” Fallon growls. “You know nothing about me.”
“I know enough to have you on my ranch,” Rhett says, his voice clipped.
“If you thought I was dangerous, I wouldn’t be on your ranch. I didn’t hurt that man.”
Rhett stares at her, and she holds his gaze, before he finally turns to the rest of the group. “They’re goin’ to ask questions, you know they are. Can you all be certain that nobody here pushed this man?”
I know Fallon and Ember didn’t, but I can’t be certain nobody else did.
We weren’t with them.
The question is impossible.
Yet they’re asking it anyway.
Because in the end, nobody trusts us.
Not a single person here.
4
“They lied to the cops,” Ember murmurs as we stare at the police talking to Rhett.
Vic was dead, which we all suspected.
Search and rescue got his body back up and determined he was no longer with us. He was a mess, and there is no way he could have survived that fall. I didn’t know him, but I am certain he had a family and people who love him, so my heart breaks for them as they’re about to find out the news of what happened.
We all had to travel back down while they took his body away.
By the time we reached the bottom, the police were there, waiting for us. Rhett went off and talked to them, and we all sat, just in shock, waiting to hear more. But nobody spoke to us, the police didn’t talk to us, the ranchers didn’t say anything more to us, and we watched as the police slowly disappeared from the scene.
“How do you know that?” Fallon asks.
Ember leans in close. “Because I overhead Rhett talking to them. He said he was there and Vic slipped and fell. That it was an accident.”
I frown. “But they weren’t there, and we don’t know he slipped and fell.”
“They’re covering their asses,” Fallon tells me. “They’re not going to tell the police they let us go up there without their supervision and the guide fell. It looks bad for insurance reasons, it looks bad for the ranch, it looks bad all round. They’re going to lie because that’ll cover everyone’s asses. It was an accident, in their eyes.”
“But we could tell the truth,” Ember points out.
“Why would we?” Fallon says. “We are so close to being free, why would we risk going against them and ending up tangled up in something that could potentially affect us being released? Besides, as far as they’re concerned, we don’t know they lied.”
She’s right.
They don’t know they were overheard.
Still, it seems wrong.
What if Vic didn’t slip?
I know it wasn’t Fallon, Ember or me, but we didn’t see where the other people were. What if something went down and he was pushed? I doubt it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
Still, Fallon is right.
We’re not going to question it because we need our freedom.
As wrong as that feels.
“You ladies can go back to your cabins,” Rhett says, approaching us. “It was ruled an accident, there is nothing any of you could have done. It’s finished, I’m sorry you had to witness that. Dinner will be served in your rooms tonight.”
Why is he lying?
He’s lying so effortlessly. I can’t help but wonder why.
Was there a reason Vic was sent up with us today, and a reason the ranchers didn’t come?