Page 94 of Crossing the Line
Sylvia’s scream of despair was an echo of the morning’s. “How could you?” she shrieked. “Ihateyou!” The slap caught Waverly completely unprepared, and she took a step back. Her cheek stung and so did the knowledge that her mother had never struck her before.
Waverly grabbed Sylvia’s wrist as Xavier gripped her shoulders. She was a wild woman now flailing and screaming. Waverly squeezed her wrist painfully. “Look at me. Look at me, now! Do you see what your legacy cost?”
Sylvia refused to look at her. The woman threw herself into Xavier’s arms sobbing.
The anger and adrenaline were too much. There was black around the edges of her vision. A panic attack or something even worse was coming on, and there was only one escape.
“I’m done,” she whispered the words.
Over Sylvia’s wails, Xavier heard them. “Waverly.” He said her name calmly as if he was talking her off a ledge.
But she was shaking her head at him. “I’m done,” she said again.
“Get out of here,” Sylvia screamed, thrashing against Xavier’s chest. “You’re ruining everything!”
Waverly did what she’d wanted to do for nearly a decade.
She escaped. Without a backward glance at her mother or Xavier, she hopped over the rail and dropped into the sapphire waters.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The sea closed over her head and as she sank down, down, down, a fleeting thought wondered how it would feel if she didn’t fight her way back to the top. But the flickers of fading sunlight beckoned her back. This was her life, currently an empty shell but one that would be filled as she saw fit from now on.
She kicked her legs and swam for the surface. No more living to fix her parents. No more hiding behind walls of protection or artifice. No more following someone else’s rules. She was taking back her life.
Her head broke the surface, and without a backward glance at where she’d come from, Waverly stroked her way toward shore. The sun was beginning to fade behind the island that loomed in front of her, and there was a chill in the water, but she’d never felt more alive. She was swimming for her life.
She heard a splash behind her.Xavier, she thought.
But this time, she wasn’t going to let him win. She almost felt sorry for him, caught in the crossfire. But he was just another person in a very long line of people who needed her to do what he asked of her.
She wasn’t going back, not without a fight. And that’s exactly what Xavier would get if he caught her.
Adrenaline pumped through her, fueling her limbs with the power of desperation. She didn’t turn to look for Xavier. She didn’t need to. She could sense him like prey could sense the nearness of a predator. She just carved her way through the sea, swimming toward freedom.
Finally, her knees dragged against the sandy bottom of the shore and she dragged herself out.
Even though the beach that stretched before her was empty, the heat of the day still clung to the golden sand beneath her feet. Waverly spared a glance back at the water. Xavier was there, powering through the seawater and closing quickly. She had a choice—old life or new—and the decision had to be made here and now.
She took off down the sand at a run. It was a quiet crescent of beach with no umbrellas or chairs. There were no resorts, no crowds to get lost in. Just sand and rock and a softly falling dusk.
“Waverly!”
She didn’t stop, didn’t acknowledge that she’d heard anything. She just ran harder.She couldn’t out run him, but if she could find a place to peel off, to hide…
She could hear him now, pounding after her. He was a predator and she the prey. Her breath was coming in jagged draws. There was a bend up ahead where the sand seemed to end. Was that light that glowed around it? Did it mean people and crowds? Could she make it?
Faster, her long legs ate up the wet sand as she sprinted for freedom, slipping and sliding as the sand deepened. She was the quarry. The point was just ahead. She threw a glance over her shoulder and regretted it. He was so close and closing, his face a mask of fury. He wouldn’t stop, not until he had her. But she wasn’t giving up. Waverly Sinner was never going down without a fight again.
She reached the point on a triumphant gasp, which immediately turned to desolation. In front of her was a sheer rock face, behind her two hundred pounds of angry Xavier. The light she’d seen came from the last sliver of sun as it dipped behind the cliffs above her.
She was no closer to freedom off the yacht. He was coming to reclaim her. Drag her back. She was trapped. Again.
She gave it her all, one last futile effort, pumping her legs across the thin slice of sand between cliff and ocean. But there was nowhere to go and no one to save her.
He caught her in a full out tackle, and they tumbled over the sand, a tangle of limbs. He rolled on top of her, pinning her down with his big hands shackling her wrists overhead. She didn’t want to look at him, to admit her defeat. So she escaped the only way she had left and closed her eyes.
“Look at me.” The order was hoarse and his breath was uneven.
