Chapter 18 Braedyn
brAEDYN
Blood roared in my ears as I stared at the phone.
A name flashed across the screen that I hadn’t seen in over a year.
Hundreds of days when I would’ve given anything to see Supernova appear.
The photo of her, Owen, and me at a beach with ice cream cones, pure joy on our faces.
Everything faded as I stared at the name.
Supernova Calling.
The glass I was holding slipped from my fingers, shattering on the floor as my phone fell with it—like I didn’t have any control over my hands or body at all.
Fear flared and mixed with desperation as I dropped to my knees, not giving a damn about the glass biting into my legs and palms. I fumbled for the phone, snatching it up and jabbing at the screen.
It took three messy tries to hit Accept and shove it against my face. “Nova! Where are you? Are you there?”
My words tumbled and jumbled as if one tangled with the next, but there was no response. Only the sound of rushing water.
“Nova?” I croaked, my voice breaking.
I heard it then. Breath. Raspy. Ragged. The kind of heavy breathing you heard in slasher movies.
A second later, the phone was being pulled from my hand by a man with a thunderous expression. Some part of me recognized Dex as he pressed the phone to his ear. The moment he heard what I had, his expression went from thunderous to murderous.
I’d seen grumpy on Dex’s face. Even pissed off. But I’d never seen cold.
A tiny piece of my brain told me I should be fearful. But I wasn’t. Something about that coldness was comforting.
I watched, transfixed, as Dex pulled out his own phone, tapping on the screen and holding it up to my device. All I wanted to do was to crawl through that cell and into Nova’s—to get to her.
My phone flashed and then went black. Dex cursed.
I let out a pained sound, trying to grab for the device.
Dex quickly set it on the bar out of my reach.
“No,” I croaked. “It was her. I need to know where she is. I need to find her. I need—”
Pain streaked across Dex’s face. “I don’t think it was her.”
“You don’t know that!” I bit out. “Maybe she couldn’t talk. What if she’s hurt? What if—?”
“Hellion,” Dex said softly.
Tears filled my eyes. “Where is she?”
The muscle that ran along Dex’s jaw twitched wildly. “We’re gonna find out. But I need to help you first. Okay?”
My brows pulled together. I didn’t need help. Nova did. We had to find Nova.
As if understanding my confusion, Dex spoke again. “You cut yourself. You’re bleeding.”
I looked down at my hands. Cuts of varied lengths and depths crisscrossed my palms, and blood smeared my knees. But I didn’t feel anything—not a damn thing but the gaping hole in my chest.
“Can I lift you out of the glass?” Dex asked, his voice so gentle it hurt.
I had the faint awareness of nodding, and Dex didn’t wait; he scooped me into his strong arms as though I weighed nothing. When had someone last held me? I couldn’t remember.
Through the numbness, I felt Dex’s presence. The steady beat of his heart. The silent fury coursing through him that was a balm to my agony. The feeling of not being alone.
Some part of me was aware of Travis putting his phone to his ear and Cora and Aidan looking on worriedly. But they were all fuzzy.
Dex set me on a chair at one of the tables as Wylder moved in behind him. I knew I should be embarrassed, having this kind of meltdown after just starting a new job. But I couldn’t find it in me.
That embarrassment should’ve flared brighter as Travis and Cora moved closer. “Called for backup,” Travis said quietly.
That had a fresh scowl twisting Dex’s lips, but he nodded.
A man I’d never seen before with the same eyes as Dex and Wylder moved in, setting something on the table. “Got the first-aid kit.” He sent me an easy smile. “Hate meeting this way, Brae, but I’m Maverick. These two idiots’ younger, hotter brother. My friends call me Mav.”
My mouth tried to smile but couldn’t get there. And I swore I heard a faint growling noise come from Dex.
Maverick held up both hands. “All right, all right. I get it. No flirting.”
Dex’s hand cupped my cheek. “Is it just your hands and knees that hurt?”
“Nothing hurts,” I croaked. “I don’t feel anything.”
Maverick frowned as he glanced at Dex. “She’s in shock.” He moved to the first-aid kit, briskly pulling out supplies as Dex grabbed for some gloves and quickly donned them.
Maverick moved in closer. “Why don’t you let me—?”
“I’ve got it,” Dex clipped.
Maverick’s brows lifted, but he nodded slowly. “I’ll be your assistant, then. Even though I’m the one with the medic training.”
“Mav,” Wylder warned.
“Can we do anything?” Cora asked softly, Aidan moving in beside her in a silent offering of help.
Dex’s gaze flicked up. “Help Trav corral the deputies when they get here.”
I heard the sound of multiple people arriving and Wylder greeting them. There were so many voices, but I didn’t have it in me to try to identify any of them. I was suddenly exhausted. So damn tired I could’ve slumped in the chair right then and there.
Dex sank to the floor in front of me, his eyes lifting to mine. “I’m going to treat your knees, okay?”
I gave a jerky nod of assent.
Those strong fingers moved quickly but gently, almost tenderly, as he carefully prodded my knees. A soft curse filtered out into the air between us. “Tweezers?” Dex asked, his voice tight.
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.”