Deep Waters

Chapter Sixty

Such a long chapter...

A sob escaped my throat. We all knew this had been coming, but in that moment when it was real, it was so much harder than I had ever imagined. Before I could even comprehend or come up with what I planned on doing next, Kason had already acted. Within seconds, he picked up the baseball bat Jayden had once held and swung at Charles. My father's eyes had been on me crying, so, fortunately, my boyfriend got in a pretty good hit on Charles' head. Before he could do anything else, Sam grabbed his shoulders and slammed his head against the wall.

I was still sitting on the floor, as I watched the scene unfold. Charles was cradling his own head, looking to be in a daze, while Sam swung punches at my boyfriend who also seemed out of focus. Sam only got a few in when Kason's fighter instincts kicked in. Suddenly, Kason was on top of Sam, punching harder than I had ever seen him hit. I looked back at my father who was already looking at me. His eyes darted from me to the bat laying on the floor. "No!" I yelled, pushing off with my legs and diving toward the weapon, already knowing what he was going to do with it.

Charles was closer and got there before I did. Before I could stop it, he pulled back and swung hard at Kason's head. The boy fell to the side, off of Sam, where he rested unmoving. He was out cold, but hopefully alive. "Kason?" I yelled, scrambling to my feet and racing to his side. "Kason!" He was unresponsive as I dropped beside him, tugging at his shoulders and chin. My heart was pounding louder than ever before as tears kept falling down my cheeks. I pressed my fingers against his skin, checking for a pulse while I placed my ear over his chest. His heart was beating. Slow, but it was beating. A chunk of the pain in my chest eased.

"Man, he's got a good punch," Sam chuckled behind me. I positioned myself between Kason and the wall, where I could see the two antagonists in front of me, but where I could hold onto my boyfriend. Sam rolled over onto his stomach and spit blood onto the floor under him. With a little bit of a struggle, he pushed himself onto his feet, while I grabbed Kason's head and gently rested it on my lap.

I ignored the muffled words exchanged between Sam and Charles. Cradling Kason's head in my arm, I placed my hand against the backside of his scalp where his wound was bleeding. What if Jay died for Kason, just for Kason to die anyway? I couldn't handle this. I couldn't lose them both. Leaning down quickly, I placed a long kiss on Kason's lips. "Don't leave me, Baby. Hang in there...please," I whispered.

"Delilah," Charles spoke up, making my head jerk up in his direction. "We can still fix this."

"Fix this?" I repeated, wondering if I had heard him correctly. "What do you mean? This is way beyond fixing!" I screamed at him, not caring how defeated I looked with my streaming tears and tight grip on my barely breathing boyfriend. I was an angry crier and I hated it. It was embarrassing.

"I want you to call Daniel," he instructed me, his tone calm. The side of his head above his ear was bleeding, but he wasn't paying attention to it anymore. Why could he be okay, but Kason wasn't? It wasn't fair. "And I want you to make a deal with him."

I sniffled, choking back a sob, wondering where in the world he was going with this. Why couldn't we just end this now? "What kind of deal?" I looked between him and Sam, but Sam looked almost just as intrigued at me.

"I want you to convince him to let me go. I want to seem innocent," he told me. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life running."

I laughed bitterly at his idea and words. "You threw your innocence out of the window the day you murdered my mother," I spat.

"I'm serious, Delilah."

I stared at him, my glare hard and piercing. "Me too." He didn't say anything in return, only clenched his jaw. Samuel just looked at me, crossing his arms over his chest, clearly curious as to how I was going to handle this. "Why, Charles?" I finally asked. "Gavin and I spent two years of our lives running...you realize now that isn't fun, don't you?" I grinned. "Don't like it when the roles are reversed, huh? Have fun with that."