Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

Big or small.

In heartache and joy.

“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’ve carried your whole life, Rhys.”

Could feel the heavy bob of his throat when he swallowed. “Tried my best to be a man after that. To stand for my family. To take care of them both. Be strong enough. All I ever wanted, Maggie.”

His words were gruff, the fractures in this man’s heart finally breaking free.

“Stallion,” I whispered.

Rhys trembled. “Wanted to be.”

“You are. I know your father has to be looking down at you and see the man you’ve become. Your giving heart and your kind spirit. The sacrifice you’re willing to make. The love you give.”

Rhys choked back a sob. “Whole time, I’d thought he couldn’t take it any longer. Thought I’d finally driven him to his end. Turns out I did, but in a different way.”

My head shook with my cheek still pinned to his chest. “No, Rhys. You and your father were both standing for the people you loved. The ones you cared about. There is no blame in that. And I may never have gotten to meet him, but I promise you, your daddy loved you. There’s no way he couldn’t have.”

“Just wish I could have done more. Stopped it. Changed it. Still can’t believe…” He trailed off, stricken. “I can’t believe Noah was responsible. That he got to my daddy when he’d been comin’ for me. That it was him who hurt you. That he turned around and took Genny’s life. God…that poor girl.”

I refused the bolt of jealousy. Let the torment that had gushed from her fill me. Her fear. Her hurt. Her own ferocity. “It’s absolutely horrible. I’m so sorry, Rhys. I know you loved her.”

Rhys sighed. “I’m devastated for her, Maggie. That I couldn’t change it or save her. All those years, I tried. And I did love her, but not in the way you’re thinkin’. I would have done anythin’ for her. Anything. At the time, I didn’t know the difference. But I do now. I never burned for her. I was just in love with the idea of savin’ her.”

“When we were together…”

“Genny and I had been over for a long, long time.” He shifted me so his hands were framing my face, forcing me to meet the intensity in his gaze. “Goddess Girl, would never do that to you. Was just afraid I would fail you, too. Thought my life was nothing but bad marks.”

Nodding, I sniffled. “I don’t think you could fail me, Rhys.” I cleared my throat, pushing on, feeling like the time I’d been sedated had been a decade.

Like a new history had been written and I’d missed it.

“What about Noah?”

Rhys’ spirit thrashed. “His charges are long and deep. He was arrested for the murders of both Genny and her father. I’ve asked them to open a case for my father, too.”

“Oh, Rhys. My sweet man.”

I touched the edge of his mouth where it trembled.

“My daddy was a good man.”

“No doubt,” I whispered. “Look at the son he raised. Look at this good, good man.”

Rhys kissed my fingertips that I ran across his lips.

I blinked. “I should have waited for you. The money...” I trailed off in a bit of misery. God. I’d thought I was protecting it, and all I’d done was turn it over to someone just as cruel and filled with greed as my father had been.

A glint instantly sparked in the depths of those blue, blue eyes. “Ah, no need to fret, my Sweet Thing. Your brother is a cunnin’ devil. Seems he took off with the duffles into the woods before the cops showed. Dude thinks on his feet, that’s for sure.”

Relief rippled free on the softest giggle. “Of course, he did.”

Rhys ran his thumb across the nape of my neck. Massaging. Comforting. “Another one of those good men.”

“He is.” I gulped around the lump that formed. “I can’t believe I thought it was our mother this whole time.”

I found solace in that. A spark of hope lighting that maybe…maybe she had a spec of a conscience, after all.

His lips shifted to grim. “I hate that I dragged you into my mess. Warned you I would.”

“But we came out of it together.”

Tenderness traipsed through his expression.

“What happens now?” That I whispered.

Those massive hands held tighter to my face. “We live, Maggie. We live. As long as you still want me. As long as you’re still feelin’ this after everything I put you through.”

“Do I feel it, Rhys? I felt it the day I met you. Something different. Something bigger.” I rested my cheek back on the thundering of his chest. “And my heart—it got molded into a new shape. It got mended into the shape of you.”

He chuckled low. “Huh. Seems mine got all mangled up in the shape of you, too.”