‘Then he didn’t have his rope in the right place.’ Ryan dropped his rucksack again, onto the grass a safe distance from the edge. ‘There are injured kids, Nick. What do you expect me to do? Leave them?’

‘My job is to make sure we rescue them with minimum further casualties—that doesn’t involve you abseiling down a sheer, crumbling rock face.’

Listening to them, Jenna felt her heart race, and she wondered if she was going to be any use at all.

Yes, she’d worked in an emergency department for a short time, but working in a well-equipped department was quite different from giving pre-hospital care on a sheer cliff face.

She was so busy worrying about her own abilities that it was a few seconds before she noticed the teenager sitting on the grass. He was shivering and his face was white.

Focusing on his face, Jenna recognised Fraser and her stomach dropped. Suddenly everything seemed to happen in slow motion. She was aware of the guilt in Fraser’s anguished glance, and of Ryan turning his head to look at her.

And those looks meant only one thing—

That it was Lexi who was lying in the grip of the Devil’s Jaws.

Maternal instinct overwhelming everything else, Jenna gave a low moan of denial and stepped towards the edge, unthinking.

Ryan caught her arm in an iron grip.

‘Don’t take another step.’ His hand was a steadying force and his voice was hard, forcing itself through the blind panic that clouded her thinking. ‘Breathe. Up here, you don’t run. You take small steps. You look where you’re going and you make sure it’s safe underfoot. I’ll get her. I swear to you I’ll get her. But I can’t do it if I’m worrying about you going over the edge.’

Jenna stood still, held firm by the strength of his hand and the conviction in his voice.

Fraser struggled to his feet, his lips dry and cracked from the wind and the sun. ‘You don’t understand—she didn’t jump. Lexi was trying to stop Matt doing it—we both were. But he did it anyway—he jumped at the wrong moment. You have to get it exactly right or you hit the rocks.’ His voice shook. He was a teenager on the cusp of manhood, but today he was definitely more boy than man. ‘Lexi went down there to save Matt. We could see him slipping under the water. He was going to drown. Jamie tried first, but he lost his nerve halfway down and now he can’t move. I dunno—he just freaked out or something. So Lexi did it. She insisted. She was dead scared about getting down there, but she said she’d done first aid so she should be the one.’