Page 71 of Every Sunset
“She’s back, Logan. She’s back,” Max uttered shakily.
“Where are they?” I asked shakily, my voice barely coming out. “Madd! He w-was shot?”
“Logan’s got him. We called 9-1-1.”
“Is he alive? Logan?” I cried tearfully.
“Mom, you have to calm down and freaking breathe! You were dead! I had to do CPR!” Max cried almost hysterically. I made myself take a breath and pushed up to sitting, despite the pain it caused.
“I’m r-right here, honey. You…you saved me…again. I’m okay,” I told him as I reached up an arm and wrapped it around his neck, pulling him closer to me for a hug while I coughed and tried to find the strength to keep talking. “I…I need to see him though. Madd…I have t-to know,” I pushed out emotionally.
Max nodded and took a calming breath, then he scooped me up and started walking down the jetty towards the grass. Off to the side I could see Logan leaning over Maddox’s prone body laid onthe ground. It was obvious Logan had pulled him out onto the grass bank.
“Madd?” I gasped as I realized he wasn’t moving at all.
Logan turned briefly to glance over his shoulder at Max and I, then he looked right back to his brother. Even in that brief glance I had seen the panic all over his face.
“He’s gonna be okay. An ambulance is coming and they…they’ll help him. They can fix him up,” Logan called to me shakily. I wanted to take his words for what they were, but his tone made it clear that what he had said was nothing more than wishful thinking.
“Put me down, Max,” I said, and Max did. He wrapped his arm around me as I stood shakily, then he helped me as I walked around to Maddox’s other side. As soon as I saw him, a sob burst from me. His abdomen was covered in blood and Logan was holding a blood soaked towel down over Madd’s stomach with force. Madd was out cold and as pale as I had ever seen anyone look. I swallowed back the next sob and forced myself to breathe as I dropped heavily to the ground beside Maddox.
“He has to be alright,” Logan uttered.
“Is he still br-breathing?” I stuttered, terrified of the answer.
“Slowly, but yeah. His chest….it’s still moving, right? Tell me you see it moving, Anna, please!” he cried.
I placed my hand on Maddox’s chest and held my breath for a moment as I waited for the smallest kernel of hope.
“Yes. There. His chest’s still moving, Logan,” I cried with relief. I looked behind me to Max and tried to make myself stay calm. I had to try and keep control of the situation. “Max, whathappened to that motherfucker?” I gasped as I fought to calm myself.
“He’s dead. Logan…he….he took him down. He’s dead,” Max bumbled. He hadn’t taken his eyes from Madd’s lifeless body, and tears were silently streaking down his face.
“Good,” I nodded. “Okay. Go to the front gates and let the ambulance in, okay? Show them where to come.”
“Huh?” Max finally moved and met my gaze.
“Go to the gates, Max. Show the ambulance where to come, okay? C-can you do that?” I repeated.
Max didn’t even answer, he just set off running. I placed my hand back on Maddox’s chest and held my breath as I waited to feel it move up and down again. I couldn’t hold in my cry of relief when it did.
“Hold on, Madd. You hear me? You h-have to hold on and you….you’ve got to come back to us. We n-need you. We all need you so fucking much,” I told him firmly. I wasn’t even sure Logan knew I was there. He was just staring at his brother with all of the loss and devastation I could feel inside of myself. I wanted to say something to soothe him. I wanted to promise him that Maddox would never leave us, but how could I do that when Maddox looked as though he was already gone? It was taking every scrap of life I had left in me not to completely crumble to pieces too. I couldn’t lose Maddox, not when I only just found him. I couldn’t lose either of these amazing men who I loved more than I ever thought it possible to love a man, but I knew if Maddox didn’t survive this, then Logan wouldn’t either, and neither would I.
CHAPTER 26
ANNA
“Logan realized what was going on first. We…we’d been racing on the jet skis, so we didn’t hear anything at first. Logan yelled at me, and when I heard him I looked around and saw Maddox’s body…floating…he was just floating in the water near the jetty. I couldn’t work out what was happening at first, but Logan was already across the other side by then, and he leapt off the jet ski a-and right on top of that guy,” my son explained shakily. We were at the hospital and had been for some time.
Maddox was in surgery and Logan was up in the waiting room on the floor above us waiting for news. The FBI had already taken his statement, and mine. Now it was Max’s turn and I had been allowed to be with him because of his age. While I was relieved I was able to sit with Max as he was forced to relay everything he’d seen, I was also feeling extremely anxious about leaving Logan alone upstairs. He had barely spoken a word since the ambulance arrived and Maddox had been loaded into the back of it. He had completely shut down on everyone, and his terror of losing his brother seemed to be more than he could come back from.
I felt that terror too. I knew if I lost Maddox, I would never be whole again. I didn’t think any of us would, so I was praying with every breath that left my body, for Maddox to just hold on and come through this for all of us.
“You mean the man you knew as Callum?” the agent clarified.
“Yeah,” Max nodded. “As I got closer and Logan started fighting with him, I saw her…my mom…her body floated up in the water. She wasn’t moving…just like Madd. I…I rode the jet ski closer, then shut it off and dove in. I…I managed t get my mom out of the water and onto the jetty, but she…she w-wasn’t breathing,” he explained shakily. I reached over and grabbed his hand, pulling it onto my knee and holding it tightly in both of mine. We were all still wearing the wet clothes from the lake. Logan and Max had pulled on their t-shirts when the EMT’s were working on Maddox, but otherwise there wasn’t time to do more. Max was shivering harder than I was as we sat in the air conditioned room the FBI had led us into.
I knew I would have to do something about getting us all warmer and dry clothes when this was over. Focusing on keeping control and managing the mundane details was the only thing stopping me from falling apart right then.
