He stared at the tracker. “Where did you find it?”
“Zee’s vehicle.”
Her head snapped around. “What!”
“Gray had a hunch we were dealing with something like this. I guess he’s seen it before on one of our jobs. We think Pike stuck it on Zee’s vehicle around the time of the funeral.”
She let out a gasp and snatched up the device. She stared at it with a twist of her lips like it was a giant spider before she dropped it again.
“Okay, but how do you explain the truck? He found me in Church’s truck.”
“This is all speculation, but we believe he followed the two of you.”
Church stiffened. “He could see your vehicle was on the ranch and he watched the gates. He saw you leave with me. He saw us enter the movie set.”
“And saw me leave, so he followed me to the store that day.”
Church’s muscles hardened one by one until they were all locked. He wanted to find that son of a bitch and gut him for all the fear and pain he’d caused Zee after all she’d been through.
But a darker thread wove through his mind.
Lucian Pike didn’t care what she’d gone through when Matt died. Because he was probably behind it.
“Where is that bastard right now?” he gritted out.
Zee grabbed his arm, fingers digging into the sinew as if she was trying to hold him back. He covered her hand with his own and squeezed lightly.
Theo scrolled to another page that revealed a string of transactions in Colorado.
“He’s regrouping.” Church skimmed the list of charges—gas, motel, highway tolls, burner phone reloads.
“How do we know he hasn’t given up?” Zee asked.
Theo picked up another object and held it up. The black card.
“Because we finally figured out the QR code on this card. It’s a way to access a cryptocurrency wallet. There’s a lot of money on this.”
In a flash, Church connected all the dots.
“Lucian was paid off for something,” Theo said.
“And Matt took it from him,” Church added.
“Matt was killed for it.” Zee’s voice was flat.
* * * * *
By the time they stepped out of the security office, Zee felt like the ground beneath her had shifted again, with deep crevices cutting through the earth.
The food she’d eaten sat like a rock in the pit of her stomach, and she hadn’t felt this shaky since…the funeral.
Church just reached for her hand and set off at a slow walk. Before they crossed the field, she knew they’d end up at their spot. The place where they could talk about everything.
Even about this? She wasn’t so sure.
The sun had dropped behind the mountains, leaving a chill in the air. She huddled deeper into her jacket, thinking it wouldn’t be long before snow was falling. Her first winter on the ranch, at her new job. Her first season with Church.
And all of that might vanish if she had to run again.
