Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

Could feel it like the cuttin’ away of flesh.

Still, I forced out, “What is it?”

Royce blinked through his shock. “Maggie was attacked.”

Didn’t matter that I’d already known that somethin’ was bad. Agony ripped through me. Razor-sharp talons. Clawing me into pieces. “What?”

He blinked again before the fury overtook the shock he’d been hit with. “Fuck. Fuck.” He ripped at his hair, and he moved for the little high wall table that was littered with everyone’s keys and shit. He dug through the little dish.

“Shit. She has the car. She went to the store. She was just supposed to be going to the store.” He rumbled the words under his breath, the guy tryin’ not to lose his mind.

Wasn’t so sure that I was doing such a bang-up job of not losin’ mine. I eased Daisy down my back and onto her feet and shoved my hand into my pocket. “I’ll drive. Where is she?”

Tried to keep the trembling out of the words. But I was pretty sure they were jagged. As jagged as this horror that crawled through my being. Laying siege. Devastating.

This girl.

This girl.

My Sweet, Sweet Thing.

I swallowed around the ball of broken glass that had gathered at the base of my throat.

Royce choked out a breath that might have been a sob. “Ambulance took her to Memorial in Savannah.”

My knees rocked.

Every muscle in my body went weak.

I scrubbed an anxious palm over my face.

Didn’t think I could take it if…

Couldn’t even think it.

Process it.

She had to be okay. She had to be.

Daisy wrapped her arms around one of my legs. Just hanging on. The child not immune to the instant apprehension that curled through the air.

Emily came rushing down the stairs. “What happened?”

“Maggie was assaulted.” Royce’s words were clogged.

Emily gasped and she started to rush faster. “Oh my god. Is she okay? What happened?”

“Don’t know. Need to get there.”

Dread fired like a shotgun through my senses.

Scattering and ripping and tearing through my psyche.

Suddenly so much of it makin’ sense.

The inclination I’d had that something was up, which I’d chalked up to family shit, but it was becoming clear it was so much bigger than I’d given credence to.

Fact she’d been acting so sketchy when she’d told her brother she’d fallen.

Her answer to my question when I’d confronted her on it.

“Have you ever been willing to do something right for someone else, so desperately, that you were willing to risk it all? Whatever the cost?”

Fear pumped into my bloodstream.

What was she involved in?

Why would she put herself in this position?

Fuck. Why hadn’t she confided it in me? Trusted me to hold it? What if it was too late?

Sickness tumbled in my guts.

Royce hugged his wife fiercely when she hit the landing. Emily’s expression was nothing but the panic and desperation I was feeling. “Okay. Let me know as soon as you know anything.”

“I will.”

He started to walk, and she grabbed him by the hand, gave it a squeeze as he looked back at her. “Love you.”

“Love you. So much.” He shifted to look at me. “Let’s go.”

I ran my fingers through Daisy’s hair, hoping it might comfort her since I could feel the anxiety oozing from her. She just squeezed tighter. “Please tell my auntie Maggie to be okay, and that she’s gots all the amors, and I need to give her more.”

I could barely nod. “She’ll be okay. She’ll be okay.”

I refused to believe anything else.

A second later, I was out the door and runnin’ to my car. Royce and I were both inside and on the road in less than a blink.

Problem was, that’s all it took for a tragedy.

A blink.

One second the world was at your feet and the next it was crumbling around you.

I knew it firsthand.

I blazed through town as carefully as I could, and then we were flying when I hit the highway that led between the island and Savannah.

That lump in my throat was so thick I kept strugglin’ to breathe around it, only growing thicker as Royce’s apprehension and anger and worry seeped from his pores.

So intense it was sure to drown us both.

Anxiously, he rubbed his thighs with his sweaty palms. “Can’t believe this. Can’t believe I let someone get to her. Fuck.” He gave a harsh shake of his head. “Why? Who the fuck is after her? Knew it, though. Just had this feeling.”

I nodded.

Guilt sucked me even deeper considering how deep I’d been in his baby sister last night. Especially after I’d promised him I would stay away from her.

For her safety.

For her well-being.

Because she deserved so much more than the trouble I would bring.

But this was different, wasn’t it? Didn’t have a thing to do with me.

My hands tightened on the steering wheel.

Maybe…maybe she needed me. Maybe for once, I could make a difference.

“She’s goin’ to be okay, man.”