Chapter 57
brAEDYN
I didn’t look away from Dex—not at the weapon in his hand but at those dark-hazel eyes. The ones that had given me a gift I wasn’t sure I’d ever find again. The gift of trusting.
Such peace came with that trust. I held tightly to that as the shot rang out.
It sounded different than before: louder, harsher. But I just gripped that peace and trust. And I didn’t lose Dex’s eyes.
The gun at my temple slipped, and someone fired a second shot. I couldn’t tell if it was Dex or Travis.
The hand in my hair loosened as Travis stumbled backward toward the river. I whirled, pain flaring along my side. But I ignored it. I needed to see.
Travis’s arms windmilled as blood bloomed on his shoulder, another patch on his chest. His eyes were wide, his face unnaturally pale, and then he fell.
He hit the side of the embankment twice and then flew into the river.
The rushing rapids grabbed his body, pulling it under, and then he was simply… gone.
Footsteps sounded behind me as Kol barked orders into his phone. And then he was there. Dex. His hands framed my face, rough against soft, steady pressure and peace.
“Are you hurt? Are you okay? Tell me.” The questions were a barrage of demands, but I answered him with only one thing.
My hands fisted in his tee as pain rocketed through my body, my heart breaking at knowing she was gone.
My Nova was gone. But Dex was here. Holding on despite it all.
Always my safest landing place. “I love you. I trust you.” I couldn’t hold back from telling him both, not when I knew we didn’t get infinite chances to tell the people we loved the most important things.
Dex’s hand slid down to the pulse point in my neck. “Tell me again.”
My eyes burned, filling with tears. “I love you.” And then the one last piece of myself I could finally give him. “I trust you.”
His lips brushed featherlight over mine. “You made me want to reach for things I never thought I could have. You gave me hope when I thought it was impossible to hold on. You gave me peace with my darkness.”
“Because that darkness is beautiful, too,” I whispered.
Dex’s eyes glistened, unshed tears gathering. “I love you. I trust you. And I want nothing but you and Owen for the rest of my days.”
A sharp bark.
Dex’s lips struggled into the barest of smiles, one he fought for amid all the pain circling us. “And Yeti.”
My sweet girl. I called Yeti over, but it was quickly followed by a wince.
“What’s wrong?” Dex clipped.
“My ribs,” I muttered. “I—” A wheeze left my lips.
Dex cursed, glancing at Kol, who was still on his phone. “We need an evac. Now.”
* * *
“There are two hairline fractures, here and here.” The doctor pointed them out on the X-ray.
Dex scowled at him as if he’d personally broken the ribs.
I squeezed his hand, bringing his focus back to me as I lay on the gurney in the ER bay. “I’m okay.”
But I wasn’t. I was so far from okay. Because all I could hear were Travis’s words echoing in my head. “Want to know where I buried her? Want to know how loud she screamed in the end? Begged for her life? How close you were to finding her? How recently she lost it all?”
Some part of me still held to the delusional hope that he was lying. That we’d find her somewhere in that cabin or on the property. Some part of me was still waiting.
At least we knew now that Aster was okay. She had a mean bump on her head and a concussion, but she would be all right.
Dr. Gomez turned around, sending me a kind smile that made lines appear in the tanned skin around his eyes. “You are going to be just fine. The MRI we ran shows no injury to any organs. You’ll be uncomfortable for a few weeks but should heal nicely.”
“Give her the pain meds,” Dex growled.
I squeezed his hand again. “We’ve been over this. Please and thank you and no scowling, glaring, or looking at someone like you’re going to remove their limbs from their body.”
I wanted to find the humor in Dex’s cantankerous attitude returning, but I couldn’t. Not today.
Dr. Gomez’s lips twitched. “I’m glad you have someone who obviously cares so much about you.
I’m going to give you a first dose of pain meds through your IV, along with some anti-nausea medication as a precaution.
You really do want to stay on top of the pain because it’s important that you continue to breathe deeply, even with it.
If you don’t, you risk developing pneumonia. ”
Dex’s spine snapped straight. “How do we prevent that? Is there a medication you need to give her? A position she needs to sit or sleep in? What about—?”
When I squeezed his hand a third time, it was hard enough for Dex to say, “Ow.”
“I’m going to be okay. Breathing deeply, check. Pain meds, check.” But none of it mattered because the pain in my side was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.
Dr. Gomez administered two injections into my IV line. “I’ll prepare all the discharge instructions, but just know that rest is important. No work or strenuous activity for two weeks.”
My eyes went wide. “But—”
“No, you don’t,” Dex said immediately. “You will follow all the doctor’s instructions to a T. Wylder will find someone to cover for you. And I will take Owen to and from camp—or Kol will help.”
I snapped my mouth closed. Owen, who had no idea what had happened. And I wasn’t sure he ever should. Waylon had picked him and Skylar up from camp and had them helping with ranch chores.
A little more reality slipped in. Pain. And not the kind that came from my ribs.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Dex was there in an instant. “I’m here. We’ll get through it together.”
There was still so much we didn’t know. But all I could think about were the awful things Travis had said.
I wove my fingers through Dex’s, and the steady pressure was there like always. “We get through it together.”
His lips brushed my temple, just as someone pulled the curtain back.
My gaze flicked up to find Kol moving into the space. Dr. Gomez took stock of Kol’s uniform and quickly excused himself. “I’ll just get that discharge paperwork prepared.”
“Did you find him?” Dex asked.
Kol shook his head, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Not yet. We’ve got the county search and rescue team working the river, but the water is high this year. Body could’ve gotten caught on any number of downed trees or rocks.”
A shiver racked me as the image of Travis falling into the river flashed in my mind. The blood spreading out over his chest. The panic in his eyes.
I gripped Dex’s fingers harder but didn’t take my eyes off Kol. I swallowed hard. “Nova?”
Kol’s face hardened, his angular jaw instantly becoming sharper, his cheekbones standing at attention. “We found graves.”
The tiny flame of hope flickered as if an invisible wind had picked up.
He stepped closer, pulling an evidence bag from his pocket. “This was with one of the bodies. Do you recognize it?”
I peered through the clear plastic, taking in the dirt-caked item. But I could still make out the purple, pink, and teal strands beneath the soil. The same design as on my wrist. And that bracelet burned now as if made of scalding acid.
“It’s Nova’s,” I croaked. “It’s Nova.”
The word only lost an s, but it changed everything. Nova. My friend. My sister. My other half in so many ways because we’d walked through the hardest parts of life together.
I’d found her. Like I’d always promised I would. But finding her meant losing her forever all the same.
I thought I’d know. Thought I’d feel when she was gone. But I hadn’t. And maybe that was because she’d never left me. Nova was a part of me. She had been almost from the moment we met. And she would be forever more.