Chapter Twenty-Four
Jaxson
My blood boiled from hearing that Ariella had been fired from the resort. She was too good for them, overqualified to be cleaning toilets and changing bed sheets.
“I’m under your protection?” Ariella’s soft whisper caught in her throat. I almost couldn’t hear her, but I strained to listen to every word.
“Of course.” Didn’t she realize how much she meant to me already? I cared deeply for a woman who held a closet of secrets. Would she ever let me inside?
Declan had texted Lincoln and me the information he’d pulled from the resort. The surveillance he acquired had taken no time to identify the two men who had attacked Ariella at the resort. They were commonly referred to as ‘off-gridders’ living on the outskirts of town together in a commune. I knew a few of them through my work with Eagle Tactical. They were usually harmless, feared authority, and were reclusive individuals who avoided anyone that wasn’t one of them. In the simplest of terms, they were shady.
Why had they gone after Ariella? Had they been victims in the Ponzi scheme as well? We still didn’t have all the answers, and while it looked like her ex-husband may not have rightfully convicted, the evidence still pointed to him. Had the C.I.A. set him up? Had they intended to set up Ariella as well, and she’d got away with a decent lawyer?
Mason turned down the road for my house. “I’m going to walk her inside,” I said. Mason left the engine running as I hopped out from the truck the moment he pulled to a standstill.
I opened the backdoor of the truck for Ariella and offered her my hand. Her eyes fell on the snow and slush as she climbed out of the truck. I held her close, could smell the smoke from the fire on her clothes and skin. It tickled my nose. I probably needed a shower too.
“Come on inside.” I ushered her to my front door, unlocked the deadbolt, disarmed the alarm, and led her inside.
She slipped off her winter boots first and then my jacket, handing it to me. “Thank you for this,” she said.
The energy I’d harbored had me forget how cold it had been outside, how my fingers were numb. I slipped on the coat, smelling a mix of her womanly scent and smoke mingled together.
Skylar hurried down the stairs and stopped midway, her hand hovering on the railing. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Thank you for keeping an eye on Izzie. Ariella will be staying with us.” I didn’t elaborate for how long. It wasn’t something we’d discussed, but the obvious fact her house was a pile of ash showed it wouldn’t be a few short days. “Can you show her to my bedroom for a fresh change of clothes? She may want to shower and get cleaned up. I’m sure you’re familiar with where the linens are located.” Skylar had stayed over enough times that she knew her way around my house.
“I’ll show her around,” Skylar said.
“Thank you,” Ariella said. With quiet steps, she approached the bottom stair and turned around, glancing over her shoulder at me. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
“I expect nothing less. I’ll set the alarm. Don’t open the door for anyone, is that understood?”
“Yes,” they both said in unison.
I wanted to pull Ariella into my arms, kiss the pain away, the worry and doubt she had etched to her face. Instead, I armed the alarm and rushed out the front door, locking it with my key behind me.
Mason sat in the truck, his fingers strumming the steering wheel. The bone-tingling chill licked my spine. I shivered and jogged to the truck.
“Ready to kick some ass?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Mason reversed our course and headed back to the mountain pass. We headed another mile north, and then we took a sharp left on a snow-covered trail, a bit too narrow for the truck. Thin branches walloped the truck while we drove through the thicket of trees. Mason didn’t seem the least bit annoyed by it. Had it been my truck, I’d have preferred a walk in the cold over scratching the paint on the exterior.
Mason shot me a look as we climbed out. It was just the two of us. We didn’t come for a fight; we came with a warning. With my hand on my holster and Mason at my side, we walked along the snow-covered stone driveway. My boots crunched the snow. The slush packed down from multiple vehicles that drove over the area.
The commune housed more families than I probably was aware of. I knew of at least six who lived in the complex, but there were far more who I didn’t know. The outside structure was made of wood, and from first glance, the building appeared large and stylish, a lodge in the middle of the forest. It had probably been built for a wealthy family several generations ago. It had been stripped down to its bare essentials, which didn’t include running water, heat, or electricity. Ariella had thought her cabin was sparse. While the off-gridders had a large plot of land and shelter over their head, there wasn’t much inside. It was as basic as it could be.
I’d been inside occasionally and hoped today wasn’t one of the times. The interior always smelled musky and foul, like tent city in the summer wreaking of urine.
By the front entrance, which was always wide open, the door abandoned, probably destroyed and never replaced, stood a guard with a shotgun.
“It’s Jayden,” I said, keeping my voice down.
“How do you want to play this?” Mason asked, glancing at me out the corner of his eye.
“Tight, but cautious. He’s not the same man he was back in the old days.” We served in the military with Jayden. He’d been a buddy of ours, but somewhere along the way after the war we’d lost contact. He had guarded the compound. I always thought he’d be on the right side of the law, but he refused an invitation to come work with us at Eagle Tactical. We never understood why.