Page 70 of Every Sunset
We’d already been out for a couple of hours and, thankfully, there hadn’t been any interruptions from the FBI as yet. They hadn’t even called Logan or Madd, despite having both of their phone numbers, and I was surprised about that after how persistent they had been to question me the night before. Not that I was complaining. The last thing that I wanted was to have to leave the bliss of that perfect day with my son and the men I was in love with, to sit in a room and recall the worst weekend of my entire life to strangers. I was still unsure if I were even strong enough to relive every detail of that weekend that Callumheld me prisoner. I had been working so hard to push it all back behind me so I could move on, not just for my own sake, but for my son too, and bringing it all back felt like a terrible thing to do. What if doing that left me even more destroyed than I already felt?
“Anna?”
I opened my eyes and lifted my head, using my hand to shield my eyes from the bright sun. I must have zoned out because Maddox was now out of the water and walking towards me, the paddleboard, which he’d been laid on, now pulled out of the water and up on to the jetty. He was wearing a pair of board shorts and nothing else as he walked down the deck towards me, water sliding down over his bronzed skin and dripping behind him. He was utter perfection, as was his brother. I would never get over the shock of knowing they both chose me and my complicated life that came along with me.
“You okay, baby? Are you warm enough?” he asked as a grin spread across his face. I loved how relaxed and care free he looked in that moment. He was showing his prosthesis and he didn’t seem to have any concerns about it like he had when I first met him. He wasn’t jumpy or looking over his shoulder. He was just happy. We all were in that moment.
“I’m perfect. It’s gorgeous in the sun,” I told him with my own full and bright smile. “You coming to sit with me for a while?” I was already moving over so he could share my lounger with me. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, he was going to snuggle up with me in that beautiful spot.
“I need warming up,” he told me.
“I think I can manage that. Let me just grab you a towel.” I sat up on the edge of the lounger and leaned into the beach bag Ibrought to grab one of the towels I packed. “I don’t want you making me soaking wet,” I told him as I pulled one out and turned to hand it to him.
“You sure about that, beautiful?” he asked me with a mischievous grin, then a wink.
“Madd!” I cried as I instinctively looked for Max, praying he hadn’t heard that little quip, but Max was right across the other side of the water, the engines of the loud jet skis surely drowning every sound around them both out. “You can’t say things like that with Max around,” I scolded Madd as I tossed him the towel. He was chuckling as he unfolded it and wrapped it around his shoulders. He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could I saw movement behind him. At first I thought it was Max or Logan coming out of the water, but that didn’t make sense, they’d been across the water, pretty far away just a moment before.
I looked again, moving sideways enough to see around Madd’s huge frame, but I’d been too slow.
“MADD!” I screamed as I shot to my feet and plowed into him with the full weight of my body. He lost his balance and we both went down as the sound of a gunshot rent the air. I scrambled to get off of Madd and back to my feet while also trying to turn so I wouldn’t take my eyes from Callum. He had come out of the water. That much had been obvious when I saw him behind Madd with a hand gun aimed right at him.
“Stay down!” Madd yelled at me as he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down flat on the wooden boards of the jetty. I was breathless and shaking like a leaf as I tried to make sense of what was happening, but by the time I could think even a little clearly, Maddox had leapt up, his weight leaving me laid out on my front on the ground.
“Maddox!” I cried. I turned over and sat up enough just in time to see Maddox throw himself into Callum. A shot rang out, then they both went right off of the edge of the jetty with a loud splash. I didn’t even try to stand. I didn’t want to waste the seconds it would take. Instead I crawled across the jetty to the edge, terrified for Maddox. That gun had to have been between him and Callum when it went off.
My worst fears were realized when I reached the edge and found the water stained red, no sign of Maddox, and Callum halfway up the ladder to climb back out.
“Where is he?” I cried as I glared at the monster from my nightmares.
“Dead, and you’re next, you little bitch!” he hissed. He reached for me, but I threw myself backwards away from him. The time it took him to get up the last of the ladder rungs gave me time to get to my own feet and stand. I looked to the blood stained water again, but there was no sign of Maddox coming up to the surface. I looked across the water to where Max and Logan were some distance away. They obviously hadn’t seen or heard anything, the both of them seemingly racing through the water.
“MADD?” I yelled into the water, but when he didn’t appear I knew I had to go in after him. I couldn’t swim well, but I had to try.
I was about to jump right in when Callum appeared behind me and grabbed my ponytail, wrenching it back so hard I fell on my ass. I rolled to get away from him as he tried to grab me again, but I managed to evade his grab for my arm.
“LOGAN!” I screamed as loud as I could as I shuffled backwards as fast as I could possibly move away from Callum, but he was right on me, and before I even finished screaming for Logan Iwas cut off with a swift and sharp kick to my side that left me gasping for breath and in dizzying pain.
“You should have kept your fucking mouth shut!” he hissed as he used my incapacitation as his chance to lean in and grab me by my hair, ripping my head backwards until my eyes met his wild and crazed ones. “I might have let you live if you had!”
I cried out in pain as he ripped my hair up hard, the whole time I was clawing at his hands with my nails in an attempt to make him let go. He didn’t seem to have the gun, so I assumed he’d lost it in the scuffle with Madd, but he was still so much bigger and stronger than me. Realizing his grip on my hair wasn’t going to relent I lowered one of my hands, balling it into a fist, then I hit out at his crotch as hard as I could. He grunted and recoiled back, releasing my hair enough that I could move my head. He still held some hair in his fist though, and it was ripped out as I fought to escape him. Ignoring the burning pain in my head I tried to run to the water. I had to get to Maddox! Why hadn’t he come up? He couldn’t be dead! I refused to accept that.
I didn’t even make it close to the edge before Callum grabbed a hold of my arm and wrenched me backwards so hard that I found myself sprawled out on the wood again. The wind was knocked from me and I was finding it hard to breathe as I scrambled to roll to my front and get back to my feet. Staying down wasn’t an option. I was too vulnerable on the ground. I wanted to scream for Logan again, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to with how hard I was fighting to breathe through my racing adrenaline and the pain I was in. I pushed up onto my hands and knees with all of the energy and fight I had left in me, conscious that I could hear Callum’s wet footsteps coming towards me. He was wearing sneakers and they were squelching with water from the lake. I had no idea how he had gotten tothe house from the water, since access to it was pretty restricted in the neighborhood the guys lived in, but I didn’t have time to worry about it right then.
I pushed up onto my knees and looked around me frantically for Callum. I gasped when I found him stood right behind me, and before I could even cry out in fear he had a hold of my arm and was pulling me to my feet. I didn’t even work out what he was doing until it was too late. I barely had a chance to struggle in his grip before he jumped off of the side of the jetty and into the freezing cold water, his grip on me never letting up for a second. I gasped as the coldness of the water hit me, but that was the only breath I got in before Callum was forcing my head down under the water. He kept a hold of my body with one arm, and held my head under with his other hand. I fought to get free, panicking and taking in water by the mouthful as I scrapped and flailed to get free, but Callum was so much stronger than me and nothing I did seemed to make him release me even a little.
Water filled my lungs and black spots danced in my vision as my fight started to die down, and I knew that was it. I was losing consciousness and my life. With my last tiny bit of fight I reached for his hand at my waist and dug my nails into his flesh as hard as I possibly could, ripping into his skin with everything I had left inside of me. But it didn’t work. His hold on me never wavered and I was starting to fade. Everything became fuzzy and images of my son played in my thoughts. He'd be safe with Logan and Madd, I assured myself with my veery last thought. They’d take care of him just as they’d promised me they would.
***
“MOM!” My eyes snapped open at the terror in my sons anguished cry. Pain radiated through my body as I started tocough hard. Water came out with every cough, and I felt arms lifting me so I was half sat up as I spit up so much water.
“Max?” I gasped the second I managed to get a breath in.
“I’m here, mom. I’m right here,” he gasped, and when I looked up just a little, I realized he was the one propping me up. He was sat on the jetty with me laid out, supporting my top half in his arms.
“Max? Talk to me, kid!” Logan yelled from somewhere. I tried to look around, but I couldn’t see him or….
“MADD!” I cried, followed by more sputtering coughs. I fought to sit up and looked to the water below us in terror.
