Chapter 13 Dex
DEX
The words Brae spoke were the last I’d expected. “My best friend. She’s missing.”
I’d figured some laptop emergency. Even considered that she might be hiding out from a douchebag ex. But the word missing had everything in me weaving so tight it was as if my muscles had turned to cement.
I knew what it was to miss someone. To have no idea if they were alive or dead. To replay every single memory of them over and over until they grew fuzzy around the edges and you wondered if you’d invented the memory.
When my mom vanished from our lives, our father had told us he’d gotten an email.
He even showed it to Wylder. A letter sent the day she supposedly took off that said she was sorry but life had become too much for her.
Five boys, a massive house to maintain, all the social obligations her husband’s station required of her as the head of a multibillion-dollar import/export conglomerate and so-called pillar of the community. She needed a fresh start.
We’d believed him. Hook, line, and sinker. And so had everyone else in his life. They’d felt so bad for the suddenly single father, abandoned by his flighty wife.
But now, I knew just how easy it was to access someone’s email. To lay a false trail. To fake everything.
When the truth about my father came to light and everything exploded, people looked at my mother’s disappearance through new eyes. But it was too late. The trail was too cold. We never found out if she left or if my father stole her, too.
“Missing?” The single word I managed to give voice to had an animalistic edge. As if I’d gone feral and Brae had me cornered.
She studied my face for a moment, trying to read the tone as I struggled to hold on to my mask.
Her fingers braided together as her knuckles bleached white.
“A year ago, on the Three Creeks Canyon trail. We were here for a girls’ weekend—the first I’d taken since Owen was born.
It was supposed to be a thank-you for all she’d done to help. ”
Brae’s words tumbled over each other as she struggled to get them out.
“Nova basically raised Owen with me. When everyone else in my life bailed, she stuck around. She moved cross-country with me. Started over. Helped me with middle-of-the-night feedings, changed diapers, cooked when I could barely see straight. I don’t think I would’ve survived without her. ”
Fuck.
“Family isn’t always blood,” I muttered. I’d learned that the hard way. Sometimes, blood was anything but family. Sometimes, blood betrayed.
Brae nodded, and I saw pain weave through those golden eyes.
“She’s the best person I’ve ever known, and I’m the only one really looking for her.
Roger and Travis try to help, but Sheriff Miller thinks Nova just took a tumble down the riverbank, even though she was nowhere close.
He designated it a cold case, and the state police followed his lead. ”
A scowl twisted my lips. Miller was the leader of the narrow-minded-asshole club in Starlight Grove.
He was also lazy as hell. He enjoyed the prestige that came with being the sheriff in a small community but let others do the heavy lifting when it came to casework. Right before he took all the credit.
“I’m doing everything I can,” Brae went on, releasing her hands.
“As soon as I realized there was only so much law enforcement could do, I started learning. I got involved with volunteer and support groups for missing persons. I papered message boards with fliers and mailed them to local businesses. I reached out to the media and shared Nova’s case, getting as much press coverage as possible, hoping that someone would realize they’d seen something that could help.
I started a website where people could leave tips.
I learned about geographic profiling and started mapping what I could. ”
I couldn’t help the slight flare in my eyes at that and the curiosity that went along with it. I wondered if she could give our map king, Orion, a run for his money.
“I got involved with K-9 search and rescue. I adopted Yeti and trained her from the ground up with the help of a woman in Cedar Ridge, Washington.”
My gaze flicked to Brae’s cabin as if I could see the dog through the walls. Suddenly, her social media profile made a hell of a lot more sense. SearchingForSunrise. The exercises with her dog. Everything.
“When Miller told me he now considered Nova’s case cold, I knew I had to move to Starlight Grove. I knew I needed boots on the ground so I could keep the pressure on. So I could keep the search going.”
She’d turned her life on its head. For her friend.
“But I suck at tech,” Brae went on. “I’ve tried. But I can never get past the basic stuff.”
My gut twisted as I thought about her venturing into some of the darker places on the internet. With the lack of security software on her computer, she’d be asking for sick bastards to infiltrate her system. Hell, they could hack into her camera and watch her whole life. And so much worse.
“What are you trying to find?” I did my best not to let my emotions bleed into my voice. Not to give myself away. But the words came out strangled at best.
My brothers and I had three rules when it came to missing persons cases: Don’t get dead. Don’t let anyone know our true identities. And never take a local case.
It was too risky. The last thing we needed was the press getting wind that the sons of one of the world’s most prolific serial killers had created a sort of vigilante search group.
And we needed law enforcement on our asses even less.
Because the lines of legality got a little blurry when you were trying to help find the people the rest of the world had forgotten about.
Little lines formed on Brae’s brow as she tried to decipher my tone. “I need camera feeds.”
“Law enforcement didn’t check them?”
She gave a little shrug, making the wide neck of her slouchy tee slide off one smooth, tanned shoulder. “Sheriff Miller said they did, but…”
“You don’t think it was thorough.”
“No.” Brae let out a long breath. “There is only one road in and out of that canyon. And there are at least a dozen road-condition cameras set up along it.”
I set the plate of cookies on the table just inside the door, needing the freedom to move. To do what, I didn’t know. Run? Pull Brae inside and make her tell me everything? Slam the door in her face?
I scrubbed a hand over my face, doing some mental math. “Even with a dozen cameras on that road, they only take snapshots. They update every thirty seconds. You could catch one vehicle but miss a dozen more. And that’s if anyone saved the footage for this long.”
Brae tugged her lip between her teeth. “But it could be something. An avenue I haven’t been able to explore because I don’t have the tools.”
Fuck.
It would be so easy. The State of California didn’t exactly have its road cameras locked down tight. I knew because I’d hacked them before. But it would break a promise to the people I never broke promises to.
The bond I had with my brothers wasn’t just a simple blood tie. It was so much deeper than that. It had been cemented in terror and torment. In exile. In being so damn alone in the world aside from one another.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped. “I can’t.”
The defeat in Brae’s eyes was like a blade to a kidney or lung. Brutal and agonizing, even after the knife had been pulled free. “Because I’m the worst?”
I knew she was trying to make a joke, but it was so far from funny.
Fucking hell.
“You are the worst, Hellion. But that’s not why.
I can’t risk it. The FBI gave me a strong warning when I left, and I don’t exactly have room to fuck up again.
Because I didn’t end up working for them because I graduated from MIT.
” All true, just not the complete story.
And leaving so much unsaid felt like a betrayal to a woman I hardly knew yet couldn’t stand disappointing.
Brae’s slender shoulders slumped, making her look even smaller. “I understand. I’m sorry I put you in a bad position. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”
Her understanding was like a one-two punch to the places that had just been stabbed. “I really am sorry.”
She shook her head, already backing down the steps. When the porch light caught her golden-brown eyes, I saw why. They glittered with unshed tears, and it was the last thing she wanted me to see.
“I’ll see you around.”
She didn’t wait for my answer, all but bolting back to her cabin.
God, that killed me. Not just the tears but her fight to keep them at bay, to keep me from seeing them. She was so damn strong. But even the strongest people needed someone to lean on. And Brae had no one.
My back teeth ground together as I tugged my phone from my pocket and pulled up the Hot Sauce and Hot Goss chat. Not even seeing that Kol and Mav had gone to war with the name half a dozen times in the past few hours made me smile.
Me
Case to bring to the group. A personal favor.
It only took seconds before a name popped up.
Wylder
If it’s someone you need to help, you know we’re there.
Me
There’s a complication.
Kol
What kind of complication?
Zero-risk, play-by-the-rules Kol would, of course, focus on that.
Me
It’s local.
Kol
We can’t. You know why. It’s a nonstarter.
Maverick
We might be able to figure out a way to keep our identities under wraps.
Orion
No.
I scowled at my phone. I owed Orion everything. Down to the air still flowing in my lungs. But his finality was pissing me the hell off.
Me
I wasn’t aware this had become a dictatorship.
Kol
It’s not, but we’ve always worked on a one-vote veto system. And we do that for a reason.
I knew he was right, but I couldn’t get Brae’s face out of my mind. Golden eyes darkened as grief streaked across her expression.
Wylder
Who is it?
Of course, he’d be the one to zero in on the important question.
Me
Brae. Her best friend went missing at Three Creeks Canyon a year ago.
Kol
I remember that case. I thought they closed it. I heard from my boss they thought she fell into the river. Got swept away.
Annoyance flickered through me as my cheek fluttered.
Me
Miller says that’s what happened.
Wylder
That’s why she moved here? To look for her friend?
Me
Get the sense the friend is more like a sister.
Wylder
Fuck.
Maverick
Who the hell is Brae?
Me
My new neighbor and Wylder’s new waitress.
Maverick
Brae’s a hot girl name. Maybe a little hippie. She hot?
The now-familiar scowl was back on my face.
Me
Don’t be a jackass.
Maverick
That’s a yes. I see a visit to the Boot in my future.
I bit the inside of my cheek. It didn’t matter.
Mav could hit on whoever he wanted. Brae wasn’t for me for a million reasons.
Neighbor meant you couldn’t escape them when things were done.
Kid meant commitment and family, something I’d never risk after the hell I lived through.
And the way everything about her had me leaning in had my red-alert signs flashing.
Wylder
I’ll pay to see this. Brae’s gonna put you on your ass in two seconds flat.
That had a different sort of alert flaring.
Me
There a problem at the bar?
Wylder
Sloppy, day-drunk tourists. Never seen someone put entitled assholes in their place faster.
My fingers tightened around my phone. I hated the idea of guys creeping on Brae while she worked. I knew Wylder would have her back, but that didn’t change the fact that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Kol
You like her.
I stiffened.
Wylder
She works for me. You know I don’t go there.
Kol
Not you. Dex.
I glared at my phone as if I could make Kol feel my annoyance.
Me
She’s a good person.
Orion
No.
A wave of true anger surged.
Me
Fine. You guys are out, but I’m in. I’ll work this on my own.
It was stupid and goddamned risky, but damn it, I was going to help.