She shrugged. “I’m stiff and sore, but I’ll be fine in a couple more days.” Jase was still in Arizona. Ford was out, but Rome and Lissa were there. Her fellow investigators had called her at the hospital, called every day since to see how she was doing.
They knew she was staying with Beau. She had a hunch they were dying to meet him, but chances were good he was only passing through her life on his way somewhere else, so the introductions could wait.
She ignored a little pang in her heart as she walked over to Rome, who stood next to Lissa. Romeo Romero was a six-foot-tall, black-haired, dark-eyed, überhandsome Latino. Lissa was a tall, slender blonde. For months, the pair seemed to be fighting a mutual attraction neither would admit. Cassidy wondered how much longer the denial would last.
“Hey, lady,” Rome said, bending to brush a kiss on her cheek. “Glad to see you’re back on your feet.”
Lissa very gently hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re okay. We were all really worried.”
“It could have been worse, that’s for sure.”
“They haven’t found the other driver?” Lissa asked.
“Not yet.” They didn’t know the full story and she didn’t have time to go into it now. “Listen, guys. I need some help. Rome, I know how good you are at this kind of thing. I need to get into a locked vehicle without setting off any alarms. Think you could help me with that?”
He flashed her a bad-boy grin. “Oh, yeah. I have exactly what you need—but you can’t tell anyone where you got it.”
Which meant it was something illegal. Rome had been a gang member before he went straight. Luckily he’d gotten out before he’d been arrested.
He dug into his bottom drawer, came out with a flat black box about five inches square. He explained how the device worked and Cassidy started grinning.
“Definite jail time if you get caught using this little beauty,” she said.
“You can say that again. In the wrong hands, it’s bad news for honest citizens like us.”
“I’m not using it on an honest citizen, and I won’t get caught. Thanks, Rome.” She left him with Lissa, hoping the sparks between them wouldn’t set the room on fire, tried not to think about Beau and how much it was going to hurt when he was gone.
Once she reached her locker in the storage room, she dropped what she needed into the canvas bag she kept inside, along with the device Rome had lent her, and left the office, making her way out to where Beau waited in the BMW.
“No trouble?” she asked as she slid into the passenger seat.
“Haven’t seen a thing. You get what you needed?”
Cassidy unzipped the bag on the floor between her feet. “You aren’t going to believe this.” She pulled the small black box out first. “This little devil gets us into a car withoutthe alarm going off. It steals the code to the key pad and unlocks the door.”
“How’s it work?”
She handed him the box. “An RF transmitter finds the remote entry code and sends it to the locking system. You just touch the vehicle with the device to make it work. The transmitter uses very low power so it doesn’t trigger any nearby cars.”
Beau whistled. “So you can get into a car and steal what’s inside without anyone knowing you were there. The dome light is going to be a problem.”
She grinned. “It shuts down the system so the light won’t go on.”
Beau handed back the box. “Does it let the thief start the damn engine, too?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Damn. You’re talking to a guy who owns a couple of six-figure sports cars so that’s not good news. What other illegal devices are in that bag?”
She smiled as she pulled out a small circular disk. “Having this little toy isn’t actually illegal. It depends on how you use it.”
“Like we’ll be using it tonight?”
She shrugged.
“What is it and how does it work?”
“It’s a battery operated, motion sensitive, magnetic GPS. We stick it under the car bumper. Lasts about twelve hours of driving time before the battery goes dead.”
