Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(99)

But I had to believe Mia had crashed into my life with a purpose.

Proof had to be what possessed me when I looked at her children.

I crossed the space, leaning over Penny, and I pressed a kiss to her forehead. Relished in the gift. Something I was never supposed to have again, but I’d be a fool to question what I was given. “I would love to have pizza.”

She rocked her head back, beaming up at me.

Love rushed.

I edged back, blinked, my entire world rocked.

Never imagined when I got pushed off that cliff that when I landed there would be an entire family waiting at the bottom to catch me.

“Where’s your mom?”

She gestured with her chin. “In her room, reading.”

“Okay. I’m going to go tell her hi.”

“Okay.”

I straightened, not sure what to do with the jealousy that bashed me in the chest when her phone lit-up with a Facetime call that read Dad.

No doubt, Mia and I had tons of sorting to do. There was no chance she could one-hundred percent leave L.A. behind. Doubted that I could, either.

“Oh, there’s my dad. He said he was going to call me right back.”

My nod was tight, as tight as my throat when I swallowed. “No worries. Take your time. We’ll leave when you’re finished.”

There.

That was civil, right?

The right way to handle this bullshit?

Spinning on my heel, I moved for Mia’s door.

“Hi, Dad!” Penny said in her sweet way.

“Penny-Girl.”

It should have been nothing.

The voice.

But every hair on my body stood on end when I heard it.

Paranoid.

My brain fried.

Waiting for the motherfucking shoe to drop.

That was it.

Still, I froze, cocked my head, and turned my ear. Dread lifted in a sticky sweat that coated my flesh. Mind distorted like a bad trip.

“When are you coming home?” It was a grumble. Petulant.

Selfishness to the extreme.

Vicious and cruel.

No.

This couldn’t be happening.

It . . . it wasn’t possible.

I was losing it.

Coming unhinged.

Sins I’d committed coming back to taunt me.

“I, um . . . I’m not sure,” Penny answered, uneasy, because the prick was putting her on the spot.

“You need to tell your mom it’s time for you to get back here. Done with her excuses.”

Nausea boiled. Rising up fast. Filling my throat and coating my tongue in hatred.

I wasn’t even aware that my goddamn feet had moved.

I was standing off to the side of Penny without even really knowing how I’d gotten there.

Not even fucking surprised at the same time.

Because I should have known.

Should have known I couldn’t take and take and take and get away with what I’d done.

Like I could be absolved of the guilt.

Because angels and devils didn’t mix.

But there I was, staring at the vilest one.

His face on the screen.

Nixon Shoewalter.

Our eyes clashed through the phone.

Hatred gnashed my teeth.

Knocked me from the side.

Blunt force trauma to the back of the head.

“What the fuck?” he hissed below his breath.

I stumbled back.

Stricken by what this meant.

Fuck.

I grabbed my head in my hands.

World a tilt-a-whirl.

Gaining speed.

Disorienting.

Devastating.

“Leif . . . what’s wrong? Are you okay? You look like you’re going to throw up,” Penny rushed, jumping off the couch, waving that phone around like a bomb.

The atom kind.

One that decimated everything.

I should have known I couldn’t have this.

That I was just setting myself up to lose.

Only it was exponentially worse than even I could have imagined.

“I . . . I have to go,” I managed to wheeze.

Heart manic.

Sight blurred.

Couldn’t find my footing with her waving that phone in my face. Might as well have been a hot poker that was going to stab me in the heart.

I stumbled back, banging into the wall. A picture knocked to the floor. Glass shattered while the ground completely dropped out from under me.

I squeezed my eyes like it could stand the chance of bringing me back. Wake me up. Shake me out of this nightmare.

No. God. Please.

Agony mauled me like it was a fucking monster.

A wraith.

That bitch Karma was cackling off to the side as she commanded for him to finally do me in.

Like I actually thought I was going to escape her.

“Leif.” Penny tried to grab my hand.

Couldn’t even let her touch me.

I fumbled back from her like I was gonna get burned.

Who the fuck was I kidding?

I was dust.

Nothing but fiery, flickering out debris.

I finally made it to the door.

The voice I would never forget shouted from the phone, “You motherfucker. You got to my family. You are dead.”

I tore down the hall and burst out into the fading light.

Shock shifting to rage.

Because he was wrong.