Page 59 of The Way We Are

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Ryan

The next fifteen minutes pass in a blur. Brax and Chris never left my side, but I refuse to accept their guarantees that everything is going to be okay until I see it for myself. Savannah was carted off in an ambulance nearly ten minutes ago. I wanted to go with her, but upon discovering the man who aided me in the boat is an off-duty police officer, I was informed I couldn't.

“Ryan?”

I shift my eyes from the medical equipment strewn across the sand Savannah was lying on mere moments ago to the voice.

“What are you doing here? Are you okay?”

Regina drags her wide-with-panic eyes down my drenched frame before locking them with her fellow officer who is taking my statement. “What happened, Jim? Why is Ryan here? Is he a suspect?”

“No. He’s a hero...”

Jim continues speaking, but I don’t hear a word he's saying. My lack of attention can’t be helped. The biggest lie I’ve ever heard just filtered through my ears, closely followed by another, and then another.

“I don’t know what happened. I think it might have been a mechanical issue. One minute we are traveling down the road; the next... we’re in the ocean. I did everything I could to save her.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? This wasn’t an accident. You tried to run us off the road. That’s why your car went over the cliff. And you didn’tsaveher. You left her to drown. She nearly died because of you!”

Axel shakes his head, cowardly denying my claims like the weasel he is. “What happened tonight was an accident. Nothing more.”

He turns his eyes to the officers surrounding us, praying they will believe his pathetic acting skills as the paramedics did when Savannah’s eyes fluttered open for the quickest second on the beach earlier. She didn’t even have a chance to blink before Axel fell to his knees beside her, portraying the heroic boyfriend like he was the one who pulled her off the ocean floor.

“This was an accident?” I ask, my slit eyes fixated on Axel. “Everything that happened tonight was an accident?”

When Axel nods, I see red. I charge for him without a second thought, not the least bit concerned my assault is about to be witnessed by over a dozen police officers. Jim attempts to impede my furious steps with his large frame, but Regina braces her hand against his chest, soundlessly advising for him to stand down.

I ram my shoulder into Axel’s stomach, evicting the air in his lungs as brutally as mine did when I saw Savannah floating in her watery grave. I pin him to a large boulder piercing the beach by his torso before throwing my fist into his face.

I manage to get three hits to his face and an additional two to his ribs before Regina signals for Jim to step in. The fury roaring through my veins is so potent, the clothes hanging limply on my body nearly dry from its heat.

“He’s lying! He’s a fucking liar!” I shout as Jim drags me away from a stunned Axel, who is wiping blood from his nose. “This wasn’t an accident. He tried to kill us. Then he nearly killed her. He nearly killed Savannah.”

I stop glaring at Axel when Regina steps into my line of sight. “Do you want to hurt him some more? Make him experience what you’re feeling right now?”

The moisture pooling in my eyes nearly cascades down my cheeks when I frantically nod my head. I'd give anything for Axel to experience one-tenth of the torment shredding my heart to pieces. Anything at all.

“Then hit him where it will really hurt. Tell me what happened.” Regina’s understanding eyes dance between mine. “Whatreallyhappened. Then let the justice system do the hard work for you. Let us show him our muscle.”

“You really think you can make him pay better than I can?” My words are so hostile, I don’t recognize my own voice.

“Yes,” Regina replies without pause. “I don’tthinkI can make him pay. Iwillmake him pay. That’s how I work, Ryan. That’s howwework." She gestures her hand toward the officers milling around us. "Just tell me what happened, then once we're done, I'll take you to Savannah."

Just the mention of Savannah’s name wipes my anger away in an instant, and Regina notices this. “Do you want to see Savannah, Ryan?”

“Yes,” I answer, my short response incapable of hiding my hope.

“Then tell me what happened. The quicker we get these statements over, the quicker I can take you to her.”

“Don’t be an idiot, Ryan,” Axel warns, his tone one he shouldn’t use on a man mere seconds away from killing him. “There's stuff you don’t know. Stuff Savannah hasn’t told you. If you take me down, you’ll take her down with me.”

My eyes rocket to Regina to gauge the authenticity of Axel’s pledge. Although I should take everything he says with a grain of salt, Savannah said earlier tonight there was stuff she couldn’t tell me yet. Does that include Axel’s warning? Or is he just trying to save himself from prosecution?

Regina doesn’t verbally reply to the stream of questions pumping out of me in invisible waves. She just maintains my gaze, answering them with the same integrity she did the day my dad had me arrested for assault. She has my back; I just need to trust her.

My throat works hard to swallow before I say, "Axel had already exited the lookout before his anger got the better of him. If you send an officer to the entrance of Bronte's Peak, you'll find his tire marks in the gravel."

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