Page 4 of Her Wild Warrior

Ryker looked over but couldn’t see much. Everyone was standing around the lifeguard who had done CPR on Derek. He was using something on Eddie that almost looked like paddles that he’d seen on some of those hospital shows. But that couldn’t be right.

“I don’t know, Derek,” Ryker whispered.

Derek pushed himself up, dislodging the blanket. He got onto his hands and knees.

“Dude, I don’t think you’re supposed to move.”

“Gotta see about—”

Two EMTs ran past Derek and Ryker, one of them holding a stretcher under his arm like a surfboard. They crashed to the ground on their knees beside the first two men. The four of them loaded Eddie onto the stretcher. Two EMTs walked really fast to the parking lot with the stretcher between them while the third guy held a canister of oxygen with an oxygen mask over Eddie’s face. Derek and Ryker watched as they loaded up Eddie.

“How are you doing?” A large Polynesian EMT asked Derek as he squatted down beside him.

Derek tried to kneel up from where he was on his hands and knees, but when he did, he started to cough.

“Hey, why don’t you lie back down? From what I’ve heard, you had a rough morning.”

Derek didn’t listen. He finally knelt up and said, “I’m fine,” between coughs.

“What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“What’s your name?”

“Derek McQueen.”

Ryker was relieved that his brother’s coughing had stopped.

“I’m going to need to take you to the hospital.” The EMT looked concerned.

“Why? I told you I was fine.”

“Just to get you checked out.”

“But—”

“Don’t be an asshole. Go with him,” Ryker said.

Ryker looked at his father. Ryan McQueen never claimed to have all the answers, but on the important shit like this, he absolutely did. Why not now?

“You’ve got to say what’s in your heart.”

“But that’s the thing.” Ryker gulped and snuck a glance over at Derek and Jerrod. Derek gave him a chin tilt. Ryker closed his eyes and tried again. “That’s the thing, Dad, I don’t know what’s in my heart. I don’t like having feelings, especially not something that hurts this bad, so I try not to feel them, you know?”

Ryan McQueen nodded. “I get it, son, but feelings are a part of life. They’re what make you human.”

“Well, they suck.” Ryker sucked in air. He’d do anything in his power not to cry in front of his dad or his two older brothers.

“I know, son. Sometimes they do. But can you tell me something that you are feeling?”

“I feel like it was my fault.”

“How do you figure that?” Derek asked.

“I was over at the Gilders. Larry and Eddie both knew that Dad would never let me surf The Wedge, so Larry was feeling sorry for me.”

“So the dumbfuck decided to take you and Eddie out there before the lifeguards were even on duty?” Jerrod stood up from where he was sitting on the pool table in the downstairs rec room, his big hands clenched in fists like he was looking for someone to pound on. Jerrod had just graduated and would be enlisting in the Marines. He was more hardcore than even Derek. Even more hardcore than their Dad, and he’d retired as a longshoreman.