Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(107)

I went back into my room, changed into jeans and a tee, and rinsed my mouth with mouthwash, tried to remain upright.

Not to go dropping back to my knees.

This pain too real.

Too intense.

I thought I could handle it. The scars Leif would leave behind. But I wasn’t so sure of that, anymore.

I came back out, and Nixon went out the main door and turned to the right.

I gestured to the hall down the left. “I need to tell Tamar and Lyrik what’s going on.”

“You can text them from the car.”

“Nixon.”

He didn’t even listen. The man on some kind of mission that I didn’t want to be a part of.

Frustrated, I followed him out, and I texted my brother after I got into the rental SUV that he’d parked at the back street. For a moment, I questioned if I was being unreasonable, this anger I held, when I saw he’d thought far enough ahead to have a car seat in place for Greyson.

His son.

I glanced at him, at the rigid clutch of his jaw, and I tried to find that balance. That respect I’d had for him. For the fact he’d always tried to be here the best that he could be.

He pulled the car out onto the street, followed the directions I gave him for the fast food place that had a playground that the kids liked, while I tried to come to terms.

To remember this wasn’t just about me.

My children were the most important.

I had to put them first.

“Take a left up here,” I told him, except he was accelerating. Glancing in his rear-view mirror. He made a sharp right, and then a quick left.

Frantic, he made another, our speed increasing with each second.

My lungs squeezed, and I jerked to look out the side-mirror. A white car was behind us, weaving side to side. Trying to get to the side to box us in.

And the dread I’d been feeling all day spread and compounded. Became a horror that completely closed off my throat.

I pressed myself to the door and looked over at Nixon.

In disbelief and a plea. “What’s happening?”

His teeth ground, his hands blanched on the steering wheel. “Fucked up, Mia. I fucked up. He was coming for you. I had to get you out of there.”

“What?” I demanded, my voice held low like it could protect the kids. But it didn’t matter. Because Penny knew. I could feel it—her terror invade the space.

“Nixon, what have you done?”





Thirty-Five





Leif





Three Years Ago





Panic.

Desperation.

They whipped my blood into a storm as I raced through the streets. Weaving through cars and running through red lights like no obstacle could stand in front of me.

The world a blur except for one singular focus.

My family.

My family.

I chanted their names as the miles burned from under me.

Like they could hear me.

Like Maddie would listen. Fucking answer her phone so I could tell her to get the hell out of the house, hide out until I could get to her.

But it only rang a thousand times, phone clutched in my hand as I dialed it again and again as I blazed down the streets.

Reckless.

But that’s what this life had been.

It was time for this to end.

I just had to get there.

Get there in time.

I careened around the last turn onto our street, pushing the bike so hard my knuckles felt like they were gonna bust open.

Muscles tight.

Lined with steel.

Terror screamed up my spine when I saw the red and blue lights strobing against the daylight. Cul-de-sac at the end filled with fire trucks and cop cars and ambulances.

This neighborhood that was supposed to be a safe place. An area where our daughter could run and play and grow.

Bile rushed, and my bike flew down the narrow street before I was ramming on the brakes, tires skidding. I didn’t even let it come to a full stop before I lay it down and jumped off.

Couldn’t even feel my feet as I raced for the house.

My spirit already inside.

Screaming and screaming.

No. Please. God. No.

A crowd had gathered. A circle of morbid curiosity that pressed and vied to get closer to the tragedy.

It was.

I could already feel it.

The evil that oozed from the walls. Shouted its wickedness. A claiming of the innocent.

It didn’t matter my soul already knew.

That it screamed and roared with agony.

I shoved through the people who formed a tight circle, held back by the yellow tape.

All of them gasping and crying and speculating.

A vicious buzz that screamed in my ears.

No, no, no, no.

“Maddie!” I screamed, raging, pushing through.

Jagged breaths and ice-cold blood.

Hands sought to hold me back, but I broke through the tape as I screamed, “Maddie!”

Officers grabbed me by both arms to keep me from getting to the house.

I roared, breaking free, and I surged through the door while they shouted at me to stop. Guns drawn.

I couldn’t. I couldn’t.

I had to get to them.

I flew inside, and I slid, slipping on their blood. My body gave, and I fell.

Falling.