Page 55 of Every Sunset
“I…I didn’t see it all. I could barely move to look over my shoulder and my head…everything was so fuzzy. Max was so fast though. He was bigger too…stronger th-than Callum. He…he shot to his feet and Callum wasn’t expecting it. Max smashed the bat down hard against his side this time and Callum stumbled. Max hit him again and he fell, but as he went down he smashed his head against the corner of this old, oak dresser I bought at a thrift store. It was solid and he…Callum, was out cold by the time he hit the floor. The blood….there was so much blood.”
“Max did so good. He saved both of your lives,” Maddox told me, sounding proud of my son.
“He did, but h-he never should have been forced to do it,” I squeaked tearfully. “He c-cut me free. I…I was a real mess. Bleeding and I c-could barely breathe because…well, my ribs. It hurt so much just to breathe in and out. Max wanted to call the cops, and I should have let him, but I…I was s-so scared they’d arrest him for hurting Callum. I m-managed to get to the floor to check Callum was alive and he…he wasn’t. There w-was no pulse, a-and the carpet around him…it w-was soaked with his blood. I thought he was d-dead. I was so sure.”
“Head injuries always bleed a ton, and you were probably in shock, not to mention, likely concussed. It would have been easy to miss a pulse,” Logan told me.
“I t-told Max we couldn’t call the cops. I couldn’t take the risk. We worked to roll the body in the rug he was l-laid on, then we moved him into the hallway. I…I t-took a shower and got dressed. Some of the cuts were too deep and they wouldn’t stop bleeding, but I…I wasn’t thinking straight and I just left them.”
“You could have fucking bled out!” Maddox growled, and I gripped him harder to try and soothe him.
“I didn’t. I’m here,” I told him. “Max took Callum’s car keys and found his car. It was the middle of the night by the time he moved the car to the front of our building. Getting Callum down to the car was h-hard. Max did most of it and I…I know it fucked him up, dragging a body wrapped in carpet down three flights of stairs. How could it not?”
“He did what he needed to do, Anna. You both did,” Logan reminded me.
“W-we got him into the trunk and I dr-drove the car out of the city. I d-don’t even remember where I drove. I was too focused on not passing out. Eventually we ended up on a back road, miles from the city. There was a ravine and it was surrounded by woods. The head wound…Callum’s head wound…it was at the front of his head so I….I thought a car accident would look real, you know? Max got the bastard into the driver’s seat with he engine running and the hand brake off. We pushed the car….o-or Max did mainly, anyway. The slight hill down the small ravine took it fast enough that it hit a tree head on.”
“The car would have been covered in yours and Max’s finger prints, baby,” Maddox pointed out.
“N-no,” I gasped, feeling out of breath. “I w-was careful. We s-sat on plastic in the seats and wore rubber dish gloves. I wiped everything in the car down anyway before we pushed it over. I w-was so careful, but I…I never considered he wasn’t damn well dead!”
“What happened then?” Logan pushed.
“We s-set off walking. Max was carrying the rolled up, bloody rug. Once we made it about a mile away we walked into the woods and set it on fire. We waited for it to burn to ash, then covered it with dirt and debris from the forest. My plan was for us to walk to a gas station, then order a cab from a public phone. I h-had cash to pay for it. I planned everything, but I…I should have taken care of the cuts…the bleeding. I passed out before we got near the city. Max…he had to carry me the rest of the way. I was in the cab when I came back around. It dropped us a block from our place and again Max had to carry me to our apartment. He was so scared about how hurt I was, but I knew we couldn’t go to the hospital.”
“You should have called the cops right away. What max did was self-defense, Anna. He wouldn’t have faced charges. You could have killed yourself doing all of that when you were in such a bad state,” Maddox admonished.
“I couldn’t take that risk!” I snapped as I lifted my head and glared at him. “It was my mess! My fucking idiotic mistake! I would never do anything that would cause Max to pay for my selfishness. I’ve seen the way these things go, Madd. What if that guy was the son of someone important? Max could have been hung out to dry and spent the rest of his life behind bars! I would never chance that. I’d have happily died that night so long as I knew Max was safe and in the clear!”
“None of what happened was your fault, Anna,” Logan sighed.
“Yes, it damn well was, and I will never change my mind on that. I was an idiot. I allowed myself to be selfish and I got what I deserved, but Max should never have had to face the consequences too. He should never have had to deal with what we did that night!”
“Anna…”
“Anyway,” I cut Logan off. Nothing he could say would ever ease the terrible guilt and shame I felt over my stupid, selfish mistakes. “It took me a few days to get enough strength to move around. We managed to keep the wounds clean and dressed and Max got some strong painkillers from a friend who had broken his leg the summer before and hadn’t finished the supply. I told school Max had mono and he stayed with me. We both spent most of the time flicking between news networks and checking online for news of the body being found, but nothing ever came up. We bleached the whole apartment like six times, top to bottom, then we started packing. I knew we couldn’t stay there. Two weeks later I signed the contract online for your guest house and a few days after that we arrived here. I thought that was it. I thought we’d be safe from it all here. We’re so far away now.”
“And you’re sure you saw that sonofabitch today outside the hardware store?” Maddox asked.
“Yes,” I nodded, but then I thought about the way I had questioned Tate, wondering if it had been him who I saw and just panicked. “No. Maybe,” I shrugged.
“What do you mean, sweetheart?”
“I was so sure when he stood opposite me through the glass. My fear, the way my heart pounded almost out of my chest and thatdesperate need to flee, it was all so real. I was so sure it was him, but then when Tate pulled me out of the road I…I wondered if it had just been him I saw instead. Tate said he hadn’t been outside the store, but if I had doubts then, maybe Callum wasn’t really there at all,” I tried to explain, knowing I sounded like I was losing my mind. “I…I have flashbacks sometimes. I see his face. He’s in my nightmares every time I close my eyes. Maybe I just started to see him in my real life now too,” I sniffled.
“Sshh baby. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” Maddox promised.
“Neil has a ton of surveillance cameras around the store. Maybe one of them caught something. We can ask him for the footage tomorrow, okay?” Logan added, and I nodded gratefully. I was terrified to have it confirmed that Callum was alive and after us, but I was also terrified to have it confirmed no one had been there at all, and that I really was losing my mind.
CHAPTER 22
ANNA
“That’s him!” I cried as I pointed at the screen of the laptop Maddox had open on the kitchen counter before himself, me, Logan, and Max. I felt the instant tremble of my legs as adrenaline kicked in, my heart rate ratcheting up until it beat so hard I felt light headed.
“She’s right. That’s definitely the fucker,” Max agreed solemnly.
It was the next morning and Maddox had contacted Neil for all of the surveillance footage his cameras had caught of the store, the previous day. One of the cameras covered the front door of the store, but also the side of the display window, and right in the left hand side of that shot, stood Callum Smith, watching me. Taunting me. He really had been there.
