Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(43)

Maverick handed him something.

“This might hurt a little, and I’m so damn sorry,” Dex said. “But we’ve gotta get the glass out, okay?”

I frowned down at the man in front of me. He was so…worried. “It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt.”

I wanted to assure him, but my words just seemed to make Dex mad. Still, he focused on the task in front of him. One gloved hand cupped the back of my calf while the other plucked tiny shards of glass from my knees.

“We need to speak with Braedyn,” a gruff voice cut in—one I recognized from all the times he’d shut me down or sent me packing: Sheriff Miller.

Dex didn’t move from his spot, but the look he sent the sheriff would’ve had me peeing my pants. Or at least rethinking my life choices. “You will talk to Brae after she’s received medical treatment and when she’s goddamned ready,” he snarled.

Red spots hit Miller’s cheeks. “You aren’t in charge here. You’re not even a first responder. You’re a criminal, who—”

“Who knows a victim’s rights include receiving medical treatment and not talking until she damn well wants to. Talk to Travis. He has the phone,” Dex barked.

“Got it here, Sheriff,” Travis called from behind the bar.

Miller looked between the phone and Dex, a battle playing out on his face as his jaw worked back and forth. Finally, he relented, stalking across the bar toward Travis and the phone.

“Looks like you got yourself a bulldog, B,” Roger said with a grin, but I could see the worry in his gaze as he walked up. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” I tried to send him a wobbly smile but flinched instead as Dex pulled another shard from my knee.

Dex’s gaze jerked up. “Too much?”

I shook my head. “No. I just feel it more now.”

My fingers and toes tingled as sensation slowly swept through me. It was like I’d fallen asleep in an awkward position and my limbs needed to regain feeling.

“That’s good,” Maverick assured me.

Dex’s head bent as he focused on my knees again. “I’m almost done. Two more pieces.”

I tried not to wince as he retrieved the final glass shards from my flesh. But I couldn’t help the grimace as he swept some hydrogen peroxide over my skin.

“I’m sorry,” Dex whispered.

“You’re helping.”

“Hate having to hurt to help,” he muttered.

I felt Roger’s eyes on us, the back-and-forth energy of curiosity as Maverick handed Dex some antibiotic ointment and a bandage.

Dex stroked the back of my calf as if he needed to give a gentle, soothing touch to combat the others. “This should help ease the pain.”

“It’s not that bad.” I’d had so much worse. When I broke my arm in the fifth grade. When I got bashed against the rocks by a vicious wave in high school. Childbirth.

Dex didn’t seem convinced as he used a gloved finger to spread the ointment across my knees and then my palms. He carefully bandaged one knee and then the other, then wrapped gauze around my hands to cover the cuts there.

“You know, D-man, you could have a future as an EMT. You won’t do it with nearly as much style as me, mind you, but you’d be decent,” Maverick said with a shit-stirring grin.

Roger barked out a laugh. “He could always work in tech support at the senior center. Bet he could help those grannies figure out how to videocall their grandkids, no problem.”

“I hate you both,” Dex grumbled.

I saw what they were doing. Trying to lighten the mood, ease the swirling tension. But as I came back to myself more and more, I remembered why.

“Nova,” I whispered.

The three men in front of me stilled. Roger shifted, pulling out a phone as he motioned Miller, Travis, and a female officer I didn’t recognize over.

“Is it okay if I record you?” Roger asked. “That way, you won’t have to go over it again and again.”

“Sure.” I knew I’d spoken the word, but it didn’t sound like my voice.

“Walk us through what happened,” Roger prodded gently.

I swallowed, feeling like some of those glass shards had somehow made it into my throat. “I was drying a few glasses left over from the lunch rush, and my phone rang. I leave it on for emergencies because of my son, but…”

“It wasn’t Owen,” Dex filled in.

“We need to hear from her. Not you,” Miller barked.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t bite the sheriff’s head off. “It wasn’t Owen. It was Nova’s name on my screen. I…I’ve kept her cell phone plan paid, just in case. I thought it was a stretch, but what if the phone got turned on? What if we could find her?”

A look of sympathy passed over Travis’s face. “The phone isn’t on anymore. I had a tech try to trace it as soon as I realized what was going on, but nothing came up.”

I fisted my hands, instantly regretting the move when a fresh wave of burning pain erupted in my palms. Dex reached down and gently unfurled one fist and then the other. “Easy, Hellion.”

“Was there anyone on the other end of the line?” Miller asked, his voice tight.

“At first, I just heard water. Rushing like a river, not trickling. And then…then there was breathing. But no one spoke.”