Everyone get back.” Jonah and his deputy’s efforts were utterly ineffective, except for being extra bodies between him and the cameras. “Come on now. Give the man some room.”

“Get that out of my face,” Graham said when a boom swung dangerously close to his forehead.

“Graham? Jessie said we need to get Easton inside.”

Zoey was the last person they needed in the middle of this mess. Someone was going to trample her and not even realize it. Easton reached for her and only got more reporters in his face.

“Hey!” Ash suddenly appeared in the midst of the craziness. “Hey, morons! If you want to hear anything, shut up and listen.”

God bless his sister and her naturally inherent ability to intimidate everyone with an inborn sense of self-survival. He hadn’t even known she was there. He’d been too focused on the camera crews.

“River’s going to be fine. When she’s ready to tell you more, she’ll tell you more. Easton doesn’t have to say anything unless he wants to.” Ash turned to him, her turquoise-colored hair nearly white in the flashing lights. “East. Do you want to tell them what it was like up there?”

“Not really—” he started to say when they erupted in questions all over again.

Ash had missed her calling as a drill sergeant, because her bellow for silence shut them all up, wide eyed and startled.

“I’m his sister, and I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s cold, it sucks, and they’re lucky they’re not dead. You’re in Alaska, children, so keep a solid swinging distance between you and us. I have no problem destroying every camera here. Now let my brother through.”

The group hesitated enough for her to narrow her eyes.

“LET. HIM. THROUGH.”

Never had a press of paparazzi parted so fast.

Easton wasn’t oblivious to the fact that his friends and family had formed a wall around him, using their bodies to shield him from the camera. Zoey at most came up to his sternum, but she’d grabbed hold of his arm in a protective way, glaring a death glare at everyone they passed. They reached the door and pushed through the remaining reporters and their microphones, the group tumbling into the hospital entranceway.

“Well, that was interesting,” Graham declared, looking back through the sliding glass doors to the still flashing cameras. “Is that what she goes through every day?”

“Nope.” Jessie’s face was a familiar relief. “This is what it’s like when something interesting happens. On a normal day, they try to catch her with her hair and makeup all a mess or looking pregnant. For some reason, everyone keeps trying to make her pregnant.”

Waving them away from the still-curious eyes outside, Jessie snorted. “It’s like a pack of starving dogs out there, isn’t it? But hey, what can you do? Work is work.”