Chapter 73 #2
With a scream, I send a shock wave across the room. The guy flies four feet away until the wall stops him, and he crumples to the ground. I look around. Everything is a mess, dragged outward in a wave from the force of my push. But I can’t see Lucky.
Shit.
“Lucky?” What if he’s gone? What if I … did something? I wasn’t really thinking, just trying to stop the guy from hurting him again.
“That’s some trick you’ve got there,” comes from behind me, and I rush over to crush him in a hug.
“Don’t leave me again.”
“Not even to piss?”
“I’m serious. I thought I’d hurt you. I thought …”
“Shh, it’s okay. You can’t get rid of me that easy.” He kisses the top of my head. “Hell, a lifetime stuck with you? Sounds like heaven to me.”
I hug him closer, breathing in deep. A week ago, we were strangers, but we’re linked now, by fate and magic. Bonded.
A voice I don’t recognize appears in my head.
“What the fuck happened here? Where the hell is Tony?”
He’s behind me.
Turning, I see him. A man in a suit, blood on his lip, creeping cautiously around the corner, shock clear on his face. First Sterling and now this? These were some sloppy robbers.
“It’s okay,” I call out, walking toward him. “It’s safe. They’re all knocked out. Help is on the way.”
The man stands, but says nothing. He’s not coming closer, and he’s eyeing Lucky and me like we’re the bad guys. Jeez. What’s a girl got to do for some fanfare? It’s not every day you save people, you know.
Without taking his eyes off me, he sidles sideways until his leg hits the body of one of the bad guys, his arm outstretched, knife still in his grip even though he’s out cold.
“Careful there, pal,” Lucky says. “Maybe you want to think about sitting down.” Then adds, “Maybe we should get out of here before they storm the place.”
He’s right. There’s not much more we can do here, and I’d rather not have to answer any questions about how Lucky and I managed to subdue a group of armed guys on our own.
Especially because I’m still not quite sure how we did it.
Oh, Officer, it was nothing, just these neat new powers we got after I touched a glowing rock. What’s that? You want to take us to a secure location and never let us leave while you study us for eternity? Sounds great. Let’s go.
No, thanks.
Even if these guys wake up soon—and they won’t—they aren’t getting away. I can already hear the shouts from outside getting closer and glass smashing as the cops break through the front doors.
“You ready?” Lucky asks.
I reach for his hand, only to be pulled backward with enough force that I stumble straight into a hard body, the knife now at my throat.
What the heck?
The man from before is huffing and puffing behind me, mumbling something that I can’t hear over the loud cursing in his head. He’s swearing so much that my mom’s probably blushing all the way back home.
“Get away from her!” Lucky yells.
I hold up my hands to calm him. The poor guy is just confused. I’m not exactly thrilled to be on the receiving end of it, but the key is to play it calmly. Talk him down.
“Hey, we’re not the bad guys.”
“Shut up,” he spits.
I feel the sting of steel before I remember. I learned a new trick recently.
He screams when I fling into the pillar beside us and finally backs away.
The last thing I register is the grip of Lucky’s hand on my arm before we’re back in his living room. As soon as I recognize where we are, I collapse onto his sofa.
I’m panting like I’ve run a marathon.
“What about Sterling?”
Lucky disappears into the kitchen, and my whole body aches as I twist around to see him. I’m not ready to let him leave my sight again.
He runs the tap and ducks down to take a gulp, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “He’ll be fine. Pissed—that’s for sure.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have locked him in.”
“Hey, he’s safe because of you. You saw the equipment those guys were carrying; we only stood a chance because of what we can do.”
He’s right. Lucky passes me a glass of water, and I stare down at it.
“The red of your hair.”
His favorite color. From anyone else, I’d think it was creepy, but from Sterling, I’m just confused. He’s barely talked to me.
I always thought he hated me.
“What’s wrong, love?”
Lachlan’s moved, now kneeling in front of me, hands gently placed on my knees.
“He said something before. Thought it, I mean. He doesn’t know I heard him, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I can’t lose you.”
My pulse is racing, and I’d blame it on the adrenaline rush of the robbery, but I know the real reason.
“It’s going to be okay; you can tell me.”
Can I? I’m not so naive that I can’t tell there’s some history between them.
“I don’t want to get between you two.”
Lucky sighs. “That’s all in the past.”
Bullshit. “It didn’t sound like it.”
He cups my cheek. “You’re too clever for your own good,” he says, then sighs. “Wait here.” And in a blink, he’s gone …
I’m all alone.
Fear, panic, frustration—it all finally breaks, crashing over me, and my eyes run white hot as tears spill over onto my cheeks.
“Sorry, love, had to evade the fucking cops—”
Sterling drops to his knees, cupping my face in his hands. “Mia,” he says, breathless, and then he’s staring daggers at Lachlan. “What the hell happened to her?”
And just like that, I snap. I’m sick of him talking to anyone but me.
“You happened,” I spit, pushing his hands off me with a thought. He sways backward with the force. “How could you?”
“What are you talking about? I’ve been locked up in that room, thanks to you—”
“Red. That’s the color you thought of when I asked you. I heard it.”
His lips part. I wait for a denial, an explanation, anything … anything to make sense of this. I know what I heard, know what I want it to mean, but how can it be true?
Always so unflappable, Sterling recovers. Surprise melts into tenderness, softening the lines around his eyes, mouth. Oh. He’s always handsome, but this … this is new. This is life-changing.
The veil vanishes before my eyes. What was hidden is now on full display in his expression, in his thoughts. It’s too much.
I gasp for air, trembling without any warning at all, and Sterling doesn’t miss a beat. Collecting me in his arms, he pulls me in, and I go, falling down into the safety of him, the surety of it.
He rocks me gently. “I didn’t know how to tell you. You already had someone, and I never want to complicate your life. You mean too much to me. All I want is your happiness, with or without me.”
“No,” I say, lifting my head to lock eyes with him. “There is no without you. Not now.”
He takes a long, deep breath, and even if I couldn’t hear it, it’s impossible to miss the fight playing out in his head.
“You have no idea how much I want … but if it doesn’t work, if I mess it up, I can’t … either of you. It’s too important. You’re too important.”
Lucky joins us on the floor, taking one of Sterling’s hands in his. He places a gentle kiss in the center of Sterling’s palm, whose eyes fall closed.
“I’m not good at this,” he says.
My heart overflows with the rush of longing Sterling feels.
“But I’ve tried to stop loving you, and I can’t.”
“Then stop trying, you beautiful bastard.” Lucky wastes no more time, curling his other hand around Sterling’s neck and pulling him in for a kiss. “We deserve better than that.”
“I know you do.” He turns his endless blue on me.
I don’t need him to say anything. He’s already shouting it from every angle, every atom reaching out for us, practically glowing.
It floods the air, fills my lungs with every breath, leaving me no choice except to reach up and touch the source of it, kiss the love from his lips and meet it with my own.
* * *
Someone pass me a tissue.
I don’t want to leave yet. is there more? (go to 84)
go back (go to 68)