By the time they got Shannon down to the base of the mountain, a rather large crowd had gathered. Any rescue on Dead Man’s Cliff was always big news in Cedar Ridge. Other than that time the Housewives of Beverly Hills had come through town complete with their television camera crews, Cedar Ridge’s biggest claim to fame was the cliff and the lives it claimed.

The group of Shannon’s sorority sisters looked worried, and for good reason. They were probably about to get their asses handed to them in a sling.

You play, you pay, Aidan thought, knowing it all too well. He and his brothers had been pulling shit on each other forever.

“Remember when Gray locked us in the Cat?” Hudson asked, obviously thinking along the same vein. “We found the keys and drove it into town in the middle of the night in the snowstorm from hell. Good times.”

“Good times?” Aidan asked. “We nearly went to juvie for grand theft. We would have if my mom hadn’t made Gray stand up before the judge and tell how he’d locked us in.”

Hudson grinned wide. “We all got our asses handed to us on that one. It was fun.”

“We were grounded for months,” Aidan reminded him.

“Yeah. Together.” Hudson shrugged. “I had the time of my life. You let me drive, remember?”

Yeah, Aidan remembered. Mostly because Hud had nearly killed them on Pine Pass Road when they’d narrowly avoided more than one tree. But he knew that compared to Hudson and Jacob’s rough childhood, nearly going to jail as a cocky fourteen-year-old with his big brothers at his back might indeed have been the time of his life.

They made their way through the crowd, but Aidan stopped short at the sight of the woman standing off to the side of the others, chewing on her thumbnail, a haunted expression on her face.

Lily.

His chest squeezed. Nothing about this woman should reach him, nothing, and yet he couldn’t seem to help himself. It was the kiss—stupidity at its finest. He’d gotten a taste of her, and it was messing with his head. “Don’t do it, Kincaid,” he muttered.

“Do what?” Hud asked, and followed Aidan’s gaze. “Ah. That’s what.”

“Give me a minute.” Ignoring the instincts that had kept him alive on more than one occasion, and despite being exhausted, starving, and on his last ounce of energy, Aidan walked over to Lily. “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

She looked away, but not before he caught the flash of worry she’d been masking. The rescue had brought back horrific memories for her, of that he had no doubt.

“Just wanted to make sure everyone was okay,” she finally said.