Warm arms wrapped around me from behind, and I leaned back into Kody's solid form, soaking up his comforting presence.
"Are you okay, babe?" he murmured, kissing my cheek gently.
I heaved a sigh, nodding despite the sadness filling me. "Yeah, fine. It's just such a senseless act of destruction. We need to deal with this fucker sooner rather than later."
Kody rested his chin on my shoulder, staring at the mess with me as a fire crew doused the remains with water from their hoses.
"Maybe it was just a coincidence," he offered. "Faulty wiring or something."
"Unlikely," Steele replied, coming to stand beside us. "The first responders found several gas cans."
Neither Kody nor I had anything to say to that. What could we say? It was pretty obvious what had happened. My stalker had seen that global campaign for Copper Wolf Vodka and burned our love-nest down in retaliation. The question that scared me the most, though, was how he even found out about the cottage.
"How long do we need to be here?" I asked, feeling way too exposed all of a sudden—like I could feel a thousand eyes on me, watching my every move.
Archer and the tattooed guy were further away from us, talking to a uniformed firefighter and a police officer. From what I could see, there were just two firetrucks and approximately eight firefighters. Just one cop car sat behind the trucks, and only one other officer aside from the guy speaking to Archer.
"Not long," Kody assured me, his arms tightening around my waist. "Arch just wants to personally speak to all the attending parties. Maybe one of their faces will be familiar and give us a clue."
"Makes sense," I replied in a murmur. Still, I wanted nothing more than to go home.
"Come on, let's go wait in the car," Steele suggested. "Arch can handle this, but I think it's better if we all stick together right now."
I nodded, totally agreeing with that sentiment. Strength in numbers and all that. The three of us headed over to Steele's car—seeing as Archer's only had two seats—and I climbed into the back seat. Archer called out to Kody for something before he could join me, so I found myself in Steele's embrace instead.
For a long time, we just sat there in silence while the colorful glow of the fire engine lights danced across the interior of Steele's car. Kody joined us some time later, sliding into the backseat on my other side and seriously testing the limits of space. The car hadn’t been designed to fit two people in the back, let alone three, which was probably how I ended up in Kody's lap with my legs tucked up on Steele's lap.
It was comforting, being so close to them both, but I wouldn't feel totally secure until Archer was back with us too. It was incredible to think that a little over a week ago, I'd have cheerfully run that bastard over with a digger and now he was utterly vital to my completed feeling of safety and comfort.
Steele's fingers trailed soft patterns on my bare legs, Kody stroked my hair as I laid my head on his chest, and if we'd been there much longer I could have happily fallen asleep just like that. But a moment later, Archer tapped on the window, then popped the door on Steele's side open.
"We're done here," he announced. "For tonight, at least." He reached a hand out to me, and I took it without questioning, letting him pull me out of the backseat and onto my feet. "Let's get home. We can deal with the insurance paperwork on Monday."
He opened the passenger door of his Stingray for me, and a few moments later, we were back on the road with Steele's car following close behind us.
"Did you find anything useful?" I asked when Archer made no signs of offering up information.
He just shook his head.
"Damn," I whispered on a heavy sigh.
"You should know," he replied, sounding reluctant, "I have a guy looking into Scott. None of us trust him, and there are too many red flags to dismiss him as your stalker."
I pursed my lips, thinking that over, and found I didn't disagree.
"What about his age?" I pondered aloud. "He's too young to have stalked my mom. It doesn't match up."
Archer just shrugged. "He could easily be a copycat stalker. Perhaps he found some old documentation of Deb's stalking and developed a fixation from there. It happens more than you'd realize."
I rubbed at my gritty eyes, feeling the weight of the past few months resting on my shoulders like a lead blanket. "I guess."
"We're not trying to cast suspicion on him because we're jealous bastards," he told me carefully, then grinned when I shot him a suspicious look. "Okay, we are jealous bastards, but that's not the reason we're looking into Scott. He's simply the most likely suspect right now. And I would happily eliminate every suspect rather than leave the guilty party walking free."
I got the impression that he meant eliminate as in kill, not simply eliminate from our search. Somehow, I was okay with that.
After some time, Archer broke the silence again.
"I want you to train with Kody," he announced, flashing me a quick look. “For real.”
I studied the side of his face a moment, the tightness to his jaw and the tension around his eyes. This wasn't a casual suggestion he was making, and he was prepared to fight me over it.
"Okay," I agreed, getting a surge of satisfaction when his face flickered with confusion. "But he's training you. And his other clients. I don't think he really has a bunch of spare time for me as well."
The look Archer gave me was just short of an eye roll. "Kody would happily cancel his entire client list—me included—to train you, and you know it. Besides, he's almost finished all the necessary credits to graduate SGU, so he can free up his schedule pretty soon."
I smiled to myself, knowing he was right. "Alright then."
Archer's eyes narrowed with suspicion, even as he still watched the road. "You're making this really easy, Princess. Are you feeling okay?"
A chuckle escaped me at his comment. "Jesus, Sunshine, we don't have to fight about everything. Sometimes—rarely—but sometimes I actually think you've got a good point."
He frowned. "Yeah. But fighting with you is one of my favorite parts of the day."
Now I really laughed. Then shrugged. "Okay, well, how about this. I'll agree to train with Kody because I think it's a smart move to be able to defend myself confidently." I paused, thinking. "And you're a lousy lay. I can get myself off ten times faster with a vibrator."
My seat belt jerked me back into my seat as he slammed the brakes on his car and turned the wheel to stop us on the shoulder.
"What did you just say?" he demanded, his voice edged with outrage.
I smirked. "You heard me. You're a shitty fuck."
Steele's car glided to a stop beside us, Kody's window rolling down so they could probably ask us what was going on. Archer shot me a warning glare, then rolled his own window down.
"Carry on," he snapped. "We'll catch up."
That was all the explanation he gave before sending his window back up. Steele didn't stick around to ask questions, accelerating away at the same time as Archer reached over and unbuckled my seat belt.
"What do you think you're doing, D'Ath?" I teased, like I seriously didn't know. Hah. Men were so predictable.