Page 10 of To Hold and Protect

“Hope you catch the bastard. The Marstons are in Florida for a funeral. They didn’t need this.”

“Have you contacted them?”

“Talked to them while I was waiting for you.”

“I’m going to do a walk-through shortly. Tell them they can call me tomorrow at the number on the card if they want to know the damage.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.”

“So, the house wasn’t for sale or abandoned,” he told Ember as they walked back to the Marston house. Did the arsonist know the family was away, and if so, how? That made four now, and the first one people lived in.

A few hours later, he arrived home tired and smelling like smoke. Ember had only alerted on one spot, the sofa. An empty Mason jar smelling of gasoline was sitting on the coffee table. Hundred to one the arsonist hadn’t meant to leave it behind. He could only hope that it had fingerprints on it.

He was sorry the Marstons would come home to the damage, but at least now he had a description, slim though it was, and maybe fingerprints. Tristan and Skylar had already sent out alerts to their officers to be on the lookout for a thin dark-haired man with a ponytail.

So much for his art show schedule, though. More late nights in his studio than he’d planned for were in his near future. Too tired to care, he showered, then fell facedown on his bed. There was always tomorrow.

Fifteen minutes later, he sighed. It was bugging him how the arsonist had known the owners were away, and he could make an educated guess on that. Until he proved his theory, he wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Getting out of bed, he got his laptop. Miss Mabel, the town’s eccentric matriarch, had a Marsville Community social media page where the residents were free to post. Bringing the page up, he scanned through the posts.

Sure enough, Emily Marston had posted, asking for prayers because her husband’s brother was in intensive care, not expected to live. The next day, she posted that he’d died, and the family was going to Florida for the funeral. When would people learn not to advertise that they were going to be out of town and their house would be empty? That was like offering burglars free access to the candy store.

It was a page he’d keep his eyes on now, and he clicked on getting all notifications of new posts. If anyone else posted they were going to be out of town, the arsonist was going to have a surprise waiting for him in the form of him and his brothers.

Chapter Six

Willow heard bells. She tilted her head, listening, but the bells were gone. If this house was haunted, she was outta here. She lifted the sledgehammer she’d bought this morning at her favorite general store, where she’d wasted another hour perusing the aisles. Of course, she’d come home with more than the sledgehammer, things not on her list, like fudge and some sweet-smelling soaps. For the sake of her bank account, she needed to limit her visits to Foothills General Store.

“Okay, let’s do this.” She brought the sledgehammer down on the kitchen cabinet with as much strength as she could muster. A piece of the cabinet door flew off, almost hitting her in the face. “Well, that was fun.”

There were those bells again. Oh, the doorbell maybe? They didn’t sound like a typical doorbell, but better that than the bell-ringing ghost she was imagining. A contractor was supposed to stop by to give her an estimate on the kitchen, but that was later this afternoon. She dropped the sledgehammer on the floor and went to the front door, hoping there were people there.

“Oh, thank goodness, not a ghost,” she said after opening the door and seeing Everly there with the two women who’d been cheerleading the football game.

“Were you expecting a ghost?” the brunette said, amusement dancing in her eyes.

“No. Just my imagination getting away from me. Happens all the time.” They must think she was nuts.

“Miss Willow, I brought you a present!”

“Really, a present?” It had been a week since she’d seen her chatty little friend, and she’d thought she might never see Everly again thanks to Grumpy Pants. That had made her sad. “I’m so happy to see you.”

Everly held out what looked like the back of a canvas. “I painted it.”

“Can we come inside?” the blonde asked.

“Oh, of course. Sorry, I’m obviously a terrible hostess.” Had she used the wordhostessever in her life before now? Um...no. She got sidetracked by that for a good ten seconds before realizing two women and a little girl—with a present for her no less—were still standing on her porch waiting to be invited in while she stood in front of them, blocking their way.

Her mother was right—her head spent the majority of the time in the clouds. She stepped back. “Please excuse the mess. I’m remodeling.” She looked around at the furniture her uncle had probably bought forty or so years ago when he’d moved into the house. She’d pushed it all up against one wall until the dumpster arrived.

“I’m Skylar,” the blonde said. “I’m engaged to Tristan, Parker’s oldest brother.”

“She’s also the sheriff, so stay on her good side,” the brunette said. “I’m Harper, girlfriend to the middle brother, Kade.”

“They’ll be engaged any day now,” Skylar said. “Kade said he’s just waiting for her to propose to him.”

Harper jerked her gaze to Skylar. “He said that?”

“Yep. So you going to propose? It needs to be romantic. Reserve a suite at the hotel on the lake. I know someone at their restaurant who can set you up with a candlelight dinner on the balcony. I can see it now, you dropping to a knee and—”

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