Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(107)

My face screwed up as I picked dog hair out of my mouth. “What the hell was that?”

Brae struggled not to laugh. “I told you. I think she has a crush on you.”

I scowled. “She’s not my type.”

Brae lost hold of her laughter then. She crouched down to rub Yeti. “It’s okay, girl. I’ve been there.”

“Maybe we need to get her a friend,” Owen suggested hopefully. “We could get her a puppy.”

Brae pushed to her feet, shaking her head. “There is no time or space for a new puppy in this house.”

“Aw, man,” Owen complained.

I ruffled his hair. “You can always go hang out at the ranch. There are a bazillion animals there.”

Owen considered that. “I do like those alpacas. They spit.”

Brae pinched the bridge of her nose. “Boys.”

“The spitting’s cool, bruh,” I said, fighting laughter.

“Yeah, bro,” Owen echoed.

“Well, how do you feel about a trip to see the spitting alpacas now?” Brae suggested.

“Let’s go,” Owen said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

I studied her for a moment. “Any reason you want to go?”

She shifted for a moment. “I made something for Orion.”

Oh shit.

I scrubbed a hand over my jaw. “Orion doesn’t do well with gifts or gratitude.”

“Too bad,” Brae clipped. “I’m giving him both anyway.”

I grinned. My hellion had a take-no-shit fire, and I absolutely loved it. “All right, then.”

“Really?” she asked hopefully.

“Really.” My grin widened. “We just have to make sure we avoid the bear traps and exploding dye balloons.”

Brae’s jaw went slack. “I’m sorry, did you say bear traps?”

“I wanna see a bear trap,” Owen cut in. “I bet that could snap your leg in two. Totally boss.”

Well, she couldn’t say I hadn’t warned her.





Brae cradled the tin of cookies to her chest as I navigated my SUV toward Orion’s house. We’d dropped Owen with Kol and Sky, so he could go see the spitting alpacas, but he made us promise to tell him if one of the bear traps took off someone’s leg.

Brae’s fingers drummed over the tin in a rapid, nonsensical beat.

“What kind did you make him?” I asked.

The corners of Brae’s mouth tipped up. “I don’t know him as well, so it was harder. But I did maps. A few bottles of hot sauce. Legal scales. And a no-trespassing sign.”

I barked out a laugh at the last one. “Oh, the irony.”

“I thought it was appropriate.”

My gaze flicked over to her before returning to the ranch road. “He hasn’t done anything like this in…I don’t even know how long. It’s the first time he’s come out of his protective shell in his own way.”

Brae gripped the tin tighter, her tapping halting. “I’ll never be able to repay him. To thank him. Maren is already filing paperwork to make the restraining order permanent and working on making my sole custody official.”

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as I struggled to swallow. “Sometimes the giving, the act of kindness, is reward enough for the giver. Sometimes, it’s the miracle. It gives you purpose. Helps you keep fighting.”

Brae looked at me as I pulled up to the fence and stopped. “You sound like you know from experience.”

I wanted to tell her. To give her that one other piece of me—the one I didn’t share with anyone. “You aren’t the first person we’ve helped with a missing persons case.”

Surprise lit in those golden eyes but then understanding. “Who else?”

“About a dozen across the country. Started with a case I had at the FBI. Someone who didn’t fit the profile the BAU was building. Their eighteen-year-old daughter went missing, but it wasn’t because of the killer the FBI was tracking. Her family wasn’t going to get answers. She would have fallen through the cracks.”

“So you helped,” Brae surmised.

“I told my brothers about the case. It was in Idaho, not that far away. We all started adding our take on the case. Kol, the terrain and paths she could’ve taken from the college campus where she disappeared. Orion, building the map with all the points we had flagged for the case. Wylder, creating a sort of profile but for the victim, not the perpetrator. And Mav helped with Kol’s tracking, filling in the missing pieces on her medical records and made Orion’s map into a geographical profile.”

I let out a breath, realizing I’d been holding it through the tumble of truth. “It just worked. We all had something to bring to the table.”

“Did you find her?” Brae asked softly.

“We did.” Sorrow swept through me at the reminder. “There was a guy she was seeing. Older. Not on a great path. They got into a fight. He got violent. She hit her head at just the right angle for death to be instant. He panicked and buried her in a forest behind his fraternity house.”

Pain swirled in Brae’s eyes. “So young. So much life ahead of her.”

“Tragic on every level.”

Those golden eyes found mine. “But you gave her family, friends, and everyone who loved her closure. That’s a gift. Even if they didn’t get a happy ending. There are no more questions. They can start to heal.”