Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(106)

“Stay away from him, Mia. I’m warning you.”

I could feel the force of the grief twisting my face. “That’s what this is about? That’s why you showed up here? Because I’m with someone else? Because I fell in love with someone else?” I spat the words. Knowing they were daggers.

I didn’t care.

He didn’t get to do this.

Fury blistered across his face, and he released a cruel bout of laughter. “You think you love him? You don’t even know him.”

I scoffed. Disgusted. Wondering how I’d ever let this jerk touch me. “You don’t know anything about me, Nixon. Know nothing. You know nothing of what I feel or what I want or who I know. And you don’t get to come barging in here pretending like you do.”

“He’s dangerous, Mia.”

My face pinched. “What are you talking about?”

A disturbance rising up. A flicker of awareness that sent worry flooding through my senses.

Contempt rolled from his tongue. “Leif and I? We go way back. Asshole hates me, and the only reason he is here is to get back at me.”

Shock rocked me to the soul.

An earthquake.

A fault line that split me in two.

“What did you just say?” I tried to make the words sound defiant, but they trembled in my throat.

Aftershocks.

He knew Leif?

That couldn’t . . . that couldn’t be possible.

No.

“I said he’s dangerous, Mia, and you and the kids are coming with me.”

Dizziness spun, and the nausea I’d been fighting all day hit me hard. I ran into the bathroom.

Dropped to my knees.

Purged the pain.

I clung to the edge of the toilet, trying to see through the tears that rushed down my face and blurred my sight.

Leif knew Nixon.

Leif knew Nixon.

Oh God.

Why . . . why would he do this to me? Why would he come here and rip me apart?

I will ruin you.

I will ruin you.

Is that what he meant? Had he done this on purpose? Cruel and unjust.

No. There was no way. He’d pushed me away a thousand times. But our connection had been too great. The man my gravity.

There was no faking that.

My mind spun, back to what Penny had said. The worry she’d worn when she’d explained Leif’s reaction to Nixon.

They knew each other.

They did.

That’s what had sent Leif running.

I moaned through the agony, and I could hear Nix in the other room, telling Penny to get her things.

Greyson was whimpering. Crying for me.

I had to get it together. Understand what Nixon meant. I refused to believe it—that Leif was actually dangerous.

That he would hurt us.

Leif’s voice spun.

But the rest of who I was? He was a bad guy. He did horrible, bad things.”

“Just because I didn’t pull the trigger doesn’t mean I wasn’t responsible. Doesn’t mean I’m not the devil.”

I puked some more. Unable to keep it down. To stop this eruption of grief. The poison that roiled inside of me.

The bathroom door banged open. Nix was there, a backpack on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Nix, I—”

“Get up, Mia. We don’t have time for this.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ll tell you in the car.”

My mind raced, head spinning, disoriented. My hand shot out to the wall to keep me steady.

Everything weak.

Everything wrong.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Tell me what’s going on. I want to know what you mean. How do you know Leif?”

His rage crashed through the tiny room, and he was in my face. “I’m leaving right now, with my kids. Are you coming with me or not?”

He turned around and walked out the door, picking up Greyson who’d been coming my way, my son crying and crying. I was right behind him, grabbing at his shirt. “Put him down. You aren’t taking him anywhere.”

“Watch me, Mia.”

I stumbled out into the main room, and Penny was there, her backpack on her shoulders. Confusion and fear in her eyes.

“Come on.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, pushed up to the wall, trust wiped from her face.

He stretched his free hand toward her. “To get ice cream. You guys can play while me and your mom talk.”

Greyson stopped crying at that. “Owkay.”

God.

This was a disaster. A complete wreck.

“Just, come on, Mia. Put some shoes on. I just need to talk to you. That’s it. I told you I would always do everything to protect you. I’ve been here. Fighting for you. You aren’t going to trust me now? After that twisted fuck came here and messed with your head?”

I wanted to scream at him for talking like that in front of our kids.

Scream at him not to speak such blasphemy.

Beg him to take it back.

Make it untrue.

I needed answers.

A reason.

Nixon was the only one who could give them to me.

“Fine. We can go let the kids play and we’ll talk. But that’s it. I’m not ready to leave Savannah. Give me a minute to change.”