Page 53 of A Soldier's Destiny
“Where are you going?”
“To catch the motherfucker. He’s going to learn what it means to mess with my woman.”
“Please don’t go. Let’s just call Steele and Ethan.”
“Call Chase instead, I’m sure someone already called the police. I’ll be right back. Don’t worry. I love you, Angel.”
Then he was gone. She hadn’t even had a chance to tell him she loved him too. Please, God, don’t let anything happen to him. It was a struggle, but she got dressed, slowly pulling on her discarded clothing. Then her phone rang. It was Lily. The only reason she’d call is if something was wrong with the baby.
“Lily? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing yet, but if you don’t come outside now, you’ll never see your friend alive again.” It was the same disguised voice as the other phone calls. Then she heard a woman’s scream and it terrified her.
“Where do I need to go?”
“The parking lot out back. And don’t stop to let your boyfriend know or your friend won’t be breathing any longer.” Jasper was going to kill her when he found her gone, but she couldn’t handle losing another person she cared about.
“Don’t hurt her.”
“That’s up to you.”
What had she done to cause this? She tried to be kind to everyone, but someone hated her enough that they kept trying to rip her life apart thread by thread. Tears clouded her vision as she slowly made her way down the stairs. She said a silent prayer that it would all work out, that Jasper would find her before anything bad happened. That he’d save her and Lily. He promised and she believed him.
* * *
The bakery was engulfed in flames by the time Jasper got downstairs to see what had happened. The brick building had kept it from spreading, but it would only be a matter of time. He had to get Rori out of there, but he needed to make sure no one was still inside. The heat was staggering. As he pulled open the door, he jumped back in case there was a backdraft from the fire, or another explosion. The sirens were getting louder which meant the firefighters were on the way. Whether they’d arrive in time to save the bakery was debatable.
Barefoot and only in jeans, he grabbed the fire extinguisher inside the bakery door and worked on the fire. He was hoping to keep it contained until the fire trucks arrived. The heat scorched his skin and made it difficult to breathe. Glass was strewn across the floor and cut his feet, but he had to make sure no one was inside the burning building.
Grabbing one of the towels Rori used to dry dishes, he ran it under water to dampen it, then held it over his face while using the extinguisher to make a path through the flames from the kitchen into the front of the bakery. The smoke was thick and billowing out of the front where the broken plate glass window had been. But replacing it again was going to be the least of Rori’s problems. It was difficult to make out much of anything in all the smoke but there was a piece of something on the floor that didn’t look like it belonged. Grabbing it and tucking it into his pocket, he made his way back through the bakery and outside.
“Fucking son of a bitch,” Jasper cursed as he gasped for breath and rubbed watery eyes. He made it back outside in time for Chase to pull up.
“What the fuck happened?
“I think someone tossed a Molotov cocktail through the front window. There’s no other logical explanation. I went through the place to make sure it was empty, and I found this.” Jasper held out the broken piece of a wine bottle with the remnants of a charred label. “Definitely not something you’d find in Rori’s bakery.”
“Do you have a death wish? Going into a burning building like that? What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t. It was more instinct than anything.”
“Where’s Rori?”
“Upstairs. It’s only been about five minutes since I got down here. I told her to stay put until I got back and asked her to call you.”
“But she didn’t call. I got an alert on my phone. I had Alex set it up after the window incident. If there is any police activity at this address I know about it.”
“It would have been nice if you told me that before.”
“You were here so it didn’t matter. Backup should be here any second. You can wait and brief them. Besides, your feet are bleeding. You should get them checked out when the ambulance gets here. I’ll go get Rori.”
“Okay.” Jasper leaned against Chase’s truck and tried to breathe through the smoke that had clogged his lungs. He should have thought twice before going into the building. If someone had been in the bakery, it probably was whoever started the fire, and they deserved what they got.
“Did you leave the door unlocked? She’s not there.”
“Fuck no. Do you think I’m an asshole? How can she not be there? Did you check everywhere?”
“Yeah. Both doors were unlocked, the outside access and the apartment. There’s no sign of her.”
