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“Yep,” Max answers him with a nod. “Sure did. He told him to check his truck—”

“Fuck.”

“So, Owen did and he found the tracker y’all had put there. After that, Derek had Owen eating out of the palm of his hand. He was buying everything Derek said as fact.”

“How in the fuck did Derek even know about the fucking tracker?” Dalton asks and Max sighs, leaning back into the chair.

“My best guess is that he had one of his cop buddies scan his vehicle.”

“Shit.” Dalton runs a hand through his hair, his jaw clenched and I swear, I can see his mind racing. “Owen took the tracker off, didn’t he?”

“He did,” Max answers with a nod. “When it was convenient for him or he didn’t want y’all to know where he was going, he took it off. He also got a burner and left his other phone at home.”

Oh God.

He knew they were watching.

And he manipulated that to his advantage.

“That doesn’t sound like Owen,” I whisper, shaking my head. Owen was lazy in everything he did and that includes thinking. I wouldn’t have ever thought him capable of coming up with a plan like this.

Max points to me.

“That’s because it wasn’t. Derek coached him on what to do and when to do it.”

“He coached him?” I ask, my pulse picking up speed as I think about the implications.

He told him what to do.

Told him where to go.

If Derek coached Owen, does that mean he was involved in drugging me?

“Was he involved in what happened at Voodoo?”

Max’s gaze flicks to mine, compassion in his eyes as he shakes his head. “This is where it gets complicated. Derek told Owen he needed to get you alone, away from Dalton so you two could really talk.”

“Motherfucker,” Dalton snarls.

“It seems like Owen was following you for a while, trying to find the best moment to strike. When he saw y’all go into Voodoo, he called Derek and asked him what to do.”

Air rushes out of Dalton and he gently moves his arm from underneath me before he slips out of bed, wincing the entire way. He hobbles behind the chair Max is sitting in and begins pacing back and forth across the linoleum floor.

“He claims Derek didn’t tell him to drug you. Owen said that he already had the drugs on him.

Tears sting my eyes and I close them as I struggle to suck in a full breath.

That night at Voodoo flashes through my mind.

The music that was too loud.

The lights that were too bright.

God.

What would have happened to me if Owen had been successful?

“Derek did, however, tell him where the cameras were in Voodoo and how to avoid them.