Page 23 of Once a Killer

“You can read my mind?” he asked, incredulous.

“Course not. Butanyonewould be thinking ‘He doesn’t know where I live. We’ll draw him away, then we’ll be fine’.” She shook her head. “Whoever is after you knows where you live. Where you work. Where you go when you go out to eat. Where your friends live. They’ve probably followed you around for weeks, keeping track of everywhere you go. Every place you stop.”

“They’ve been watching my house?” he asked.

“Probably so.” Her mouth curled. “They’re probably trying to figure out who I am and what I’m doing here. The car rental won’t lead them to Blackhawk Security. It’ll trace back to a dummy corporation that will tell them nothing. I didn’t see anyone in a car on the street last night at three a.m., but I’ll use my binoculars tonight. Look more closely and carefully.”

“You think someone will be there.”

“Absolutely.”

“You sound pretty confident. Wanna bet on it?”

“Ten bucks,” she said immediately.

“You trying to ‘ten bucks’ me into bankruptcy?” he shot back.

She flicked her gaze at him, then looked back at the street. “You suggested the bet. But I suspect we’d have to have a hell of a lot of bets to do that. I have some questions, but we’ll talk about them at home.”

He stared at her for a long moment.Home. She hadn’t meant it literally. It was her home for now. For as long as she was guarding him. That was all.

He didn’t mind sharing his space with Bree -- she was an easy roommate -- as long as he didn’t spy on her as she did her yoga and exercises.

“You watching that truck?” she asked sharply.

His gaze shifted to the side-view mirror. “Yep.”

“He’s creeping closer,” Bree said, glancing in the rear-view mirror.

“Yeah,” he said, all the banter and the thoughts about Bree living with him wiped away as tension coiled in his gut. “Should I brace for impact?”

“Not yet,” she said. “I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

The stoplight turned yellow as she entered the intersection, and once on the other side, she suddenly twisted the wheel to the left. They were on a small side street. Exactly the type of street she’d described as a perfect ambush spot. But she swerved again into the alley entrance. But instead of driving down the alley, she exited onto the street on the other side of the alley. Turned right, did a three-point turn, and waited at the edge of the alley entrance, engine idling.

The street was bumper-to-bumper cars, and tidy bungalows lined up on each side. The one they’d parked in front of had bright red burning bushes beneath the windows.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Turning the tables on whoever is following us.” She slanted a grim smile at him. “We’ll see what we can find out.”

A car turned onto the next street over, the street Bree had initially turned down. The powerful engine rumbled as the car moved down the street, and Bree put their car in gear. Turned into the alley entrance and thump-thumped over the pot-holed concrete to the exit on the next street over.

As they bumped over the curb, she spotted the black SUV ahead of them, close to the end of the block. It sped up, and Bree did, too.

Jameson smiled. “The hunted becomes the hunter,” he said, his voice smug.

“Yep,” Bree said. She glanced quickly at him, then back at their prey. “Remember, we need that license plate number.”

“What I could see of the front plate looked muddy. But I’ll do my best.”

Bree shifted in her seat, keeping her gaze on the SUV in front of them. “Probably didn’t smear the back plate. Likely figured we’d never see that one.”

She sped up a little, and so did the car in front of them. But there was a stoplight at the next cross street. The SUV slowed, swerving toward the alley entrance. But another car partially blocked the opening. Honking furiously, the black SUV was trapped between that car and Jameson’s monster.

“You writing that license plate down?” she asked as the SUV laid on the horn.

He snapped a photo, then tapped on his phone to write down the license plate number. After a few moments he raised his head. “Got it,” he said, nodding at her.

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