Chapter Twenty
Max
As dusk crept over the Pacific, I stood on the damp sands, the waves crashing on the shore and flowing around my boots, my mind in a turbulent haze. Pain spread through my ruined hand. It didn’t seem broken. Hurt like hell, but didn’t compare to the one in my chest that felt like someone had rammed a jackhammer into me.
My ringing cell pierced the chaos in my head. After a moment, I pulled it out from my pocket only to stare at the display.Logan. As if my thumb had a mind of its own, I stroked her name. It hurt to breathe just thinking of her.
The cell went silent then started up again. I answered, because no matter what, I loved her. Even if she didn’t, orcouldn’t, it wasn’t her fault. Hell, my own father couldn’t stand me.
“Logan—”
“Max?” Her soft voice wrapped around me, pulling me back from my despair, drawing me into her warmth. “Thank God, I was so worried! Where are you?”
“Don’t be. I’m fine.”
“Dammit, Max, don’t play that game with me. Just tell me where—shit!” A loud screech filled my ears, shattering glass, and ramming metal.
“Logan?” I yelled, my blood freezing.
Nothing. Dead air.
No, no, no!“Logan, answer me, dammit!” Dread kicking me in the stomach, I took off in a hard sprint up the narrow, sandy path back to the house. I rang her again. It dropped into voicemail. Sounds of crunching metal and splintering glass of another time reverberated in my head. Panting hard, I skidded to the front of the house. No sign of my SUV. “Where the fuck’s my Jeep?”
The valet took an involuntary step back. “Your girlfriend has it.”
Pivoting, I found the other valet getting out of a Ferrari and shoved him aside.
Tanner grabbed me. “What the hell, Max?”
“Logan. I have to find her, have to find her, have to...” My lungs flattened, threatening to shut down. “She went looking for me. An accident, I don’t know—Christ, I don’t know!”
“C’mon. You’re in no condition to drive.” Tanner slid into the driver’s seat of his car. I slammed in on the other side. Moments later, we hit the main road, searching… Several streets later, and nothing.
Goddammit, where the hell was she? I scanned the darkening roads. Streetlights flickered on, panic gnawing my guts like acid had settled there. I’d lost the only other person I loved, I couldn’t lose Logan, too. This time, I wouldn’t survive the loss.
Blinking lights grabbed me attention. “Tanner, over there!”
He slowed down. A short distance from us, a small crowd had gathered, and several cars had pulled off to the side of the road. A siren screamed, rending the air. Blue lights flashed. A fire brigade was parked nearby.
My heart jammed in my throat. The scene blinked in my mind like movie clips.
Ripped metal road barrier. Glinting glass on the asphalt. My smashed Jeep. A leaning streetlight—
The past careened through my head, spilling free from the black hole in my mind…
Rain slashing down on the windshield as I struggled to see through the torrent and keep the Merc on the road…mom weeping beside me.
“I won’t go back, Max, I won’t. You can’t make me.”
“You have to talk to him, find out the truth—”
“No—” She unclipped her seatbelt, yanked at the steering wheel.
“Mom, stop!” I yelled.
Too late. The car skidded off the wet road and flipped over, rolling down the ledge and crashing against the rocks far below. A terrible pain exploded in my skull. Something thick and wet dripped down my brow. As darkness claimed me, my failing gaze settled on Mom. Her blonde hair matted with blood, more dripping on her white top, green eyes open and vacant…
Logan’s face replaced those brutal images, blood flowing from her head, her dark hair slick and wet as it dripped more red onto her indestructible dress…lifeless amber eyes staring at nothing.
