Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

“I just wish I could do more.”

She scoffed a disbelieving sound. “This is major, Maggie. More than anyone would ask of you.”

“You know there’s no way I could leave that money sitting there. It’s not right.”

“Just…be safe, okay?” she whispered.

“I will.”

“I’ll let Kade know it needs to happen next week. I’ll text you the details as soon as I have them.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye.”

I ended the call, and my arm dropped with my phone to my lap. I stared out the windshield.

Gathering myself.

Refusing the paranoia that lifted the fine hairs at the nape of my neck.

I blew out a sigh and flung open the door, grabbing my purse and rushing into the store. I grabbed the diapers, paid, and was rushing back out less than five minutes later. I moved right for the car, my hand on the doorlatch.

I guessed I’d been too focused on getting in and out quickly that I hadn’t slowed down long enough to listen to what was really happening around me.

To allow myself to process it.

No time to sense the vileness in the air.

The evil.

The greed.

It hit me so fast it nearly dropped me to my knees.

Terror raced my spine.

Wild and suffocating.

Trying to breathe around it, I fumbled to get the door open. To hurry. To get away. Praying all the while that I really was being paranoid, and somehow knowing this was real.

It’d barely unlatched when I felt the presence emerge from behind me, trapping me against the metal before I could swing it open and get inside.

A scream warbled in my throat, but the sharp blade of a knife against my throat froze everything. My knees wobbled when the disgusting voice seethed its venom against my ear, “It’s about to end, and there is no place you can run.”

Then his arm swiped away, and I rocked forward.

Shocked.

Confused.

His footsteps disappeared behind me, taken by the wind, while I tried to remain standing.

My world spinning from the disturbance.

Unable to believe that my mother would actually take it to this extreme. The threat of her words manifesting to the physical.

That confusion only took new shape when I registered the pain across my chest. When I gasped and stumbled back to see the blood that seeped into my shirt.

Dizziness whooshed. Horror raced.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

The diapers slipped from my hold, and I clutched the fabric like it would take it away while I blinked and tried to process what had happened.

Then I stumbled to the side, the world spinning faster and faster.

I hardly made out the shouts and screams coming from a woman. A woman who had been across the lot and came running toward me in the same second that I pitched to the side and tumbled for the pitted, hard ground.

A second before I made contact, I was swallowed by the darkness.

Twenty-Five

Rhys

“Giddy-up, horsey!” Daisy knocked her heels into my flank, and her little arms were wrapped tight around my neck where I had her slung on my back.

I whinnied like the showman I was because obviously the kid was in need of a little entertainment. I reared back, making her clamor and squeal with all that sweet joy and hold on tighter.

Securing her by the legs, I galloped down the cavernous hall of the second floor.

Her laughter spurred me on.

My mangled heart got all twisted in her fist. Same way as it was threatenin’ to get twisted up in Maggie.

Maggie, that girl who’d wrecked me last night.

Girl who was way too good to be givin’ herself to the likes of me.

But fuck.

I wanted to take her, anyway. Get lost in that sweet body and those soulful eyes and the kindness of her heart.

This girl who could make me question everything.

My chest tightened in hope and fear. The terror of doing it again.

Ruinin’ another life.

Daisy jerked her arms to the left like my neck were her reins.

“Down the stairs because we gots to eat!” she shouted, cracking up when I took a sharp turn like I’d almost missed it and sent her bouncing all over the place as I bucked and bounded like a wild animal downstairs.

“You is the craziest horse in all the land.” It came out in little choked giggles since she was gettin’ jostled like a ragdoll.

“Stallion, little Miss Daisy.”

She giggled harder, but then I was slowing and slipping to a stop when I saw Royce’s expression where he stood just outside the hallway.

Like he’d gotten frozen to the spot with his phone pressed to his ear.

My insides clutched with the way the color drained from his face and his entire being rocked like he’d been slammed by a boulder. “What? Okay… Okay… Yes… I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

Daisy jerked at my neck and kicked me in the sides while I tried not to drop to my knees.

Because I just knew.