Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,121
greatest connections were forged during the most excruciating trials.
“I’ll explain as soon as I’m off,” she murmured to him.
For a beat, I got locked in her joy. My chest stretched tight with hope against all the dread that was stretching me thin.
“I’ll be there in a couple hours,” I told her.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes.”
She exhaled. “Okay. Drive safe and keep me updated along the way. We’ll be waiting.”
“I will. Thank you.”
A storm of emotions whipped through me the second I ended the call.
Rhys’ suffering my own. And I prayed…I prayed that he wouldn’t break me the way I’d been so sure that he would. Prayed that our connection was bigger—stronger—than whatever this was.
I edged from the closet and over to the desk in my room. I pulled out a plain white piece of paper, and I wrote a quick letter, hoping he would understand, that he wouldn’t take this as another burden on his shoulders.
Then I folded it, molded it into us, the crude star left on my bed with all my love, sure he would find it.
Then I started to rush, shrugging on jeans and a tee and stuffing a few things into an overnight bag.
I dropped to my knees and dragged the duffle bags from under my bed. I loaded two on my shoulders, and then peered out my door into the stillness. When I found it clear, I slipped out and raced for the stairs as silently as I could.
I loaded them in Royce’s rental.
God, he was going to be pissed. Angry and worried and pissed.
And I felt bad, but not bad enough to change my mind.
I rushed back upstairs and got the rest of my things and then darted back out.
Down the stairs and out into the slumbering night.
I had to refuse the urge to slow down because if I did, I’d have to give in to the call I could feel radiating from Rhys’ room.
The sudden torment I felt oozing from him.
As if he’d begun to toss in those terrible dreams.
Maybe…just maybe I could finally help him mend it.
His beautifully broken soul.
I fumbled to get my seat belt locked, and then I pushed the ignition and drove away from the house. Hands sweaty, skin slick, heart shuddering.
My nerves raced out of control.
I could do this.
It was no big deal.
I was just…anxious. There was no real danger. Kade would be coming with me. He wouldn’t allow anything to happen to me.
Resolved, I took the few turns through town and hit the main highway into Savannah.
Darkness filled the night.
The sky full of stars and silence.
With it came a slow foreboding.
That paranoia building.
But somehow…somehow, I knew the paranoia hadn’t been paranoia at all.
But rather a warning.
I guessed in all my staunch determination I hadn’t allowed myself to register what it was.
What that black omen had meant back at the house.
No time to process the wickedness that rode through the air.
No time to change course or turn around.
Because the headlights that had been way far back since I’d left Tybee came up so fast I didn’t have time to prepare myself.
No time to do anything about the fact that I’d been lured out with all that money. No time to accept that I’d been a fool, after all.
No safeguards.
No defense before I was rear-ended, slammed from out of nowhere.
Metal crunched in the same second I jolted forward, and the car swerved to the left, tires screeching as loud as the scream that ripped from my throat.
Struggling, I tried to correct it, jerking the steering wheel to the right.
But I did it too sharp, and I was going too fast, and the back tires began to skid.
Then it caught, and I flipped.
Thirty
Rhys
Seven Years Ago
Rhys saw her from the stage. She was loiterin’ off to the far side of the crowd where the strobing lights barely reached her shy, curious, stunning face.
For one wayward beat, his mangled, hollow heart thudded.
This girl with the golden blonde hair and curvy hips and jittering hands.
She looked out of place.
Nervous and excited and maybe the best thing he’d seen in a long, long time.
She looked up through the flashing lights. Green eyes bright and shining.
Snagging him from where he stood finishing out the last song on Carolina George’s set list where they played at a small bar in an even smaller town in Tennessee.
Rhys was all about having a good time. Giving over to the greed. It was the only reprieve he ever got from what he’d done.