Page 36 of Betrayal & New Beginnings

“Found it.”Heheld out his phone, showing a photo he took of a little transmitter device. “Assholedidn’t even hide it that well, soI’mguessing he thought he’d have her back and would be able to remove it himself before anyone figured it out.”

“Now what do we do?”Iasked, feeling myself get angry again.

“Now, we mess with him,”Vincesaid.

I looked over at the two of them and watched them exchange a look, realizing they must have already come up with a plan.

“Remember,Tammysaid she toldRandallover the phone yesterday thatElliedoesn’t work there anymore—so we play off that,”Vincenoted.

“We move her car to my apartment complex for now, which is the most secure of anyone’s, andI’vegot plenty of cameras around and gated access,”Archerexplained. “Wealso take turns driving it to a couple other pubs around town to make him think she’s looking for a new job.Thiswill buy us some time to do more digging into this asshole.”

“Are we going to tell her what’s going on and why she can’t have her car back?”Iasked, knowing she would be fine with one day but would start to get suspicious if he kept asking every day to borrow her car.

“We can, and honestly, it may be good for her to realize how seriously whacked-out this guy is and would allow us to keep a closer eye on her,”Archersaid. “Orwe can also tell her thatVincegot into a little fender bender today and will get her car fixed but will take a few more days.”

Both options were good, butIfiguredElliewould be pissed if she knew we were hiding something from her, and, selfishly, it would give me an excuse to keep her close.

“I say we tell her.Otherwise, she’ll be pissed if she finds out we withheld this information,”Itold them. “Andyou’re right, hopefully it will make her be more vigilant.”

“And also give you an excuse to keep her sleeping at your place,”Vincesaid with a hint of accusation in his voice.

Shit.Archerbrought it up specifically whenVincewas out of the room, soIdidn’t think he knew what had already transpired, but still.

“Also, ifRupnik’sbeen paying attention,”Archeradded. “He’dhave noticed she hasn’t moved her car at all during the night the last few weeks.So, he either thinks she’s sleeping at the pub or is living in the building.”

“There’s no way he can get up to these apartments without the code and a key.Plus, we have dozens of cameras everywhere,”Iinterjected. “Butif she feels more comfortable staying with one of us, thenIdon’t see the problem with that.”

The guys just nodded at my response, andItook that as a win for now.Isent her a text to tell her the guys andIwanted to chat with her, and she messaged back right away to come over.Theguys andIdiscussed how we wanted to handle this then walked over there.

She opened the door with a smile, but when she saw all three of us standing there, instantly the smile dropped from her face.

“Something tells me you aren’t here for good news,” she said cautiously as she opened the door more and let us in.

We explained how the guys found the tracker on her car and how that was likely not only how he knew she was at the pub, but also how he knew she’d arrived at his house to pack up her things.

“This is why you wanted to borrow my car, wasn’t it?” she asked with clear sadness in her voice as she took this all in.

We confirmed and explained how we thought we should proceed using her car to throw him off by moving it around.

“DoIneed to move out ofJack’sapartment if he knowsIwas here?” she asked nervously.

“You can always stay with me if you want.Ihave an extra room, and my building is also secure,”Vincesaid, andIinstantly glared at him.Istopped myself after a couple seconds, realizingIdidn’t want to give anything away, but he briefly smirked at me, which meant he did it on purpose to get under my skin, andInow knew he realized something else was going on.Shit.

“This building is incredibly secure, and the odds of him getting in here to this apartment are extremely small, but if you’d rather stay somewhere else, we can make that happen,”Archersaid, sensing the growing tension betweenVinceand me and trying to take over.

“Okay, um,IthinkI’dlike to stay here if you think it’s safe,” she said, trying to sound a bit more confident.

“You should be fine, butI’malways across the hall if you need anything,”Isaid to let her knowIwas here, butIalso didn’t offer to stay with her right in front ofVinceandArcher.

“What willIdo whenIneed to use my car though?” she asked.

“One of us can take you whenever you need to go somewhere.Wehave a special company vehicle that we can use,”Archertold her, andIwas glad he did, becauseIhadn’t thought of that.

We had two vehicles we’d bought for the business to use as needed.Onewas an older model sedan that was nothing special but would blend in if we needed to do recon or get into places unnoticed.Theother was anSUVthat had all the bells and whistles and extra security features.Thiswas the one he was likely referring to.

“Okay, thanks,” she said. “I’msupposed to meetRuthietomorrow to go with her to her self-defense class.”

This was a surprise to me, butIwas glad she was going to that because it would be very helpful.Iwas also happy she was making friends.Ididn’t know much aboutRuthie, but she seemed nice.Shealso didn’t appear to have any local friends either since she moved here at the same timeArcherdid.

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