Ryker's thoughts whirled, and he felt like a ship on the high seas, tossed mercilessly back and forth by the rising waves of a storm. The door crashed shut behind him.

His eyes darted back and forth, searching for anything that might give him a clue. But there were only the empty streets of the tiny town.

He sucked the air deep into his lungs. He needed to calm down, to think.

Ryker took another deep breath, opening and closing his hands repeatedly. He could feel the tension slowly leaving his body and his heartbeat calming down, at least enough for the gears of his mind to start turning again.

He knew how important this store had been to Eve. Now, she hadn't gotten it. Despite all her confidence. Despite all his efforts. A stroke of fate that was not unfamiliar to him. She must feel terrible. And she was all alone.

He had experienced that more than once. The moment the Seals discharged him as unfit for duty. When he learned that his parents had been killed in the accident. He knew the pain, the disappointment. What had he done in those moments? Where had he fled to?

He looked around, searching.

The little town was no place of refuge. You couldn't tear down the walls here. You couldn't give in to the pain. You needed peace for that. A place where you could be sure of escaping the eyes of the curious. A place where you were undisturbed.

He turned his head and looked into the distance. Down the road, they had come. Could it be...? No. But where had she gone if she wasn't on her way back?

His gaze kept wandering and finally caught on the shimmering surface of Everbreeze Lake, which looked like a bit of treasure in the fall sun.

"You idiot," he snorted softly as the scales fell from his eyes. "Of course..." His body immediately tilted forward, and he hurriedly directed his steps down the narrow path toward the shore of the lake.

Peace, quiet, unobserved and alone.

All these desires that a disappointed and wounded soul yearned for were united at the lake. At this time of year and in this cool weather, the lake, with its reflective, rippled surface, offered precisely the refuge you were looking for. You were alone and could let your thoughts and feelings run free.

>>Badum<<

The heartbeat drummed wildly in his ears again as he left the last houses behind him, and the well-trodden path gave way to a narrow trail amid yellowish greenery.

His gaze searched the surroundings attentively and tensely. He glided over the everlasting, vibrant green of the conifers that grew indestructibly from the ground near the shore, giving way to reeds. Only the occasional sparse deciduous tree, its branches dancing naked in the wind, ventured among the dense conifers.

Its chest became tight. Barely enough, the air seemed to find its way into his lungs as he tirelessly scanned the shore with his eyes. Where was she? Had he made a mistake? With every heartbeat that he couldn't find her, his anxiety grew. His tension and fear grew. She wouldn't hurt herself, would she?

"Evelyn!"

The wind carried his call, howling away. Swallowed it up as if it were little more than a whisper while his gaze wandered restlessly. Despair tightened his chest as the faintness ate him up from the inside.

'If you had been there,' he heard the cynical voice in his subconscious tormenting him more and more. '... then maybe it wouldn't have come to this. If you had been there for her ... Why are you never there when it matters?'

Involuntarily, he felt himself asking that very question. Could he have prevented it if he had been there? Could he have spared her the pain if he hadn't been busy with the delivery and had taken care of the files instead? And why did that make him so upset?

"Shit... Where the hell are you..." he finally heard himself mutter quietly. His voice sounded brittle, rough, and melancholy. His steps carried him closer to the shore, the gravel crunching under his soles. The waves rolled softly over the glistening, smooth stones barely more than an arm's length in front of him.

He should have known better.

He should have known that something was wrong as soon as he felt the uneasy sensation. He should have been more attentive and smarter. Sighing, he closed his eyes again. With a trembling hand, he reached into the windswept mess.

At that moment, the wind carried a strange sound to his ear.

A whimper followed by a breathless sob.

It was quiet and yet so incongruous between the rustling of the leaves and the howling wind that it stood out like a red berry in a green bush. He turned his head and listened intently.

Then it sounded again.

He immediately started moving again, his pounding heartbeat like a drum in his chest, accompanying his every frantic step. He didn't care whether he stepped beside the path, into the mud, or even into the water. Drops of seawater and mud splashed up. The mixture soaked his jeans and made the thick fabric stick to his calves as he slid and stumbled toward the sound. Then he pushed aside a bush of reeds with his arm and stopped.

Slumped on an old bench, half-hidden under the low branches of two conifers that rose on the shore of the lake, he finally spotted the familiar figure he had been looking for all this time: Kaylen. No... Evelyn.

She was sitting slumped over, her face buried in her palms. Her wild blonde curls fell around her face like a veil, and her narrow shoulders shook under the sobs that the wind carried to him.

His heart stopped in his chest. It seemed to stumble over its rhythm before overpowering his body and hastily directing his steps to the broken woman.

"Eve," came almost a gasp from his lips as he almost reached her. She was all right. She hadn't hurt herself. It had just been his stupid fear. Relief flooded his body.

Eve lifted her head, and Ryker barely recognized her. Her cheeks were flushed, but not with joy this time. The skin of her face shone wet from the countless tears she had shed here alone. Her eyes had lost their sparkle and were puffy; the corners of her eyes reddened.

Before Ryker could think or control himself, he wrapped his arms around the more petite woman and pulled her close. Eve shakily struggled for breath as tears ran down her cheeks. He heard the sobs, felt the trembling of her body, the pain as if it were his own.

"Shhh," he whispered softly and soothingly as his hand stroked her wild curls. He had expected her to push him away, but a moment later, her hands clawed into the fabric of his jacket, and she buried her face against his shoulder. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms tighter around her trembling body and held her tightly.

Relief flooded his senses as his breathing slowly calmed. His agitated, stormy thoughts came to rest. He felt Evelyn's warmth. The way she clung to him as if her life depended on it. It was as if a switch had flipped in his head, and suddenly, everything inside him came to rest.

"Ray," he heard the faint, broken murmur softly between heavy, gasping breaths. The sound of his old nickname. The sound of the name of one of the countless lies he was living or had once lived. The lie he had told her and everyone else here. But that wasn't important now. All that mattered was that he had found her and was here now.

"I'm here," his voice whispered softly, almost cautiously. Perhaps a little to reassure himself. To reassure himself that he wasn't dreaming.

He had found her. His instinct had not deceived him. She was there, in his arms. This time, he hadn't been too late. Everything was fine.

He would have preferred never to let the trembling body out of his arms as long as it was still breathing. Part of him didn't want this moment to end, and the very thought was repugnant to him. But the pitiful remnant of his mind slowly pushed itself to the forefront, so he carefully released the tiny body from his chest. His hands, which had been gripping Sally's shoulders in panic earlier, now found the right balance between gentle and supportive as he held Eve.

It gave him a thrill to see her like this. His palms slid higher and gently cupped her face in his hands as if of their own accord. He held her while his expression was softer than it had been for years. Dark brows drawn together and his gaze slid over the sad picture before him as he gently wiped away the damp traces of her tears with his thumb.

"Eve," his voice sounded brittle. "What happened?"