Page 46 of Every Sunset

I was screaming at the top of my lungs from where Maddox had thrown me over his shoulder.

I’d been shouting and bawling at him since the moment he walked out of the water - his perfect, sun-kissed skin dripping wet and on full display in nothing but his swim shorts - scooped me up from the picnic blanket, which Logan and I had been happily laid out on, and threw me up there.

I knew what he was going to do. He’d been trying to convince me to go into the lake since we arrived there hours earlier.

He and Logan had happily dived in off of the jetty and swam around, but there was no way I wanted to.

It was just too cold with the strong breeze that was blowing, and I’d been more than happy enough relaxing on the small sandy beach and just watching the two of them.

They’d both dried off to join me for lunch as we ate the food we’d worked together to pack before we headed down there, then Madd had dived right back into the water.

“Madd! Don’t you dare! Don’t you…” That was the last wail I got out before Madd picked me up from his shoulder, adjusted me in his arms, then tossed me into the lake like I weighed little more than a damned football.

I screamed as loud as I could as I flew through the air, then I hit the water, and I was right - it was freaking freezing!

But that was the least of my concerns because Madd had obviously thrown me some distance and I was deeper in the lake than I thought I would be.

By the time I realized my feet didn’t reach the bottom I was panicking about the fact I couldn’t breathe, and that just had me flailing and panicking more.

I was in the middle of trying to calm the fuck down and remember how to swim when strong arms wrapped around me and thrust me upwards out of the water.

I felt the sun hit my face as I gasped in desperately for air, then choked on the water I’d swallowed.

I was still panicking, my arms and legs kicking and flailing to push me up towards the surface, even though I was already at the surface.

“Anna? Anna, stop! Anna, it’s me. You’re okay. It’s me!” I heard Madd. I felt the arms around me tighten a little and sense started to prevail. I stopped fighting and instead grabbed onto the arm around me with both hands, clutching the tanned skin tightly.

“Madd?” I gasped.

“I’m here. I’ve got you. Don’t you swim, baby?” he asked. He had my back pressed to his front so I couldn’t see him, but I heard the note of panic in his voice.

“Not really. I…I never really learned,” I replied between coughs. My chest was burning as I continued to bring up water. How much had I even swallowed? “I t-told you n-not to throw me in.”

“Jesus, Anna. Why the fuck didn’t you say you can’t swim instead of screaming?” he demanded.

“Madd? Is she okay?” That was Logan. Madd turned and then I could see the beach, and Logan stood at the edge of the water watching us.

“I’m fine!” I called back.

“She can’t fucking swim!” Madd added, then we were moving as Madd strode through the water towards his brother and the safety of dry land.

“I can swim a little. I…I just….I was in shock and I c-couldn’t touch the ground,” I defended myself.

“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get you dry,” Logan said as we finally reached him. He had a towel in his hand, and I found myself wrapped in it, and transferred into his arms fast.

“You should have told us, Anna. We needed to know you can’t fucking swim when we’re all down by the water like this,” Madd grouched as he strode all of the way out of the water and grabbed a towel from the blanket further up the beach. “You could have drowned. I could have killed you!”

“Madd…”I said, hating the way I knew he was already beating himself up.

“She’s fine, brother. You got to her in time, and we know now, right?” Logan cut in, and I was grateful, because he sounded way more convincing than I would have with all of the coughing.

“We need to go back to the house,” Maddox said after a moment of silence.

“She shouldn’t be out here. Anna, don’t come down here without us again, okay?

Not until you learn to swim.” He looked to me and his expression was so unlike the cool, calm, and collected man I had come to know.

He looked panicked and anxious. He had the towel he’d used thrown over his shoulders and he was anxiously fidgeting with the corners of it.

He looked unsure for the first time ever since I met him, and vulnerable too. Was that his injury? I worried.

“Put me down, Logan,” I said, and I was glad when logan gently set me on my feet in the sand. I grabbed the towel and wrapped it around myself, tucking the end underneath so it would stay put over my soaked shorts and sweater, and I moved over to Maddox as fast as I could.

“I promise, okay? I won’t come out here alone,” I tried to reassure him.

“I’m okay, Maddox. I’m right here and I’m completely fine.

” I tentatively moved forwards and slowly slid my arms around his waist. It wasn’t that I was scared of him.

I knew he would never hurt me. It was that I was scared of hurting or upsetting him further.

But as I settled against him and clutched my arms around him tightly, he seemed to relax his tense body, then his arms wrapped around me and he settled even more.

I felt his fast breaths slow down and even out, then he laid his head on top of mine.

“I’m so sorry, beautiful,” he whispered.

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I should have been more careful with you. I was an idiot,” he sighed as we both remained exactly as we were.

“You don’t have to be careful with me. I won’t break, Madd. I’m made of tough stuff.”

“I don’t care what you’re made of, or how tough you are. It will never stop me from wanting to take care of you. I can’t believe I was so reckless,” he hissed as he lifted his head and tried to back away from me.

“Hey!” I snapped as I looked up at him, refusing to let him go.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. Stop saying that, okay?

I never want you to think that you have to be so careful with me, that we never have fun and do wild things together.

We have a long future ahead of us, and it’ll never work if you think you have to treat me like something delicate.

Believe me, babe, I’m far from delicate,” I told him with a smile.

“I love you so much,” he whispered as he leaned in and placed a kiss at the center of my forehead.

“I love you too.”

“Come on. I grabbed everything already,” Logan said as he walked up behind us. “Let’s get back to the house so you can both dry off and change.”

I looked up at Madd for his answer. There was no way I was leaving without him.

“He’s right, baby. You’re shivering. Let’s go,” he told me.

They each wrapped an arm around me as we started down the small trodden path that led to the back of the guest house from the small beach, and even though my teeth were chattering with the cold, I was happy squeezed between them both as we moved.

There was no place on earth I would rather have been.

“How about we order a few pizzas and pick a movie for us all to watch when Max get’s home?” Logan suggested as we got to the lawn and approached the main house.

“Max would like that,” I agreed.

“Sounds good to me,” Maddox agreed, and I was relieved to hear his voice was back to normal, and he seemed to be back to himself except for the fact he was still holding me pretty tightly.

I looked to Logan, feeling unsure about what had happened and Madd’s whole reaction to it, but Logan just smiled reassuringly and squeezed his hand, which he had wrapped around my hip.

Before either of us could utter a word though – not that I knew what to say anyway – logan and Madd’s phones both started beeping with a loud and continuous alert.

I wasn’t too worried at first, but when they both paused and looked at each other, I started to worry right away.

Their smiles were gone and instead they looked pissed.

“What? What’s happening? What is that?” I cried all at once.

“It’s the perimeter alarm. It means someone is outside the house and has tripped one of my sensors,” Maddox explained, but he didn’t look up from his phone, which he was busy clicking away on.

“Is it him? Is he…is it him?” I gasped as I instantly felt breathless. Heat raced through my body like a sweeping wave, but in it’s wake it left me so cold. My heart jolted in fear, then raced so hard I felt like I couldn’t breathe through the relentless pounding that I could hear so deafeningly.

“Anna?” I could hear Logan’s voice, but he sounded so far away, and my whole body was so frozen I couldn’t make myself respond to him. “Anna? I need you to look at me,” he persisted.

“Logan, just get her inside. Something’s wrong with the surveillance app. It won’t fucking open!” Madd snapped.

“I’m gonna pick you up and get you inside, okay sweetheart?

You’re gonna be okay. Madd and I are here.

We’re not gonna let anyone hurt you. We’ve got you,” Logan said as he released the hold he had on me and instead grabbed me under my arms like I used to pick Max up when he was tiny.

He tucked me against his top half and wrapped my legs around his waist. I tried to snap out of the terror induced stupor I was in to help him, and I managed to hold my legs around his waist, and cling to his shoulders to get closer to him, but still I couldn’t make myself speak.

All I could think was that Callum was coming, and I couldn’t let him get to me again.

I wouldn’t survive him hurting me like before. Not again.