Page 124 of Finding His Redemption

Jax looked at the kid, not comprehending at first. Ah. Right. His fire truck obsession. “They do five things, right?”

“Yeah, so they’ll put the fire out and save our house,” Oliver said, but his voice lacked confidence as he looked back toward the bakery.

“Where are we going?” Nessie asked.

Good question. He didn’t have a vehicle, and Nessie’s car was parked on Main Street, visible to anyone with eyes. They needed transportation, and he couldn’t wait for Ghost or Boone to get here.

The hardware store.

Cody Simms had been part of the search party last night and had seemed genuinely concerned about Oliver. And Jax remembered seeing an old pickup truck parked behind the store, probably Cody’s work vehicle.

“Stay here,” he told Nessie. “I’ll be right back.”

“No.” She caught his arm, fingers digging into his biceps. “Don’t leave us.”

Her fear nearly undid him.

“Together then,” he said. “But we need a vehicle.”

They crept through the back parking area, keeping to the shadows between buildings. The hardware store’s rear entrance was unlocked.

Small town trust.

Jax shook his head in awe and stepped inside. The store was dim and quiet, steeped in the pungent scent of motor oil, rubber, and sawdust—the unmistakable perfume of small-town hardware. He told Nessie and Oliver to wait by the door, thenmoved unhurriedly through the aisles, pretending as if he had every reason to be there. With any luck, if someone peeked through the front window, they’d think he was Cody. They had a similar build and coloring.

He found what he was looking for on a pegboard behind the counter: a set of keys dangling from a Ford logo keychain.

“Jax,” Nessie whispered from the back door, “you can’t steal?—”

“I’ll bring it back,” he said, pocketing the keys. “I promise.”

He crept closer to the front windows and checked out the chaos on Main Street. Fire trucks, police cars, and a growing crowd of onlookers. If they didn’t leave now, they weren’t getting out of here without the sheriff’s knowledge.

He strode to the back door and nodded to Nessie. “Let’s go.”

Once outside again, she made a small, wounded sound at the sight of thick, black cloud billowing into the sky. Her livelihood, her home, everything she’d built in Solace was going up in smoke.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, meaning it.

“It’s just stuff,” she said, but her voice shook. “Just stuff.”

Oliver pressed closer to his mother, and Echo leaned against both of them, offering what comfort she could.

The Ford turned out to be an ancient F-150 with more rust than paint, but it started on the first try. Jax had them loaded and moving before anyone on Main Street noticed the truck pulling out of the hardware store’s back lot.

“Where are we going?” Nessie asked.

“Valor Ridge,” he said without hesitation. “It’s the only safe place I know.”

And if Sheriff Goodwin wanted to arrest him there, he’d have to go through Walker Nash and every man on the ranch to do it.

Let him fucking try.

chapter

thirty-six

Oliver’sthird night at the ranch, and the kid still wasn’t sleeping through.