Chapter 15 Zane
Zane
I felt a little guilty for quietly texting my brother to ask about trackers when Hope was having her meltdown with Shadow, but it turns out, my instincts weren’t off.
Cash
Need you to come into town ASAP
When I get to the garage, Hope’s car isn’t on the lift like I expect. It’s not anywhere to be seen. And neither is my brother.
The second mechanic who works for him, Riley, jerks her thumb to the back of the building. “He’s in the yard. Told me to send you on through.”
“Thanks.”
The yard is a fenced off space where he puts cars that are bound for the crusher, where he parks the tow truck and has an implement shed.
Today, apparently, that implement shed is doubling as an extra garage bay, because this is where he’s got Hope’s car.
“Why are you working out here?” I ask.
He gives me a grim look. “You were right to wonder if there were any trackers on her car. Pulled one out of her engine and left it in the garage. Checked it over from bumper to bumper, made sure the rest of the vehicle was clean, then wheeled it in here so it’s not visible should someone show up asking questions.
I don’t know what it’s transmitting, and I don’t really want to open it up and try to figure that out, lest we alert the person who placed it in her car that it’s not, you know, in her car anymore.
So what I want to do is install it into your truck.
You’re gonna drive it out of town, and when you get the fuck away from here, you’re going to leave it somewhere.
Something in the city with a lot of cars that would make locating it a challenge. A parking garage, for example.”
I stare at my brother. My little brother, who once upon a time cried when he fell on his bike and I needed to wipe his tears with my t-shirt.
Cold, hard resolve stares back at me.
“Yeah,” I hear myself say. “Got it.”
“You have any idea who she’s mixed up with?”
I think about the way Hope freaked out, just two hours ago, when I joked that I’d been tracking her on my phone. “She told me she pulled two AirTags out of the car before she went to Vancouver. I don’t know who she’s running from, but he’s a paranoid fucker if he also had this on her engine.”
“And he’ll know she came through here, if he’s watching.”
Days ago.
Fuck.
I jerk my chin toward the street. “People know her car came to your garage.”
“Those people missed the fact that it left,” Cash says coolly as he ushers me out of the shed.
“You sure it’s clean now?”
“I’ve gone over every inch of it.” He pulls the rolling door down, then padlocks the shed.
“It took a lot for her to tell me about the tags,” I say, stopping him before we return to the garage.
“She’s terrified. And this will give her even more reason to be afraid.
I’ll ask her about it, but I’m not going in hot.
She thinks she’s found some safety at the ranch. I don’t want to blow that up.”
“You don’t have a lot of time. If someone is following her, they’re going to show up sooner than later, unless you can convince them her car has left again.”
I think about the two days of rest Hope has had—two days of letting down her guard.
Two days where I’ve been able to earn her trust, only to fucking miss the target on her back.
“Yep, let’s go.”
“You want me to go out to the ranch while you’re gone?”
Cash rolling up on his motorcycle and full sleeve tattoos is the last thing Bellamy and Hope need. “Stay here just in case her ex shows up. Don’t leave Riley alone.”
“She can handle herself, but yeah, good call.”
I hesitate, then add, “You could call Ridge, though. Loop him in just enough. He’s going to be mad, but—”
“Don’t worry. I know how to be a beast whisperer. And he won’t let anything happen to your girl.”
“She’s not my girl.” The denial is reflexive, but wrong. I let her tie me up today, a first step in a lot of lessons I thought we’d have more time for. I wouldn’t let just anyone do that.
I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if anyone else had tried.
I thought we had a week. I hoped we might have a summer. It turns out we might only have a day, and that’s not nearly enough time to claim her as my own, but I’m hers.
We’ll have to talk about it.
Tomorrow, I’ll find a way to talk to her.
Tonight…
Tonight I’m driving this fucking tracker to the truck stop north of the city, then putting it on a tractor-trailer heading far, far away from Dragonfly Creek.