Page 16 of Every Sunset
“Max,” I said sharply, hoping my deeper voice might startle him enough to bring him back to reality. Instead he just turned towards me and swung harder.
“Just go mom!” he cried. “Just run!”
“Max, your mom is safe. You’re both safe. You need to wake up now,” I told him calmly. As I was speaking I was edging closer around his bed to him. Just before he moved to lunge for me, I leapt at him, catching his arms as I did and we landed on his bed, him beneath me and face down. The jolt did as I hoped it would and I felt him freeze beneath me.
“Max?” I said gently, not daring to let him go until I was sure he was awake.
“Maddox? What the fuck?” he panted. “Get the fuck off me!” He pushed up, lifting me with him, which again, surprised me. He was even stronger than he looked. I put my good leg on the floor and pushed myself up to standing.
“What are you….where’s my mom?!” he raged as he turned over and scrambled to get to his feet.
“I’m here, Max. I’m okay. Everything’s alright,” Anna said as she raced into the room. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt, her legs bare. Her rich chocolate brown hair was a wild nest atop her head and her face was red from crying, but still I couldn’t deny she was beautiful. She was so petite, but she also had curves I definitely wouldn’t mind getting my hands on. Her eyes were wide and framed with long, thick lashes I knew had to be natural, since she rarely even seemed to bother with makeup. I couldn’t see from across the room, but I knew, from sitting opposite her earlier in the day, that they were a swirling mix of pale blue and gray. Her coloring was pale, almost like porcelain, and she had the whole ‘dainty’ thing going on.
Her son had inherited her dark hair and blue eyes, but his complexion was different, darker. I guessed whoever the Dad was, he was likely of Mediterranean or maybe even Latino decent.
“Mom? What’s going on?” Max demanded as he placed himself between me and her. His protective instincts were admirable. I doubted there was anything he would not do to keep his mother safe.
“You were having a nightmare, honey. You were yelling and Maddox heard you. I tried to wake you, but…well, I couldn’t get close,” Anna tried to explain.
“I thought you were both in danger,” I added, trying to explain myself and the kicked in front door they were going to discover soon.
Max looked around his now destroyed bedroom, his eyes landing on the hockey stick on the bed.
“I did this?” he gasped.
“You were having a night terror, bud. I’ve had them myself in the past,” I told him, hoping to ease the fear I saw fill his face.
“Did I hurt you? Did I hurt my mom?” he asked as he looked from me to Anna with terror.
“No!” Anna cried. “You didn’t hurt anyone. Everything’s alright.” She moved over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling his head down and against her shoulder as he started to cry.
“Anna, take him to your room, sweetheart. I’ll tidy up here,” I told her. She smiled at me gently as she released Max just enough to lead him out of the room. I heard her speaking softly to him as they went. My heart hurt for that poor kid. He was too young to have gone through whatever he had already in his life. I had no real idea what had happened, but judging by his fear in that night terror, it was bad. It was so obvious now why they were both so cautious and wary of Logan and I. We were both big guys, and not just in height. We both liked to work out and had always kept active. We had to be intimidating to Anna and Max. I just hoped that we were already beginning to prove to them that we were safe and that we wouldn’t hurt either of them.
I grabbed a trash can from the corner of the room and moved over to the fallen dresser to start collecting the broken glass from a mirror that had also been broken in the carnage. As I knelt on the floor, I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit dial on Logan’s contact. I could try to fix the front door myself, but it was going to be a hell of a lot more secure and solid if my brother did it.
“Madd? What’s wrong?” Logan answered.
“How long until you get back here?” I asked quietly.
“Just locking up now. What happened?”
“Max had a night terror. A really bad one. I heard him yelling and crying out. I just panicked. He sounded like he was being hurt. I might have smashed through the front door of the guest house to get to them.”
“Fuck. Are they both alright?”
“Yeah. Kid smashed his room up pretty good, but they’re both unscathed.”
“Stay with them. I’m on my way now.” With that Logan hung up the call and I set to work trying to straighten up Max’s bedroom as best I could. Once I got the dresser upright it seemed good, but much of what had sat on top of it was destroyed, as were the pictures that he’d obviously hung on the wall. I threw out the frames but salvaged the arty prints from inside. They’d just need new frames.
“Maddox?” I looked up to the doorway and found Anna leant on the frame, just watching me. She’d pulled on jeans and a sweater, but I could see she was still shaken, her eyes red and puffy.
“How is he?” I asked as I rose from the carpet and walked towards her.
“Asleep, thankfully. He was scared that he got that violent. He’s worried he’ll hurt me if it happens again,” she told me. Her voice was raspy and she sounded completely exhausted.
“He’s not wrong. He’s a lot bigger than you,” I replied honestly.
“He’d never hurt me. It wasn’t his fault. He…he went through something. The nightmares are to be expected.”
