JUSTIN POV
"Justin," Maddie purred in my ear, "wake up."
"No," I rolled away from her, "it's one in the morning, Maddie. Go to sleep."
"I can't."
"Well, I'm exhausted," I complained. I already knew what she wanted just by the sound of her voice. Normally, I would be all for a little seduction and sex under the sheets, but not tonight.
Jaxon and I had spent all day removing tree stumps from the backyard to give us more room to expand the house in a couple of months. By the end of the day, I was covered in grime and my muscles were screaming in pain.
"Justin," She crawled over me lightly so that we were facing each other again, "it's too hot to sleep and I get all antsy at night now that I don't have a job."
"I can't help you, Maddie. Go back to bed."
It had been a week since Maddie quit at the club. I went in with her, and Nahuel glared at me the whole time we werethere. Unknown to her, I had him arrested on trumped up charges of tax evasion. He had been rotting away in some dingy Brazilian jail for the past couple of days and probably wouldn't get out for another couple of months, at least.
Maddie was planning on getting another job soon, but as of right now, she was enjoying her downtime.
"It's so damn hot," she breathed on my skin.
"What do you want me to do about it? I already opened the windows."
"I know you're not asleep." She wiggled into my arms, placing kisses on my bare chest. "Please..."
"No, go away."
I tried to hold off, but we both knew where this was going.
I sighed and laid on my back, spread eagle. "Do with me what you wish."
Maddie climbed up and, of course, she knew how to get the right response out of me. Her legs widened over my lap, the cotton fabric of her panties meeting the already hard erection that I was sporting in my boxers.
I brought her face down to my lips, because I was now wide awake and ready to play.
I rolled us over and pinned her underneath my body. I immediately ground my pelvis against hers and could feel the effect of her desire when I felt the wet spot on her panties. Maddie's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she let out a throaty moan.
"You asked for it." I kissed her neck and started moving down over her shirt-covered chest. Her nipples were hard for me and waiting for attention. On a night like this, though, foreplay wasn't on the menu.
"You're taking too long," Maddie lifted her hips up and slid her underwear down, throwing it somewhere in the room.
My hands traveled under the sheet and gripped her ass. I pulled my throbbing dick out of my boxers as she rolled us sideways so that we were facing each other. It sprang free, ready to find a home between Maddie's legs. I positioned myself right at her wet entrance and pushed in slightly, letting my tip tease her just a little.
She gasped when I did it again, pushing further this time. She needed to be stretched, and Maddie made sure that I was hitting the right spot by rolling her hips into mine. She leaned in close and scissored her legs through mine so that we were entwined, almost one person. Without even having to do any work, I slipped deep inside her wet pussy, both of us letting out a guttural moan at the sensation.
"Aren't you glad I woke you up?" Maddie wheezed and threw her head back, giving me full access to her luscious neck.
"Fuck yeah," I growled, sliding over the sheets and deeper inside of her, "I give you permission to wake me up anytime."
"I'll keep that in mind." She grabbed hold of my hair, tugging and pulling in a gloriously assertive way.
Our legs were losing circulation because they were so tightly bound and small tingles started creeping over my skin. While thrusting, we held on to each other for leverage and ultimate friction, letting our bodies fall into sexual ecstasy. My kisses traveled over Maddie's delicate collarbone and pert nipples, making my name fall from her perfect lips.
I knew her body backwards and forwards, so I could estimate when she was close. Maddie's nails started scratching marks down my chest, creating pain and pleasure wrapped into one. She quivered violently as I pounded deeper, skin meeting skin.
Her entire body uncoiled without a word. There were just grunts and whimpers as we both erupted into each other. I felt long spurts of cum leave my dick as they coated her walls and created sloppy noises down below. I shuddered as the last remnants of my release dripped out, and my entire body suddenly became exhausted after the high I just rode.
Neither Maddie nor I moved for what seemed like hours.
"Holy shit." Maddie's head rolled onto the pillow, but she didn't disentangle herself from me.
"Like I said, wake me up anytime." I kissed her lips roughly. "That was intense."
"I don't know what came over me." She finally let go and scooted away.
I took a deep breath, bringing my body back to life and stared up at the ceiling. "I'll suffer any punishment for a fuck like that again." I looked at her. "Are you sleepy now?"
She giggled and nodded. "I'm exhausted. Thank you."
"Would it be completely crass of me to fall asleep now?" I shut my eyes, not being able to keep them open any longer.
"Goodnight, Justin." I felt her soft lips on my cheek.
I heard Maddie get situated next to me, and then settle herself into bed. After a few minutes, I opened one eye just to check on her. It had become somewhat of a ritual in the past couple of years. I couldn't sleep unless I knew she was safe and content. Whether we were angry at each other or just had a major argument, I would toss and turn all night. Something inside of me just wouldn't shut off.
I rolled over and didn't even bother covering myself up. It was too hot for that. I just drifted off to sleep.
Sometime around three, the discomfort in my back started to make itself known. I tried to ignore it and forget the pain was even there, but that didn't happen.
I got out of bed and lightly padded into the bathroom. Without turning on the lights, I went straight for those nice little blue pills on the counter and took two of them. The uneasiness subsided within minutes, and I knew I would be alright for the next twelve hours or so.
I pulled my pillows off of the bed and set myself down on the carpet to finish out the night. Most times when I had back problems, I slept here. Maddie hated it. She told me I wasn't healthy, but I begged to differ. At least I wouldn't wake up in twisted knots in the morning. I tried not to think about how many disgusting germs might be around me and closed my eyes again.
It took me an hour of restlessness to realize that I wasn't going back to sleep.
"What's going on?" Maddie asked me sleepily as I started to get up from the floor.
"I can't sleep," I told her.
"Why?" She rolled over to look at me through hooded eyes.
"It's nothing. Go back to bed." I kissed her. "I'll be downstairs and I'm turning on the air condition. It's too fucking hot in here."
"Okay."
I closed all the windows in the room, and then ventured out into the hallway to blast the shit out of the A/C. It almost immediately became freezing in the house, but it was better than the hell of the tropical season.
I went downstairs, flicked on the lights, and decided to make myself a pot of coffee. No one manufactured coffee like Brazil, and it could keep you up for days. It was like crack, but tasted so much better. While I waited, I sat on the couch and watched the news, catching up on what was happening in the real world. I tried not to care about anything going on anywhere else. Nothing mattered but this little island, Maddie, and Jaxon.
If you would have told me that this would be my life four years ago, I might have shot something. Back then, this kind of existence made no sense to me. Now, the regularity of island life had become my sanctuary. The simplicity, the easiness, the freedom; it was exactly what I needed. I would probably be dead for real by now if I stayed in Chicago.
The coffee pot dinged softly, indicating that my morning pick-me-up was ready. The sun wouldn't be up for another four hours, so I couldn't go for a run like I wanted. I settled for sitting on the couch and barely watching the TV.
I heard the light movement of feet upstairs and a couple minutes later, Maddie came down wiping her eyes.
"If we're going to stay up, I need more than coffee." She plopped down next to me and took my cup from me.
"You can go back to bed."
"Not now. I'm already up."
Maddie just didn't like it when I wasn't in the bed with her. That's probably why she hated when I slept on the floor. By now, we had gotten our 'late-night-no-sleep-dates' down to a science. We had them probably about once a week.
"So... I'll get the Scrabble?" she asked, almost hopefully.
"And I'll get more coffee." I got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to retrieve bigger cups.
By the time I had come back, Maddie was on the floor in front of the coffee table, setting up the massive Scrabble Deluxe Edition board.
"We are such nerds," Maddie said with a laugh, "but I love this game so much."
"No making up words this time." I sat across from her, stretching my legs out.
"Excuse me, but I don't make up words. Just because they aren't in the dictionary doesn't mean they don't exist."
"That's exactly what it means."
"I'm sure they exist somewhere." She glared at me.
"You're just a sore loser."
In over a year of doing this, Maddie had never once won a game of Scrabble. Sometimes, I would think about letting her scoot by with a victory, but she acquired this proclivity for making things up. She had a degree in fucking English literature, and yet she couldn't think of real words to put on the board. She always complained that her letters never made anything worthy of points.
"I'm not a sore loser," Maddie argued. "You just need to stop using those big words that no one can understand."
"I can't help it." I shrugged, superiorly sipping my coffee. "I play to win."
She squinted at me while picking her letters and the game began.
Of course, ten minutes in, we were already quarrelling over one of her words. I tried to explain to her that "s-p-r-a-m-p" didn't exist. Maddie challenged that it did. About six months ago, the dictionary was "misplaced", so I couldn't really debate, but she ended up conceding.
"I can't believe you." Maddie shook her head as she wrote down my sixty-eight-point word.
"Triple word, double letter on a 'W', and triple letter on an 'F'," I gloated. "Don't cheat me either."
"This is ridiculous. Who would have ever thought 'waffle' was going to be my enemy?"
Before I could reach my hand into the velvet pouch to pull out more letters, the lights shut off completely. The air conditioner also powered down simultaneously, and an eerie silence fell over the room.
"What's happened?" Maddie whispered.
"I don't know," I said quietly. I was instantly on alert, listening and squinting in the dark for any abnormality.
Jaxon suddenly crept into the room, wielding a rather large pistol and a semi-automatic strapped around his chest. I thought he might be sleepwalking or some shit like that, but there was a strange glare in his eyes that I could even see in the shadows.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, my voice low and grainy.
"Do you two not hear that?" He turned towards us. "Stop fucking around. We have company."
"Great spy line." I rolled my eyes. "What's going on?"
"Just listen." He crawled on the floor towards the glass, sliding door and pulled the curtains closed.
I tuned everything out and honed my hearing. It only took a second for me to hear it, and when I did, I jumped up from the floor.
"Justin, what is it?" Maddie asked.
"Boats," I answered shortly.
"Wave runners," Jaxon said. "Six, I think. I couldn't see them from my window, but I sure as hell could hear them." He peeked out of the curtain.
"What the hell do they want? How did they find us?" Maddie questioned. I was asking myself the same thing.
"And they have guns, so... there's that." Jaxon sighed. "I don't think they're friendly."
"Maddie, I need you to go upstairs." I went into the massive gunroom, which I of course kept stocked to the fullest.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I don't have time to argue with you." I handed her a couple firearms; I wasn't sure which ones. "Please just listen to me. Go upstairs and lock the door. I have a key so if someone knocks, it's not me. We just need to sort this out and-"
"I'm not leaving you two down here," she interrupted me.
"I will carry you up there if I have to." I had to stop myself from yelling, "Please... just listen to me."
Maddie thought for a second, her feelings evident on her face, before she nodded. "What do they want?"
"I don't know, Maddie, but I promise that I'm going to find out and we're going to get them off of our island."
"This is happening really fast," she exhaled.
I nodded. "I'm going to handle this."
"They're coming," Jaxon whispered.
"How many are there?" I asked him.
"Six and they all have some impressive firepower."
"Go upstairs," I told Maddie. "I'll be up there when this is finished. No matter what you hear going on down here, don't come out of our room." I pulled down the smallest bulletproof vest that I had made especially for her and strapped it to her body, making sure it was secure.
"Be safe," She hugged me tightly around my neck. "I want them off of our island, Justin."
"They will be," I vowed. "If anyone comes in the room, shoot them. Don't think about it." I pushed her up the stairs and didn't move until I heard the lock on our bedroom door.
"How do you want to do this?" Jaxon asked me as I grabbed anything and everything I could, including my trusty golden Eagle. I was surprised I still had the thing.
"I need one of them alive. Kill anything else that moves," I instructed, putting on my own vest and handing one to Jaxon. "I want to know who they are, why they're here, what they want, and how they found us."
"Yes, sir." Jaxon saluted. "Are we waiting for them?"
I looked around the spacious first floor of the house. Fortunately, we had enough room to maneuver. My mind went into overdrive: making game plans, finding exits, trying to deduce the best strategies, seeing if there were any valuables that needed to be put up. I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be a friendly visit.
"Wait for them," I said mostly to myself.
I flipped the kitchen table over. I went into the family room and did the same to the couch, the coffee table, spilling the Scrabble game and coffee onto the floor. Jaxon helped me push the bookcase into the middle of the room-anything for coverage.
There were six of them and two of us. They had the advantage because they were prepared. There wasn't any way we were going to stop them from coming in, so why try? I didn't want to stop them, anyway. They were going to get one hell of a surprise.
I sent Jaxon into the kitchen, while I crouched on the floor to wait for whoever was trying to attack my home. I could feel my heart beating with the rapid anticipation that I usually got with a gun in my hands. I guess my time off had come to a sudden halt.
"This had to be the night that I forget to set the alarm system," I berated myself. I never forgot to set the alarm. There was a buoy a mile out, bobbing in the ocean that was made especially for situations like this. It should have alerted me to any boat that came near this island.
I stopped my thoughts to just listen and heard footsteps in the sand. There were six sets, just like Jaxon said. My inhuman senses could pick up the heaviness of each man and the sound of their guns clicking together. I didn't know who they were or what kind of breed these men came from, but I could tell they wouldn't go down easily.
Something slid across the floor and hit me in the knee. It was a small pocketknife that I had given Jaxon for his seventeenth birthday. He gave me a thumbs-up before slinking back around the corner. I kept the knife close to me for safekeeping.
The locks on the door began to jiggle and I crossed myself twice just as it banged open. I stayed in my spot behind the sofa, barely breathing. I wanted to know what they were all about. Silence was golden in my situation.
"Where are they?" a gruff voice asked.
"I saw movement. They're here." another replied.
"How many are we supposed to take care of?"
"Three. He said there were three."
"Why are we even here?"
"Because the pay is good. Stop complaining and find them."
Jaxon was the first one to shoot, and the sound of hasty bullets suddenly erupted around me. I kept my head low and just opened fire in the general direction where I heard the most commotion. I realized that my house was probably going to be destroyed.
There were approaching footsteps of a man, and I judged his distance from my hiding place. When he was close enough, I stood up and prepared to unload a full clip of lead into his chest. He was in full military gear, complete with a helmet, bulletproof vest, and a thick jacket to cover his body.
That left two main targets for maximum penetration: the face and the groin. I didn't even give him a chance to prepare himself before I fired everything the powerful weapon had. His body jerked violently as his blood splattered the white curtains behind him.
I didn't have time to savor the feeling of a fresh kill before I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and reacted immediately, firing everything the gun had. He was on the ground, but still wiggling in despair. I kicked off his helmet so that I could see his face and then took the knife, plunging it deep into the soft flesh of his neck. I ripped it out and a fountain of blood sprang up as he took his last breath.
The family room was quiet with three bodies on the floor around me. The lights were still out, and the walls were littered with bullet holes. The smell of new blood seeped into the carpet and I could almost feel the spooky ghosts of the fallen in the air.
Quick and easy kills. Three down.
I treaded lightly and quietly, keeping to the shadows. There wasn't any noise, but that only made me feel more alert. I took each step deliberately and listened with waiting ears.
I distinguished Jaxon's footsteps from down the hall. I whistled a high-pitched noise, and he whistled back, our cue to put the guns down.
"What the hell was that?" He came around the corner with an angry face. "You didn't even give me a chance to pick them off."
"You started shooting first. I thought it was time to start the firing squad."
"You planned that badly. No warning, no game plan. It was messy." He huffed, "I only got two."
"I took three. That means there's one left." I repositioned my gun. "Did he go outside?"
Before Jaxon answered there was a loud pop from upstairs, and it took me a second to remember that Jaxon and I weren't the only ones in the house.
I climbed the stairs three at a time and had my gun ready to kill.
The first thing I noticed when I rounded the corner into the upstairs hallway was that my bedroom door was busted clean through. The wood looked like it had barely survived a stampede. It was splintered off in all directions and what little piece that was left, was hanging off the hinges.
I rushed into the room and saw a guy on our bed, clutching his shoulder, his blood staining the sheets red. He wasn't dead, but looked not very far from it.
Maddie held a small gun in her slightly shaking hands. There was a stone cold look one her face, and a deep scratch on her cheek. It was almost as if someone had tried to swipe her with a knife or some animal had clawed at her.
"You fucking bitch," the man groaned, rolling over the bed like he was gasping for air.
I took the butt of my Eagle and smashed him in the forehead. He yelped in pain and muttered indistinguishably as his eyes rolled closed.
"Jesus Christ, Maddie." Jaxon looked around the room, which was disheveled and in complete tatters. Everything was broken or split in two.
"Did he do that?" I cupped her cheek, which was starting to bleed. The gash wasn't deep, but it looked painful. "What did he do to you?" I asked, my voice strained from the anger that was coursing through my veins.
She nodded and handed me the gun she was holding. "I'm fine. He... just started banging on the door and I shot him."
"Are you okay? What did he do?"
"Nothing. He chased me around and tried to grab me." Maddie sighed, pulling up the ripped portion of her shirt that was falling down. She collapsed tiredly in a chair in the corner. "He was a jackass."
I noticed holes in the walls that could only be made by bullets.
"Did he fucking shoot at you?" I yelled.
"I think so. I shot at him first, though." She shrugged, "I know him."
"You know him?"
"Well, he came into the bar last week. He had a gun, but I didn't think anything of it."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was more worried about your bloodied, cut up hand. Besides, it's not the first time some guy with a gun has come into the bar. He said his name was Ben."
"You sure did a number on him." Jaxon tried to roll the guy over. He was breathing harshly, and judging by the amount of blood loss on the bed, he didn't have much longer to live. "One shot through the shoulder and one in the stomach. Good job, Maddie."
She smiled wryly and slumped deeper into the chair. It was the first time Maddie had shot a real person. I trained her with cadavers so that she would know how it felt to put a bullet through an authentic body, but she'd never come close to actually doing it.
I knelt down in front of her, pulling the guns off of my body. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine." She nodded, trying to be strong. "What happened downstairs? Did you get hit or something?"
"No, of course not."
Maddie got up from the chair and lightly climbed over the rubbish in our room. She went into the bathroom and came back with a washcloth and a Band-Aid.
"What the hell is going on, Justin?" she asked and wiped the wet cloth over her face. "I don't like this."
"I don't know, Maddie. Are you sure you're okay?"
"If you ask me that one more time, I'll shoot you." She scowled. "I'm fine."
Maddie's face and actions were saying something totally different from her words. She was almost shaking. Her feet brought her towards me, and I wrapped my arms around her when she rested her head on my chest.
"Were you scared?" I asked.
"It was just happening so fast and I was trying not to think about what was happening downstairs."
"Maddie, it's okay. You did exactly what I told you to do," I assured her. "You did nothing wrong."
She nodded. "I know."
"Good."
"If we want any info out of this bastard, we might need to work fast. He's slipping," Jaxon said.
"Alright, let's get him outside." I kissed the top of her head and made sure that she could stand up straight on her own. I then went to help Jaxon lift the guy up.
Maddie moved stuff out of the way as Jaxon and I dragged him off of the bed. His blood created a trail behind us as we pulled him through the house, and I had to kick dead bodies of the way as I stumbled out of the door.
"This is so fucked up." Jaxon strained as he lifted the guy up higher by the arms. "We were attacked."
"We were invaded," Maddie said, following behind us.
"Like on the beaches of Normandy. I just watched a documentary on it the other day," Jaxon replied. "This is another world war."
"This whole situation is bullshit." I dropped the body behind the house. The sun was about to come up, and the morning birds were starting to chirp happily.
Jaxon rushed off to get the things we needed. He knew the drill by now and didn't waste any time. He brought back a rickety old chair and a thick rope that we usually tied the boats up in.
I started to strip the guy out of his clothes. He would mumble something incoherent every couple of seconds. I searched through all his pockets, searching for any form of identification. I found a small black book and handed it to Maddie. "See if there's anything useful in there."
"What are you going to do to him?" she asked and flipped through the pages.
"Eventually kill him," I answered truthfully.
"He has our names."
"Which names?" I ripped the bulletproof jacket off of the man, who was still alive and starting to wake up. His blood was coating my hands, but I kept digger deeper, trying to find more information.
"Our real names and pictures. They look like they were taken from far away. We're on the beach."
What the fuck?
"Who is this guy?" Maddie asked.
"I don't know. His uniform isn't anything I recognize." I was trying to stay as calm as possible, to appear like I had this situation under control. In reality, this wasn't looking good at all.
"Let's kill him now," Jaxon exhaled, cracking his neck.
I shook my head.
I got the man down to his boxers. He had nothing else on him, but according to Maddie his name was Ben. Jaxon and I put him in the chair, tying him up tightly with the rope. He was tottering on his ass, like he was drunk.
"Is he dead yet?" Maddie whispered to me.
"No, he's still alive." I tapped the man on the head. "Wake up!"
He grunted and gurgled something that I couldn't understand, so I tapped him again. This time his eyes shot open, and his face twisted in pain.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" I asked. I had almost no patience to deal with this man, so if he didn't answer my questions, he was going to die quicker than he already was.
"Where the hell are my clothes?" He wheezed and coughed. "Where are my men?"
"Who are you?" I asked again.
"I... I don't know."
"Yes you do." Maddie slapped the shit out of him, "You came into the bar last week. I made you a fucking drink." She slapped him harder this time.
"Maddie," I picked her up and set her back down away from Ben, "You can't kill him yet."
"He's a liar."
"Of course he is. It's an act. Let me handle this."
She scowled, but nodded.
Ben screeched to the high heavens, screaming for any help that was out there. Maddie cringed next to me, and Jaxon shuddered in annoyance. I let the man scream.
"No one's going to hear you," I said after he was finally out of breath. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" He choked and turned his head away. He tried to get loose from his bindings, struggling to break free.
"Maddie, can you go to the beach, please, and wait there?" I asked, but it definitely wasn't a question. "Don't go inside of the house and fire a gun if anyone else comes." I handed her the pistol I was carrying.
She debated for a second, biting her lip in typical Maddie fashion. She nodded silently and ran out of the forests, on the path back towards the beach.
"I'm not going to ask you again." I tried to calm myself down. "Tell me who you are and why you're here."
The man still didn't say anything. He was dying anyway, so maybe he just didn't care.
I took the same small dagger from Jaxon and didn't hesitate as I placed the tip on the guy's bare chest. The blood from his shoulder was dripping down and I guessed I only had about ten more minutes before he passed out again.
I dug the point of the knife into his skin, carving a large 'J' into his muscle. It was just deep enough to cause a considerable amount of pain, which was apparent on his face.
This man was definitely going to remember my name before he died.
"If you tell me what you're doing here, I might just spare you," I lied, dragging the knife over his skin again, creating the beginning line of a 'U'.
"I get paid to kill," he said through his clenched teeth.
"An assassin?" Jaxon asked from behind me.
"No, he's a mercenary," I replied. I could spot a hired killer from a mile away. This man was trained militarily. "Who do you work for?" I questioned, completing the 'U' and moving onto the 'S'.
"A company based in Texas." He was shaking and sweating profusely as my knife carved into his flesh. "We get paid to kill, but we don't know why or who. We don't ask questions."
"Who paid you?" The 'T' was now complete, and I decided to give the guy a break so he could breathe.
"My boss, but I don't know who put the hit out on you. I just get a call and get on the plane."
"And how did you find us?" Jaxon asked.
"They gave us the location. We don't get to ask questions," he garbled.
I realized that we weren't going to get any more information out of him because his speech was slurring and his eyes were fluttering closed. He had done well so far, but now that I had begun to write my name on this man's chest, I wanted to finish. He had tried to hurt my family. He actually put his hands on Maddie. That was unacceptable. I wanted to see if he could last the carving of his body.
By the time I had finished the 'N', he was dead and his head limped forward as his body stilled. He was covered in grime, dirt, sweat, and sticky blood. I didn't care about his real name or if he had a family or how old he was. None of that mattered.
"We're being hunted," I exhaled in defeat. Our time on this island was quickly coming to a close.
"Who the fuck knows we're here and why are they trying to kill us?"
"It could be anyone." I had a list of about fifty people in my head that had the resources for something like this. Hell, this invasion was something I might try later if I ever got the chance. "We need to leave. If they can find us then so can anyone else."
"Where are we going to go?"
"I don't know." I stood up and started to make the walk back to the house.
Maddie was sitting on the beach, just like I asked her, as the sun came up over the ocean. Jaxon went inside. I sat next to her and just watched the view.
"What did he have to say?" she asked.
"They were hired to kill us. He doesn't know who, but someone knows we're here and wants us dead."
"So soon?"
"Yeah."
"Okay then, where are we going now?"
"I'm not sure. Give me a couple hours to think about it." I turned towards her. "You know I would never let anything happen to you, right?"
She nodded. "Of course."
"I never want something like that to catch us off guard again." I put my arm over her shoulders. "If you want... you can go home, back to Seattle or wherever. Jaxon and I..."
"No, no, no," she interrupted with an almost angry voice. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying with you."
I let out a relieved sigh. I hated that Maddie was in the middle of this and on several occasions, I tried to convince her to go home and have a normal life with some other man that could give her what she needed. That was the worst kind of pain imaginable. I could suffer through almost anything, but to see her leave would almost be unbearable. But I guess I'd let her. Maybe? Possibly?
"Wherever you go, I go." She melded her lips to mine softly, tenderly; eagerly. I had no choice but to comply.
"I hate to break up the love fest, but we need to clean up and make plans," Jaxon's voice said, interrupting us.
I broke away from Maddie reluctantly and touched the Band-Aid on her face. She smiled tightly and got up from the sand, pulling me with her.
The cleanup was always the messiest job of any operation, no matter which side you were on. Jaxon and I spent the first early hours of the morning digging deep holes behind the house. We made two of them. We then gathered all the bodies together and stripped them down, leaving them in nothing. We checked the pockets for something, anything. They were mysteries to us, so we treated them like nothing more than cattle.
We threw their clothes into one hole and I dowsed them in kerosene, throwing a match into the pit. Jaxon kept the smoke from ascending too high into the air. We didn't need anyone else knowing we were on this island.
Once the clothes were nothing more than ashes, I started covering the hole up.
Jaxon and I then tipped each of the bodies into the second ditch. They were all heavy men who had scars over their skin, showing their experiences in the field; probably ex-marines or Navy Seals.
We executed the same procedure with the bodies, burning them and tending to the smoke. It took a lot longer to get the bones and melting flesh down to gray ash. Again, we covered the hole with dirt.
Before either of us could say anything, Maddie ran up next to me, out of breath and sweating.
"What's wrong?" I asked her impatiently.
"The phone's ringing. The house phone," she panted.
We looked at each other in confusion. First off, we had a house phone, but no one dared use it. The thing was already installed when I got here. Second, I was surprised it hadn't been massacred in the shootout like everything else in the house.
Maddie took my hand and started running back towards the house. Jaxon followed us. We got there a couple minutes later and like she said, the phone was ringing shrilly.
It was on the counter, vibrating angrily as if to say, 'Pick me the fuck up!'
I sat on one of the stools that hadn't been demolished.
"What do we do?" Jaxon asked.
"Pick it up?" Maddie suggested. "Who could it be?"
"I don't know. No one has this number. I don't even know it."
This was insanely strange. We get attacked and now the phone that no one uses starts ringing. I hadn't even had time to sort this shit out yet. I needed just five minutes alone to myself to get my brain back into fighting mood.
The phone stopped for a second, but started ringing again without a break.
"Let me talk. Don't say a word," I told the both of them.
I took a deep breath and pressed the speakerphone button.
"Hello?" I asked, not letting myself falter.
"Justin? Thank God." Jeremy's voice was relieved and anxious at the same time.
"Dad?" I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What the hell are you doing calling this number?"
"I had to check. Are you alright?"
"Yeah... What..." I showed rare signs of speechlessness.
"Are Maddie and Jaxon there? Are they alright?"
"They're fine. I sent them outside." I lied. He didn't need to know that they were next to me. He would alert what he was going to say if he knew they were close, "Why are you calling?"
"We were attacked last night. A whole group of guys were at the house with guns and whatever the hell else they brought with them. It was ridiculous. One of them spilled after some persuasion. He said they had some men going to Brazil to..."
"It was an ambush from all fucking sides!" I slammed my fist down on the table. "Was anyone hurt?"
"No, we're all okay thankfully, but I was worried about you guys. I was two seconds away from getting on a plane."
"What the hell kind of show are you running up there? What the fuck is going on?" I demanded an answer.
"Justin, we don't have time to argue about this..."
"Who knows we're here? Did you tell anyone?"
"Of course I didn't. Do you think I would put my family in jeopardy like that?"
"Well, I'm not so sure now."
"Justin, stop it! No one knows and this is the hardest secret I've ever had to keep in my life, but I did it to protect you. Stop accusing me of things you know nothing about."
I pulled at my hair in frustration. Maddie's hand ran over my back to comfort me, but it did little this time. Jaxon was itching to say something, but stayed silent on my command.
"We're leaving soon, possibly tonight," I told him.
"I'm already making arrangements."
"I don't know where we're going, but we have to move fast."
"You're going to Rome. The plane will pick you up tomorrow morning."
"Rome?" I lifted my head in confusion. "Why the fuck are we going to Rome?"
"Because... we weren't the only ones ambushed. Your grandfather was killed last night, Justin. I need you to come to the funeral."
Once again, I was dumfounded at the turn of events. Was he serious? Could this really be happening? We were talking about the same man? Nicola Rossini? No, it couldn't be.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice was raspy and sore.
"I don't know all the details. Whoever is behind this organized it quite well. We were all attacked around the same time. I got the call that he didn't make it. We're having a funeral next week and you have to be there. You all have to be there."
"We're not going. We can't go to that."
"Justin, it's time to come home, back to Chicago."
I knew he was going to say that. I knew it.
"I'll take care of everything, but... I need you here. There are too many things working against us right now and I need to present a united front for the family."
"What family?" I spat. "Don't pretend like..."
"Justin, I don't have time to argue with you anymore. You're coming home. I'm glad you're all safe, but this has gone on far enough. I can't keep you hidden any longer. If Maddie would like to come then I can make arraignments for her as well, but you need to tell her that she's in no way bound to you. Make it clear that she is free to leave whenever she chooses."
Maddie shook her head vehemently with tight lips.
"So, we're just going to pack up and walk into the states like we're normal people?"
"I'm handling it," he replied cryptically. "I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but you and Jaxon will be here for the family."
"Is that an order?"
"Yes. It's time to come home."