Page 14 of Once a Killer

“Stay away from the door,” she said without looking back at him.

From the side, he watched as she squatted and looked beneath the car. Then she examined the rest of the garage. Opened the hood and scanned it. Did the same with the SUV’s hatchback, then a back seat door. Finally opened the passenger door in the front.

She took something that looked like a large cell phone out of her bag and ran it over the entire inside of the car. Turned it off and returned it to the bag. “Garage is clear,” she finally said. “So’s the car. No bugs.”

When he’d gotten into the car, she climbed in herself. Closed her door and adjusted the seat. Set her gun into the cup holder closest to her. Then she held out her hand. Nodded when she saw him holding the electronic key. Pressed the button to start the car.

She glanced up and pushed the garage door opener. As the door slid silently open, she stared intently into the rear-view mirror. Finally, apparently satisfied, she backed out of the garage into the alley. Set her phone with the mapping app open into the other cup holder, then put the vehicle in drive.

“You can connect your phone to the screen,” he said, tapping on the screen between the two seats. “Easier to see.”

“Great. Thanks. Plug it in, please.”

He connected her phone to the car’s system, and the map flashed open on the large screen. She headed down the alley in the direction he always went. Drove efficiently through the city until they reached the north side of Chicago. Her head never stopped moving as she drove.

When they reached the office building where his lab was located, she parked close to the building. When he began to get out, she grabbed his wrist. “Not yet,” she said. “Let’s go over a few things.”

His wrist tingled where her fingers gripped him. If he hadn’t realized it after the way she’d thrown him around yesterday, her hands were strong. Smooth. He wondered what they would feel like touching his chest. His face. His…

Hell, no.Notgoing there. Not now, not ever. This was serious as shit. His life was literally in her hands. Which was the only part of him she would be touching intimately.

She handed him the key. “I’ve never driven a tank, but your car is much smoother than I imagine one of them would be. Smart to get it armored. The weight makes it less maneuverable, but it’s an acceptable trade-off for safety. Until your program is copyrighted and patented, and preferably has been released into the market, keep driving this thing. It’d be hard for a basic car to do much damage to this guy.”

“That’s the plan,” he said. He swiveled in his seat so he was facing her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Have you swept your office for bugs or cameras?”

“Other than the cameras I installed myself?” He shook his head. “I haven’t seen any cameras, and I look occasionally. Bugs? Haven’t found any of those.”

“How much time do we have before the rest of the engineers in your lab show up?”

He glanced at his Apple watch. “At least an hour.”

“Good,” she said. “That’ll give me plenty of time to search the lab for spyware. And I bet ten bucks that I’ll find some.”

“You’re on,” he said immediately. “I haven’t noticed a thing.”

She shook her head. “You wouldn’t, unless they were installed by incompetent idiots.”

He frowned. “So you think someone in my lab bugged me?”

“You did have them on top of your list of possibilities. But no, I don’t suspect anyone specific. Anyone who’s targeting you would have bugged your office and the rest of your lab. Installed cameras to watch you. That’s stalking 101.”

“No one gets into the lab unless I’m there. My guys have keys, but they usually leave about when I do. The cleaners get into the lab, of course, but I’ve run security checks on all of them. No one has any connections to anyone who might be a threat.”

She sighed, and he had the sense she was resisting rolling her eyes. “People can be bribed,” she said quietly. “Or blackmailed. Anyone with access to your offices has to be a suspect.”

“Okay,” he said, still holding her gaze. “So if we find something, it doesn’t narrow the suspect field.”

“Afraid not.” She didn’t look away for a long moment, her gray eyes meeting his with soft sympathy. His heart fluttered, and he forced himself not to press a hand to it.

He couldn’t remember the last time someone had offered him sympathy. Usually, he was met with an outstretched hand, looking for money. A job. Help with a program. A tendril of anticipation unfurled in his chest. Bree wanted nothing but cooperation from him. He wanted to wrap that feeling around himself and hold it tight.

He must have stared too long, because she looked away. “Stay in the car until I scope things out.”

She exited the car, then stood in the mostly empty parking lot. Pulled out her notebook and wrote some things down. Then she turned slowly until she’d moved through the complete 360 degrees.

Rapping on the car window, she motioned for him to get out of the car. As they walked toward the building, he said, “How am I going to introduce you? What name?”

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