The night is alive, and it’s nothing like the one I feared in Los Angeles. The ones where soulless vessels were out, feeding their demons. The sounds of nature melt the last residuals of stress from my body. The stress that a hard screw with Kieran was incapable of fracturing.
We mosey around the same pond Kiera and I had ridden by yesterday. The milky moon. The myriad of stars. So many stars that I feel like if I reach on my tippy toes, I'll capture one of the twinkling wonders.
“I thought God had taken all the stars from the sky,” I murmur as Kieran reaches down. The butt of his Glock is visible from the back of his jeans while he retrieves something from the pond bed.
“A rock?” I cock a brow.
With the gesture of his hand, Kieran signifies how he plans to skip it.
“Where’s my dubious Kieran?” I gasp.
“YourKieran’s right here.”
Oye, I claimed him.“I didn’t—I.” A case of severe tongue-tie fucks with my head.
“You were saying?” The moonlight illuminates the wicked, teasing glint in his eye. Then there’s his smile. It’s less guarded than I’ve ever seen, and here I thoughtI wasthe one keeping all the secrets.
“The stars,” I edge out, gesturing around me. “I was convinced the second coming came already.”
“No. Too many good people in the world. Kiera. You.” He steps forward. Running his hand along the side of my neck becomes an assault to my knees. Feigning astonishment, I turn away.I’m not covered in a blessing, not like Kiera.
“So, shouldn’t you pick a round rock?” I start to search the damp bank.
“Where’d you hear that from?”
Embarrassment warms my cheeks. “A book. Hey, the storyline was amazing. Surely the author was on to something.”
“Aye, you spent a lot of time reading in that parking structure.”
I’ve spent a lot of time reading, period, but Kieran’s tone is tight with remorse.
While Kieran hands me a flat, smooth rock, we emerge at another step in our flawed relationship, one where I connect with him on a more visceral level.
Although my time with Adnan is still open like a festered wound, I mutter about the few years Mama and I lived in the states.
“We returned to Mama’s great aunt’s house. She had taken us in before when we’d tried to come to the US legally. She was legal and incredibly old. After she died,” I pause to massage the lump in my throat, “Mama found another under-the-table gig. Worked practically twenty-four seven. She was...broken. Ya know?”
Kieran nods.
“I’d hate to say that when Papa died, she did. But her spirit faded. I’ll say Mama worked her ass off while I was in school. I was in the tenth grade when she got sick. Possibly cancer. She feared the idea of being deported, never got diagnosed.”
“Oh, Ava,” Kieran groans, handing over another rock. With his acuity, he knows I prefer to twiddle my fingers while chatting.
With the flick of my wrist, the rock taps across the star-reflected lake, creating a ripple effect.
“She agonized over deportation. A coworker of hers bragged how he’d brought his mother to the States for a free life-saving surgery. Not my mom. Her last breath was working to pay rent—extrarent—so I’d have a little more time in our place.”
Crouched, Kieran screws his lips into a frown. “The landlord didn’t...”
Oye, Kier. You get too angry. You can’t fight everyone who’s hurt me, like Hector.“Ahem, six extra months she paid a crummyoverlordis what I called the guy. It was only for a room. Anyway, the coroner came, and immigration came with him.”
“What’s the name of this overlord?”
With laughter and smiling, such alien emotions for me, I run a hand over my face. “You’re crazy, Kieran.”
His response is low, lethal, and either I’ve lost it, but it’s charming and sexy too. “Tell me.”
The growly façade fades as Kieran stalks over to me. His lips part in anticipation. “Let me be there for you,eun beag.”Suddenly, my heart is pounding, and I can feel his chest rising and falling rapidly. My fingers tangle into Kieran’s hair, and I hold him against me. At this very second, I realize I don’t want to cry anymore, to harbor such hate for the world,for myself.