Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

God. I was probably overreactin’. That was the problem when you got paranoid. When you worried night and day that your past was finally going to devour you. You were constantly jumping to conclusions.

“Maggie?” That time, I barely managed to keep it below a shout. My eyes swept every corner of the darkened room. When it came up bare, I tossed off the covers and slipped from the bed.

I stole across the room to the bathroom door, tryin’ to ignore the shock of distress that impaled my senses.

Sticky and hot.

A tingling sense that this one good thing I’d been given had gone bad.

Just like I knew it would.

I flipped on the bathroom light, blinking against the starkness of it.

The AC droned, pumping cool air into the space.

“Maggie?” Croaked it that time, this feeling coming on that I refused to perceive. I crossed the bathroom, nudged open her door, and peered into the darkness of her room.

A void radiated back. A vacuum that stirred the emotions into disorder.

My chest tightened, heart instantly dippin’ into a mad, violent rage.

“Maggie, where are you baby?” It was a rumble of that dread.

I had the fleetin’ thought that she could have just gone downstairs to grab a bite to eat, and I wasn’t doing anything but being crazed and overbearing.

Or maybe she’d slipped out back to get some air.

Wanted to picture her there. A goddess beneath the stars.

A siren.

My Sweet, Sweet Thing.

But that energy that had connected us from the get-go had me standing at the edge of her bed. Staring at the shape of a star that I immediately recognized she’d fashioned with her hand. I reached for it, entire being shaking like an uncaged beast as I flipped it around in my fingers. Then I was tearing into it when I realized there was something written inside.

Rhys.

My stallion.

Please, don’t be angry, but it’s time someone stepped in and offered something to you. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon.

I love you with every piece of me.

Maggie

What was she doin’? Fuck. What was she doin’?

Terror gripped me as I sank to my knees so I could peer under her bed. Some part of me already knew those duffles stuffed full of money were gonna be gone, but still I was crumbling in fear when I got confirmation.

“Maggie.” It was a choked cry of desperation.

What was she thinkin’? Why would she do this without me? She was supposed to let me hold this for her. Shoulder this for her.

Confusion spun, so fast I couldn’t see, so fast that I was stumbling to my feet and tearing out of her bedroom.

I raced for the bottom floor, praying to God maybe I’d catch her in time.

I whipped open the front door and flew out into the stagnant night.

Already knowing.

Already knowing.

Still, a fuckin’ rock the size of the Titanic sank to the pit of my stomach when I saw that Royce’s car was gone.

My mind reeled and my spirit wept.

What the hell had happened between when she’d fallen asleep nestled in my arms to right then? She’d promised that she would let me do the dirty work. Let me be the one to get in the line of her fire because I couldn’t tolerate the idea of the girl getting mixed in even the suggestion of danger.

I balled the note in my hand. Every damned thought I could have bounced around inside me.

The message she’d left, trying to process what it meant.

That cut. That abhorrent attack.

The worry that I wouldn’t put anything past her disgustin’ excuse of a mother. She’d threaten her. Back her into a corner.

But this note…felt like it weighed fifteen-thousand tons.

That was the thing about this brilliant, kind, selfless, reckless girl.

She’d think she was doing this for me.

That’s what it was, wasn’t it?

She thought she was savin’ me some kind of heartache by going herself when in truth something happening to her would be the one thing my heart couldn’t take.

I roared back into the house, feet banging the floors as I pounded upstairs.

I needed to stop her before she got herself into trouble.

Trouble.

I’d always thought I’d be the one to bring it to her, and now I was praying I was worthy enough to be the one to get her out of it.

I hit the landing with panic lighting my feet, my rage so loud that it had a door crashing open on the opposite wing.

Royce.

He came storming down the hallway like I’d reached a hand into his room and plucked him from his bed.

Dude was pure darkness and hate.

I latched onto it. Let it feed me. This resolution to ensure my girl was safe.

“The fuck are you doing?” he hissed below his breath, even though he was lookin’ around, searching for the danger, too.

“Maggie’s gone.”

He stumbled a step. “What?”

She’d trusted me with this, believed in me to hold her secret, but I didn’t know how to keep it when doin’ it would only be a disservice. An injustice to this girl who would give anything to make this world a better place.