Beneath the Stars (Falling Stars #4) - A.L. Jackson Page 0,139
.
One
Mia
“Are you okay?” Lyrik asked just loud enough for me to hear over the din of live music that echoed through the air. A clatter of voices and laughter mingled with it, glasses clinking as the sounds of the extravagant party carried around us.
My older brother had hauled me into a deserted hallway where we were hidden from view of the rest of the guests who overflowed his mansion, the man holding tight to my elbow as he searched my face.
I got the sense he was worried it was the only way he could keep me from floating away.
“Lyrik, I’m fine.” As fine as I could be with my heart a jackhammer in my chest.
Nerves rattled.
Breaths jagged and shallow and exposing everything I wanted to keep hidden from my brother.
You know, the straight up lie I was spouting.
But sometimes telling them were the only way to get by.
Lyrik caught it. Did I expect anything else? He’d always read me better than anyone.
Dark eyes flared as he glowered down at me. “Bullshit.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. That I freaked out? That I overreacted? Or that I really was scared?”
All of the above.
I didn’t know how to fix it short of locking myself in a room forever and never coming out.
Lyrik would probably think that was a fantastic idea.
“Honestly, if it was my choice, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight.”
A mix between affection and disbelief rumbled in my chest.
I knew him, too. Knew him inside and out and back again. And that meant I knew he was hurting almost as badly as me.
Worried.
Aching for a way to take it away, to make it better, and realizing it didn’t matter how much fame had come his way or how many zeroes he had sitting in his bank accounts, he had no power over this.
What was done was already done.
Buried six feet underground.
“That is ridiculous and impossible and you’re being overbearing again,” I tried to reason, to calm him down. I was riddled with enough anxiety for the two of us.
“I’ll show you ridiculous,” he warned, glancing around like the monster would suddenly make himself known in the middle of one of the biggest galas of the year. “Told you the lengths I’d go, Mia. Wasn’t joking.”
“And you know I would never ask that of you. This isn’t your responsibility. You’ve already done enough.”
Lyrik scowled.
I swore, the man appeared nothing less than a demon in the shadows of the private hall, towering over me while I tried to remain standing and not break down from the accidental brush of a stranger’s hand.
Lately, crowds and I hadn’t been friends.
Problem was, being alone was worse.
“Who was it? Just point him out, and he’s out on his ass. No questions. Not gonna tolerate that kind of bullshit going down under my roof. Asshole should know better.”
“That’s not necessary, Lyrik.” My head shook as I gathered myself. “He . . . caught me off guard, that’s all. He didn’t even mean to touch me. I’m sorry that I made you worry.”
There’d just been something in the stranger’s seedy eyes that had sent my mind spiraling back to what had happened at my gallery three weeks ago. Something that had sent me running out of the room, close to suffering a full-blown panic attack.
A reel of dark, cruel images hitting me.
Frame after frame.
In that second, the only thing my mind could process was the memory of the evil glaring out from under that mask.
Lyrik stared down at me with stark brotherly concern.
All black hair and even darker eyes.
“Don’t you dare apologize, Mia. There isn’t one goddamn thing for you to be sorry for. None of this is your fault.” His brow drew tight in emphasis, like he’d somehow taken on some of the blame.
A self-conscious breath huffed from between my lips. “Are you joking, Lyrik? I’ve become nothing but a burden to you and Tamar. You’re constantly on edge, and I know you haven’t been sleeping.”
His expression darkened. “Yeah, well that bastard is still out there. Loose. Not gonna rest until he’s behind bars. Or dead.”
Grief grasped me by the throat.
This sticky, heavy sensation that made it close to impossible to breathe.
“And you know the detective has concluded it was random. A botched robbery. I’m not in any danger,” I choked out around the clot of devastation.
Wishing there was some way to accept that conclusion. To find peace that wouldn’t seem to come. I didn’t know if it ever would.