“Ava, baby. I don't have much time. Listen to me. Run and get as far away from here as you can and never come back. Go and do anything and everything you might have wanted to do. Live baby, live for me and Mason.”
A sob escaped my throat. I had looked back once at Mason and couldn't make myself look again. He was gone, it was obvious in the way his head laid. His sweet blue eyes had been open and staring sightlessly. My son was gone, and I couldn't think of it right now. Brian had a tree limb sticking through his abdomen and blood was pouring out. I had lost Mason and was losing Brian. I was struggling with reality; my brain was trying to shut down. All I wanted to do was deny to myself what I was seeing, if I did that long enough, maybe it would be true.
“Ava,” Brian whispered out on a gasp. “I love you, baby. I'm sorry.”
While Brian had been speaking to me, I’d heard a commotion coming down the hillside. I was going to tell him to hold on, help was coming, but I never got the chance. With those words, he was gone. Taken from me like my son had been taken from me. I couldn't think about it right now. I refused to. I took one last look at Brian and turned my head.
Part of me prayed whoever was coming down the hill was the person who ran us off the road, checking to make sure we were all dead. They could kill me, and I wouldn't have to deal with the horror and pain I knew that was waiting for me. Another part of me hoped it was someone who could help me, so that one day, I could take out those that had taken so much from me. My husband and son deserved that much. So, did I.
“I know this isn't what you wanted, Bri. You didn't want me to come back. But I had to. For me, for my sanity. I need to know that he pays with his life. I hope you can forgive me for this. I love you, Brian. Always.”
Most of me wanted to die with them that day, but an angel of mercy in the form of a biker saved me. I had been in and out of it as he and several others got me out of the wreckage of the car. I'll never forget his bearded face, icy silver-colored eyes and his bald head. I followed his face with every movement he made. Even bent over looking at me, I could tell he was a huge man, not fat, but muscled and solid, and something inside me told me he was my lifeline. That he would keep me safe.
He talked to me the whole time. Telling me to hold on, that he would get me out and for me not to give up. After they managed to get the passenger side door opened, he unbuckled the seat belt and gently put one arm under my legs and another behind my back and lifted me out of the wreckage. He had already checked me over to make sure nothing was broken or that I wasn't impaled with anything. Then he struggled up the hillside with me, and when others asked him if he needed help, he kept telling them that he had me. He held me against his chest until the ambulance came to take me away.
As he laid me on the gurney, I reached up and touched his face with my fingers and whispered, “Thank you.” I never saw him again. Now I had hopes to. Because, I was back for vengeance against the man who had stolen the lives of my husband and son from me. And some gut instinct told me he would be the man who could help me out.
Now, I had to figure out how to find him. Then make sure he was trustworthy and that he could indeed help me murder the man who had ended my life as I had known it. He was a biker, that's pretty much all I knew about him. That and I had seen the back of one of the men’s cuts. I was hoping the vague memory I had of the emblem in the center of the club’s colors would help me find him.
I knelt down and brushed my fingers across Mason's name on his gravestone. My sweet boy. God, how I missed him. He had been such a good baby and toddler. His nature was sweet and sunny. He rarely cried, instead, he ran around either smiling or laughing. He had fine light blonde hair and big baby blue eyes. And his smile, oh god when he smiled, it had this impish look to it. I missed his smile so much. I would give anything to see it again.
“Mason, Mommy's sorry she hasn't come to visit you before now. Mommy had to go away and try to learn to live again. But Mommy isn't going away again, sweet boy. The only way Mommy will go away now is if she comes to be with you and Daddy in Heaven.”
I'll never forget the moments leading up to our car ride as Mason ran towards me.
“Mommy, Mommy! Me has something for you,” Mason hollered to me as he ran across the yard holding a handful of buttercups.
I knelt down and waited for him to get to me.
“Oh, Mason. They're beautiful, baby boy. I love them.”
“I give to Mommy.” He then proceeded
