Opening the door to her beat-up, old VW bug for her, Rick stood back so that she could climb inside. Once she had, and she’d turned her car on so that the heat could kick in, she pursed her lips, and Rick was sure he saw the smile she tried to hide.
“I almost forgot to tell you. Once he finishes his tour of town, Ethan will head back to watch over the station house. Natalie goes on to relieve him in the morning. Don’t want a breakfast buzz on your day off? Might want to turn your radio back to silent mode again.”
Busted.
She might be giving him a little push, but he knew damn well that if Willie really thought Natalie Newton was a good match for him, it would be one hell of a shove instead.
A begrudging smile split his lips. “Thanks for the head’s up, Willie.”
“Any time, sugar.”
7
Tommy peered intently at his screen.
He usually preferred to drive himself. Apart from needing to feel like he was in control, it was better if Boone rode shotgun in case the bodyguard needed to keep his aim steady at a moment’s notice.
Not today. Now now. At the last rest stop, the closer they got to the blip on the screen they were chasing, the more anxious he got until he snapped at Boone to take the wheel.
He stayed quiet as he watched, focused on making sure that the blip remained motionless. Since Boone couldn’t risk getting pulled over with his arsenal in the trunk, he was forced to toe the speed limit while they traveled down the highway.
Tommy was worried that Grace would keep her head start since they couldn’t close the gap fast enough. Once the blip appeared to have stopped, he urged Boone to go a little faster. He wanted to catch up to her before she continued in her flight.
Tommy refused to let her get away again. It took him nearly two weeks when she moved last time, no thanks to that nosy bitch who interfered, and Tommy almost lost his mind before he tracked her down in Dayton.
When he di
d, he spent three nights parked outside of her apartment complex just to assure himself that she was safe—and alone.
He’d hate to think what he’d do if she wasn’t in there alone.
Or if it took one more day to find her. He had blown a million dollar deal and pissed off two Russians when he stood them up to follow a bogus lead. He couldn’t risk Grace slipping out of his grasp again, not so close to the wedding.
Hence the tracker.
As far as he could tell, she took off in her own car and had at least a four-hour jump on him. With the Jaguar’s speed, Tommy made up more than half the time by taking back roads and obliterating the speed limit. Once they got on this last highway, he was forced to slow. Now, with Boone behind the wheel, it seemed like the car was crawling. The closer he was getting to the tracking device, the longer it seemed to take.
The display on his screen mocked him. The tracker was accurate within a few feet, though it wasn’t advanced enough to pinpoint the location exactly. He should’ve been able to use her phone to help find where she was running to, except she must have turned it off because it was useless to him.
No signal.
Running his hand through his perfectly styled blond hair in frustration, Tommy bit back a snarl. Nothing was working the way he wanted it to.
The bug he had Boone attach to her car was Mathers tech, created by an arm of one of his side projects. He wouldn’t trust Grace’s safety or her whereabouts to technology that he didn’t have a hand in creating. The only downside was that his team wasn’t able to churn it out to his exact specifications before she bolted again. So he was left with a tracker that tracked in general terms without telling him exactly where he could find her.
Oh, how his ballerina loved to dance away. It was as if she was endlessly playing hard to get, though they both knew that there would only be one winner of this game.
And Tommy Mathers never lost.
Impatience had him coiled up tight, like a viper prepared to strike. He jabbed his finger at the screen, daring the red dot to move. It didn’t. It had been like that for close to an hour now.
When they were far enough out, he wondered if she’d stopped for the evening, maybe gotten a bite to eat. But that was before he closed in on the location and saw that there was nothing around them for miles but trees and the endless highway.
“The tracker has her location marked in about two hundred feet. Keep an eye out for her. She’s stopped somewhere nearby.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I don’t know where she’s hiding, but it’s got to be out on this road. Witnesses might be a problem.”