Page 32 of Death Wish

“Are you okay, Joy?” Simone asked.

“I’m fine, thanks to your boyfriend. Who were those crazy people? Who drives that fast through a parking lot? They could have killed someone.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “The driver must be drunk. No one would be that reckless on purpose.”

Jesse disagreed, but he didn’t think the information would help Joy sleep tonight. “Come on. Let’s get you home.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“What do we tell them? Someone almost ran us over and disappeared before we could get the license plate?” He shook his head. “We wouldn’t get anywhere with the report.”

“We can’t let them get by with this,” Joy insisted. "If they’re that drunk, they could kill someone while driving.”

Jesse urged Simone’s coworker toward her car. “I don’t think the driver was drunk.”

Joy stopped. “What do you mean? Of course he was. What other explanation could there be?”

“Someone tried to run us down,” Simone said, her tone grim.

“That’s ridiculous. Who would do that? We’re worker bees at Dragon Alley, no one special.”

“I don’t know yet,” Jesse said. “But I will find out.”

“How?”

He smiled. “I’m in security. I have access to things that aid in identifying vehicles and drivers. Leave this to me. I’ll take care of it. In the meantime, let’s get you home.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind, Jesse?” Joy looked uncertain. “I’ll be fine.”

“I know you will because I’m going to make sure you are.” He waited while she unlocked her car, climbed inside, and strapped in.

Once she was inside her vehicle, Jesse escorted Simone to their SUV. “Wait here,” he murmured as he slid his electronic signal detector from his pocket.

After turning on the device, he circled their vehicle while watching the chaser lights. They stayed green until he reached the passenger side wheel well.

He grabbed his penlight and crouched beside the tire. Jesse searched but spotted nothing. Running his fingers along the outer lip of the well, he found the small black GPS tracker and removed it.

He attached the tracker to a pickup truck three slots down and returned to check the vehicle again in case he’d missed another signal. This time, the search came up clean.

Unlocking the vehicle, Jesse helped Simone into the passenger seat. “I’m going to check Joy’s car for tracking devices. Be right back.”

“We had a GPS tracker?”

He nodded. “Someone wants to keep track of our movements.”

“Or desperately wants to know where we’re living. I don’t like this, Jesse. What if Joy’s in danger?”

And not a bit of concern for her own safety. He couldn’t help himself. Jesse brushed his mouth over hers. “We’ll do what we can to protect her, all right? But we have a mission to complete before more of our military members and contractors are targeted. We have to stay focused.”

“Not at the expense of Joy’s safety.”

“Agreed. If she needs protection, I’ll contact Maddox and have him assign someone to shadow her.”

“Thanks, Jesse.”

He gave a curt nod and shut the door before searching Joy’s vehicle as well. Her wheels came up clean.

So, he and Simone had aroused suspicion. Why? Had they slipped up somewhere or was it suspicion of two new people who now worked at Dragon Alley? They’d have to find out soon.

He climbed behind the wheel of their SUV. “Her car was clean. Let’s follow her home and see if there’s been any activity at her house.”

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