Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(124)

“Honestly, I should thank the asshole,” Brae muttered.

“Don’t joke. Not about this.” My forehead dropped to hers again. “I need you to be okay. Safe.”

“I am,” she whispered.

I felt her warm breath mixing with mine. Something about that soothed, as did the hint of red currant and vanilla that swirled around me. Brae was okay.

“And I’m all done,” Mav said, forcing me to pull back from Brae, even though it was the last thing I wanted to do.

Mav taped a piece of gauze over the wound. “I put some antibiotic ointment on it. You’ll want to wash around the wound twice daily, but try not to get the stitches wet. Replace the covering and reapply the ointment. I can get you everything you need.”

Brae tugged her T-shirt down. “Thank you, Mav. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital.”

Mav held out his fist for a knuckle bump. “I got you covered, Little Badass. These should be able to come out in about a week.”

They talked about wound care some more and what to look out for, but all I could do was stare at the blood soaking the pale pink shirt—Brae’s blood. It spread over a good portion of the side.

My back teeth ground together.

Wylder cleared his throat. “Uh, Brae?”

She looked up at him in question.

He tossed her one of the tees that usually lived by the hostess stand. “May want to change into this so Dex’s brain doesn’t explode.”

She looked from the new tee to the blood on the one she was wearing to me, understanding blooming. “I’m good, Buttercup. No need to kill someone with death-ray eyes.”

“He. Hurt. You.”

Brae’s hands lifted to my cheeks. “And I’m still here. I hurt him back. I got away.”

“And I dislocated his shoulder,” Mav cut in helpfully.

Brae’s mouth brushed mine. “I’m all good.”

A throat cleared, making us pull apart. Roger stood there with a newly arrived Travis. And they both looked…furious.

I was on my feet in a flash, Brae rising behind me.

“What?” she asked. “What is it?”

Travis looked between us. “We found something in Vincent’s hotel room.”

I wrapped an arm around Brae’s shoulders, pulling her gently to my side.

“There was a computer,” Travis went on.

Of course there was. And I’d been all over that system, gathering as much dirt as possible on the douchebag. I’d be anonymously dropping the evidence in the Juniper County District Attorney’s email as soon as possible to add some time to Vincent’s sentence.

“It was a secondary one,” Roger added, his gaze moving to me. He knew me too well. Knew I’d have already been in every system I could get my hands on. But I hadn’t seen any signs of a secondary system. Vincent’s email address was logged in four places. His phone, iPad, laptop, and work desktop. Nowhere else.

Travis shifted from one foot to the other. “It was one of those cheap deals. Not connected to the internet. More of a file server.”

“What kind of files?” I gritted out.

Travis’s focus flicked to me and then to the woman next to me. “Brae. It was all Brae.”





52





BRAEDYN





Ten days. It had been ten days since Vincent’s arrest. Ten days since my world had been ripped apart yet again. But I hadn’t felt it the way I had in the past.

Because I had the Archers. I had Waylon showing up with homemade dinner. Skylar taking me out to play with Tink and making Owen and me laugh until our sides ached. Mav checking my wound for infection on the regular and finally taking out my stitches yesterday. Wylder paying extra attention to me at the Boot and never letting me do anything alone. Kol offering to watch Owen when I had to meet with my lawyer and the Juniper County District Attorney. And Orion. Who supported me in his very Orion way. He sent a care package full of healing items and chocolate cake. Because, apparently, chocolate cake was Orion’s love language.

And it wasn’t just them. I had Roger and Travis keeping me updated on everything case-wise. Aster and Holly stopping by with flowers and regular checkins. Aidan, Cora, and Fiona keeping an eye on me at work. Alma and Jack taking extra care at our Compass meeting.

I’d built a community. A home. And that eased the pain of everything. The heartbreak.

I pulled my SUV into the parking spot at the trailhead and stared at the sign: Three Creeks Canyon Trail.

My hands stayed on the wheel, foot on the brake, as I stared at the sign like it held all the answers just out of reach.

The problem was that law enforcement thought they had found their answers because Vincent’s second laptop had a treasure trove of data—not just files on Owen and me but also on Nova, including photos of us from the moment we left Rhode Island.

No one knew for sure if Vincent had taken them or if he’d hired someone because he wasn’t talking. His family had retained some high-powered criminal attorney out of New York, and he’d shut his client right up.

But that didn’t stop law enforcement from going through every inch of that computer. They’d found files containing every article ever written about Nova’s disappearance. Even some sheriff’s department records he’d managed to get ahold of.