Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars 4)

“No, Mom. Dad was responsible.” My father had been the CEO of Mylton Records. He had also been a major player in an international crime ring. He just hadn’t been quite high enough and had been killed in prison while awaiting trial.

A clear strike to keep him silent.

The same as had been done to Cory Douglas.

As much as I’d hated them both, I still couldn’t fathom their fate, then I’d been destroyed all over again when the depths of their depravity had been brought to light.

When it’d been exposed how violently evil they really were when that house had been discovered that was nothing less than a prison.

“He was good to us,” she argued.

Agony clutched my spirit, and tears blurred my eyes. “No. He wasn’t. You can cut the act because you and I both know it.”

I could feel her physically snap.

“Where is it, Maggie? Where is it?” she seethed, her voice slipping into malice, no longer trying to hide her true intentions.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Now who’s acting? I won’t let you take what’s rightfully mine, you little bitch.”

I ended the call before she had a chance to say anything else.

I slumped forward, gasping out a breath.

A hand touched my bare shoulder.

I didn’t jump.

I already knew he was there.

Awareness shimmered and pulsed against the walls.

“Maggie.” His voice was gruff.

As hard as I tried to stop them, tears streaked free of my eyes.

His hand curled tighter. “Mags.”

“I need you to go. Please.”

He hesitated.

“Please…I just need some air. Some privacy to clear my thoughts.”

“Okay,” he said, even though I could tell he didn’t want to agree.

He’d wrap me up and promise me it was okay if that’s what I needed.

The problem was, this wasn’t okay.

Reluctantly, he slipped out, and I moved over and turned the shower on as hot as it would go. Let the steam fill the room as I peeled the rest of the way out of my clothes.

I stepped in, and I shivered under the spray that was hot enough to burn.

I dropped my head in the fall of water, and one of my hands shot out to the wall to keep myself standing while the other went to my mouth to cover the sob that wrenched free.

My body bent in two as the tears came and came.

As I wept with the reality of my life.

My mother knew and I had no idea what she would do or the lengths she would go to feed her greed.

Fear rolled and toiled and climbed out through my mouth.

I expelled it in choking, writhing gasps.

Then I lifted my chin to the spray. Let it wash it all away.

My mother could threaten me all she wanted.

I would do this.

I would.

No matter the cost.

Like Emily had said, I had to go after what was right, even when I was terrified.

Even when it might cost me everything.

Ten

Rhys

“Spill it.” The grated voice hit me from behind where I’d just snagged a beer from the industrial-sized refrigerator in the kitchen.

Heart rate doublin’ time, I whirled around, a scowl on my face.

“Dude, what the hell? You scared the piss outta me.”

I rubbed at my chest to calm the raging. Damn, she was a sneaky little mouse.

Melanie stood there, the band’s manager and basically the bane of my existence, with her scowl five times bigger than mine.

Ahh shit.

I was in trouble.

“The daggers,” I told her, holding a hand up between us like it was a shield before I cracked the beer cap and gave her a wry shake of my head. “Put ’em away before someone gets hurt, lovie humps.”

On top of that whole bane of my existence thing? She was also one of my closest friends. Other than Richard and Emily, she was the only one who knew. Mostly because she was in the business of getting me out of the disasters I got myself into.

Diving into hot water to drag my pathetic, drowning ass out.

“Don’t lovie humps me,” she growled, those hands perched on her hips. “Tell me what’s goin’ on in that warped little mind of yours.”

She pointed her finger at my head like she might be pointing at a crusty pair of underwear stuck to the rug in the corner of her bedroom, and she wasn’t quite sure how they’d gotten there.

“Knew the second I saw you that somethin’ was up.”

She’d shown up this morning right before what turned out to be our first practice since we’d delayed yesterday’s after Maggie had taken that tumble. Melanie had come in a few days after the rest of us because she’d been in Vegas for her sister’s bachelorette party.

As per her usual M.O., the second she’d walked through the door, she’d started flinging demands left and right. Had done my best to keep any wayward emotions under the radar, but those beady hawk eyes had been watching me the whole damn time.