by Cora Seton
“Deal.” She went up on tiptoe to kiss him. “But only if I get to do the same to you.”
*
She and Jax had just finished frosting the cupcakes when Dane’s truck pulled up in front of the ranch house. Luckily, they’d already cleaned up and gotten dressed. Skye groaned as she heard his footsteps on the porch. She really wasn’t ready for another argument with her brother.
“If we ignore him, maybe he’ll go away,” she muttered.
Jax snorted as he walked over to open the door. “You obviously don’t know your brother.”
Dane strode in, jaw tight. Skye automatically braced herself.
Her brother glanced from her to Jax. “I just got off the phone with the police in New York City. They got my number from a list of emergency numbers your ex-boyfriend has in his apartment.”
Skye walked around the island to stand beside Jax. “What were the police doing in Jordan’s apartment?”
She was almost afraid to ask. Jordan could be an arrogant jackass sometimes, but he never did anything that would involve the cops.
“One of his neighbors called the police to report a loud argument a few days ago,” Dane said. “The police responded and found the place trashed. They’re thinking he had a fight with a friend of his named Aiden Dunn.”
Skye frowned. “Is he okay?”
Dane shrugged. “Nobody knows. Jordan and Aiden are both missing, but the cops found blood on the floor of your ex’s apartment, so they’re fearing the worst.”
Skye covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, God.”
Jax came over and put his arm around her. “Just because they found blood doesn’t mean Aiden’s dead.”
She nodded. She knew he was right, but she wasn’t going to stop worrying until she knew Aiden was safe. If Jordan hurt him—or worse—she’d never forgive her ex.
Dane pulled out his cell phone. “The detective working the case wants you to call and see if you can tell them anything that might help figure out where Aiden and Jordan are.”
He scrolled through the numbers in his contact list, then hit one and put the phone on speaker.
“Ansel.”
“Detective? This is Dane Chandler. I have my sister Skye with me if you want to talk to her.”
“Have you found Aiden and Jordan yet, Detective?” she asked before the cop could say anything.
“Unfortunately no. We’re still looking,” Ansel said. “Your brother said you broke up with Jordan McAvoy about a week ago. May I ask why?”
“I finally figured out how manipulating and controlling he was,” she said.
“How did he take the break-up?”
“He wasn’t happy.” Understatement there. “At first, Jordan genuinely seemed hurt when I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore. He begged me to stay, and when that didn’t work, he got pissed off and told me I’d be sorry I ever left him.”
“Did he ever get violent with you?” Ansel asked.
Both Jax and Dane narrowed their eyes at that.
“No. He got angry, but he never got violent,” Skye said quickly, answering Ansel’s question while reassuring her brother and Jax at the same time. “Do you really think Jordan might have hurt Aiden, Detective?”
Jordan and Aiden had been friends since college. The two of them were so close they should have been pictured next to the word “bromance” in the dictionary. In a way, they’d always reminded her of Jax and Dane. She’d obviously been wrong about that.
“We’re not sure, but we’re not ruling anything out,” was his answer.
Skye was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that her ex-boyfriend may have killed his best friend when Dane spoke.
“Detective Ansel, should we be worried Jordan might come after Skye?”
Skye blinked. “Me?”
Dane slanted her a look. “Jordan obviously has a screw loose. It’s not far-fetched to think he might come looking for you.”
“Your brother’s right, Ms. Chandler,” Ansel said. “We don’t know what’s going on in McAvoy’s head. We’re checking the airlines, bus stations, and rental car agencies to see if he left the city, but until we know for sure, it’s better to keep your eyes open for anything suspicious.”
Beside her, Jax frowned. “Detective, this is Jax Malloy. I’m a friend of Skye’s. If we’re talking about suspicious, we should probably mention someone deliberately set fire to the hotel where she was staying when she first came back to Dallas.”
The possibility that her ex-boyfriend might have done such an evil thing was chilling. “You think that was Jordan?”
Jax shrugged. “I don’t know. But like Detective Ansel said, we shouldn’t rule anything out.”
“Which means Jordan might also be the one who assaulted you at that apartment building this morning,” Dane added.
Skye swallowed hard. It was bad enough when she thought Jordan might have hurt one of her best friends, but knowing he might have attacked Jax made her feel ill.
“Okay, you lost me,” Ansel said over the speaker phone. “Start at the beginning.”
Jax explained he was a firefighter along with Dane, then told him about the recent fires and how someone had assaulted him with a baseball bat that morning. If Jax was right about Jordan, that meant he was in as much danger as she was. Had Jordan killed Aiden because his friend had found out what he was planning? It sounded crazy. And terrifying as hell.
“As soon as I get off the phone with you, I’m going to call down to the Dallas PD with everything we have on McAvoy,” Ansel said. “But until they get involved, all of you need to be careful.”
“We will,” Jax promised.
Dane blew out a breath as he hung up. “Holy crap, Skye. Are we honestly thinking your ex-boyfriend is this arsonist?”
“It fits,” Jax said before she could answer. “Skye already said he’s controlling and has a temper. It’s not too much of a stretch to think he snapped and came down here looking to get back at her.”
“And decided to take you out in the process,” Dane added.
Skye couldn’t believe Jax and her brother were calmly discussing her ex-boyfriend trying to kill her and Jax. And while she didn’t want to believe she’d spent the past few years with a man who might be a murderer, even she finally had to agree with their logic. While he hadn’t gotten violent with her, Jordan had been furious when she broke things off with him, angrier than she’d ever seen him in fact. What if he’d just snapped? And since her dumbass brother had accidently let slip that she might be sleeping with another man, she had no doubt Jordan would come after Jax, too.
“So what do we do?” she asked.
“Well, for one thing, we call Captain Stewart and let him know what’s going on,” Jax said. “He can get the DPD involved from this end. If Jordan is the arsonist, hopefully they’ll be able to catch him before he sets fire to another building.”
Crap, she just thought of something. “Since he set the one this morning to draw you out, I don’t think you should be going on any more calls until the cops find him.”
Jax cupped her face, his mouth curving. “I can’t stay back at the station while everyone else rolls out, Skye. Now that I know there’s some guy out there looking to kill me, I’ll be ready for him.”
Skye opened her mouth to argue, but Dane cut her off.
“The captain will make sure another firefighter is with Jax every time he goes in to put out a fire,” her brother promised. “And until they catch Jordan, I’m going to be staying here with you guys.”
Jax frowned. “I can protect Skye myself, Dane.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t. I’ll talk to the captain about us alternating duty days too, so that one of us is always with her.”
Skye didn’t mind the idea of having one of them around 24/7, but she wasn’t crazy about Dane staying at the house when Jax was home. She could tell from the look on Jax’s face that he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, either, but he didn’t say anything.
“Do you have a picture of Jordan?” Dane asked Skye as Jax grabbed his cell from the counter and went into the living room to call the captain.
She nodded and opened Jax’s laptop, pulling up the photo folder she had on the Cloud. While Dane leaned over her shoulder, she flipped through the pictures until she found one of her, Jordan, and Aiden together at a Yankee game. She was sitting between the two of them, and all three of them were smiling. Her lips curved as she remembered that day. Looking at her handsome blond-haired ex-boyfriend, it was hard to picture him hurting anyone, much less the boyish Aiden.
“Email it to me and I’ll send it to the captain,” Dane said. “If we’re lucky, maybe one of the other firefighters saw him hanging around the hotel or apartment building.”
Skye sent it to Dane’s phone, then stared at the picture of the two men who had played such a big role in her life the past few years. It was hard to believe that one of them might be dead and the other was trying to kill her.
*
Dinner with Dane was interesting. At least that was the best word Jax could come up with to describe it. Tense, uncomfortable, and painful were words that also fit.
As they ate the amazing meal Skye had made—proof she could cook as well as bake—it was obvious Dane had to work hard to hold his tongue. Jax had to admit he was impressed. His friend wasn’t usually very good at keeping his mouth shut.
While Dane didn’t come right out and say it, he clearly still didn’t like Jax dating his little sister. Skye tried to ignore the scowls her brother sent in their direction whenever they touched or kissed, but even she couldn’t pretend when Dane asked for a pillow and blanket so he could sleep on the couch.
“Why don’t you just sleep in the guest bedroom?” Skye asked, glancing over her shoulder at him as she closed the dishwasher and turned it on.
“If I sleep there, where are you going to sleep?” Dane demanded.
She gave him a look that said, Duh. “In Jax’s bed, you dope. Where’d you think?” Before Dane could reply, she went up on her toes to kiss Jax on the lips. “You coming?”
Jax nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Skye hesitated, as if she was worried he and Dane might get into another fight. After a moment, she gave him a smile and told her brother to have a good night, then walked down the hallway and into the bedroom, Rodeo at her heels.
“This thing between you and my sister—you really care for her, don’t you?” Dane asked.
Jax nodded. “Yeah, I do. Is that going to be a problem?”
Dane considered the question for a moment. “I don’t know yet.”
With that, he turned and strode down the hallway, disappearing into the guest room and quietly closing the door.
Jax swore under his breath, then went to make sure the doors were locked. Okay, so maybe he had violated the guy code when he decided to sleep with his best friend’s sister, but pissing off Dane was a small price to pay for being with Skye. He’d been with his share of women both on the rodeo circuit and after joining the fire department—for some reason, the opposite sex seemed to have a thing for cowboys and firefighters—but none of them could hold a candle to Skye. She was the first woman he could picture spending the rest of his life with, and if Dane didn’t like it, that was too damn bad.
Turning off the lights, Jax headed for the bedroom. Skye was already in bed, Rodeo stretched out along the bottom with his head on his paws.
“Since I didn’t hear any furniture breaking, I guess it’s safe to assume you and Dane didn’t get into another fight,” she said.
Jax felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth as he yanked his T-shirt over his head. “He might not be ready to give us his blessing yet, but he’s coming around.”
Skye didn’t say anything, but instead watched silently while he finished undressing. He ducked into the bathroom to brush his teeth, then slipped into bed beside her. She scooted eagerly into his arms, curling up beside him and resting her cheek against his chest.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said softly. “If Jordan was the one who attacked you this morning, he might try again. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you, Jax.”
He tightened his arm around her and pressed a kiss to her silky hair. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Skye. I promise.”
Nothing was going to happen to her, either. If Jordan got within ten feet of Skye, that asshole was going to have deal with him, and Jax would do anything to protect her.
Chapter Eight
‡
Jax pulled his motorcycle into Station 58’s lot and parked, then shoved down the kickstand and killed the engine. Captain Stewart had called an hour ago and told him the arson investigators and cops wanted to talk to him about the guy who had assaulted him and whether it could be Skye’s ex-boyfriend. Jax wasn’t thrilled about being separated from Skye, but at least Dane was there to keep an eye on her. Skye had wanted to come with him, saying she might be able to help the investigation, but there was no way in hell he was letting her leave the ranch any more than necessary while Jordan was out there. The nut job had resorted to using fire in his first two attacks, but there was nothing to say the guy wouldn’t use a gun next time.
Jax found the captain in the training room with a few people from the fire investigation division, some uniformed police officers, and a detective.
After introductions were made, the detective—Collins—put the photo of Jordan that Skye had given them up on the training room’s projector screen. Then he went through everything the NYPD had sent down.
“I’m going to bottom line this,” Collins said. “The NYPD still can’t find Jordan McAvoy or Aiden Dunn. Based on evidence at McAvoy’s apartment, they think he killed Dunn and got rid of the body. They assume McAvoy then left New York to come to Dallas to get back at Skye Chandler for leaving him by setting fire to the hotel where she was staying. Unfortunately, they have no evidence McAvoy ever boarded a plane in New York or at any of the other nearby airports, either. They also can’t find evidence of him leaving on a train or bus or rental car.”
Jax swore silently. “Why the hell do we care how he got out of New York? We know he’s here. We need to find him before he finds Skye.”
“That’s the problem—we don’t know. We think he’s here. Just like we think he’s after Skye, and now you.” Collins shook his head. “But no one has seen McAvoy for sure and we have nothing to convince anyone that the arson cases are even linked to each other, much less to Skye and you.”
Stewart frowned. “So what hell are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the police department can’t dedicate much in the way of manpower to this case or assign any kind of protective detail to Skye Chandler.”
Jax snorted. “You’d rather wait until she ends up dead, I guess.”
Collins let out an expletive. “That’s not what we want and you know it.” He sighed. “I’ll have patrol do extra drive-byes of your ranch. For now, that’s all we can do.”
Jax would have argued, but just then Tory walked in to tell the captain that the chief was on the phone looking for an update on the situation.
As Stewart left the room, Tory walked over to study the picture of Skye, Jordan, and Aiden that was still up on the screen. “So this is the guy who started those fires and tried to kill you and Dane’s sister, huh? And he looks so normal.”
Jax scowled at the picture of Jordan. “I don’t know. Underneath that blond hair and spray-on tan, he looks like some kind of serial killer to me.”
Tory frowned. “Blond hair? Which guy are you looking at?”
Jax pointed to Jordan. “Him. He’s the psycho ex-boyfriend trying to kill Skye.”
“If he’s the ex-boyfriend, who the hell is that?” Tory asked, motioning to Aiden.
“That’s Skye’s best friend, Aiden.”
Tory looked at Jax like he was crazy. “Huh. Well, if that guy is the psycho ex-boyfriend, what was the other one doing in the hotel the night of
the fire?”
Jax hadn’t realized anyone else had been listening to their conversation until the entire room suddenly went quiet.
“Aiden was there?” he asked. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Tory looked at the photo again. “I found him up on the fifth floor a little while after you came down with Skye. He’d collapsed from smoke inhalation.”
Collins shared a look with his fellow DPD officers before moving closer to the screen and jabbing a finger at Aiden. “You’re positive this is the man?”
Tory nodded. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not as dramatic as getting to save a beautiful woman, but I did lug the guy down five flights of stairs and across a parking lot. It kind of makes a man’s face easy to remember.”
Collins muttered something under his breath. “No wonder the NYPD couldn’t find any evidence of McAvoy leaving New York—he never did.”
“Shit,” Jax muttered. “That means Aiden is probably the one trying to kill Skye.”
The detective pulled out his cell phone. “I’m going to call this in. Get a BOLO out on Dunn.”
“I thought you said Aiden was Skye’s friend?” Tory said to Jax. “Why would he try to kill her?”
Jax pulled out his own phone and slid his thumb across the screen to unlock it. “Who the fuck cares? I need to call Dane and let him know what’s going on.”
But when he called Dane’s cell, it immediately went to voice mail. Jax swore and called him again, but it did the same thing. “Dane, it’s me. Aiden is the guy after Skye, not Jordan.”
He texted the same message for good measure before calling his home landline. He swore when he got the answering machine.
“Shit!” he hissed. “Dane’s not answering his cell and I got the answering machine when I called my home phone. That can’t be a coincidence. I need to get over there.”
As he raced out of the room, Jax heard the detective telling the uniformed cops to go with him even as Collins called in for the closest patrol unit to get to the ranch. Jax didn’t even slow down. He might not be a cop, but that wasn’t going to stop him from protecting Skye and Dane.