Across the Vanishing Sky (Starlight Grove, #1)(58)

Wylder



Jesus.





The phone dinged again, and Dex jerked it upright, out of my line of sight. Guilt swamped me. Spying was wrong. Eavesdropping? Whatever the hell I’d just done. But another wave of guilt hit at the fact that Dex had been fighting with one of his brothers over me.

“Did I do something to make him mad?” I asked.

Dex’s gaze lifted as he winced. “It’s not you. He doesn’t trust anyone. And he doesn’t love that I’m”—he glanced at Owen for a moment—“breaking rules to help you.”

I tugged my lip between my teeth. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not on you,” Dex pressed. “I want to help. I’ve got an auto-search running on the phone. If it turns on again, we’ll get a location. And I’m chasing down other leads as well.”

He was doing everything he could to help, even though it was risky and caused strife with his family. “Thank you,” I whispered. Because I wasn’t going to argue with him helping. I needed him. But I also wouldn’t ignore the fact that it cost him.

Dex’s phone dinged again. As he read whatever was on the screen, his expression turned guarded, unreadable. Then his jaw dropped. “Oh fuck.”

“That’s a bad one, Mr. Dex. Gonna have extra chores for sure,” Owen warned.

“What? What’s wrong?” I pressed.

Dex’s gaze flicked up to my face. “My brother…Orion. He wants to meet you. He wants you to come to family dinner.”

Another wave of nerves hit. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“Well, it’s not good.”





23





BRAEDYN





The late-morning sun soaked the backyard as Owen and Yeti raced around the space. Owen had lost interest in the alarm project about an hour in. He might have had some serious hero worship when it came to Dex, but he still only had the attention span of an eight-year-old.

My thumb scrolled over the comments on the photo I’d posted last night, and I hit hide on Vincent’s two douchebag contributions. I wouldn’t have to look at them, and he would think I was simply ignoring him. A win-win in my book. Because if there was one thing an egomaniac hated, it was being ignored.

“What’d that phone ever do to you?”

My head jerked up at the sound of Dex’s voice. “What is it with you and sneaking up on people?”

Dex frowned. “You need to be more aware of your surroundings.”

“Maybe I just need to stop befriending black-hat stalkers.”

His lips twitched. “Your friendly, neighborhood, gray-hat stalker is happy to report your system is up and running. Open the app.”

“That was fast.” I toggled to the app Dex had helped me download and set up an account for.

“It’s not that large of a space,” Dex said by way of explanation as he sat next to me on the steps. He leaned in closer to tap on the camera icon. As he did, that scent wafted toward me. It was sunbaked now, as if the cedar and sandalwood had lain beneath the rays for hours. “Here are your four different cameras.”

“Isn’t that a little overkill?”

Dex’s gaze lifted to mine from behind those glasses. “Given everything going on, I don’t think so.”

My mouth flattened into a hard line. “Yeah, maybe not.”

“Sorry.” His voice dropped on the single word. “I don’t want to bring back bad memories, but I want you to be safe.”

I nodded, swallowing hard. “Safe is good. Show me what I need to know.”

He walked me through how to make the cameras change directions, how the motion alerts worked, and how to arm and disarm the system with my phone.

“Pretty sure I could launch my house like a rocket now.”

One corner of Dex’s mouth kicked up. “Not quite, but it’s a solid system. I get my gear from one of the best.”

I had a feeling Blaze wasn’t paying for that gear. “You didn’t have to do this,” I said softly.

“No, I didn’t.”

My gaze lifted, seeking Dex’s. His answer was so unexpected. So…him. Honest and to the point but not exactly living in the land of politeness and half-truths.

He laid a hand over mine on the deck, his fingers not curling around mine but covering them. Steady pressure. Heat. The kind that trailed up my arm and invaded the rest of me. The kind that had me wondering what it would feel like to have all of Dex pinning me down, taking me, filling—shit.

I did everything I could to force the images from my head. What the hell was wrong with me?

“I did it because I wanted to. Because you have every right to feel safe in your home. Because no one should get messed with the way you were yesterday—especially after everything you’ve been through.”

There was something in the way he said those words. Something that had my eyes lifting again, playing with fire. “You say that like you know what it feels like.”

Dex’s hand didn’t leave mine. It stayed—that steady covering. I wasn’t sure I’d ever had something like that. And he didn’t look away from me as he spoke. “My mom. She disappeared when I was ten. And after everything came out about my dad, lots of people messed with us in all the ways.”