Page 98 of The One Night Match
I shove my jacket off my shoulders, followed by my shoes and socks, but I can’t waste any more time undressing.
I’m about to jump into the water when Hugo catches my shoulder.
I turn, ready to tell him to fuck off, when he wraps a rope around my waist and secures it around a nearby tree.
“As soon as you have her, I’ll pull you both up.”
I nod once before diving into the water, but nothing could have prepared me for how fucking cold it is, like needles pricking into my skin over and over again.
Breaking through the surface, I find myself a few feet from the boulder, and I allow the current to push me closer rather than using my energy to swim. I’m going to need all I have to get Riley and me to the edge and then her to safety.
I hit the hard rock, stealing the air straight from my lungs as the undercurrent threatens to pull me under.
Grabbing ahold of the rock with one arm and Riley with the other, I turn her over, and once again, my breath whooshes from me because not only is my wife unconscious, but she’s also a shade of blue that has panic slamming into me all over again.
“Riley?” I choke. “Kitten?”
“Cruz!” Hugo shouts. “You can’t do CPR down there. Let me pull you both up!”
I swipe tears from my eyes and wrap both arms around her lifeless body before giving him a thumbs-up. He tugs at the rope, pulling us through the water, but the current catches us, threatening to pull us further down the stream.
“Fuck,” Hugo growls, using his own body to pull us toward the edge, and I barely manage to grab hold of a branch sticking out of the edge.
Hugo secures the slack to the tree before rushing to where I’m holding on for dear life. “Pass her up.”
I clutch Riley to me harder for a split second before using all the strength left in my body to push her toward Hugo’s outstretched arms.
He grasps her under the arms and pulls her over the edge and out of sight, leaving me clutching the branch as the water tries to drag me away.
Hugo’s arm reaches over for me, and I quickly grasp it, allowing him to tug me from the freezing currents.
I scramble to where Riley is unconscious and press my fingers to her pulse point.
“No! Riley, please,” I choke out when I find nothing.
“Can you do CPR?” Hugo asks, his breathing labored after pulling us both over the ledge.
Do I know how to? Yes. Can I perform it on the love of my life, who currently has no heartbeat and isn’t breathing after spending who knows how long in freezing cold water? I’m not so sure, but I also don’t think I can put her life in the hands of anyone else.
“Let me do it,” he says. “You control her airway. I’ll do the compressions.”
I nod and move beside her head, opening her mouth and repositioning her neck so her airway is open.
The clinical nature of CPR allows me a few moments to compose myself before Hugo begins compressions.
I follow every cue to breathe for her, but in between, I talk to her in the hope it will help to bring her back to me, to remind her of the reasons she should fight.
“Come on, Riley. Fight for me. Fight for us,” I murmur against her lips. “I know you read the note and saw the signed contract to dissolve our marriage, but I couldn’t bring myself to give it to you. It’s the last thing I want. All I want is to grow old with you. To wake up every morning beside you and go to sleep every night with you in my arms.”
“Check her pulse,” Hugo orders, and I don’t hesitate.
My fingers find their target immediately, and my body sags when I feel a thready pulse beneath my fingers. “Her heart is beating,” I manage to tell him.
“Keep talking to her.”
I nod and swipe the tears from my eyes. “Come on, Kitten. You can do this. You can live for me. Fight for me. I’ll do anything, give you anything, just please breathe. You want twenty asshole cats that swipe at me every time I walk past them and pee on my favorite suits? They’re yours. You want to decorate the house with the ugliest furniture to ever exist, take the credit card. I don’t care as long as you’re breathing. I don’t care as long as you’re alive.”
Hugo drops his ear to her chest and frowns. “Her lungs are full of water. We need her to expel it.”
