Chapter 23 Jace
JACE
Jace had been fairly confident they were being followed, but he hadn’t wanted to alarm Holly. He wasn’t completely positive, after all.
Now, running up the driveway to the tree farm through gently falling snow, with Rocket trotting beside him, he already guessed who he was going to see—and he wasn’t wrong.
There was a shiny new-looking SUV parked next to the tree shed (more of Daddy’s money, perhaps) and Rob was crouching in front of the shed, doing—what?
Jace saw a flare of light: not a flashlight, but something more golden. A match or lighter. He was setting fire to the straw in the shed!
Rocket raced ahead, barking, and Rob jerked and looked up as the dog ran toward him. Then he bent over his task.
Jace could tell he wasn’t going to get there in time to stop Rob from doing whatever he was trying to do. Holly’s farm, her family, everything they’d worked for was at risk. He felt a sudden quivering surge of adrenaline and endorphins rush through his body.
He knew this feeling. It was the surge of good feelings that always preceded a shift. Like a runner’s high, but more.
His wolf was at the surface again, and it wanted to come out.
Rob wasn’t looking; in fact, he’d vanished into the shed.
Jace fumbled to unfasten his jeans without breaking stride or tripping himself.
Once, he’d had the knack of stripping his clothes off and shifting in one fast, fluid motion.
It was more complicated now, less automatic.
But the wolf in him was all but whining in eagerness, and his hands were becoming as clumsy as paws.
He left a trail of clothing behind him, and then he was flowing into the muscular body of the animal that had almost abandoned him.
It felt good. It felt wonderful. A shifter in their shift form was at their peak, as strong and healthy as they would ever be. He stretched out and ran.
Rocket had already reached the shed and was barking frantically. Jace charged on all fours into the shed.
It had been long enough since he’d used a wolf’s senses that it took him a moment to figure out that Rob couldn’t get the straw to light.
The idiot apparently hadn’t thought to bring any kind of accelerant, like gasoline or lighter fluid; he was just using a regular cheap plastic lighter, and the damp straw smoldered and failed to burn.
Still, he really was trying to set fire to it. Fury overwhelmed Jace. He snarled, and Rob looked around, having all but tuned out Rocket’s barking. Jace saw the instant when anger turned to terror as, rather than a barking border collie, Rob found himself confronted with a huge, snarling wolf.
Jace leaped on him. Rob screamed, and went down flat under the weight of two hundred pounds of furious apex predator.
Although it would have been satisfying, Jace had no intention of truly hurting him.
It would have gotten Holly and her dad in trouble, for one thing.
Still, scaring the absolute living hell out of Rob was a different matter entirely.
Jace opened his jaws, drooling a little, and carefully set his mouth over Rob’s face, so that Rob could feel the pressure of his flesh-tearing teeth, not hard enough to break the skin or even bruise.
Then he drew back. Rob was flat on his back, half out of his mind with terror. In fact, it looked like he might have fainted.
Jace growled a small growl of satisfaction. He turned his head at the sound of Holly’s voice telling Rocket to shut up. A moment later, Holly appeared in the open doorway of the shed with a flashlight in one hand and a bundle of Jace’s clothes tucked under her arm.
“Is that—” She stopped. She was staring at Jace in wonder and awe.
Jace moved carefully off Rob, who showed no signs of trying to get up. He hesitated. For so long, he had struggled to control his wolf around Holly. Now he was the wolf.
But Holly came to him.
She approached him with wonder in her eyes. Transferring the flashlight to her other hand, she put a careful hand on his head and then ran her hand down his neck and buried her fingers deep in his fur.
He was a wolf. He was in full control. And Holly was petting him.
So this was what being a wolf was meant to feel like.
“I’ll handle things here,” she told him. “Dad’s right behind me, and Noelle is calling the sheriff. You, uh—you better—go get—you know.”
She stepped back and placed the bundle of clothes in the bed of the wagon. It was pulled to the side of the shed, out of sight from within. Jace climbed up in the back and shifted instantly, easily. He could tell just from the way that his body felt that he was completely human again.
It was only as he began pulling on his pants that he realized he’d felt no instinctive fear of the fire. His human side wasn’t afraid of it, after all. And the human had been in control, the wolf and the man working in perfect union.
“Good job,” Holly said. She reached a hand down to brush his fully human fingers.
When the sheriff arrived, Holly, Jace, and her dad had been taking turns keeping an eye on Rob in the shed. He hadn’t tried to escape, though as soon as the sheriff was there, he began babbling about crazy people and their crazy dogs.
“Settle down,” the sheriff said. “You all better have a good reason for calling me away from my Christmas Eve with the wife and grandkids. Your daughter said there was an intruder up to no good?” he asked the Colonel.
Holly was the one who spoke. “This man tried to burn down our tree farm. You’ll find a lighter on him, and some burnt hay in the shed.”
“Their dog attacked me!” Rob retorted. “That huge black dog. It’s a menace. It should be locked up.”
Sheriff Farrell looked down at Rocket, panting and gazing up at him with soulful eyes. “This dog?” he asked doubtfully. Like most people who had been to the tree farm, he already had met Rocket, and had been on the receiving end of her effusive greetings.
“No! Their other dog.”
“Their .... other dog?”
Holly covered her mouth with her hand. “Cupcake?” she squeaked out.
As the sheriff turned to look at the two of them, Jace made a hand motion, holding his hands about a foot apart to indicate Cupcake’s size.
Rob looked like he was about to start frothing at the mouth.
“No! They have this freaking huge monster of a black dog and it came at me like a monster! I was afraid it was going to rip my throat out.”
“If our farm dogs threatened you, it’s because they could tell you were a threat to the farm,” Holly said tartly.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they? Show me where they bit you or laid a single paw on you.
Sheriff, you know our dogs. You know how friendly they are.
We’ve never kept dangerous dogs around the farm. ”
“That monster dog knocked me down and was about to bite me!”
As much fun as it was to let Rob keep digging his own hole, Jace decided they needed to get their own side of the story out there, before Rob recognized too much of the truth or got the harmless farm dogs in trouble.
“I saw most of it, sir,” he said. “He’s exaggerating.
The dogs ran after him when they saw what he was doing, and Rocket did jump on him, but he was completely unharmed and she left him alone as soon as Holly told her to. ”
“It wasn’t that dog,” Rob said, but he was starting to look doubtful. Good.
“Every dog looks bigger and scarier when it’s running at you barking,” Holly said.
Jace made a mental note to bark a little next time to improve his doglike attitude, although in the moment, he’d been too preoccupied with stopping Rob before any harm was done.
“They’re used to defending the farm. It’s their job, and they know that.
There’s no dog as protective as a sheepdog that thinks someone is after its herd. ”
While Rob was still looking unsure, Jace said quietly to Holly, “I understand if you don’t want to, but I’ll back you up if you want to tell the sheriff about the ... other things he did.”
Rob’s uncertain expression went rapidly to panic. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“What other things?” the sheriff said.
Holly pressed her lips together for a moment, then she drew a deep breath. Her hand found Jace’s, and he squeezed her fingers encouragingly. She didn’t look at her dad.
“He’s been stalking me for months,” she said. The Colonel drew in a sharp breath, but let her talk. “He entered our house a week ago and destroyed some of my property, as well as leaving me a threatening note. I took pictures.” She showed him on her phone.
“Are you pressing charges?” the sheriff asked grimly.
“After this, I think I have to. I wanted to let it go. I tried to let it go. I told him to leave me alone.”
“We both did, sir,” Jace said, gripping her hand. “Rob approached us on the main street in town a day or two after the doll incident. I’m sure there are witnesses to him threatening us while Holly told him to leave her alone.”
“But he just won’t,” Holly said. “So yes, I’m pressing charges.”
“Damn right we’re pressing charges,” the Colonel said, looming threateningly over Rob.
The sheriff reached for his handcuffs.
“They’re lying!” Rob said desperately. “They set up those pictures themselves!”
“Son, I suggest you start exercising your right to remain silent right now. I’ve lived in this town for forty years, and known your family about as long. You think I don’t recognize your handwriting?”
Now looking utterly panicked, Rob submitted quietly to being handcuffed and hustled into the back of the police cruiser.
“I’ll take a full statement from you both later,” the sheriff said after closing the cruiser door.
“And we’ll want those photos in evidence as well.
But all of that can wait ‘til after the holiday. I’m sure this idiot will be out thanks to his dad as soon as the judge sets bail, but with it being Christmas Eve and all, and most of the civil servants in this county on vacation, that might be tough to arrange for a few days.
Meantime, you folks enjoy your Christmas. ”
He touched his hat.
“Merry Christmas,” Holly said sincerely. “If you’re looking for a Christmas tree next year, keep our farm in mind. We have the best trees and the best prices.”
“You folks do have nice trees. Good luck.” He shook hands with the Colonel, then got back in the cruiser.
Holly didn’t look at her dad. Her hand remained in Jace’s, holding tight. “So now you know,” she said. Her fingers were trembling a little.
“Why the hell—” The Colonel stopped and modulated his voice a bit. “Why in the world didn’t you tell me, honey?”
“Pot, meet kettle,” Holly said, turning to face him. “I thought I could handle it on my own. Sound familiar, Dad?”
The Colonel huffed out a sound, the emotion hard to read. Then he turned on Jace. “You know about this?”
“I swore Jace to secrecy, so don’t blame him,” Holly said quickly. “He was just doing what I told him to.”
“I’m responsible for my own decisions.” Although it was difficult, Jace looked the Colonel square in the eyes, keeping his hand locked around Holly’s.
“And so is Holly. Your daughter is an adult, sir. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, and she’s been dealing with her own problems for years.
Maybe you’re right that we should have told you, but if I had to make the same decision again, I’d do it all over again. ”
“Son of a ...” The Colonel turned away. For a minute he stared off across the fields in the dark. Then he turned back, wearing a trace of a smile. “Hell of a sight, you jumping on him like that.”
“Yes, sir,” Jace said, starting to grin a little.
“Looks like your shifting is back in good order, is it?”
“Yes, sir.” The grin broke through fully now.
“Kinda wish you’d bitten him, but if so we’d probably be faced with a lawsuit ourselves,” the Colonel muttered. He shook his head. Then he held out a hand. “Nice job, son.”
Jace freed his hand from Holly’s to shake the Colonel’s big paw. “Thank you.”
Turning to Holly, the Colonel said, “You know, there are times when I do forget you’re a full grown adult now. Hard thing for a parent sometimes.”
“I know,” Holly said. She fidgeted a little. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the Rob situation sooner. But I am an adult, and I’m used to handling situations on my own. That being said, however.” She glanced at Jace. “Sometimes I forget I don’t have to anymore.”
A smile tugged at the corner of the Colonel’s craggy mouth. “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Tell me something, honey. Are you too grown-up to give your old man a hug?”
“Of course not. Never.”
She put her arms around him, and for a long minute the two clung to each other. When the Colonel finally stepped back, his eyes were suspiciously bright, and he cleared his throat a couple of times.
“Well now. What do you say we go back inside and fill in your sister on how everything turned out? It is Christmas Eve, after all, and it’s cold out here.”