Forever Saved

by Kathleen Brooks

  Jace didn’t answer.

  “Jace?” Stella asked, looking at his tight face.

  “Stella, call Colton. Now!” Jace shoved his phone at her and hit the gas.

  Stella finally turned her head and looked out the windshield. Off in the distance black smoke was filling the sky. “My nursery!”

  12

  Jace heard Stella’s frantic call to Colton, but he was focused on getting to her place as soon as possible so he didn’t talk or even really listen. He knew the curving two-lane country road like the back of his hand as he sped down it, but it still demanded all of his attention.

  “Thank goodness! It’s not my garden center. Maybe my house?” She asked as they drove by the barn.

  “That’s really black smoke. That’s oil burning,” Jace told her as Stella whispered a prayer for her house.

  Jace pushed his SUV as fast as he could over the dirt road until they could see her house. It was standing, but right out front, her garden center truck was on fire. Even through the flames and smoke they could see WHORE spray-painted across the side of the truck.

  Jace instinctively grabbed for Stella to reassure himself she was safe. “Stay in the car. Lock the doors and call Andy or Matt. Tell them what’s going on. And take pictures for them. Where’s your hose or fire extinguisher?”

  “Okay,” Stella said, but Jace could hear her teeth almost chattering. He didn’t know if it was from fear or from anger, but she was upset either way. “I have both in the garage,” she told him along with the code.

  Jace rushed from the truck but made sure Stella locked the doors before he ran for the garage. Jace entered the code and found the fire extinguisher and the hose on the shelves. Running back out, he saw that Stella was taking a picture of the truck. He wanted to make sure Matt and Andy saw the word scrawled in spray paint along the side.

  Jace hooked up the hose and sprayed down the grass and the front of the house. The small fire extinguisher wouldn’t be enough to fight back the roaring fire on the truck. Instead, he tried to prevent the fire from spreading by soaking the area all around it so nothing else could go up in flames.

  Soon enough he heard sirens in the distance. Thank goodness. He didn’t know if what he was doing was right or wrong, but he’d do anything to help save whatever he could for Stella.

  Jack drove the fire truck as if it were a sports car. The second it stopped, Colton, Conley, and Kane were out of the truck. Kane covered for Flint when he was off duty and was a part-time volunteer firefighter as he finished up college.

  Hoses were attached and then Colton was tapping Jace on the shoulder and moving him out of the way. “The size of the hose matters along with how you use it,” Colton called out to Jace. You could always depend on Colton to make you smile, even in the middle of an emergency.

  Colton looked over the blaze and then ordered Conley and Jack to handle the foam sprayer to control the engine fire. Colton and Kane took over spraying down the interior once the engine fire was extinguished.

  Jace waited with his arm around Stella off to the side. The house was safe, and before too long the fire was completely out but the truck was a total loss.

  Colton and his team looked over the truck as the sheriff’s department arrived. Cody Gray was the first to arrive with Matt just minutes behind.

  “What’s going on?” Stella asked as they watched Cody and Matt walking around the truck with Colton pointing out things as the rest of the firefighters cleaned up.

  “I’m assuming they’re collecting evidence since this was clearly an arson case.”

  Stella shivered. “Did you see what Rick said about me? It was the same as the texts messages.”

  “Have you checked your phone? Do you think he sent another message?” Jace felt the anger building in him and nearly exploding. He wanted nothing more than to make Rick hurt for the pain he was causing Stella.

  “I’m afraid to. It’s in your car.”

  “I think we better take a look.” Jace dropped his arm from around her and opened the door. He found her phone, but when he looked there were no new messages. “Nothing.”

  Stella reacted physically. Her shoulders slumped with relief as if one more text might knock her down. A short distance away, the three men nodded and then turned to look at Stella. Jace knew his friends and cousin well enough to know it wasn’t good. They walked toward Stella and Jace with their jaws tight. Jace put his arm around Stella in silent support.

  “Hi, Stella. This is my deputy, Cody Gray,” Matt told her. “Colton has been showing us the damage. Colton, tell them what you found.”

  “I’m sorry, Stell, but this was definitely intentional. More than that, it was done purposefully to completely destroy the truck. There were gas-soaked cloths lying on the engine under the hood, on the front driver’s seat, and then two in the bed of the truck.”

  “Then you saw the word written on the side of your car.” Matt jumped back into the conversation and took over for Colton. “Andy has kept me up to date on his investigation and we’re going to see if we can get a warrant for the last three months of your ex’s credit card records to see if we find proof he started the fire. However, I will tell you that it’s going to be hard to get. We have no real evidence it was him besides him being the most likely suspect.”

  Cody hooked his thumbs into his utility belt as he cleared his throat. “Could it be anyone else?”

  Stella instantly shook her head. “I thought Rick was more of a love ‘em, leave ‘em, move-onto-the-next-one kind of guy. And then he does this. I didn’t think he was capable so now I’m second-guessing everything I thought I knew. Could it be someone else? I guess, but if it wasn’t Rick, who knows who it could be?”

  “Any other boyfriends or men you turned down for dates?” Cody asked.

  “I dated Irwin Weller before Rick, but he moved to Missouri almost two years ago. Plus, he’s the one who broke up with me. Nicely, but still broke it off.”

  “What about disgruntled employees or clients?” Matt asked after he and Cody shared a look. A look indicated Irwin wasn’t much of a suspect.

  “I’ll talk to my manager in Lexington to see if we’ve had anyone stand out as being particularly upset, but I can’t recall anyone.” Jace felt Stella’s body shiver under his hands. She was upset, but she was trying not to let it show.

  “Anyone ask you out on a date that you’ve turned down?” Cody asked.

  Stella shook her head. “Jace was the first to ask me out in months. I was asked out a handful of times by random guys coming in to pick up flowers for their moms or sadly, their wives. But that was back when I was dating Rick. None were upset when I told them I had a boyfriend and none asked me out again.”

  “Think you can come up with their names so we can look into them to cross them off the list?” Matt pulled out his notepad ready to write them down.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t remember. I can tell you the three who asked me never came back into the shop. Do you need me to dig through my records and see if I can find them?”

  Matt shook his head. “Not right now. If they didn’t try to ask you out again, follow you on social media, or come in over and over again so they could keep seeing you, then it’s not worth pursing at this time. If things get worse and we still have no answers, then I’ll have you get me those names.”

  “You think it’ll get worse?” Stella’s voice cracked as she asked Matt and Cody.

  Their grim faces told her the answer. “I do,” Matt said. “It went from text messages to arson. That’s a pretty big leap in a short period of time. The next leap is physical violence.”

  “I don’t understand why this is happening to me.” Stella then broke down. Her body shook and she leaned into Jace as he wrapped both arms around her and held her tight.

  “I think that’s why.” Matt paused to let it sink in. “It’s tied to you seeing Jace. The first time you saw him you got the texts. Now we all know you spent the night together and it escalated up to arson.” />
  “But I don’t want to stop seeing Jace,” Stella blurted out. Thank goodness because he didn’t want to stop seeing her either.

  “Someone is hoping to scare you away from him. Now, I’ve been in the position of having the woman I love being in danger. It’s a horrible feeling, but there’s no way I’d ever stop seeing her either. We’re going to add more patrols to your property, and I’ve also asked a friend to put in a security system.” Matt looked to Jace and said, “Nash.”

  “Nash? Sophie’s husband?” Stella asked as both Matt and Jace looked surprised. “I’ve been studying,” she admitted sheepishly. “There’re just so many of you all that I asked Camila make me a chart.”

  “I wish I had one of those when I moved here,” Matt muttered, but it was enough to make Stella laugh a little. “Now, I have some things you can do to reduce your risk.”

  Matt began to talk, but Jace’s mind was already on what needed to be done. He smiled down at Stella as he removed his arm and stepped away. He kept walking until he was out of earshot and then pulled out his phone.

  “Dylan, it’s Jace. Where do you keep your weapons?”

  “Bro,” was all his older brother said.

  “Well, where do you keep them?”

  “Is this about Stella?”

  “What do you know about her?” Jace shouldn’t be surprised, but he still was. Dylan was who knows where and yet he knew everything that happened in his hometown.

  “Miss Lily texted. Ma texted. Dad freaking loves her. Piper does, too. Even Cassidy texted asking me to look into her because everyone loves her and she was worried Stella was too good to be true.”

  “Do you know that after she spent the night with me, someone lit her truck on fire after spray painting the word whore across it.”

  The line was quiet for a moment. “No. I didn’t know that. Everything I found about her points to her being a really nice lady. That’s just wrong. I have a storage locker in Piper’s underground lab.” Dylan rattled off the combination for the lock and then paused again. “Do you need me to come home?”

  “I’ve got it, but thank you.”

  “Are you sure? You’re the nice one in the family.”

  “I’m a Davies, Dylan. Do you really think Uncle Cy let me go off to a war-torn African country where rebels routinely kidnap and kill anyone not on their side without preparing me?” Uncle Cy had been a spy and was an all-round badass.

  “Point taken. Just know I’ll always come if you need me.”

  “Thanks, Dyl. Stay safe.”

  “You too, bro.”

  Jace hung up with Dylan and looked over to where Stella was talking to Matt and Cody. He’d ask them to stay with her for a little while. He had an errand to run.

  13

  Stella watched Jace drive off so fast that the dust clouds were too thick to see his truck. She suddenly felt very alone and vulnerable even with people surrounding her. The smell of burnt metal and upholstery filled the air, a constant reminder someone was out to hurt her.

  “You really think I’m in danger because I’m seeing Jace?” Stella asked Matt as Cody stepped to the side to see if he could get a warrant.

  “I think the timing is a little too coincidental to be discounted,” Matt said diplomatically.

  Stella thought about it for a minute and nodded. They had to be linked. “By your theory, the more I’m seen with Jace, the more Rick will retaliate.”

  “Right.” Matt glanced at Cody who was angrily talking into the phone. “By the way that looks, Addison doesn’t think we’ll get that warrant.”

  Stella decided it was time to woman up. “So, get the security cameras in and then I will lure him out by openly dating Jace.” Suddenly another worry hit her. “Will Jace be in danger?”

  Matt thought about it for a minute. “I can’t say. So far he hasn’t been the target. It’s always possible Rick will target Jace, too. But Jace is a Davies and can take care of himself.”

  “What does being a Davies have to do with it?”

  “You’ll find out at the family dinner,” Matt chuckled. “I’ll go easy on you, though.”

  What the heck did that mean?

  * * *

  Jace looked around the underground nanotech lab that Piper had rebuilt after her last one had been discovered. He found the safe and entered the twelve-digit combination. He heard a whoosh as large metal bars were pulled free and the thick steel door popped open.

  When Jace pushed the heavy door open, the lights inside the room came on automatically. Jace had always thought he knew his older brother. Dylan had been a Delta Force soldier until President Stratton had tapped him and his wife to be on some off-the-books black ops team. However, when Dylan was home, he was just Jace’s big brother.

  This armory Jace was now in the middle of told of Dylan’s other life. There were things in here Jace couldn’t identify, but he knew they were deadly. Crates of ammunition, different kinds of explosives, and rifles lined the walls. Guns and rifles of various sizes hung on the walls. Boxes of ammunition were in marked bins on shelves under the pegboard of guns. Another wall was filled with grenade launchers, shoulder-fired missiles, and what looked to be a flamethrower.

  Jace didn’t like to think about the violence he’d witnessed from the African rebels, but it had been there. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen the results of raids—the killings, rapes, and kidnappings. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t held off the rebels who had tried to attack a school full of kids who were given two choices: become a child fighter or die.

  Jace didn’t like violence, but he still picked up the SIG Sauer M17 pistol along with some magazines in the neatly labeled box. Who knew, based on Dylan’s messy room when he was growing up, that he’d be so organized?

  He was almost out the door when he spotted the tactical knife. Jace grabbed it and slipped it into his pocket. Then he attached the SIG holster to his waistband so it tucked neatly into the small of his back and out of reach of any children. He checked the gun before loading a magazine, then holstered the gun and walked out of the armory with the prospect of violence weighing heavily on him. However, nothing would stop him from protecting Stella. Nothing.

  In the five days since the fire Stella and Jace had fallen into a rhythm. Jace awoke either at his house or Stella’s. They ate breakfast together at the Blossom Café before he drove Stella to work and left her in the capable hands of Nolan Flynn. Nolan had been a couple years ahead of Jace in high school, but they’d still hung out together.

  Nolan’s parents owned the seed store all the farmers used in downtown, but Nolan was also a part-time volunteer firefighter and had offered to work at the nursery to keep an eye on things until Matt, Cody, Luke, and Andy could find the person behind the fire. Stella had been skeptical, but Jace swore Nolan would be an asset and so far he had been. He knew a lot about farming and was learning the rest quickly. Plus, in high school, he’d asked Ahmed Mueez, the premier international badass soldier, if he could date his daughter. Nolan had nerves of steel.

  At the end of the day, Jace would either drive to Stella’s or Nolan would drop Stella off at Jace’s. It was a strange courtship, but Jace had known it wasn’t the time to put the full-court press on Stella. With sex off the table for now, they talked over breakfast and dinner and then snuggled together at night. It wasn’t that Jace wasn’t thinking about sex. He was . . . a lot. Instead, he tried to focus on what he did have—deep and breathless kisses. The feel of Stella’s body held tight against his. And the most rewarding part? The trust and bond that was developing between them.

  However, tonight might put those bonds to the test. Even as Jace was wrapping up the last couple of patients for the day, his mind was on what waited for them. His Grandma Marcy had demanded the family’s attendance at dinner tonight. Not just Jace and his immediate family, but the entire Davies family with the express order to bring Stella.

  Jace finished with a patient and went into his office as Molly got started on the next pati
ent. He pulled out his phone and called Stella.

  “Hey, Jace!”

  “How are you doing, Stella?”

  “Just wrapping up here. What about you?”

  “I have about an hour left.”

  “I’ll grab my things and have Nolan drop me off at your place. Does that work?”

  “Yes, but I wanted to remind you about tonight. My grandma has called twice to make sure you’re coming to family dinner. You don’t have to go, but I’d like you to join me if you’re up to a night of intense interrogation.”

  “That isn’t the nicest way to describe family dinner.”

  “It’s my grandparents’ and parents’ way to find out if we’re dating,” Jace admitted with equal measure embarrassment and nervousness. He and Stella hadn’t actually talked about their relationship, even though he himself considered them a couple in progress. He just hadn’t made the move yet to ask her to make it official.

  The line was silent and then he finally heard Stella. “Oh, okay. I still look forward to meeting those I haven’t met. I’ll see you shortly.”

  Jace hung up and took a deep breath. She hadn’t said no. They were on.

  * * *

  What the hell was that?

  Stella hung up the phone and stared in confusion at it as Nolan loaded mulch into the bed of a pickup. He slammed the tailgate shut and the last customer of the day drove off.

  “What’s going on?” Nolan asked. “You have a strange look on your face.”

  Nolan had been a godsend. He knew everyone in the area and helped make introductions. Stella has seen a steady uptick in local customers with Nolan vouching for her. In fact, she and Nolan had started a joint promotion between the feed store and her garden center. She also found his presence brought out a frightening number of single ladies. However, once they were there, Nolan sold them so many flowers she was going to need to put in a new order very soon.