CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“I’m a criminal, James. That’s what I tried to tell you before. David Logan…he ran an online betting scam, broke into bank accounts, stole a lot of money. We ripped off thousands of dollars off hardworking people. They lost everything. I knew what he was doing, and I did nothing to stop him.”
She was a coward, plain and simple. She could have warned those people. She should have. Yet, she didn’t. She’d let it go on. The lid from the black hole inside of her burst off and flew away into the nothingness. Dark ooze erupted from the hole, devouring warmth, leaving empty blackness in its wake. All the dark feelings she’d shoved inside had festered and coalesced. She shivered as she turned to ice on the inside.
“Why did you go along with it?”
She wrapped her arms about her chest. “You think I didn’t try to get away? I did. Numerous times. But each time…” She didn’t want to tell him about the beating that had put her in the hospital for a week. She’d nearly died that last time. She idly wondered when he caught up with her, if he’d succeed next time. “That’s what I was doing here. I’d gotten away. On my way to Melbourne. I thought I could lose myself in a big city. That he wouldn’t find me amongst millions of people. I hoped he thought I wouldn’t be worth it. I came here on the way. Wanted to see the beach for the first time in my life. So stupid. And this is the mess I bring with me.”
“You are worth it.”
She gasped, spun around. “Don’t say that.”
James narrowed his eyes. “I’ve seen the scars over your body. The way the one rib sticks out on your right side. The way you favour your left arm sometimes.”
Heat engulfed her face. She didn’t want this…this understanding from him. Madeline’s life was at risk, and it was her fault. “It doesn’t matter.” She pointed to the guest house, where the police charged through the door. “Look what’s happening! I brought this to you! I’m the criminal! Don’t try and understand me. I don’t deserve it. I will bring you nothing but pain and misery, and I have.”
“It’s not your fault he hit you. If you liked what he was doing, you’d have stayed by his side. Instead, you tried to leave him,” James said.
Anger made her limbs shake. “I’m not worth it, James! Don’t…don’t do this!” Angry tears ripped from her eyes.
Police wandered from the guest house. Something was wrong. They were too defeated, too slow. Where was Madeline?
He came over to her, wrapped his fingers around her biceps. Instinctively, she stiffened and turned her head to the side, wrapped her arms around her chest. “I’m not David Logan, Elizabeth. I’m not going to hit you. You can trust me.”
Her breath came out in staccato gasps. There was no fist. No backhand. Nothing but his firm yet gentle grip on her arms. She cracked open her eyes, staring into the back yard. Floodlights lit the back yard. She barely saw it against the fence. Not the guest house.
“The garden shed,” she whispered.
She shrugged from his grip. She ignored the rawness on his face, the pain, the stark terror. “I’m going to make this right.”
No matter what he said, she wasn’t going to believe him. She wouldn’t ask him to take her back. Not after this. But she could try and make it better.
She dashed past him and through the patio door. The garden shed. It was perfect. Small and distanced from the house enough to be invisible and forgotten. The type of place that would appeal to David Logan.
She ignored James’ yell behind her, streaking towards the shed, her head filled with Madeline. Her skin crawled at the thought of that monster even being close to that perfect, innocent little girl.
She spied the padlock, broken and tossed to the side. An anger buried so deep exploded within her, and she knew with all certainty that bastard was in here. More yells sounded behind her, but they barely registered through the bright, burning fury that drove her. He wasn't going to do this to anyone, not anymore. He lost that right the moment he’d decided to kidnap the little girl she thought of as her daughter.
She kicked the door open. There was a scuffle in the corner. A whimper that sliced through her with a pain she’d never known before. The hint of an outline from a hefty arm and broad shoulder from the filtered window light. A blinding rage hit. She barreled into the shadow, shoving her shoulder into its centre with all her strength.
She’d run into a wall. Dull pain shot from her shoulder, down her arm. Iron cuffed her arms and lifted her arms at an odd angle, and they felt like they were going to snap in two.
“You led them straight here, you stupid bitch!”
Stunned, she realised it wasn’t a wall. It was David.
The light inside the shed flicked on. James crowded inside, along with the force of the police behind him. Another whimper led her to Madeline, scrunched up in a ball, sitting on bags of potting mix in the corner. There was a dirty smudge on her face, but otherwise she looked unmolested.
“Madeline, are you all right, honey?” she asked.
Madeline looked up at her, blue eyes shining and wide in her perfect little face. Her bottom lip quivered. A relief so great made her legs weak. Fresh pain ripped from her arms as her legs sagged.
“I’d worry about yourself more, sweetheart.” David’s calculating gaze peered down at her.
She tipped her head back to look up at him. He was just so big. Strong and solid, and she knew with just that look in his eyes, he was going to kill her.
Well, he could, but only when Madeline and James were safe.
“Let her go, Logan.” The voice sounded like Steve, the cop.
David’s black gaze looked beyond her. “Put that gun down, coppa.”
Elizabeth shivered at that quiet tone. He was always quiet before he hit. David shook her so badly, her head jerked back and forwards. “I always thought you were stupid, but now I know how stupid you are. You dumb bitch. The only thing you did was give me all your money. You didn’t know half of what I did. If you hadn’t found out my banking details, I would have pissed you off months ago.” He shook her so hard, she saw stars that time.
“They know everything, David. You can’t get out of it now,” she stammered.
“Take your hands off her!” Through the fog, she registered James.
David chuckled. “Gladly.” The back of his hand on her cheek sent her staggering. She seemed to hang in mid-air for a second before slamming to the ground, so stunned her vision blurred, head exploding with white-hot pain.
There was a pink blur in front of her. Madeline! She crawled to the little girl. Soft warm arms wound about her neck, and a trembling body rushed into her arms. Madeline burrowed her face into her neck, clinging to her.
“Drop the gun, Logan!”
Through her watering vision, she saw David aiming a gun at the men grouped around the door. James looked down at her. Raw pain erupted from his eyes and bore into her. She felt the agony of it and let it pierce her.
“Get outta my way!” David said.
“You’re outnumbered. Lower the gun, Logan, before someone gets hurt,” Steve yelled. His attention never wavered from David.
David’s mouth twisted in a sneer. “If I’m going down, I’m not going alone.”
To her horror, David aimed the gun at her. She pulled Madeline hard against her, turning her back to David, protecting Madeline as best she could. There was shouting, a cacophony of voices. An explosion. Confusion. Madeline jerked in her arms. She screamed.
He’d shot Madeline! God, oh God, oh God! No!
There was scuffling behind her. She ignored it. She lay the little girl down, trembling hands running over Madeline’s limbs, feeling and looking for blood. She looked over her body. Nothing! She shook her head, her vision strangely blurring. The bullet must have gone wide. Thank God. Madeline was unhurt.
Elizabeth gathered Madeline in her arms, turning towards the yelling and scuffling. David’s face was pushed into the dirt floor. Steve wrenched his arms behind his back while he held him in place with a knee in the middle of his back. He snapped the cuffs in place, holding his arms at what must be a painful angle. Elizabeth didn’t have it in her to care.
“You’re scum, Logan.” Steve snarled and hailed David to his feet, not caring as David roared in pain.
David look down at her. To her surprise, he smiled, showing neat white teeth. There was something in that grin that didn’t make sense. She stared as Steve shoved David through the door and throng of police.
“Madeline!”
James skidded onto his knees next to her. “Daddy!”
“She’s not hurt. David didn’t shoot her,” Elizabeth said.
Madeline flew into his arms. He closed his eyes as he hugged his daughter. He soothed her hair down, cradling her in her arms. He kissed her head, lashes wet, beneath his eyes damp. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s over,” he told her again and again, and he sat there with his arms around his daughter. If only those arms would accept her back into their embrace.
But that was like wishing for all the stars in heaven to fall in her lap.
“I’m so sorry, James. I didn’t want to hurt you. All I wanted to do was protect you and Madeline. Please believe me.”
“Elizabeth.” His voice was strained, brittle.
“Don’t say anything. Nothing’s going to make this right. It’s okay. You don’t want to see me ever again. I understand that. Before I go…I just want you to know I did everything I could think of to keep you and Madeline safe. I just wanted…to see how it was. You know? How it felt to be loved. I just…I just couldn’t help it. Just for a few days.”
She let the tears fall from her eyes, unhindered down her cheeks. She hoped they’d wash the agony away, but all it did was wash though her, crushing and twisting until wretchedness seeped out of her bones, her muscle, her skin. She was washed out. Tired. She guessed the adrenaline was leaving her system. She leaned back, using the potting mix bags as support.
“I just want you to know anything that happened between you and me… it was real. He wanted me to… you know. To get your bank details… that way, but I didn’t make love to you because of that. You had me under a spell, James. You and Madeline. I guess…now…I’m Cinderella. I have to get back to reality.”
But as she looked into his eyes, past the hurt and anger and anguish, she knew one week wasn't going to be enough. It never was going to be. She’d given her heart to James. Once a heart was given, it couldn’t be taken back. It was a once in a lifetime event. Things had gone too far for even a given heart to repair. She didn’t expect forgiveness and knew it wouldn’t come.
“Thank you, James…for everything.”
Maybe he would forgive her one day. Definitely forget her as a bad memory and get on with his life. Put her down as a bad experience and move the hell on.
“You have to let people love you, Elizabeth. I love you. We love you. Let us in.”
She froze, heart pounding. Cold ice was spreading through her body. People didn’t say that to her. People didn’t want that from her.
“You don’t mean that. You don’t know what you’re saying. You’ll thank me for going, James.”
She moved to get up. She needed to get away before she could tell him she loved him. Loved them both. She had a lifetime of people getting rid of her; what made him think he was any different? Circumstances might be dramatic, but when it got down to the bones of the matter, one day he’d be glad he was rid of her.
Only, leaving wasn’t usually nearly so painful as in the past. Well, that was what she got when she gave her heart away. Not just to one person either. Madeline had her heart the moment she’d fallen into the ocean.
Elizabeth’s elbow buckled, and she dropped back to the ground. Her mind swum. What was wrong with her? Her limbs didn’t want to do what she wanted them to.
“Elizabeth…you’re bleeding.” His voice sounded like it came from a tunnel. Horror transformed his face.
“What..?” She blinked against the encroaching darkness, holding a bloodstained hand up to her eyes. Blood. Her blood.
David hadn’t missed after all.
He did promise he’d kill her. He was right. She tried to tell him, but her lips wouldn’t work properly.
James yelled for help. There was real pain in his voice. Urgency. She wanted to tell him it didn’t matter. She didn’t care anymore. Madeline was safe. David was no longer a threat to James. That was the only thing she cared about now. Her life could end because now she knew what it felt like to have been loved. To have a family. Her dream had come true, even if it was only for a few days.
She felt her lips curve into a smile as the darkness washed over her.