Page 26 of Every Sunset

“He followed me from the bar. I didn’t realize.

I think I was still trying to make sense of what the fuck just happened and I was distracted.

The car…it hit me head on, but he wasn’t going that fast. I bounced off of the windshield and into the street hitting my head pretty hard as I landed on the concrete.

I must have blacked out because…because when I opened my eyes that guy…

the woman’s husband…was over me, beating the shit out of me.

I managed to get out from under him and get a few hits in, but I could barely see straight and my left shoulder was dislocated.

I hit the guy a few times and I heard him run.

His car door slammed and I thought that was the end of it.

I collapsed onto the sidewalk, my head fucked up and my vision a mess.

I pulled my cell out to call Logan, but I never even unlocked the screen before I heard the car coming towards me again.

I tried to roll out of the way, but I was too slow.

He ran me clean over with the car, but I only remember the impact of it hitting me before I blacked out.

Apparently he reversed back over me when I was down. ”

“Oh God!” I cried as tears, which had filled my eyes, ran free down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Madd,” I whispered as I got to my feet and went to him, wrapping my arms as tight as I could around his waist. “Please tell me he was caught,” I pleaded as I clung to Madd but looked to Logan.

“He was arrested the next day when Maddox woke up and managed to tell the detectives everything. He was charged with attempted murder and he’s in jail right now, but he got off too fucking easy if you ask me.” Logan hissed angrily.

“A cop will not fare well in the system. Trust me, he’s paying for what he did,” Maddox said.

“Not enough. It’ll never be enough for what him and his bitch wife did to you!”

“Did she get charged with anything?” I asked.

“Nah. Nothing they could charge her with,” Maddox shrugged.

“So that’s what ended your career?” I pushed.

“Losing a leg, and a brain injury that makes me paranoid and prone to violent outbursts lost me my career. I was medically retired from the force and given a shitty pension to live on.”

“You lost a leg?” I was crying pretty hard now.

One woman’s idiotic idea of revenge against her asshole husband had cost Maddox so much.

He was such a good man, and he never deserved any of what happened to him.

I hurt for him. Suddenly, the way he’d been since we met him, the drinking, and the mood swings, the way he looked at me so knowingly, and seemed to see me so clearly, it all made so much more sense.

“Below the knee amputation. They tried to save it, but after that fucker went over me twice, there wasn’t much left to save. I have a prosthesis now,” Maddox sighed, almost like he was ashamed to admit to it.

“I didn’t even realize. Does it hurt?”

“It did when I first got out of the hospital, but then the old man died and left us everything. I was able to get a consultation with a private specialist and get a whole new prosthesis. That helped a lot. There’s still some pain, but not as much.”

“The old man? Your grandfather?”

“Yeah. Apparently he had an attack of conscience about abandoning his only kid when she married our Dad. Since mom was gone, he left the house and all of his inheritance to Maddox and I. We moved here after everything and decided to start over. I bought the bar to keep me busy and Maddox worked on the guest house to get it fixed up. Renting the place out at the price we did was about us wanting to help someone who needed a hand, just like we had needed so many times in our early lives.”

“And your parents?”

“Mom died of a heart attack in prison about five years ago. Dad got out just after that, but we haven’t spoken to either of them since the day they were charged in court, and they never reached out to us,” Logan replied.

“They weren’t exactly parent material. They gave us everything we ever needed or wanted, but that was where it stopped. There wasn’t any love or affection from them. Logan and I were basically raised by nannies and each other,” Maddox added.

“I’m so sorry for everything you’ve both been through,” I sighed as I returned to my seat between them. “What happened to you, Madd. I…I can’t even…there aren’t words for how terrible it was. That woman…the wife…she should have been sent to prison too.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Logan announced.

“Anyway…” Maddox said, pulling our attention back to him.

“…the reason for this long and depressing tale of woe was to make you see that you’re not alone in what happened last night to you.

I suffer with PTSD after what happened to me, and I’ve zoned out on Logan more than once when the memories and my own destructive thoughts just become too much for me to deal with anymore.

I’ve had panic attacks and I’m paranoid as fuck about security and keeping the people I care about safe.

I have issues, Anna. A fucking ton of them.

We get what you’re going through, even if we don’t know why. ”

“He’s right, sweetheart. You don’t have to worry about us seeing what you’re dealing with, because it won’t be anything we haven’t already dealt with.”

“You guys are too nice,” I sighed with a sad smile to each of them.

“Not sure anyone has ever called Maddox ‘nice,’” Logan laughed.

“He is nice, to Max and I anyway,” I defended.

“I guess what I meant to say was thank you. Thank you for being here for me and Max, and for giving us a place to live that’s beautiful and feels safe.

Thank you for being honest with me, and patient.

I know I’ve been a bit of a bitch since we moved here, but I just…

I wanted to be careful. There’s only me, you know?

There’s only ever been me to keep Max safe and to give him what he needs.

I was doing okay at it until recently, but I…

I fucked up and I can’t ever allow myself to do that again. ”

“You don’t need to protect your son from us, baby. We’d never hurt either of you,” Maddox told me firmly.

“I think I’m actually starting to believe you,” I told them honestly.

I shouldn’t. I knew I absolutely should not, but God help me, I really was beginning to trust them.

It was like a part of that spell they seemed so able to ensnare me in, and try as I might to pull away, and maintain a distance, I just couldn’t seem to make it happen.

They were luring me closer and closer to them, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to fight it any more, which terrified me.