Chapter 18 Braedyn #2
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.”
“I heard the breathing, too,” Dex added. “No voice, just heavy breathing. Like whoever was on the other end was trying to freak her out.”
Roger and Travis shared a look—the kind that told me none of this spelled good things. I knew that. Someone had Nova’s phone. Something that had been with her when she was taken. And that person thought it would be fun to scare the hell out of me. What did that mean for Nova?
Sheriff Miller shifted, his hands resting on the front of his gun belt. “And you don’t think it’s interesting that the day Dexter files an open records request, you just happen to get a call?”
I frowned, not understanding the point Miller was trying to make.
His hard gaze flicked to Dex. “You bored, coming back to small-town life after a decade with the FBI? Think you’ll run a prank to liven things up?”
My jaw went slack as Dex’s entire form hardened to granite.
“Sheriff,” Maverick began, pushing to his feet.
“I’m not talking to you,” Miller clipped. “I know there’s all sorts of tech bullshit you can use to copy a phone number.”
“Spoofing a number,” the female officer suggested.
Travis’s eyes narrowed on the woman. “He was standing right here when the call came in. I saw him.”
“Probably could pay someone to make the call,” she shot back.
“You both better watch yourselves,” Wylder’s voice cut in, cold as ice as his gaze cut to the female officer and Miller.
But me? I felt nothing but heat.
A burning rage ignited by ignorance and cruelty. “Are you serious right now?” I growled.
“Hellion,” Dex said softly.
“No,” I clipped. “Not for a damn second.” I shoved out of my chair, still feeling a little shaky.
“You do a half-assed job when Nova goes missing. You won’t help me follow up on leads.
You tell me her case is cold. And now you’re trying to drag down a good man who offered to help me when your selfish, lazy ass couldn’t be bothered?
Don’t you dare try to pull him down in the mud just because that’s where you live. ”
Those red spots crept up Miller’s neck and onto his face.
“I followed procedure. I got countless open cases in my county. I can’t waste time chasing a ghost. Because Nova Monroe is a ghost. She fell into the river or got taken out by large game.
And you’re so hell-bent on saying it was something else.
Even if it was…she’s gone. I’m not wasting my officers’ time or my county’s resources because you can’t accept reality. ”
A ringing lit in my ears. “I would know.” My voice trembled with each word. “I would know if she was gone. I would feel it.”
Miller made a pssh noise. “Feel it. Woo-woo, Bay Area bullshit. I’m not wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars ’cause you got a feeling.”
“Maybe you should do that because she got a call from a phone you think belongs to a dead woman,” Dex ground out.
Each back and forth was like a stinging slap that startled all the air from my lungs. But dead woman was a knockout punch. Dead.
My fingers twisted in the strands of my friendship bracelet as I tried to feel Nova. I’d know. I told myself that over and over. I’d know if she no longer walked this earth. I’d feel it.
Miller’s eyes narrowed on Dex. “Oh, you bet your ass I’ll be lookin’ into it. And when I find out you’re involved, I’ll make sure we throw the goddamned book at you. Get you in a cell where your father should’ve been all his fuckin’ life.”
“Get. Out.” Fury burned through each word as they shot out like bullets, landing square in Miller’s chest.
Anger burned through his brown eyes, shooting right back at me. “You don’t got the right to say that, little lady.”
“She may not, but I do,” Wylder said, his voice deadly calm. “This is my establishment. No laws have been broken here—”
“That we know of,” the woman next to Miller muttered.
“I’m asking you to leave,” Wylder pressed. “Or I can file a complaint with the county. The state. Police harassment. Might make for a nice news story.”
Something told me that was a lie, that he wouldn’t want it in the news. The Archer brothers clearly kept the tie to their father as quiet as possible. But Miller still folded.
His glare swept across the lot of us. “You’ll be hearing from me.”
“That’d be a first,” I muttered.
Travis met my gaze, a million apologies in his. “Here’s your phone back. We don’t need it since we already have the caller’s number.” He handed the device to me as if it were a piece of delicate china. “I’m sorry.” He mouthed the words, but I just shook my head. None of this was his fault.
Roger squeezed my shoulder and made a motion that told me he’d call me later. There was nothing he or Travis could do. Their hands were tied by a douchebag dictator.
Quiet reigned when the last officer walked out the door. Nothing but the sound of my breathing remained. Until Dex’s voice broke the silence.
“No one’s ever stood up for me like that.”
My neck twisted, head tipping back to take him in. There was a different sort of fire in those dark-hazel eyes now. Some emotion I didn’t quite have a name for.
Dex’s throat worked as he swallowed. “No one but my brothers.”
The pain of that slid through me like another wave of glass shards. “Not going to let someone lie about you right to my face.” One corner of my mouth kicked up in the barest of smiles. “Even if you are the worst, Buttercup.”