Page 96 of Blindsided
“Hey,” I answer, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I was just about to call you.”
“Kori!” Jen’s voice is frantic. “Thank God you answered. Mark’s coming for you!”
My stomach drops. “What? That’s impossible. He has no idea where I am.”
“He knows you’re with the MacGallans,” Jen insists. “He came by Wavecrest yesterday looking for you, and when I wouldn’t tell him anything, he got furious. Said he’d track you down himself.”
“Jen, calm down,” I say, trying to keep my own voice steady. “There’s no way he could know I’m in Canada. I’m safe here.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she cuts me off. “He put a tracking device on something of yours when he was at Wavecrest. He bragged about it when he came back yesterday.”
“A tracking device?” I repeat, my mind racing. “That’s insane. Mark isn’t some spy—”
“It’s one of those Bluetooth tiles,” Jen explains. “The kind people use to find their keys. He said he activated it when you weren’t looking.”
A chill runs down my spine as I remember Mark standing close to my luggage when he visited Wavecrest. He’d seemed to be leaning against it while we talked, but I’d been too upset to pay much attention.
“I have to go,” I tell Jen abruptly. “I’ll call you back.”
I drop to my knees beside my suitcase, yanking it open and pawing through the contents. Nothing seems out of place, but then I spot my toiletry bag, the one thing I would definitely bring with me everywhere. I dump it out on the bed, and there, stuck to the bottom, is a small plastic square no bigger than a quarter.
A tiny light blinks green on its surface.
“Fuck,” I whisper, staring at the tracking device.
My first instinct is to destroy it, but then a better idea comes to me. I should warn Kane and the others first. I grab the tile and my phone, hurrying toward the door.
As I reach the top of the stairs, the doorbell rings, its chime echoing through the massive foyer below. Through the tall windows flanking the frontentrance, I can see a rental car parked in the circular drive.
Before any of the staff can respond, I call out, “I’ll get it!” and hurry down the stairs.
My heart pounds as I approach the door, the tracking tile clutched in my palm. There’s a slim chance it could be someone else, a delivery, another lawyer, anyone but—
I pull the door open, and there he stands.
Mark looks exactly as he did at Wavecrest, though his clothes are more rumpled from travel. His expression shifts from determination to triumph when he sees me.
“Found you,” he says, a smile spreading across his face that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You’re a hard woman to track down, Kori.”
Chapter 35
Kori
“Not hard enough, apparently,” I reply, holding up the tile between my fingers. “This was clever, I’ll give you that.”
His smile falters slightly. “You wouldn’t answer my calls. You wouldn’t talk to me. What choice did I have?”
“The choice to respect my decision,” I say, surprised by how calm I sound, even as I seethe inside. “We’re getting divorced, Mark. Following me to another country doesn’t change that.”
Mark’s expression darkens, the polite veneer dropping altogether. “You’re not thinking clearly. You never do when you’re upset.”
“I’m thinking more clearly than I have in years,” I counter, taking a step back. “Now please leave before—”
“Before what?” he snarls, suddenly grabbing my arm with bruising force. “Before your new boyfriend shows up. Is that who you’ve beenfucking? Some tattooed Irish thug?”
The viciousness in his voice shocks me. In five years of marriage, I’ve never seen this side of him, this raw, ugly, jealous side.
“Let go of me,” I demand, trying to wrench my arm free, but his grip only tightens.
