Page 11 of Long Hard Road

Nate placed the device in my palm, his fingers grazing my skin and making my entire hand tingle in an alarmingly pleasant way. No man’s touch had ever done that to me.

The device looked innocuous enough. Nothing more than a square inch of plastic on the outside. “How did you know what this is?”

“I constantly lose my keys. Last year, Harper gave me one of those for Christmas to slip on the keychain. Haven’t lost my keys since.” He frowned and took another sip of coffee. “I take it you didn’t know that was there.”

“No. I didn’t.” Even worse, I had no idea how long it had been there. The noise had only started a couple of days ago, but the device could’ve been taped to my car for weeks.

“I know this maybe isn’t my place to say anything, but…” Nate wrapped both hands around his mug and slowly lifted his eyes to meet mine. “This is serious, Madison. Someone put that tracker there and it’s highly unlikely they did it for any good reason. Is it possible that you have a stalker?”

More than one, actually. The number fluctuated but always hovered in the ten to twenty range. And those were just the stalkers who had tried to make physical contact with me. I had thousands of digital stalkers. My head of security, Ellison, would know the official number. I needed to give him a call. He was going to be irate with me for leaving town and not bringing a single bodyguard with me.

“I don’t know. Maybe my ex-boyfriend,” I lied, unwilling to tell this man I barely knew all the sordid details of my life.

“That’s not normal, Madison. You should report this to the police.” Nate tried to pluck the device from my hand, but I yanked it away.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. I, um, need to go.” I shoved the tracker into my coat pocket and stood. “Thanks for looking at my car. That was really kind of you.”

“Madison– ” He reached out like he was thinking of grabbing my hand, but he let his arm fall instead. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Everything is great.” I forced the fakest smile of my life. “I just forgot that I need to…” I was a terrible liar. “I have some stuff I need to take care of before it starts snowing again.”

Nate didn’t believe a word I said, but he nodded and placed my keys on the table. “You’ll let me know if you need anything, right? I mean, with the snow coming you shouldn’t be driving around in that car of yours. Or walking around outside like you did last night.”

“Thanks for your input, Dad.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed my coffee and my keys, leaving behind the cinnamon roll. “I’ll see you around.”

“Only if you’re lucky.” He slid me a wink that had no business making my body warm more effectively than if I put on several layers of clothes. Unfortunately, that body temperature increase didn’t last more than a few seconds after I stepped outside.

According to the weather app on my phone, we were supposed to get six inches of snow starting this evening with freezing temperatures in the morning. I had packed some winter clothes, but nowhere close to what I would need for that kind of weather. With Crestwood’s close proximity to the mountains and a couple of ski resorts, there was a surprisingly well-stocked clothing section at the Outdoor Adventure store.

I dropped a couple of hundred dollars on winter gear, including a puffy coat that resembled a sleeping bag, and then headed back to the market to grab a couple of things I’d forgotten on my first trip there. My culinary skills were limited, but I trusted myself to heat up cans of soup and put frozen pizzas into the oven. If I was feeling a little adventurous, I might even make myself a sandwich.

As I was waiting at the register to pay, I avoided looking at the rack of magazines next to the tempting candy bars. There was a good chance I might see myself on one of the covers and I was not in the mood for that. I was enjoying my break from reality in Crestwood. I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain my anonymity forever, but I was able to pay for my groceries and make it back to the cabin without anyone recognizing me.

It seemed unlikely that I was going to make it the full month without someone seeing through my mediocre disguise. The longer I could avoid teenage girls and women in their early twenties, the better my chances.

“That’s really scary, Madi,” Kaylie said after I finished updating her on the car tracker situation. “Want me to call Eli and have him send someone?”

“No.” That was the last thing I wanted.

“What if it was put there by one of the men on Eli’s list?”

“It wasn’t.” I didn’t know who had left that tracker on my car, but it had to be someone who had access to my home. I’d only had the car for less than a month and since I almost always used a driver, the car had barely left the garage. “I’ll call Eli. I think maybe his team put it on my car.”

“He would’ve told you. Eli always keeps you updated on any new security measures. Besides, he’s got GPS tracking on your car. He wouldn’t need to tape anything to your muffler.” Kaylie was making far too much sense.

I put a carton of milk in the fridge and sighed. “Kales, I don’t have the mental capacity to worry about this, okay? Can we just pretend that the device was put there by my security team?”

“You can’t bury your head in the sand with something as serious as this. Leaving town without taking any security with you was already risky enough, but… this seems really dangerous, Madi.” The worry was etched in every syllable that Kaylie spoke.

“Fine. If it will make you feel better, I’ll call Ellison right after I hang up with you.” It was an obvious lie and we both knew it.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you,” Kaylie said softly.

She had been my personal assistant for a while, but she’d been my friend for just as long and she had perfected the art of worrying about me. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Kales. I barely get a phone signal out here, so it’s highly doubtful that the tracker even worked.” Just to be safe, I’d shut it inside my freezer as soon as I walked into the cabin. “Stop worrying.”

“But worrying is what I do best.” Kaylie’s voice became distant as she held the phone away to speak with someone in her office. “Shit. I’m late for a meeting with Drake.”

“Go. And don’t let him take his anger at me out on you.”

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