Keller and Callahan

Chapter 27

Olivia”s surroundings were drowned out by the pounding of her footsteps echoing on the pavement and the rush of blood in her ears. The image of Daisy, fragile and drenched, lying motionless on the ground with Sam pushing on her chest kept playing on a loop in her mind. Grateful for Sam’s lifeguard training and his experience at Callahan Center, Olivia couldn’t shake the memory of him by Daisy’s side, holding her hand and reassuring her. He was the perfect person to be there to support that sweet, little girl. She would never forget the picture of him kneeling next to her while he held her tiny hand, promising her he wouldn’t leave her. The perfect example of strength and protection, and that was exactly what he was to Olivia, too.

Reaching her cabin in record time, she unlocked her door and burst into the living room where she and Sam had their sandwich dinners earlier. She must have taken her radio out of her pocket when they sat down to eat without realizing it. Finding the coffee table empty, she scrunched her nose in disappointment as she moved the couch cushions and pillows around.

“Looking for this?”

A chill instantly ran down her spine upon recognizing the cold voice looming behind her. She hadn’t heard the low rasp of Greg Callahan since that fateful night on the dock, the night he lit her life on fire. Initially gripped by fear, her emotions shifted to pure rage as she recalled the tremendous amounts of pain he had inflicted on Sam throughout his life, and all of the years of memories and love they could have shared together. With a deep breath, she composed herself and made a vow to do everything in her power to fight for their future together.

She turned around slowly to find Greg standing across the room, cockily holding up her radio – her lifeline to safety. He slowly stalked towards her, pinning her into the corner of the room with each purposeful step.

“I was wondering if my pussy whipped son was ever going to leave your side. I was beginning to get impatient,” Greg sneered as he stepped up to face her. All Olivia could see was the color red of rage, and before she could think to hold her tongue, her temper got the better of her.

“I was wondering if his cowardly, asshole father was ever going to show his face here again.”

The strike to her cheek made her stagger backward into the side table, crashing framed photographs to the floor. The reverberating shatter of the glass seemed to mirror Greg’s shattering of control. Looming over her as she crouched on all fours, he chuckled down at her.

“You’re going to learn real quickly, little girl, that I don’t take kindly to disrespect,” he spit down at her as she coughed into the floor. “Now, you’re going to get your ass up, come with me and not make a sound. You and I are going to take a little walk. And if you get any ideas about making noise…” he flashed the glint of a gun tucked into his hip, “don’t.”

She could only manage a nod before slowly rising to her feet. The blow to her face left her head spinning, taking a moment to regain her balance and composure. As she focused, a surge of adrenaline swept through her, all her nerve endings firing. Facing Sam’s father, she observed a man who was clearly unhinged. His bloodshot, glassy eyes and swollen, purple-tinted face hinted at years of excessive drinking, evident from the burst capillaries covering his face. His face was flushed and sheen with sweat, and his trembling hands suggested he was experiencing withdrawals from one of his preferred substances.

Shaking her out of her stupor, he pushed her toward the back door. “Let’s go, little girl.”

She walked silently through her cozy house, determined to banish this nightmare from her memory as it unfolded before her. Exiting through the back patio, they slipped out noiselessly. She casted a desperate glance left and right as she walked down her back steps, hoping to catch someone’s eye and signal for help. Yet, one of the aspects she loved about her secluded cottage was the privacy it offered. Now, that very seclusion left her feeling isolated and vulnerable.

After the scuffle in her house and the fear that practically consumed her, she had no idea how much time had passed since she had raced away from Sam to fetch her radio. The nightmare they were so afraid of was standing right in front of her face, but instead of Sam taking the beating as he had in the past, the outcome of this hellish situation now sat entirely on her shoulders.

Knowing if she didn’t return with the radio soon, Sam would come racing to find her. She couldn’t risk him startling his father, who was in an unstable state, especially with the gun he had tucked into his jeans. She needed to lure him away from the campground and her loved ones, before any harm could come to them, but also needed to escape herself.

Her best chance was the water; she was almost positive she could outswim him despite his height advantage. She trusted her strength and stamina could carry her to where Sam was, just around the bend of the cove. She could only hope that once she plunged into the water, the darkness would conceal her from Greg if he managed to retrieve the gun quickly. And hope and pray to every God she knew that she’d get lucky and he’d miss his shot.

The pressure on her back from the butt of the gun snapped her back into focus, knowing she needed to act fast. She began to construct a wall around her fear so she could concentrate, determined to keep Sam safe no matter the cost. She turned around slowly and began to walk backwards in the direction of her dock, hoping she would be able to distract him.

“I apologize for what I said back in the house. I don’t think you’re a coward. It must have been really difficult to have been on the run for so long,” she placated him.

“You have no idea. And it’s all your fault,” he sneered.

“I’m so sorry you feel that way.”

“Sorry I feel that way?!” His voice escalated. “You should be sorry that your motherfucker of a father ever came to my house to threaten me. That he thought my son was better off here with you than under the roof I put over his head. That him owning this piece of shit campground made him better than me. He got what he deserved when I burned it down. You all did. And Sam got what he deserved by knowing what it felt like to be alone all those years, just like I had to be. Me and his mom were never good enough for him, so if he thought he was too good to live under our roof, I made sure he couldn’t come crawling back here and live under yours.”

With each passing minute, his desperation seemed to grow, his ramblings becoming more and more enraged. His eyes were full of the same look she’d seen in him a decade earlier - pure evil, clearly having lost his grip on reality.

“What kind of father wants his own flesh and blood to suffer?” Olivia was so pulled in by his hatred, she momentarily forgot she was supposed to be playing by his rules.

“The kind of father who was trying to teach him to be a man,” he hissed at her.

“Sam Callahan is the most upstanding man I know, no thanks to you.”

“I am a real man, and I’m finally going to show you how a real man fucks a woman. Because I know my son never has.” With that, he struck her again, across the same cheek and the connection with his fist made her eye feel like it was going to explode.

The moment it took her to regain her awareness, he was shoving her to the ground, mounting her wobbly. She could smell the stale booze on his breath, and could feel the weight of his gun push into her hip bone as he pressed into her.

“I’m going to show you what it feels like to be ridden the right way, sweetheart,” he said as he fumbled with the button of her jeans.

The feel of his grimy, rough hands on her body unleashed every ounce of fury she had, and she let out a piercing scream. Throwing her hands up to his face, trying to connect with his flesh while thrashing underneath his body weight was proving to be unsuccessful - he outweighed her by at least eighty pounds. Frantically searching for a way to get him off of her, she felt blindly around her for some kind of aid. She started to panic when all she felt was dirt in between her fingers, until the end of her fingertips grazed the rough edges of a rock.

As if the Gods above her heard her prayers, the first firework exploded in the sky above them, startling Greg to momentarily shift his focus upward. Instinctively, she grasped the rock and smashed it against the side of his head with all the force she could muster.

The second the rock connected with his flesh, his body was propelled off of her, but in the opposite direction. She heard a guttural growl pierce the darkness, which was followed by the sounds of fists pounding flesh. With the glow of the popping fireworks briefly illuminating the night sky, she caught a glimpse of Sam straddling his father, his fists pummeling into his face. Greg got a swing in, snapping Sam’s head back.

Rolling over onto her side to face him, she shouted a warning. “Sam! He has a gun! Left hip!”

She could see the anger take over him as he wrestled his father for the gun, and sat in horror as she realized how truly dangerous Sam’s father had become.

“You brought a fucking gun near the love of my life? I will fucking kill you,” Sam snarled as his fists continued to connect.

Greg’s right hook caught Sam square in the jaw, which was enough to knock him off his body. Seeing Greg’s hands reach for his pants, Olivia screamed with all her might. “Sam! Gun!”

Sam’s hands flew out and suddenly they were a tangle of limbs as they both rolled on top of each other on the ground. Olivia had just picked up the rock intending to strike him again when a shot rang out.

Her heart stopped cold. Everything froze. It felt as if Olivia could feel every single hair on her body stand on end - not knowing where the shot had landed. Then finally a blood curdling scream rang out, and Olivia felt the blood drain from her face when she realized it didn’t belong to Sam.

In a move so quick and swift, he rolled his father onto his stomach and pinned him down to the ground. From her spot a few feet away, Olivia could see the blood beginning to pool around Greg’s leg as he winced in pain. Noticing her radio had fallen free in the scuffle, she crawled over to it and radioed Jensen.

“Jensen,” she breathed harshly. “He’s here. Sam has him pinned, gunshot wound to the leg. We’re behind my cabin.” Not even two seconds had passed before she heard the crackling of the radio on the other end.

“Copy Olivia. My men and I are on our way.”

Dropping the radio, her eyes flew up to find Sam, who was still pressing his weight into his father. Sam’s eyes met hers, and everything he wanted to say was written in them, silently communicating like they had when they had been kids. They held each other’s gaze in silence, the only sound surrounding them were the bursting of celebratory fireworks over the lake. The irony of that was not lost on either of them, as if the events of tonight were the closing of the circle of the events that had begun on this very night ten years ago. Sam had been furious when his father had blackmailed him to stay away, but that was nothing, nothing compared to what he’d felt when he’d seen Olivia on the ground with him on top of her.

The pounding of footsteps and the barking of orders shook Olivia out of her trance and as soon as Jensen stood over Greg’s rumpled form, Sam released him and lunged for Olivia, crushing her against his body. She crumbled into his arms and buried her face into his chest. His arms locked around her in a vice, and he held her as she finally let the tears come. Letting her get them all out, once she took a few deep breaths, he gently pulled back, and examined her face. Gingerly gracing her bruised cheek, he cupped it in his palm and touched his forehead to hers.

“Oh baby, he put his hands on you. I am so sorry. When I saw him on top of you from your deck, I lost my goddamn mind. I don’t even know what happened next. It was as if I blacked out. I’m so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner,” his hands were running up and down her arms now, trying to put some warmth back into the ice her body had become.

“I’m ok. You came for me. We’re ok,” she said as she ran her hands over his face to make sure that was true. His left eye was already starting to swell, his lip was bloodied, and he was covered in dirt from the skirmish on the ground, but apart from that, he was in one piece. Thank God.

“As soon as Daisy’s mom found us, and you hadn’t come back with your radio, I knew something was wrong. When I saw the broken glass in the living room, my fucking mind went blank. When I came onto the deck and saw you fighting to get away, I told myself I’d kill him with my bare hands for ever touching you. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance.”

Grasping his face in her hands, she forced him to look at her. “Sam. That man is sick, and if you had gone any further, you would have had to live with that for the rest of your life. And I’m so thankful you don’t have to carry that burden. He’s going to go away for good now, and you can finally put this all behind you.”

Squeezing his eyes shut, he kissed her forehead in gratitude. “We can finally put this all behind us.”

“Us,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

So they sat, with the police cuffing his father, finally putting him in the back of the cop car where he belonged, watching the door shut on the ending of a nightmare. As the cruiser pulled away, the finale of the fireworks show went crazy in the sky, concluding in beautiful wonder, as Sam and Olivia held each other, promising to never let go.

The water had always been Sam’s refuge. Ever since Olivia had taught him how to swim, he could find solace in the water anywhere. He had found every single body of water in Las Vegas, and while he was able to find moments of peace, none ever compared to those spent on the lake that he had grown up on, and he knew it meant a lot to Olivia too. A few days had passed since the horrible events on the 4th, he was nervous to ask Ray for the keys to the family’s boat that has always been docked behind their house, but couldn’t say he was surprised when Ray had handed them over to him without blinking.

Olivia had let out a giddy laugh when Sam had fired the boat right up, and had driven them out to the middle of the lake and cut the engine, leaving nothing to hear but the sound of silence.

Olivia gazed across the water at the glowing lights of the campground, and by her relaxed body language, leaning back with both her legs stretched out on the seat, he knew she was at peace. He had always envied the fact that she grew up here and was able to call this place home. And it was his hope that he could officially call this place home too.

Finally.

Between the love and support of her dad and all the opportunities given to her to learn, it was no wonder that she grew up with such confidence and a strong sense of self. It was one of the things he loved most about her.

And Christ did he love her.

When he really stopped to think about it, he had loved her since she tossed those powdered donuts in front of him and acted like it was no big deal. He had belonged to her since that very first moment, and she to him. And she had let him, despite all the shit with his family, she had stuck by him. Until he had to push her away, all because she had meant more to him than anything.

Looking in the distance at the campground, memories they made together flashed through his mind, along with all the ones that they missed. Looking back, he would have made the same choice if it meant keeping her safe. But moving forward, he asked himself what kind of memories he wanted to create in the future?

The answer was simple. Olivia. She was in every single one of them. Laying on their backs on the dock, looking up at the stars. Visiting with the kids at The Center. Him by her side as she makes decisions for the lodge. Standing in front of their family and friends as they slip rings onto each other”s fingers. That is the only way this ends for him. With her as his forever.

Running and shielding her from pain and danger was stopping them both from being happy. Preventing them both from having full lives together. Making the decision to stand beside her in every circumstance had become the easiest decision of his life. And he was finally getting the chance to tell her.

Taking the keys out of the ignition, he tossed them onto the dashboard and went to sit beside Olivia. Tucking her legs underneath herself, she made room for Sam and looked at him with such unabashed love, he felt as if his heart was going to burst. Needing some sort of physical connection, he laced his fingers with hers, making them one solid unit.

“Olivia,” he said, searching her eyes.

“Uh oh. You never call me Olivia. This must be serious,” she said jokingly.

“Everything about my feelings for you are serious,” Sam squeezed her hand tighter. “Liv. I have spent the last ten years of my life trying to protect you, knowing that I was hurting us both in the process. But I’m done hurting you, and I’m done living my life without you. I know I’m being selfish, but I’m asking you to give yourself to me, and I promise to keep you safe. I love you, Liv. I’ve always loved you, and I want to spend every single one of my days making you feel cherished, because you are the most important thing in my life, you always have been.”

Olivia expelled every single bit of oxygen that was left in her lungs. She felt as if the world around her was still, and the only thing that mattered was her and Sam.

“When I had to live without you, my world was dark and sad. But now that I’ve found you again, everything is bright with possibilities.”

He brushed back a strand of her billowing hair and tucked it behind her ear. “I know I have a lot of baggage and have put you and your family in danger more than once, but you have accepted me despite it all. All I want to do is try my best to be the man you deserve, even if it makes me a selfish bastard. But you are the only one who makes me feel whole.”

Olivia felt as if her heart were going to burst from happiness. How could a girl ever feel anything less than pure joy for the rest of her life after hearing something so beautiful. “Remember what I told you the night we first made love?”

He nodded slowly in response. “That your heart belongs to me.”

When she finally gathered enough air in her lungs to speak, she felt the onslaught of tears threatening to break through. “Well, it does. I love you, Sam Callahan, and you are the only one I trust with my heart. When I go all in on something, on someone, it’s game over. You were game over for me a long time ago. And I need you to start to realize I’m not going anywhere. I will never leave you. We are in this together, just like we always have been.”

“Liv,” Sam whispered as he pulled her tight against his chest. “You have been the only home I’ve ever known, I am completely lost without you.”

“You never have to be lost again. You are my anchor in every storm, and with you, I know I can weather anything. I love you.” Sam pulled back and framed her cheeks with his hands, scanning her face with piercing eyes.

“I love you too, Liv. I won’t let anything come between us. Ever.” Pulling her close again, Olivia could feel his pounding heart against her chest. Leaning down, she placed a chaste kiss atop his heart and covered it with her hand.

“You never have to fight your battles alone again. Please let me in and trust me enough to stand next to you and not behind you,” Olivia said with pleading eyes.

“Keller and Callahan. The way it’s always been,” Sam said, still framing her face in his hands.

“Keller and Callahan. The way it will always be,” Olivia finished as she covered Sam’s hands with her own.

Staring into each other”s eyes, trying to catalog every emotion in their hearts, they saw it all. Joy, relief, unity, fear. They lunged for each other and clung to each other so tightly it would take the jaws of life to pry them apart.

A raspy sound escaped Sam’s mouth and stirred Olivia’s hair. “What on earth did I do to deserve you? I’m going to work hard every single day to show you that I don’t take you for granted, that I’m a man that can give back everything you’ve given to me. You have all my love, Olivia. Forever. That I can promise you with everything I am.”

“I know, Sam,” Olivia said, meaning it. “I will never doubt you,” she pulled back with a face full of hope.

Tunneling his fingers through her hair, Sam looked her straight in her eyes. “I will forever be grateful for the blue-eyed, ten year old girl who saved my life when I met her at the gas station. She is my hero.”

Sam’s mouth crushed against hers, marrying his groan with her sob of joy. In the bobbing boat in the middle of the lake they both grew up on, they sealed their future with a kiss that promised a lifetime.