Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(103)

As I pulled my arm back, Dex’s face went thunderous. It took my brain a second to register the expression and then I was so damn confused as to why it was there. But Dex caught my forearm, stilling my movements as his gaze zeroed in on my wrist.

“Why. The. Hell. Are. There. Fingerprint. Bruises. On. Your. Wrist?”





42





DEX





Fury pulsed through me like waves of lava destroying everything in its path. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the marks on Brae’s wrist. I could see it as clear as day. Slashes of bruising that meant someone had gripped her so hard they’d burst blood vessels beneath the skin.

“Breathe.”

Some part of me heard Brae’s voice through the haze of rage, but it wasn’t cutting it back. Not nearly enough. Someone had hurt her. Touched her with the intent to harm. And I wanted to kill them.

That thought should’ve snapped me out of it. The urge for violence should’ve terrified me. But it didn’t. Because I wanted agony for whoever had done this.

“Dex. I’m fine. I’m perfectly all right.” Brae took my other hand and placed it over her chest. “Breathe with me.”

The contact, the feel of her heart beating beneath my palm…it helped. She was alive. Breathing. Safe.

My gaze cut to her golden one. “Who?” I demanded.

Brae winced, biting her lower lip.

“Tell me,” I gritted out.

“Don’t you growl at me,” Brae snapped. “I’m not telling you anything until you dial it back a few notches.”

That fire. It calmed even more than her touch, her heartbeat. Because her fire reminded me just how strong Brae was.

“I’m not growling at you. I’m growling at whoever fucking dared to put their hands on you.”

She let out a soft huff of air. “That’s a little better. Would it help if I told you I pepper-sprayed him in the eyes and kneed him in the junk?”

My brows almost hit my hairline. Had a customer gotten rough with her? Wylder would’ve called me if someone had. But maybe he hadn’t seen. “What the hell happened?”

Brae shifted, peeling my hand from her arm and tugging the sweatshirt down so the bruises were out of sight. “Vincent showed up after my shift when I was getting into my car.”

Everything in me froze. “Vincent the douchebag ex? That Vincent?”

“One and the same.”

“Why?” I snarled.

Brae pulled at a thread on the couch’s seam. “I guess the newspaper from the town I grew up in reprinted an interview I did with a paper out here. Talking about Nova. Her case. I mentioned how she helped me raise Owen after everyone in my life bailed on me.”

“Like you did tonight,” I surmised.

She nodded. “Vincent’s brother saw the article, put two and two together, and told their parents. The Fabers want their grandson. He offered me money to sign over custody of Owen. I didn’t react well.”

Dread pooled, spreading from my gut and into my limbs. “Do you think he’s going to take you to court?”

“I don’t know,” Brae whispered. “But I need to find a lawyer just in case. I was going to tell you when I got home, but then Sky was missing. And then the interview with Ridley and—”

“Hey.” I scooped up Brae and cradled her to me. “I’m not mad at you. I’m fucking furious at him. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Brae burrowed into me, and something about her leaning on me—something she rarely did without a fight—struck me right in the goddamned heart.

“I’m scared,” Brae whispered, her eyes filling. “They have endless resources. They have more money than God. What if they try to take Owen?”

“He’s not going anywhere,” I gritted out. “Not going to happen.”

Brae’s hands fisted in my shirt. “He’s all I have left. I can’t lose him, too.”

That organ that kept me alive, the one beating at a ragged pace, shattered then. She’d been through so much: people deserting her when she needed them the most, having her only support system ripped away, and now this… Life was so fucking unfair.

But that’s where I came in. I could balance those scales. At least when it came to Vincent. I would find every fucking skeleton in his closet. He wouldn’t be able to litter a gum wrapper without me knowing it. And I would make him pay.

“You’re not going to lose Owen. We won’t let that happen,” I vowed.

“We?” Brae asked, her voice starting to slur.

She’d been through too much today, and the adrenaline was finally leaving her system.

I pushed to my feet, cradling Brae against me, her red-currant scent wrapping around me. “We, Hellion. You’re not in this alone. And in case it’s been lost on you, it’s not just me who has your back. You’ve won over the Archers one by one. We’ve all got your back.”

“Not Orion,” Brae said sleepily as I carried her into her bedroom.

“He did send you cake. I think that’s a pretty good start.”

Brae’s mouth curved as her eyes fluttered shut. “That cake was really good.”

“It was.” I carefully laid her on the mattress, pulling off her slippers and then tucking the covers around her.