Stand: A Bleeding Stars Stand-Alone Novel

by A. L. Jackson

  Maybe I should’ve acted like I was caving. But I was putting an end to Liam being used as a tool for greed.

  Veronica increased her pacing, fidgeting when she suddenly took a step in our direction. “Zee, just give him the money and bring Liam back. Where he belongs.”

  I glared at her. “Where he belongs? In this mess? I can’t fucking believe you’d subject him to this, Veronica. All these years, I wanted to think better of you, thinking there might be a spec of good in your black soul. But I’m done doing your bidding with the hopes it might give Liam a better life. What Liam needs is to be with me. Where I can take care of him. Protect him.”

  My attention moved to Alexis and Avril on the ground. “And this…you’re an accessory to this?”

  She might have been a bitch. I’d never thought her a monster.

  Craig kept tossing that lighter. So damned casual. But there was nothin’ casual about his words. “You see…now that’s where there’s gonna be a problem. I’ve grown partial to that nice, fat check you like to drop in Veronica’s account every month to take care of that rotten kid.”

  Rotten kid?

  Aggression curled my fists, body rocking with the need to take the bastard out.

  I forced myself to stay rooted.

  Buying that time.

  Praying the cops had taken my call as seriously as it was.

  Craig tsked, and I wanted to fucking vomit when his corrupt gaze glided to Alexis. “And then we had sweet, unsuspecting Alexis running this way every time her sister made even a peep.” He glanced between me and her, wearing that sneer like pride. “Seems the two of you have made quite the contribution.”

  “Pretty sure you already know that game’s up.”

  He cocked his head. “You sure about that?”

  “Not giving either of you another dime. Now, I suggest you give me Alexis and Avril and we’ll be on our way. Give you a little headway to clear out before the cops show.”

  I was playing with fire. I knew it.

  Making demands. Tossing in the word about the cops was a low, dark threat I was only praying he’d heed.

  The fact he even had Alexis there showed how desperate he was. If he were smart, he’d give it up, let both of them go.

  But that was the thing about those living on the outside of the law. They were always running a step ahead of it, dodging it at every turn, thinking they were above it.

  Craig suddenly reached down and grabbed Alexis by the hair. She screamed out in pain when he jerked her up, and my insides curled into rage, the asshole forcing her to stand when her ankles were bound.

  The only thing I wanted was to lunge at him. Destroy him. But I was frozen, a chill slicking down my spine like ice, petrifying everything when he reached behind him.

  A flash of metal struck through the gloom.

  Anger jerked my muscles, twisting them in taut, rigid bows that ached to be released as I stood there.

  “Craig,” Veronica whispered on a plea. “This wasn’t part of the plan. What do you think you’re doing? You told me we were here to get Liam back. That’s it. The girls for my son. That was what you promised. You promised.”

  Her words turned frantic at the end.

  Fisting his hand tighter in Alexis’s hair, he swiveled a fraction to look at Veronica, gun waving in the air. “Shut the fuck up, Veronica. You know better than to open your mouth.”

  Alexis whimpered.

  Fear and pain.

  Fear and pain.

  My heart shredded into a million fiery pieces while I stood there, trying to calculate how to set her free. How not to set this guy off when he was so clearly gonna blow.

  Craig turned back to stare me down, aiming the barrel of the gun at Alexis’s head. “These girls…all of them…a fucking dime a dozen. Just like her sister. You think anyone’s gonna even notice if she goes missin’?”

  My guts curled with nausea. Terror for Alexis. For Avril. Sickness at the realization this was no new thing he was talking about.

  Avril, just like the girl I’d found with her in Veronica’s apartment, weren’t anything but dispensable. Disposable. Puppets he left mangled before he discarded them like trash.

  “Craig,” Veronica rasped, word rippling with her stunned fear. Like she’d had no idea just what this guy was made of.

  That he was vile and sick.

  Cold laughter rocked from the well of my chest, my feet pinned to the ground to keep me from rushing forward while I did my best to shift his attention to me. “Are you really dumb enough to think someone wouldn’t notice if I went missing?”

  Fight me, asshole. Fight me. Let her go.

  I twitched in restraint.

  And Alexis…that sweet, good girl, I could see her pleading with me, her thoughts in turmoil.

  Help us.

  Run.

  Go.

  Please.

  “That’s funny. No one seemed to be all that concerned when they found your brother face down in a pile of his own puke, did they?”

  Shocked horror kicked me in the gut, and I barely rasped out, “What did you say?”

  He grinned, still holding on to Alexis like she didn’t mean anything. “Come now, Zee. Are you really that stupid? Who do you think it was milking the info out of him?” He shrugged like what he was saying was inconsequential. Like he weren’t tearing me into a million pieces. “Told Jennings keeping him around wasn’t worth the risk. All these years, and not even you were smart enough to make the connection.”

  That familiarity came crashing in. Vivid. The realization of where I’d seen him before.

  The last night I’d seen Mark alive.

  A roar tore up my throat, and I started to lunge for the bastard, rage clouding my eyes.

  I froze when he jerked Alexis’ head, and she cried out, that cry downshifting into an agonized whimper when he cocked the gun against her head. “How about we test this whole theory out on her? Then we can have a little conversation about the boy.”

  Everything slowed in the same second every thread of sanity tying me to the ground snapped.

  I charged.

  His eyes grew wide right before I rammed my shoulder into his stomach, arms around his waist. Our footing broke, and the two of us flew through the air.

  Alexis’ scream was nothing but a resonance of the gunshot that rang in the air.

  We hit the floor with a thud, and I scrambled to get on top, pinning him down while he struggled to break free. “Motherfucker.”

  My fist rammed into his face. Cocking back, I did it again. And again.

  Craig fought like the bastard he was.

  Nothing to lose.

  I had no idea what was more dangerous.

  That or the fact that I stood to lose everything.

  He managed to toss me off, and he scrambled to roll me over and get on top of me and take control.

  My knee came up in the same second and nailed him in the ribs.

  A moan ripped from his bloody mouth, and in a second flat, I had the prick pinned on his back, his arms flailing and grappling.

  He took hold of something. A split second later, the gun was in my face. A sharp gust of surprise jetted from my lungs, and I went for his wrist, struggling to shake it loose.

  From out of nowhere, a blow hit me from the side.

  Full body.

  Veronica.

  That was at the very same second another gunshot pierced the air. Fear clawed through my body, but I wrangled the gun free, slammed the butt of it across his face.

  Gasping, I flung myself off of him and climbed to my hands and knees, crawling to where she was whimpering, hands pressed to her stomach as blood spilled out.

  I gathered her in my arms. “Oh God.”

  She gurgled. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I loved you. I did.”

  I blinked as I choked over a sob that climbed my throat.

  I could barely make out her last words.

  “Take care of him.”

&nbs
p; Chapter Forty-Eight

  Alexis

  Disoriented, my eyes fluttered open to a faint beeping that echoed in the room. Everything was a dull, aching haze before it quickened into focus. Panic welled as horror rushed forward.

  “Alexis…lie back…don’t try to get up.”

  I settled back down, blinking toward the ceiling as I tried to make sense of how I’d gotten there.

  That man at my door, that woman in the car.

  Avril. Me. Bound.

  Darkness. Gunshots.

  Zee.

  Zee.

  Zee.

  I gasped around the intensity of it as a fresh surge of terror and anxiety washed over me.

  “Avril…Zee.” The plea barely scraped up my raw throat.

  Chelsey smiled, running her fingers through my hair. “Safe. Avril is on another floor. She had a broken collarbone and some bruises. Physically, she’s going to be fine. It’s all the emotional stuff that remains unseen.”

  “Zee?”

  She bit her bottom lip, her expression ridged in both sympathy and understanding. “He’s been pacing outside your door for the last six hours. I wouldn’t let him in until I talked to you first.”

  A strained breath blew through my dry lips. It was relief and confusion and uncertainty.

  This giving boy who again would have traded his life for mine. For my sister’s. The same man who’d drawn me so close and had still kept me a world away. Outside of the things that were most important.

  “Are you up to seeing him? I think if I don’t go out there soon and give him an update, he’s going to bust down the door.”

  “That sounds about like him.”

  Her mouth twisted, her eyes searching. “He saved you both.”

  My nod was jerky. “Yeah…I don’t know if Avril or I would have made it out of there without him.”

  I also wasn’t sure if we’d have been in that situation in the first place if it weren’t for him. If it was about Avril or about him or simply about greed.

  I wasn’t sure of anything except that I was more grateful for what he’d done than I’d ever been for anything in all my life. It was a feeling that was all-consuming. All-powerful.

  Almost as intense as the sadness that had seeped like poison into my veins. That feeling of standing there, looking at the man I loved, and wondering if I knew him at all.

  What of us had been real? Or had everything been fake?

  “Are you ready to talk to him?”

  I swallowed around the lump that tasted like grief and shards of glass. “Yeah…you can let him in.”

  “Okay.” She edged forward and placed a kiss on my forehead. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I always, always worry about you, Alexis. But this time…” Grief clogged her words. “This time I was terrified I was going to lose you. I don’t know where that would leave me.”

  Fighting the moisture in my eyes, I blinked up at her. “It’s okay…it’s over now.”

  With trembling lips, she nodded before she straightened and headed for the door. It swung open and started to close behind her when a hand caught it.

  And that energy. It swelled and rippled and taunted. Zee stood at the door with so much torment on his face. Grief. Stricken. Broken.

  And somehow whole.

  My savior.

  “Hey.” It rumbled across the room.

  “Hi,” I whispered.

  My eyes wandered, taking him in, the memories of that dark dungeon sending a shiver of fear through me. “Are you hurt?”

  He shook his head, voice so hard. “No.”

  Tears stung my eyes and burned with guilt. “I’m so glad.”

  He roughed a hand down his face. The shooting star trembled and shook. “Fuck…Alexis. You were worried about me? He took you. I can’t—” He turned around, setting his hands on his hips.

  I blinked through the moisture in my eyes. “It was my fault. I’m always so reckless. The doorbell rang, and I…I didn’t even hesitate to open the door because I thought it was you.”

  I guessed maybe that revealed to him exactly how I felt about him. That I would always run toward him and never from him, even though I felt wounded that he’d keep something so significant from me.

  A child.

  Questions swirled, but I kept them tamed as I watched the distressed grimace pinch his face.

  “Your fault?” he murmured with pain, finally turning back to me. “You’ve been doing what you’ve thought was right all along, Alexis. Fighting for your sister. While I’ve been nothing but a fool, trying to keep something hidden, thinking it would protect a little boy who I’d gladly die for. They had been playing me the whole time.”

  I wanted to ask him a million questions about the boy. For an explanation. For a reason. For anything that would make that secrecy okay.

  Instead, a stutter of words poured out with my confusion. “That woman? Veronica. She knew Craig…and…and my sister? I don’t…I don’t understand.”

  I sucked in a quivering breath. “When Craig came, Veronica…she was in the car. They had my sister.”

  Zee sank into a chair and furiously scrubbed at his face. As if he were trying to break through the veil. One made up of silence and secrets.

  “I had no clue they were connected, Alexis. I promise you. There was something about that asshole that night when I first found you…something that felt familiar. But I’d chalked it up to the adrenaline. Thought it was just an amplification of the aggression I felt, thinking I recognized the scumbag from before.”

  “And you did know him?” I urged through my bewilderment.

  His head barely shook, as if he wanted to ward off the memories. “There was this birthday party for my brother. Veronica…”

  This time when he said her name, he cringed and then swallowed, seemingly having to force himself to continue with the explanation. “My brother and Veronica…they were together for a while.”

  Part of me wanted to weep with relief, because if it was Mark who’d been with Veronica, then my hurt over his secrecy had been nothing but presumption and speculation. But there was something about Zee’s demeanor that held the solace at bay.

  Hurt radiated from him, and his voice drew quiet and strained. “That night was the last time I saw him.”

  He blinked, as if he were trying to see into a distant memory. “Craig was there talking to Veronica. They were hidden deep in the backyard where it was hard to see them. Veronica had never exactly come across as chaste, so I think Mark and I both had figured they’d had some kind of past or were right in the middle of one. Guess all along I should have realized it went much deeper than that.”

  “They were together…Veronica and Mark…when he died?”

  Zee flinched at the question. “Not sure I would call it that.”

  A disorder of facts spun through my mind, the past and the present. They were chaos, a jumble of details that twisted and turned before they’d all somehow intersected yesterday in what could have been my greatest tragedy.

  I could have lost Avril. I could have lost Zee.

  Grief constricted my already bruised chest as I tried to fumble through the details. “What happened…after? I heard the gunshot right before I hit my head and everything went black.”

  Hesitating, he glanced to the wall, caution in his gaze when he finally looked back at me. Those bronze eyes flamed with hatred.

  “He had that gun at your head.” Every muscle in his body tightened when he said it, the words growing hard. “Maybe I should’ve waited. Let it play out. But I couldn’t take that chance, Alexis. I fucking couldn’t risk him hurting you. So, I lunged for him. I wanted to die when I heard the gun pop off, not knowing if you were in its path, desperate to get to you but knowing I had to put a stop to it all if you and Avril were ever really gonna be safe.”

  His massive throat bobbed when he swallowed. “We were rolling around on the ground. Throwing blows. Grappling for the gun.”

  His head shook. “Then Veronica—” The wor
d broke off and he roughed a hand through his hair.

  “Fuck,” he cursed, ramming the heel of his hand in his eye, choking around grief.

  It trembled through me, and he was talking toward the floor as he spat the words. “She dove at us. I don’t fucking know which of us she was trying to protect…me or that asshole.”

  He looked up, moisture in his eyes. “She took the bullet that was meant for me.” Horror billowed from him. “She’s gone.”

  And I didn’t understand this feeling. This constricting, strangling feeling. I wanted to weep.

  For her.

  For him.

  For that little boy.

  I didn’t know.

  All I knew was it hurt and gutted and made me question my sanity.

  “Zee…I’m…so sorry.” The words clogged and hung onto my throat, as if they didn’t know if they really wanted to be released.

  How could I feel sympathy for the woman who had done this to me? To Avril? But I did.

  He choked around a sob. “I just…I don’t fucking know how I’m going to tell him.”

  “The little boy?” Even though they were barely a breath, the words knocked through both of us with the force of a sledgehammer. Brutal. “Is that what you were hiding from me? That you have a family? Tell me who she really was and what she meant to you. I just…I don’t understand.”

  I could feel the tremble of my chin. “And I want to.”

  He gripped the back of his neck in both hands, before he suddenly hauled his chair up close to the side of my bed, the legs screeching on the floor and his intensity invading the space.

  It stole my breath. The proximity and the severity.

  Agony lashed across his face, and he gripped my hand in both of his, his voice rough. “I’m ready to give you my truth.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Zee ~ Twenty Years Old

  “Just wanted to tell you goodbye. Pretty sure they’re coming for me. Don’t think I’m gonna be seeing you again. But I guess it doesn’t matter all that much when it was you who stabbed me in the back.”

  “Who?” Zee demanded.