NoFear (ClikByte #1)

Chapter 1

NOAH

My brother could’ve died because of me. Might die, actually, because he’s been in surgery for hours and we haven’t heard a word.

That was the harsh reality on repeat inside my head as I sat in the hospital waiting room, desperately hoping and praying the doctor would return soon and tell me it would all be okay.

That my big brother was going to be fine and I hadn’t just almost killed him with my stupid, arrogant pursuit of my favorite drug.

Adrenaline.

I trembled as I curled into a ball in the plastic waiting room chair, wrapping my arms around my knees and torturing myself with the memory of the moment of impact.

The split-second look of horror on Miles’s face when his foot slipped from that ledge. The suspended moment as he fell through the air. The sickening crunch of breaking bones when his body hit the hard-packed earth some fifty feet below us.

Heck, I didn’t even need to imagine it. I’d caught the whole fucking thing on camera. It was supposed to be my latest and greatest stunt, and it ended in a puddle of blood and the piercing scream of ambulance sirens.

“Where’s Rich?” I whispered to my manager, Jared, who was slumped in a chair next to me. “He should be here. Where is he?”

Jared blew out a long sigh, scrubbing his hands over his tired face, looking much older than his actual mid-thirties. “I dunno, kid. You’re right, though. He should be here.”

I nodded, then dropped my head back onto my knees.

Rich should be here.

Not only was he Miles’s best friend, he was also my boyfriend. He was yesterday, anyway. We’d fought, and things hadn’t ended well. But then he’d showed up for today’s stunt like nothing had ever happened, like he hadn’t told me we were finished.

And then Miles slipped.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered to Jared. “It was an easy climb. Miles can do stunts like that in his fucking sleep. How did this happen?”

It wasn’t an exaggeration. Miles and I had been doing parkour since I was six and he was eight.

We’d free-climbed even longer than that, if our mom was to be believed.

Scaling the side of a construction site without ropes might have seemed insane to most people, but for us it was just a typical Tuesday.

Except Miles had never fallen before. He was better than that. I didn’t care for the excuse that all humans were fallible. Miles wasn’t. I wasn’t. We were the best at what we did; it was why we were both millionaires before Miles even turned twenty.

Well, that and the creation of ClikByte, the social media platform that paid us per click, fueling my relentless pursuit of danger and adventure and paying me well in return.

My profile—NoFear—was currently trending as one of the most clicked-on profiles worldwide.

I was sitting in the Top Ten Influencers list with close to a hundred million subscribers clicking and watching my videos daily. Hourly.

And the best part? None of them had ever seen my face. Not on my profile, anyway, or Miles’s. Rich was a whole other story, but I could only hope no one made the connection that the half-naked girl he was constantly featuring on his channel was really me.

NoFear.

That name perfectly captured the nature of my clips. Miles had always been eager to help me cultivate and satisfy my taste for danger. And now he was broken and in emergency surgery.

Fuck. Mom was going to murder me.

“Hey, how is he?” a familiar voice asked, and I jerked my tear-stained face up to glare at my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Whatever the fuck he was.

“Where the hell have you been?” I demanded, accusing and angry as hell. He’d fucking disappeared the second the ambulances had arrived on the construction site. That was hours ago.

Rich just frowned at me, like it was none of my fucking business where he’d been. “Babe, I had shit to do. How’s Miles? Is he okay?”

I stared up at him in outrage. “Are you fucking serious right now?” My voice was just this side of a shriek, and Jared laid a hand on my arm, like that could come anywhere close to tempering my fury.

“No, he’s not okay, you selfish fuck! He just fell from the eighth floor of a building!

He’s in surgery, and they don’t know if he’ll make it.

But fuck, Rich, if you’ve got shit to do, then by all means, fuck right off. ”

Rich was Miles’s best friend and my first—and only—boyfriend, but he just shrugged like I was making him uncomfortable and scowled. “I didn’t fucking push him, Noah,” he snapped back at me, “but if you’re going to be a bitch about it, I’m not sticking around.”

“Rich, what the hell?” Jared exclaimed, giving him the same incredulous expression I was sure I wore. “You’re so far out of line right now.”

Rich just sneered at Jared, his handsome face twisting into something ugly. “Of course you’re here, Jared. Taken any lingering glances down my girlfriend’s shirt since you got here?” He let out a nasty sort of laugh. “Wait, stupid question. Of course you have.”

Jared’s jaw clenched, and he rose out of his seat to confront Rich’s bullshit. “I get that you’re upset about Miles, but insulting Noah and me isn’t going to make things any easier. You need to apologize to her.”

Rich recoiled, looking disgusted, and I stifled a sigh. He was predictable as all hell, and he responded terribly to being confronted on any subject.

“Fuck you, Jared,” he snapped back. I rolled my eyes. Here we go. “You don’t tell me what to do. You’re not my manager, remember?” He sneered the words at Jared, and I sighed heavily. It was an old argument between us, but it was the first time Jared was being exposed to it.

“Rich, shut up,” I told him, my voice hard as I wrapped my arms tighter around myself. “Shut the fuck up, or go away. I don’t need your insecure bullshit while my brother is fighting for his life.”

His caramel eyes—the same ones I’d fallen head over heels for when I met him four years ago—turned to me, narrowed in rage. “Screw you, Noah. I deserve better than your drama.”

I barked a humorless laugh. “That’s ironic. Exit’s that way, Rich. Don’t bother coming back.” I threw a hand in the direction of the sliding doors we’d run through hours ago.

My ex-boyfriend just scowled, and his eyes glittered with a meanness I hadn’t fully realized he had within him—until recently, that is. Until my star started shining so much brighter than his, and he let jealousy eat away at his mental health.

“We’re done, Noah. Fucking done. She’s all yours, Jared.” He spat the words out, curling his lip in disgust. “Pro tip, she loves it in the ass.”

My face flushed with embarrassment, and I gaped in shock as Rich stormed out of the hospital. What in the actual, ever-loving fuck just happened?

“I’m so freaking sorry,” I whispered to Jared in a strangled voice. “I have no idea what his fucking problem is, but that was so far out of line, I—”

“Don’t even worry about it, Noah,” Jared told me with a sigh. “He never should have spoken to you like that. Are you okay?”

My breath hissed out, and I sank back into my seat like a deflated balloon. “Yeah,” I replied, folding my arms under my breasts and hugging myself. “Yeah, it’s just whatever. Rich has issues, and I’m done with letting him take it all out on me.”

Jared sat back down beside me. “Good.”

I arched a brow at him. “Good?”

He shrugged, his expression impassive. “Rich is a loose cannon. Toxic. You don’t need him in your life, Noah. He’s going nowhere fast and dragging you along for the ride.”

My first instinct was to argue with him, but he was right. I was better off without Rich…but it didn’t make my heart hurt any less. He was my first love, and watching him walk out of those hospital doors was goddamn heartbreaking, no matter how much it needed to happen.

“Fuck him,” I mumbled, even as fresh tears poured down my cheeks. “He doesn’t deserve me or Miles.”

Jared sighed and placed his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “That’s the spirit, kid.”

I gave a bitter laugh but didn’t argue. I couldn’t. The tears were running too fast now. All I could do was sit there and cry. For my brother, for my broken heart, and for my future.

Jared’s hug was friendly and caring, not creepy and inappropriate like Rich was always claiming. Rich thought any man that spoke to me did so to get in my pants—he had some serious jealousy issues and insecurity.

We sat like that for ages. My mom was out of the country on a business trip, so she probably wouldn’t get my voicemail until she woke up. When she did, I was going to hear it.

Eventually Jared’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he wandered away to answer the call. That meant I was all alone when the doctor finally came out to update me on Miles’s status.

My breath froze, and my heart sat in my throat as the doctor walked toward me, his face grim. I was so petrified, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even stand up to speak with the doctor, who just crouched in front of my chair with a sympathetic frown.

“Miss Fearly,” he said in a gentle tone, “I’m Dr. Smithson. I’ve been working on your brother since he came in.”

I jerked a nod of understanding, since words weren’t happening. My eyes stayed glued to the doctor’s face, desperately seeking some kind of positive indication. Some kind of hope.

“Your brother was in pretty bad shape,” the doctor continued, his voice quiet and calm, like he didn’t want to risk me turning hysterical. Fuck. That meant it was bad news, right? It meant Miles hadn’t made it?

“He’s stable now…”

Everything else the doctor was saying faded as my breath whooshed from my lungs and my ears started ringing. He was stable. Miles was stable. That meant he was alive. I hadn’t killed my big brother.

“…Miss Fearly? Are you okay?” The doctor was watching me carefully, his eyes concerned and sympathetic.

I gave another jerking nod, taking a deep breath and trying to pull my shit together. “Y-yes,” I replied, my voice rough with emotion. “Yes, sorry. Carry on.”