Page 38 of Every Sunset

MADDOX

“How is she?” Logan demanded after answering my call on the first ring.

I’d already text him while I was talking to Tate, telling him we needed him back here and what happened briefly.

At the time I had just wanted him home so we could both be there to comfort and take care of Anna after she’d likely been hurt again, but now I needed him back so we could do everything in our power to protect Anna and Max.

“I don’t know. I’m not with her. It’s bad, Logan.

She wants me to get Max. She said someone’s coming after them,” I explained hurriedly.

I was swerving down the last street to the outdoor pool where Max worked.

I didn’t have a weapon on me if anything went wrong, but as terrified and angry as I was for both Anna and Max, I was confident I could handle whatever I may encounter with my fists alone.

“Who?” Logan demanded.

“I don’t fucking know! Just get your ass back here. Anna’s with Tate for now, but that’s not enough. I want to get them both home where I know it’s secure. Whoever this fucker is, he’s not getting near them.”

“I’ll meet you at the diner. Keep Tate close until I get there. Tell him to close the bar up for now,” Logan told me and I agreed, then hung up.

I swerved into the lot of the swimming pool and barely shut off the engine before I was out and jogging, as fast as my prosthesis would allow, to get to Max.

My heart was racing, my fears not just for Anna, who I was already falling in love with, but for Max too.

I had come to care for him so much in the weeks I had known him, and I felt just as strong a need to keep him safe, as I did his mom.

I walked into the small building that housed the changing rooms, reception, and a snack bar, and actually sighed in relief when I saw Max sat behind the reception desk with another guy, the both of them laughing at something.

“Max,” I interrupted as I strode to the desk and stopped before it.

“Madd? What are you…No! Is it my mom?” he gasped. “Is she okay?”

“No. We have to go. Grab your stuff, fast as you can,” I told him, not giving him chance to panic.

I followed him into a back room where he ripped his backpack from one of the lockers in the small ‘staff only’ area.

“What happened?” he asked as he threw his bag over his shoulder and slammed the locker closed again.

“We have to get to your mom. She can explain the rest, to both of us,” I told him. I had been happy to respect Anna’s privacy up until that point, but now that she was in danger, and Max too, we needed to know everything. It was the only way we could protect them.

We both left the reception and jumped into my car wordlessly. I knew Max was worrying by the way he was rubbing his hands anxiously up and down his thighs.

“Madd?”

“What?” I glanced to Max. We were almost to the diner, and getting there was all I could concentrate on.

Max was safe and I needed to be sure Anna was too.

Tate was a good guy, and in shape too, but he was more of a lover than a fighter.

I worried he wouldn’t be enough to protect Anna if anything happened.

“Please tell me what the fuck is going on?” he pleaded.

“I don’t really know. Something happened with your mom in town. I spoke to her on the phone and she was panicked. She told me you could be in danger and that I needed to come get you. She thinks someone is coming after the both of you. Any idea who that could be?”

“Last night? Th-the crash?”

“I don’t think it was an accident,” I told him bluntly. “I went back out to the crash site this morning and things don’t add up. I think someone hit your mom on purpose last night.”

“No,” he started shaking his head hard. “It…it couldn’t be. It’s not possible.” Max was starting to gasp for breath and his hands had frozen on his knees where his nails now dug into his bare skin.

“Max!” I snapped as I put my hand over his and squeezed it, desperate for him not to hurt himself.

“It’s not possible,” he repeated numbly.

“It’s gonna be alright, kid. Logan and I are going to handle whatever’s going on and we’re gonna keep you and you mom safe too,” I told him firmly.

“My mom, she w-won’t tell you. She wants to protect me…

but you need to know, right? To protect us you need to know who’s after us?

” he asked as he turned to me. His eyes were glassy and he had gone so pale.

As desperate as I was to know what he could tell me, I didn’t want to cause him any more despair.

He was in enough pain. I reached up and wrapped my hand around the back of his neck squeezing a little, hoping it would give him some comfort, as it did me when Logan did the same thing.

“Nothing will stop my brother and me from protecting you, Max. You matter to us, son. You’re family now,” I promised him.

“I…I killed a man, Maddox. He h-hurt my mom and I…I had to save her. I killed him…or at least I thought I did,” he sniffled as he buried his face in his hands, then he started to sob, deep mournful sobs that killed me. “Is it him? Is he back?” he asked shakily.

I was shocked silent for a moment. I didn’t see Max having it in him to kill anyone, but then I thought about how protective of his mom he had been since I met him and it made sense.

If someone was laying hands on Anna, I could believe Max would have done whatever it took to protect her.

Was that why Anna refused to tell us? It all started to make sense.

She wasn’t protecting herself. She was protecting Max.

“I don’t know, but if he is, he won’t be coming anywhere near you this time.

” I’d be the one killing that bastard this time, and I’d enjoy the fuck out of it too.

Anna and Max deserved revenge for all they’d been put through, and if it was at the hands of whoever was coming after them, he’d deserve everything I did to him.

ANNA

I had moved over to sit in one of the booths beside the window of the diner as soon as I hung up the call with Maddox. Since then I had been watching the street outside non stop for any sign of Maddox pulling up with my son.

Tate and Cat were hovering close. The customers who had been in the diner when I walked in, had now left and Cat had closed the place up at Tate’s request, so we were locked inside the building now, which had eased my fears for myself slightly. But it wasn’t me I was most scared for. It was Max.

Knowing that maniac – Callum – was out there somewhere when my son was alone terrified me. I just needed Max to be with me, where I could keep him safe.

“Here, hon. Drink this,” Cat said, startling me. I looked to my right and found her stood at my side, holding out a glass of amber liquid. “It’s whiskey. It might stop you from shaking quite so much.”

I didn’t usually drink hard liquor. The smell of it reminded me of my father, and those were not memories I wanted to relive, but I took the glass anyway, and drank it all down in one gulp. I was a mess and I’d try anything to force me to pull myself together.

“They’re here,” Tate said, and I whipped my head around to look outside again.

Sure enough Maddox was already parked up right outside the window and climbing out.

A sob of relief slipped from me when I saw my son round the car and follow right behind Madd.

He looked anxious, but he was unharmed and safe.

By the time I got to my feet on my shaky legs, Tate had unlocked and opened the door.

“Hey man? Everything good?” Tate asked as Maddox walked in.

“Yeah. You see anyone hanging around?” Madd asked. I didn’t hear what else was said, because the second my son walked in I ran to him and had him wrapped tightly in my arms.

“Max! Are you alright?” I cried as I clutched him. He hugged me back just as tight and I could feel how tense his whole body was.

“Is it true?” he asked unsteadily. “Is….is he here? Is he alive?”

“I…I saw him, Max. I saw him outside the store. He’s here,” I sniffled as I tried to fight back my overwhelming fears. Max just held me even tighter as a sob escaped.

“Hey,” I felt another body surround my back, and realized Maddox was holding the both of us. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Logan and I aren’t gonna let anything happen to either of you,” he told us as he pulled us both against his body and held us tight.

“How can this be happening? I…I killed him, right mom? He…he was dead. You said he w-was dead, right?” Max questioned, and I hated the waver in his voice. I knew he was either crying, or very close to it.

“I thought he was,” I replied as I lifted my head and looked up at Maddox. He was going to be confused, and likely alarmed by this conversation…except he didn’t look either of those things.

“Max told me some of it,” he told me. “We’ll discuss the rest back at the house. Let’s just keep things quiet until Logan get’s here, okay?” he suggested as he glanced to where Cat and Tate sat at a table close enough to hear us if they tried to.

“Madd’s right. We shouldn’t talk about any of this here,” I told Max, and I was relieved when he lifted his head and looked at me, then nodded.

I was right, he was crying and he looked sickly gray.

I reached up and placed my hand over his cheek, hoping to soothe him.

I was somewhat relieved when he forced a wobbly smile for me.

“You’ll be fine, Max. I won’t let it be any other way,” I promised him.

“It’s not me I’m worried about, mom,” he sniffled as he looked at me with so much unmasked fear.

“You’ll both be fine. Logan and I will see to that,” Maddox cut in, his words firm and sure.

“You shouldn’t get mixed up in all of this,” I sighed as I turned enough to meet his gaze. “This is my mess. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”