Page 26 of Fatal Thrill
Her face blanched and she scrambled out of bed, naked from the waist down. She ran to the window and peered out next to him, and he heard her swift inhalation of surprise. “Is that what I think itis?”
Fuck, he should have stayed awake and kept an eye on everything. “’Fraidso.”
Flames licked from Jaya’s van, the car alarm long since silenced. Dozens of people stood around the parking lot, watching thedisplay.
Jon cursed himself again. “If the fire reaches the gastank—”
Kabooom. Toolate.
They both ducked from the window as the van exploded into a dozenpieces.
Twenty minutes later,Jon had contacted Beatrice and watched as the smoking shell of the van received another dousing from the firefighters on the scene. He’d given a statement to the cops and B was handling the details from her end. They’d decided not to get the police involved other than to let them run with the idea it had been aprank.
Colton and Shelby arrived in his truck. Jon caught Shelby’s eye and cocked a head to the apartment. She nodded and took off up the stairs. In the bedroom window, he saw Jaya’s face for a split second before it disappeared into the shadowsagain.
Jaya was devastated. She hadn’t said as much but he could see it on her face. That van had been her baby, the only vehicle she had, and she used it for work. She’d painted the flowers and logo for her spa service on the sideherself.
When this was over, he would get her a whole fleet of vans and she could paint every last one of them if she wantedto.
He’d told her to stay away from the windows and keep everything locked up. Whoever had done this had to be tied to her brother’s kidnapping. They’d tracked Jaya down and left her a different sort ofmessage.
Message received. When Jon found whoever had done this, he was going to string themup.
Colton jogged to where Jon stood, watching the firefighters rolling up their hoses. “What the ever-lovin’ fuck?” Bellssaid.
Jon seconded that. “Maybe they did follow you, and that’s how they knew she washere.”
“No way, man.” He crossed his arms over his beefy chest. “I know how to spot atail.”
They all did, and Jon doubted anyone could pull one over on his friend and colleague. “Either way, they foundher.”
“You talk toB?”
“Yeah, Rory found a lead. I haven’t told Jaya yet. Guess I better. And the response to the text Rory sent, pretending to be Jaya and asking for an address to bring the cross, got no response. I can’t figure out if the kidnapper is being deliberately obtuse or just isn’t thatsavvy.”
“Beatrice told me about the lead. I can stay here and wrap this up.” Bells scuffed a boot on the pavement. “And just so you’re aware, Shelby found out some crap about Jaya’s dad neither of us knew. Jaya’s gonna lose her shit when she learns about it, so be prepared. If you don’t want to take this one on, we’ll all understand. I can pull a hunting group together and findFinn.”
Bells thought he was too close, and maybe he was. “I appreciate the offer, but I can handleit.”
“I know you can, but The Wicked Witch of Good Hope can be a handful. You haven’t seen all the sides of her that I have. She can be a total whack job, a draconian ball buster. I just need you to be cotton-pickin’ sure you want to head up this mission before you go all white knight on me. That metaphor about the thrill of a HALO jump? Remember, you always come down and hit the ground. Same with Jaya, and there’s no parachute to pull with her,Jon.”
“Draconian?” Jon chuckled. Only Bells could use a snooty term in the same sentence as deep South slang. “That’s a Beatrice word if I ever heard one. And don’t call Jaya that. She’s a good person and you knowit.”
Bells ignore the jibe about Jaya. He threw his personal nickname for her around as a defense. He always used surliness to keep people at a distance, but Jon knew he really wanted everyone to love and accept him. “Draconian has a nice ring to it and it’s about the only word of B’s that I can pronounce. Shelby told me what it meant and I like sprinkling it into my vocabulary around Marcelo, so he doesn’t figure out I’m just a dumb hick fromOklahoma.”
That was Bells, always deriding his background and upbringing. He and Shelby were fostering a kid Bells was nuts about and planning their own family. Bells didn’t have a mom or dad. He’d grown up in the system and it had taken a toll on him. Jon tried to remember that when his past rose up and gave him the blues. Even Jaya had had it worse than hedid.
Which made him even more determined to fix this for her. She deserved to get her brother back in one piece, and screw Sean O’Sullivan, Jon was taking her to Ireland himself. “I can handle Jaya, but I want you on the team when I go after Finn. He knows you and you know a lot about the family, so that will helpus.”
Bells slapped him on the back. “You got it. My go-bag is in the truck. I’m ready to leave whenever youare.”
Jon returned the back slap. “Hunter will kill us if we miss his wedding, and this kidnapper hasn’t given us much time, so we’ll have to make itquick.”
“Fuck, I was hoping to get out of the wedding. Why couldn’t he just go to the judge like Shel and Idid?”
“One word:Savanna.”
Colton rolled his eyes but they both knew Jon was right. Savanna was a star and wanted the big wedding with all the bells andwhistles.
For half a second, he wondered what kind of wedding Jaya might like. Did she see herself ever getting married? Did she imagine a fancy wedding or a quickie like Colton andShelby?
Jon shook the thought from his head and took the stairs to the apartment. Either way, Jaya would never marry someone like him, always gone, never able to tell her about his work, and constantly struggling with the idea of normalcy. Depression could do that to you—leave you wanting to shut the world away. Maybe that was why his dad had gone off to live in the woods. Maybe that’s what Jon should do one of these days aswell.
First, I have a job todo.
And it was possibly the most important one of hislife.
