Catch Me When I Fall (Falling Stars 2)

He searched my face.

Rage banged against my ribs. I tamped it down. “Shit goes down in Hollywood all the time, Ramsey. Sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Isn’t that what they say?”

Wasn’t sure I could give him anything. He couldn’t be trusted if he was involved in anything with Cory Douglas.

His lips pursed in remorse. “Yeah, well, I stumbled into that bullshit on accident, Royce. Not sure what you know, but I need you to understand I never wanted to get mixed up in it. Tryin’ to get out. Make sure this band remains unscathed. Just . . . can you find out what she knows? How involved she is? Need to make sure she’s safe.”

“Maybe you should actually talk to your sister.”

“Have tried a thousand times, man. She shuts me down. Tells me she’s fine. Know she’s putting on a front, and I don’t know how to help her if she won’t let me see. Need to make sure she’s good. I can’t risk her.”

My own guilt pulsed. “Like I told you, the last thing I want is to see her hurt.”

He stepped back, pinned me to the spot with a hard gaze. “Then don’t let her.”

“I only want to do what is best for her.”

“You gonna tell her who you are? What your history is?”

If only he knew the half of it.

Trying to hold it together, I attempted to scrape the misery from my voice. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“You care about my sister? Then uncomplicate it.”

“Life’s not always that cut and dry.”

He staked his fingers through his hair, looking to the ground before looking back up at me. “No. But when we care about someone? We give all we have. All it takes. No matter the cost.”

With that, he left me standing there without the chance to respond. Like I’d have a good response, anyway. Like I could change any of this. Go back and erase it and be something better.

Huffing out a breath, I finished drying off and dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a tee. No sign of another clean-cut suit.

Guessed my life really was coming to a head.

Finally, I forced myself out into the dimly lit hall. Most of the lights in the house had been cut, everything silent and stilled, like all the spirits locked up behind closed bedroom doors were being held hostage by the uneasy buzz that remained in the atmosphere.

I started for the guest room at the end of the hall.

I made it halfway past Emily’s door before I fumbled to a stop.

Held.

Tugged back by the need to go to her.

To touch her face and whisper her name.

Muted light glowed from under her door, like her soul was spilled across the floor.

I looked to the empty guest room at the end of the hall, trying to convince myself to take the fifteen steps to get there.

But no.

There I was—rapping my knuckles lightly at the wood that separated us, my forehead pressed to it, sure she could feel me the exact same way I felt her.

Pulled.

Drawn.

Hooked.

Movement stirred from the other side, and the door creaked open an inch.

One of those green eyes peered out through the crack, soft and sad and eager.

Like she had been expecting me.

Waiting for me.

“Royce.” My name sounded like honey on her tongue.

Need twisted in my guts.

Delirium.

Lust.

“Hey,” I grunted low, looking away before I dragged my gaze back to the one who had the power to change everything. “Wanted to check on you.”

Those eyes moved over me as she edged the door open farther.

I got hit with a wave of her.

A swell that nearly knocked me off my feet. Cherries and the sky and all things good. She’d showered and changed, that hair tied loosely on her head, wearing black sleep shorts and a draping cream-colored sweatshirt that hung off one shoulder, that delicate flesh glowing like moonshine.

“You wanted to check on me?” she whispered so low, with so much disbelief that I felt my heart clutch, my spirit trying to prepare itself for the rejection. For the moment when this girl finally realized that I was no good.

Her teeth raked at her bottom lip, and her chest heaved before her hand was coming out to lightly brush across the small cut on my cheek. “Look at you. I can’t believe you got yourself in the middle of that for me.”

Could feel my face pinch up in my own disbelief. “I’d do it a million times over if it meant protecting you. The only thing I regret is that you had to witness it. That I lost control like that in front of you.”

Her head shook. “That was on him, Royce. He was the instigator of hate. Of violence. You were just protectin’ me. Why’s it feel like that’s what you have to keep doing?”

“Maybe that’s what I’m meant to do.”