Forever Saved - Kathleen Brooks Page 0,55

love true crime shows so I’d like to think I would know if the person I was dating was a serial killer.”

“Okay, okay,” Andy said, holding up his hand. “I think we have all we need. There’s no other part of your life that would give us leads except business rivals.”

Stella took a deep breath as Katelyn rubbed her back. “I’ll think about it and let you know what I come up with.”

“We’ll meet tomorrow to see what you’ve got.” Andy paused and looked her over. “What’s wrong?”

Stella looked up from the floor and stopped biting her lip. “N-n-nothing.”

Luke and Andy had on almost identical cop faces, but Andy, bless his heart, she could only imagine dressed up in an animal costume.

“What is it?” Luke asked when she didn’t answer.

“I’m boring. Even I’m bored with the list of bad things I’ve done.”

“Dear,” Katelyn said sympathetically. “You can’t be that boring. Someone’s trying to hurt you.”

Stella blinked and then laughed. “Maybe they’ll run in fear if I dress up as a furry and tie Jace up on the front lawn to lick him.”

Luke choked and covered it up with a cough. Andy’s face was flaming again and Katelyn’s shoulders shook as she tried not to laugh out loud.

“Oh, Tammy got lucky with you.”

“Don’t you mean Jace?” Stella asked Katelyn, who shook her head.

“Nope. I mean Tammy. A funny daughter-in-law is a gift.”

“I have plenty of ropes, chains, and other bindings if you ever want some.”

Stella almost jumped. She’d thought Nabi had gone down the hall but he’d been standing outside the open door.

“Call if you need anything. You’ll probably have to call Aniyah for the fuzzy handcuffs, though.” Nabi turned around and walked away as silently as he’d appeared.

“Go on home, dear. I’ll let you know how Jimmy’s doing in the morning and drop off this book Aniyah has that I think you’ll like. It’s about a vampire and the things he does . . . well, I won’t ruin it for you. See you in the morning.”

Stella hugged the woman and thanked her. “You think we can keep my vanilla sex life private?”

“I wouldn’t want to lie, dear.” Katelyn walked out and Stella turned to see both Luke and Andy on their phones.

“Don’t tell me this was live-streamed or something?”

Andy’s head shot up. “Oh no. Totally confidential. Well, except for what Dr. K just did.”

“What did she do?” Stella was almost panicked. She’d trusted the woman.

“She raised her bet on the app to a hundred dollars. We have to get in on this,” Andy told her.

“What bet?”

“You survived the infamous Davies family dinner and Dr. K’s raised her bet on you and Jace getting married. It has the town in a betting frenzy,” Andy explained as he finally looked up from his phone.

“You okay?” Jace asked a moment later as Stella walked into the lobby in a state of suspended disbelief.

“This is a very strange town.”

Jace’s eyes shot to Luke and Andy. Andy shrugged. “We are. But come on, I had to get in on the bet when I could.”

“I noticed,” Jace said dryly. “My phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with notifications.”

Stella noticed Nabi and Faith were gone as Jace put his arm around her. “Ready to go home?”

Stella nodded and it wasn’t until she was seated in his car and they were driving toward his apartment that she realized the word home didn’t conjure up images of her own house or even Jace’s apartment. They conjured up images of them snuggled up on the couch. Them laughing together. Them . . . oh goodness. All the talk of vampires and handcuffs was invading her subconscious because the image of Jace tying her to the bed and nibbling his way down to her—

“I bet you can’t wait to get into bed.”

“Yes, no. What?” Had she been describing her fantasy out loud?

Jace looked at her curiously before turning back to the road. “It’s been a long day and a very stressful night. I assumed you were tired.”

“Yes. So tired.” Stella faked a yawn. Tired was the last feeling she had after that short sexy daydream. Now, how to act cool when she clearly wasn’t? Plus, how to figure out who wanted to hurt her so she could focus on living out some of these fantasies that were pushing their way to the front of her mind.

18

Stella and Jace walked upstairs in silence. He didn’t know what Stella was thinking, but she looked as if a million things were racing through her mind.