Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,123

legacy was riding on us merging our families. The women in my family don’t step out or go chasin’ after dreams, Rhys. But tonight, I did. I chased a single dream. I snuck out with my friend so I could get the taste of freedom. Just for one night. For one moment.”

Then she flinched. “I know it’s gonna cost me when I get home. I’ll be punished, but it will be worth it.”

This was the most fucked-up shit that Rhys had ever heard, and he was having a hard time processing. Making sense of it.

“What are you sayin’? Someone’s goin’ to lay a hand on you when you get home?”

Redness flushed her face, and he could taste her terror.

“Shit.” He blinked a bunch of times. “Then why don’t you leave? Get away from there?”

She ran her hands up her bare arms like she was chasing away a flash of chills. “I wish it were that easy. They’ll find me. Noah and my father…they are…” She flinched.

Motherfucker.

Rhys suddenly felt like going on a murder spree.

“It’ll be bad enough if they discover I sneaked out tonight.” Then she smiled. Smiled an awed smiled that made his chest ache. “But it’ll be worth it. Just for a second of this.”

She tipped her face to the sky like she was relishing the moment. Imprinting it into her being. Writing it forever on her memories.

Rhys choked over the intensity of what she was feeling right then, scrambling to find a solution. Half wantin’ to pull out his hair and the other wanting to go on a manhunt.

Because this was straight bullshit.

“This is insane. Come on, Genny, stuff like that doesn’t happen anymore. They can’t make you.”

She blanched. “Look around you, Rhys. You’re not exactly standin’ on modern ground. I’ve known since I was little that I was supposed to marry Noah. My daddy…he owns this whole town, and because of me, Noah is next in line.”

She trailed off with the misery.

Rhys’ heart started to beat in real time. A flicker of somethin’ he hadn’t felt since he’d been a boy.

“And then every once in a while, God makes someone extra special. Someone who is more vulnerable than others, and it’s our job to protect them. To take care of them. Even when it ain’t pretty.”

His dad’s words flooded him from that spot that had been vacant since his hope had been ripped away. Since the day he’d stolen his daddy’s.

Maybe…maybe this was what he’d meant.

And Rhys knew it was crazy. He didn’t even know this girl. But he knew she needed help. That she was gonna waste away her life, probably be used and abused on top of it, too, if he didn’t do something about it.

So he was going to.

He was gonna stand for someone else.

He pushed to standing, and she gasped a little sound and stumbled back when he cast her in the shadow of his towering frame.

Caught off guard and frightened by the sudden movement.

And he was sure of it then.

That she needed someone to be that person for her.

“Fuck Noah,” he said.

She blinked and he stretched out his hand. “You wanna run, Genny? How about you run away with me?”

“Rhys…I…I’m not sure. Noah will kill you.”

Rhys cracked a smirk. “Let him.”

They did. They ran. Hopped on Rhys’ bus with his band and toured around the country. And this girl he didn’t know—he loved her.

But it was different.

It was slow and sweet.

Devoted.

He made her happy and, for the first time since he was nine, he felt happy, too. And when they got to Vegas, they snuck away and got hitched at one of those chapels because it felt like the right thing to do, forged the papers and their names.

Once he somehow found a way to get her birth certificate, they’d do it for real.

He just hoped he could love her right.

Be all she needed him to be.

And maybe…maybe it might make his father a little bit proud, too. Maybe spark some of that joy that had been missing forever.

His chest tightened.

God, he wanted it something fierce. He’d give anything, do anything, to see his father smile.

Most of all, he prayed for once he’d do it right.

That he’d be strong enough.

That he wouldn’t fail her, too.

Rhys pulled their hands that were twined and resting on the console of the truck to his mouth. “Can’t wait for you to meet Mama. She’s gonna lose her mind when we tell her.”

Genny beamed at him, though there was no missing her nerves, seein’ as how