SUMMER
EIGHTEEN
Levi rushes away, so I quickly follow his instructions and lock the door. I triple check the back one and then all the blinds, ending in the middle of the room with my hand on my thumping heart.
Levi.
Hunter.
Dad.
So much is happening at the same time, and my mind moves a mile a minute.
I drop onto the end of the bed with my head in my hands. That went exactly how I envisioned it would. How it needed to.
But realistically, what’s next?
If he’s really willing to go against his family’s plans, it’s a fight between him and them. If it’s me he wants, then I want him in return. I’ve always wanted him.
But will I be able to protect my heart if this goes badly?
Shaking my head, I stand and pace the room. Levi’s phone call seemed serious. I didn’t overhear it, but, given the recent situation, I could guess.
“Be safe, Levi.”
Dad hurt me a lot growing up. If he hurts Levi, I wouldn’t know how to live with myself.
I’d figure out how to fight.
I’d go after him.
On my next pass around the room, a figure steps from the shadows.
A figure in the same shape as all my nightmares, sending my mind careening into the past and my body across the room.
He’s lost the orange jumpsuit and looks no different than when I last saw him across a courtroom only days ago. The scent of unwashed horror and childhood trauma permeate the room as a mean grin reveals rotting teeth.
“Well, well, daughter. You’re quite a ways away from home.”
“We don’t share a home.” Of all things to say, it’s probably the least important, but something urges me to defend the fact that home hasn’t been associated with him in a long time, if ever.
“We’d be there, but you went and got me arrested after a little misunderstanding.”
“You tried to rape me!” Attempted assault being misconstrued as a ‘misunderstanding’ in his mind is telling.
He scoffs, saliva flying from his mouth. “Ever since your mother left, you’ve been mine. Daughter or not, you have a fuckin’ job.”
More bile fills my throat. He’s trying to break me down, but I won’t let him.
He moves across the room, steps slow and paced, but I’m not waiting around for whatever the hell this is. He will not undo what I’ve spent all this time fighting. Years of abuse will not be relived.
I run.
I reach the door before he does, flipping the heavy switch open, but his meaty hand thuds against the door, forcing it closed. He’s always been stronger than me, and he loved lording that fact over me.
A sob builds as his weight presses against me, like that time that led to his downfall. “Fuckin’ bitch. You won’t be going anywhere. We’re gonna have a talk, then you’re gonna pay for thinking you can put me into jail.”
I flatten against the wall, trying to create as much distance between us as possible. “The police are looking for you. They’ll arrest you again.”
“Maybe. But not before I get my revenge on you and your friend. He’d do anything for his little whore, wouldn’t he? Wonder what he’ll think showing up to your dead body.”
Oh, God. He’s threatening to murder me.
With only thoughts of escape, I drop to my knees and shoulder between him and the wall before darting across the room to the side table where my cell is. It’s a gamble for it versus the back door.
Heavy steps pound after me, but he’s so out of shape, I’m half a step faster and just out of reach. Pushing every muscle, every ounce of strength, I yank my phone from the charger and turn for the back door.
Hot summer air greets me, propelling me across the sand. It bends beneath my shoes, exerting muscles already exhausted from riding Levi, but I keep going. There is no other option as Dad’s rage reverberates from behind me.
Messily, I manage to click Levi’s name in my cell, the call being picked up instantly. “Summer?”
“He’s here! He’s after me. I-I…I ran.”
“Fuck. Keep running, darling. I’m coming.”
Click.
My foot touches the wooden plank of victory. A few more steps, and I’ll be up the hill, then into the main part of the resort. It’s late, but surely, some people are still out who’ll see the maniac chasing me.
A hand grips my shirt and yanks me backwards, throwing me down onto the sand. What should otherwise be soft becomes an altar for cruelty as my father comes down on top of me.
I scream. For Levi, for anyone who’ll hear me.
I fight. Like in the shower earlier, but this time for my life. As he reaches for my wrists, I continue moving, constantly staying out of grasp. He’s heavier than me, pinning me down, but my knees and elbows jab into any reachable place. He grunts when some of my hits land.
“Fuckin’ bitch. Stop moving!”
“Why did you hurt me?” I scream into his face, and he stops fighting. Beady eyes glint, his unwashed breath blowing sour over mine. “You blamed me for Mom leaving when I was a baby. You spent my childhood hitting me. My teenage life making me wish I actually died.”
“If only you had the guts to kill yourself. Life would have been a whole lot easier.” His yellow teeth bare, a line of drool dripping onto my chest. No amount of bleaching my body will clean him off me. “I should have had your mother abort you when she had the chance.”
How many times over the years had I cut myself until I bled?
How many times have I wished for death? Entertained suicide?
Levi changed that. He gave me a little bit of hope. The self-harm didn’t stop, but the suicide plans did.
Having my father wish me dead strikes something different, something that wakes me up until I’m mad with frenzy. My elbow smashes into his face, knocking him slightly off me. My next hit meets his throat.
His weight disappears as another form flings himself into me, the two rolling to the sand. I scramble to my hands and knees while Levi tackles my father, smashing his fists into his face over and over, lost to the rage. My father, physically larger than Levi but not stronger, blocks some of them.
“Always coming…to her rescue.”
He crashes into Levi, who rolls to his feet just as quickly. “Always. So take the warning now. You either back down and we’ll walk your ass back to jail, or you die.”
Die? Levi’s said some big things in our time together, both as himself and Hunter, but murder is another level.
My father laughs, voice grating with hatred. “You’re funny, boy.”
Levi rushes at him, knocking his shoulder into my father’s stomach. Dad pounds on Levi’s back, but it’s like Levi doesn’t notice the beating as he smashes his fist over and over into my father.
The clouds shift, and moonlight glints off the shine coming from Levi’s hand.
A knife.
I barely have time to consider where he got one of those from and how long he’s been carrying it around before he slides it between his fingers and punches my father again in the lower stomach.
This time, blood spurts.
My father, having not expected the stab, jerks away, but Levi stays on him. The two continue their fight until reaching the water. Levi is winning, as Dad’s hits are less frequent and with half the strength.
Levi swipes his arm again but misses. A wave rolling in staggers my father off balance; he’s already weak, and he trips to his knees. Levi slams his foot into Dad’s face, throwing him further into the water, then leaps after him, and the two are lost in a mess of water and limbs.
“Don’t get hurt,” I whisper to Levi, standing to rush closer.
A moment later, Levi appears, his hand tight around a knife dripping with blood. Drops fade into the water, lost to the larger amount of blood coming from my father’s slumped-over body.
He looks at me, his face a stranger. Darker. Possessed.
Blank.
He tosses the knife further into the ocean, and it splashes a few feet away. The weight of it will likely take it to the ocean floor. If it were to ever end up on the beach, the Westwoods would probably make it all go away.
He grasps the back of my father’s shirt and hauls him deeper into the water. The two disappear for a couple more minutes, and when the surface ripples, interrupting the reflection of the moon, only Levi returns.
He walks out of the ocean, coming to a stop in front of me. His shoulders rise and fall with his pants while his expression begs forgiveness and safety. He might have killed someone, but I’m safe.
He drops to his knees and hugs my waist. “I’m sorry protecting you took so long.”
I bend over, sliding my hands into his hair. It’s then I feel him quivering.
No, wait. I’m the one shaking, a full body shiver as the late hour descends.
Levi scoops me up as he walks us further up the beach. “You’re okay. I have you. You’re safe.”
I grip his hair, wrap my arms around his neck, and practically crawl up his body until there’s nowhere else for him to go. “You saved me again.”
“He tricked us. If you didn’t call… You did good, darling. You kept yourself safe.”
Over his shoulder, the flatness of the ocean doesn’t give away the recent horrors. Beauty like this doesn’t deserve to be exposed to it.
Then again, I never deserved a father’s abuse.
The vast body of water in a place like this represents how free we are. Nothing can be seen for miles. Nothing’s around.
Nothing but trauma, but even that’s swept away by the gentle waves.
“I love you, Levi. Thank you for being my friend.”
He hauls me closer. “I’m much more than that.”
“You’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” he agrees softly. “And you’re mine.”
He kisses me, the kind of kiss that lights the world on fire.
That sets me free.
After all…
Freedom is a delicious sort of wicked.