Jason's Princess: A King Brothers Story (13 page)

Right away he noticed the new security cameras were hanging at odd angles, wires showing.

What the hell?

Giving nothing away, he watched Julie get out of his truck and open up Cafe Armstrong. She began her morning checks, starting the generator and getting things going. When she turned to retrieve the bins from the truck, he stopped her and handed her a couple while grabbing the rest. Not wanting to alert her that anything was out of the ordinary, and since she didn’t seem to have noticed the damage, he walked with her to the little galley and began rearranging her items. He heard the crunch of car tires when Josh parked next to his truck.

“Hey, bro. Does she need any help?”

“Yeah… can you just stay with her a minute while I open the office?” He looked meaningfully at his little brother and then glanced at the cameras. Josh followed his gaze. He widened his eyes and nodded.

“No problem.” His voice was as carefree as always but his expression spoke volumes. Jason knew Josh would keep Julie busy while he checked things out.

Giving his brother a brief nod, Jason walked up the steps to his office. The hair on the back of his neck prickled as he put the key in the lock and opened the door.

At first he was relieved because the small sitting area looked just as it always did, until he flicked the lights on and took in his workspace. All of his files had been turned out of the filing cabinet and were strewn everywhere; his chair was in the corner on the side; drafts and blueprints were either crumpled or torn; his computer was demolished; and most importantly the security camera monitor had been smashed. There was a cool breeze blowing in from the broken window.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

As Jarod answered the phone, Jason heard someone behind him. Startled, he quickly turned to see Josh standing there with his mouth hanging open. Since Josh was the engineer for this project seeing the plans everywhere seemed to make him sick.

Jason spoke in his phone, “Hold on a minute”, and then to Josh. “Go back to the food truck and don’t leave Julie’s side.”

Josh looked up from the mess and nodded before walking back outside.

“Sorry, Jarod. I’ve got a situation here. I’m gonna need a deputy to file a report on this mess.”

“Anyone hurt?”

“No, not that I know of. My trailer has been ransacked and the security monitors are destroyed.”

“I’m on my way.” He hung up on Jason before he could reply.

He called his dad next to tell him the situation. James had been kept up to speed on everything since Julie’s car accident. Knowing his father, he would put his main guys on it to help in the investigation, digging where the law, and Jarod, couldn’t.

“We’ll get this son of a bitch, son. You just keep that sweet girl and her little brother safe. Dane seems to think he might have found the stripper. He’s still doing some checking before he conducts an interview with her. If she’s the same person who can identify Billy, then we’ll pressure her to file a statement with the sheriff’s office so Jarod can reopen the hit and run case.”

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll keep you informed of what’s going on here.” He hung up and walked out the door.

His hungry workers were already lined up for breakfast. Josh was outside the truck with a disgruntled look on his face. Julie must’ve kicked him out, which Jason found hilarious on this ominous morning.

Josh handed him a cup of coffee. “Well? What’d Jarod say?”

“I asked for a car; he’s coming himself.” He rolled his eyes. He loved his big brother but he knew Jarod had responsibilities and he didn’t want to take him away from other cases. Jason could handle what was going on here for now. He needed him investigating instead of babysitting. “I called Dad, too. He’s got Dane on it and says they may have found the girl.”

Josh’s eyes widened. “You mean, the stripper in Billy’s car that night? What was her name?”

“Candy or something.” Jason rolled his eyes.

“Where did Dane find her?”

Jason took a sip of coffee. Looking down at his cup he said, “Dad said she’s working a pole at Fantasy Five.”

Disgusted, Josh shook his head. “Pfft, figures. Billy always had an eye for the trashy side of life. That place is a real dive.” Josh threw his empty cup in the trash. “Doesn’t Jarod plan his weekend surveillance routes around that bar? I know a squad car is called out there at least once a week.”

Jason knew how his brother felt. Knowing the types of women Billy had cheated on Julie with made his skin crawl and his blood boil. He hoped the bastard had used condoms, but that was too personal to ask Julie. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook off his rage. Better back to the current subject, he said, “Dad’s team is running a check on the stripper. We’ll know more later today, I hope.”

Jason caught Julie’s eye to silently ask if he could come inside. The lines were dying down and he thought he would help her prep for the next service before Jarod showed up. He didn’t want to disturb the crime scene, hoping that the sheriff’s department would find something, hell anything, to lead them to a suspect.

He stepped inside the tiny galley kitchen, relieved when Julie immediately smiled at him. Her beautiful face was a balm for his troubled heart. Sweetly, she asked, “Everything ok? You and Josh looked like you were having a pretty intense conversation out there.” She pulled out the onions, tomatoes and lettuce from the small cooler. He grabbed a couple of tomatoes and started slicing.

He took a deep breath to keep the anger out of his voice, wanting to spare her from the violent emotions brewing inside of him. “My office was ransacked last night. Some security equipment was destroyed. Until Jarod gets here with a team I can’t work in there. Do you mind if I help out here?”

She stopped working as he spoke. “Of course it’s alright.” Pausing in thought, she then asked with concern, “What do you mean ‘ransacked’? Is anything missing?”

He focused on that adorable, confused line between her eyebrows. He wanted to kiss it to calm himself down. Shaking off that delectable desire, he answered, “Not that I could tell. All of the site’s blue prints were either torn or destroyed. That’s not really an issue. The company keeps duplicates.” He moved on to some onions. “Jarod’s on his way over to investigate the scene.”

“Will you be halting construction on the shopping center? While they investigate, I mean?”

“No. Dad wouldn’t stop the work unless he was court ordered to or if there were an accident where people got hurt.” He shook his head at that horrible thought. If whoever was doing this was looking to shut down the company he hoped they would never figure that scenario out.

Jarod showed up right before lunch. He brought in a few deputies to help catalogue the damage and run some prints. Jason stayed out of his way by staying in the kitchen with Julie.

The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to keep her. Trying to remain aloof was getting harder and harder. He wanted to make Julie see that he wasn’t the bad guy that she thought him to be. He believed he was getting through to her. He wouldn’t leave her side until she was safe, that was for damn sure.

Lunch came and went as usual except for the fact that he was serving lunch and not working out of his office. Frustrated with not hearing a peep out of Jarod since his arrival, Jason finally left Julie to the cleanup and ventured into his own trailer. There was police tape across the doorway. He stepped into his office ignoring it. It was overkill anyway.

Jarod was speaking with some sort of technician about evidence. Jason felt hopeful.

Almost.

“I want the results as soon as possible.” Jarod said to the tech.

Jason walked up to them. “Find anything?”

“Nothing of significance. I think we might have a partial print and we found some hairs in the file cabinet but they could be yours. I put a rush on it. Pray that the lab isn’t backed up.”

Jarod was moving around Jason’s office checking this and that. “I spoke to Dad. He told me about Candy, or whatever she’s going by these days. I’ll check on her myself and see what we can come up with or if it matches up with what Dane can find. I don’t usually like working with P.I.s, especially one who used to be a fed, but in this case I’ll make an exception.”

Jason nodded his agreement. “Can I start cleaning this mess up or is there some magic technical machine that has to come in and collect data?”

Jarod laughed. “No, little brother, this isn’t a scifi movie. Give me ten more minutes and we’ll be out of your hair.”

Jason clapped his brother on the back before he headed back out to the food truck to check on Julie.

He’d just stepped into Cafe Armstrong when he heard Jarod curse loudly. He turned around to find Jarod running to his squad car.

“YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!”

Julie screamed “WHAT?” from behind him and started pushing him out of the way.

Jarod backed his cruiser out of its space and yelled out of his window at them. “Jason’s house is on fire! Fire department is on scene now!”

Jason watched in stunned belief as his brother-the-sheriff tore out of the parking lot faster than light.

Jason just stood there, his brain scrambled and offline.

Julie knocked him on the shoulder and yelled, “Gimme your keys!”

She had her hands all over him in an attempt to find them. Kind of enjoying her touch, he let her search him while his fried brain tried to reboot to get his body moving again.

She found his keys hanging on his belt loop much quicker than he would’ve liked, but then she yanked on his arm.

She yelled at his baby brother, who was just returning from the other side of the site. “Josh! Jason’s house is on fire. We’re going!”

“What? Are you serious?” Josh got out of his truck and ran over to them. Jason still couldn’t make his mouth move.

The bastards have resorted to arson
.

Julie explained the situation to Josh and then both of them shoved him into the passenger seat of his own truck.

“Do you need me to drive, Julie? How’s your head?”

“I’m fine, Josh. Follow me to his house.” She jumped into his lifted pick-up like a pro and started the engine. Unknowingly, she was turning him on when she backed up, put his big truck in drive and flung gravel as she peeled out of the parking lot; Josh hot on her tail. He was impressed with how she had taken over, turning him on a little, which helped calm the ever-present rage that was again boiling inside him.

Arson?
Someone was playing a very dangerous game.

She reached over and took his hand. “Talk to me, Jason. You’re scaring me. You’re not having some sort of breakdown, are you?” She alternated watching the road and looking at him, as she sped down the two-lane highway.

“No, not a breakdown. I’m good. You’re doing good, keep driving.” No way would he admit that her take-charge attitude was sending blood to
all
of his extremities.

No siree
.

But then he saw the smoke and his blood turned to ice again.

Shit
.

They were still a few blocks away. A couple of emergency vehicles had passed them on the way over. Turning onto his street, Julie had to stop about four houses down from the scene. The road was blocked and his neighbors, the ones who were home during the day, had gathered to watch the spectacle.

They got out of their vehicles and Julie reached for Jason’s hand. He held tight. She was his anchor, even if she didn’t know it. As long as she was there, holding his hand lending her support, he felt better.

He stood in a pissed off daze, clinging to her hand like a life-line as he watched the firefighters work to save his house. When the roof caved in he felt Julie release his hand. He thought he’d die in that brief second until she wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him tightly. He heard Josh and the rest of his neighbors around him let out a sad moan.

“Oh Jason,” she began to cry. He couldn’t bear her tears. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head.

“Don’t you cry for me, Jujyfruit. There wasn’t anything in that house that can’t be replaced, ok? Hush now.”

He kissed the top of her head again as she clutched at him. Josh patted his shoulder and told him he had plenty of room for him in his townhouse.

“No, I won’t impose but thank you. I’m sure the insurance company will set me up with temporary digs.”

Julie tried to pull away from him but he wouldn’t let her go. When she struggled softly he looked down. Her big, brown eyes were luminous with unshed tears.

“You can stay with me as long as you need to, ok? There’s plenty of space and besides, your things are already there.” She looked down before she hugged him tightly again. “I like you being there, Jason.”

He went from wanting to punch something to feeling his heart beat out of his chest. Her sweet admission meant everything to him. God help him, but he would burn down his house ten times over if it meant that Julie would admit that she cared for him.

“I like being with you too, Jujyfruit. I’ll stay as long as you let me. Thank you, babe.” He squeezed her tightly against his side.

He glanced at Josh who wore a sad smile on his face. His brother understood. And he knew that Josh was just as worried about the danger, now that it had escalated to fire.

While the house burning down, along with most of his clothes, was a total pain in the ass, he wasn’t lying when he said it could all be replaced. This house had been minimally furnished with the bare necessities. Nothing of sentimental value was kept there. It was simply an investment and a place to crash at night when he was in town. It wasn’t his
home
. So, while most people would have been completely devastated, he was merely put out.

Julie eventually stopped crying, thank god. He would explain things better tonight when they were home. He had lots of calls to make. He had a fireproof safe to retrieve when the fire department gave him the all clear. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to deal with the insurance company.

He didn’t let go of Julie and she didn’t let go of him, until he saw Jarod moving toward them from the other side of the makeshift barricade, his face grim.