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I wrapped my arms around myself.
Jackson drew the bug hunter over the front seat then reached under it, extracting a small shiny disk from beneath.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
It was real. Oh God.
But he kept going, circling around the other side to repeat the process. The bleep sounded once more.
Two. My would-be kidnapper had hidden two trackers in my car. Without Jackson, I would’ve been driving that around without any clue my location was being broadcast.
My stomach cramped.
Still, he searched. In the back of the car, another matte-black tracker had been pushed between the seats. A fourth laid in wait in a shopping bag I’d left in the boot.
That one was shaped like a tiny toy elephant, something a kid might drop. Innocuous but deadly.
Moving away from the car, a grim-faced Jackson appeared on the screen. “I’m going to put them all back where they were and ask that the car remains here.”
“Can we use them to draw him out?” I said. “If I get in that car and drive it away, he’ll follow, right?”
“No way in hell is that going to happen. It’s too dangerous.”
I bristled, freaked out by what he’d found and upset by how deep this was going. “It’s my life and my choice. I want this over with, and we have a method to bring him in.”
“It isn’t a bad idea,” Valentine said.
Jackson swore. “It’s the worst idea. The opposite of keeping her safe.”
“I’m right here,” I snapped. “Don’t talk about me like I don’t have a say in this.”
The office door opened, and Ben came in. His gaze flicked over me, clocking my no doubt red face, then to the laptop. His eyebrows dove together. “Catch me up.”
Valentine gave him a short overview.
The boss of the team nodded. “Ariel has a point.”
“Hang on—” Jackson said.
“Ariel has a point, but at the same time, we can do this without endangering her,” Ben said. “We’ll work out a plan with your input and consent, Ariel, but probably without your direct involvement. But we’ll need to do it tomorrow. Valentine and I have an assignment this afternoon. We’ll discuss it in the morning. That suit everyone?”
I exhaled, giving him my agreement.
Jackson did, too, then hung up his call.
Ben and Valentine left the room, talking about the work they had on, leaving me alone with just the blipping movement of Jackson’s personal tracker making its way back.
And to hell with me if I didn’t stare at it the whole way home.
Chapter 21
Jackson
An accusation I’d had thrown at me in the past by my mother was stubbornness. Once I got an idea into my head, she’d say, it stuck, and no one could talk me out of it.
She meant she couldn’t get me to see her twisted point of view when it came to my sister’s murderer. That wasn’t stubbornness. It was decent morality.
I approached the bodyguard office with Ma’s number blowing up my phone. Again. I left it to ring, entering the room.
