Under the Stars

“I’m not getting pulled into this,” Eddie says. “I’m only doing it because… I feel bad about what happened.”

Lara’s posture relaxes slightly. “I don’t remember you being there.” Her voice is soft. “You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

Eddie sits forward, becoming more animated. “That’s what I said! It was only supposed to slip. It wasn’t supposed to break. It was only supposed to ruin your act… Which I guess it did.”

A knot tightens in my throat, and my vision darkens. Is this fucker saying what I think he’s saying?

“What are you talking about?” My tone is low, edgy.

“The pulley. You didn’t know… about that?”

I’m on him before he can even finish speaking. I jerk him off the couch by the neck and throw him across the room. He lands with an Oof! and I close the gap fast, giving him a swift kick to the stomach.

“Mark!” Terrence chases me, but he can’t stop me. I drop to my knee, gripping the front of Eddie’s shirt, hauling him up and slamming him against the floor again.

“Stop! Mark, stop!” Terrence has me around the chest, but my fist is flying.

I slam it into Eddie’s nose, and the satisfying crunch of bone echoes up my arm.

“No!” Eddie howls, but I land another punch to his mouth before Terrence throws the entire weight of his body against me, knocking me off the bastard.

“You could have killed her!” My voice is savage, and Terrence struggles to hold me back. “If I hadn’t been there—”

“Stop, Mark. He’s got information about Landry!” Terrence wrestles me to the other side of the couch, but I’m breathing hard, my eyes burning with rage, adrenaline racing through my body.

Lara sits slowly in a chair, her expression stunned. “You caused the accident? The first night I was on the swing?”

Eddie rolls onto his stomach, still on the floor. “I’m sorry,” he moans. Brown-red stains smear his nose and mouth, and he shakes his head as if trying to wake up. “It was for Vanessa.” Strings of spit and blood dribble from his open mouth onto his arm as he speaks. “She wanted to take your place.”

I lunge against Terrence, but he holds me, bracing his foot against the chair. “You’d better say what you know about Landry now.”

The fucker on the floor shakes his head again. “I caught him transferring computer files, bragging about a secret Internet he had. I didn’t understand, but he said everything was there. They put everything on it.”

Lara’s eyes meet mine. “What does it mean? A secret Internet?”

She’s confused, but I’m not.

My voice is like sandpaper, and I’m barely holding it together. All I can see is Lara’s body plummeting to the floor, the horrible purple bruise around her waist from where the belt almost cut her in half… I’m not even counting my shredded palms from grabbing the rope to catch her. I’m ready to kill this guy, but I force myself to find control. What he’s saying is important.

“Was it on a server or in the cloud?” I snarl.

“Neither.” Eddie shakes his head again. “He said it was somewhere else. A secret internet.”

He keeps repeating the same phrase, and I know it’s because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Terrence looks at me, and I shrug, pretending like I don’t know.

Only I do know. I know very well what he’s talking about.

“Come on, Lara.” I go to her and pull her up and into my arms. “We better go before I kill this guy.”

Terrence follows us down the stairs to the front door. “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know he was behind that accident.”

“It’s okay.” I clap his shoulder. “Thanks for digging him up.”

“I hope he told you something you can use. I thought it might be more than that.”

Nodding, I put my hand on Lara’s waist and guide her out to the sidewalk. “I think I can figure out what he means. Thanks, T.”

Terrence nods and disappears into the apartment again. Lara looks up at me, a mixture of relief and disappointment on her face.