“You need to come with me.”
He sounded so much like I cop, I almost asked if I was under arrest.
“Why?” I trusted him, but I was a big fan of the phrase “trust but verify”.
He held up a wallet and opened it to show me the driver’s license.
It was like we’d conjured the guy out of thin air. “Oh shit,” I said.
Nick nodded. “Shit, indeed.”
CHAPTER 10
NICK
Iwasn’t angry. Or at least I was trying very hard not to be. Cara and I were settling into a nice travel routine and maybe even the beginning of a friendship. I’d hate to fuck it up by punching her ex in the face right in front of her. Not that she’d looked thrilled about his hands being zip-tied to his steering wheel, but at least there hadn’t been bloodshed. Yet.
The situation wasn’t as bad as I’d first worried it was. At least the asshole ex wasn’t a covert op on my trail. But we were hours from home and there he was, right behind us, following her without her knowledge or permission. That made him a bona fide stalker. And I would forever hold it against him that he’d broken her heart and then spent months stomping all over the shattered pieces.
While I listened to Riley demand answers about who the hell I was and why Cara was riding with a lunatic who carried zip-ties in his pocket, I called Pasco, one of HEAT’s resident IT geniuses.
“I have a situation,” I said the second he connected. “I’ve been followed.”
“Doing SIGINT now,” Pasco said without needing to hear anything more. “If you get me a visual on the hostiles, I’ll run facial recognition while I’m at it.”
Cara was doing an excellent job of stonewalling her ex, with her arms crossed over her chest and the look on her face telling him to fuck off. The woman was a master at nonverbal communication, and even the zip-tied bonehead seemed to have read her meaning and had gone quiet.
Good. Now I could focus on my call. “No need for a visual ID,” I told Pasco. “He’s not one ofourhostiles. He’s known to the lady who’s giving me a ride across the country.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m not explaining this well.”
“You do seem oddly off your game,” Pasco said. “Is this unnamed lady someone special to you?”
“She’s a friend. Friend of a friend, actually. But I don’t like that we’re five hours into the drive and suddenly her ex pulls in right behind us on a deserted road.”
“And you and the lady were about to do what, exactly, on the deserted road?”
“Focus, Pasco,” I said in my most ominous tone. He was used to dealing with prickly assholes like me so my tone wouldn’t intimidate him, but it would make him understand the seriousness of the situation.
“You’re no-fun Nick, per usual.” He sighed. “Okay, I just loaded a new app on your phone. It looks like a target with a radio signal coming out of it. Tap to open it.”
I followed his instructions.
“Good. Now circle her car.”
I did that as well.
“Car is clean,” he announced. “You need a shave. Oh, and the lady is hot!”
“What the hell, Pasco? Warn a guy if you’re going to take over his camera.” I glared down at the screen. “What’s next?”
“My best guess is the guy is tracking your friend’s phone.”
I stepped closer to Cara and heard Riley calmly and quietly trying to explain to her how he’d stalked her for her own good. He wasn’t using the “s” word, of course.
“Hang tight,” I told Pasco. I motioned for her to step close to me, then lowered my voice. “Did he tell you why he’s following you?”
“He said he’s worried about me.” She glanced in his direction. “I saw you walking around my car. Do you think he put a tracer on it? That would be creepy.”
“There’s nothing on your car so he’s probably tracing your phone, which is still creepy.” I held out my hand. “Mind if I check?”
