Zoe wanted to ask him what his plan was but thought better of it. A minute later, he asked for an updated location. She felt a heavy weight come off her chest when he said, “All right, I see the Mustang. Take your next left. Should be about a hundred yards in front of you.”
“Okay.” She slowed and flipped on her blinker. The Mustang continued to hang farther back but switched lanes with her. She made the turn. “Now what?”
“Slow down, but keep going. You’ll be coming up on a sports complex on your right. I want to get this guy blocked in. Turn into the complex and park near the backstop of the second diamond. There shouldn’t be anyone there this time of day.”
“What if he doesn’t follow me?”
“He will.”
Zoe did as instructed, turning into the complex and continuing past the first ball field to the second. She drove up to the chain link fence and put the transmission in park. Moments later, a now familiar car entered her rearview. The Mustang turned in slowly and came to a crawl, finally stopping in front of the first diamond.
Feeling more agitated now than scared, and emboldened by Brad’s proximity, Zoe rolled down her window, stuck her hand out of the car, and gave the guy the bird.
Realizing that he’d finally been made, the man put his car in reverse and started to back up just as Brad’s Gladiator came rocketing off the road. Brad punched his brakes, and the Jeep skidded to a halt just behind the Mustang’s rear bumper. The move hemmed in the car, which was now stuck between a chain link fence and the Jeep.
Brad’s door flew open, and he burst from the Jeep with his sidearm in a two-handed hold. Stepping to the side, he advanced on the Mustang’s driver.
“Get out of the car! Now! Get out of the damn car! Get your hands up!”
Zoe couldn’t see the man’s face, but his door popped open and slowly swung outward. When Brad repeated the order, the man came out with raised hands. Keeping his gun trained forward, Brad grabbed the guy’s shoulder and threw him to the ground. Curiosity getting the better of her, Zoe jumped out of her car and ran over.
Brad had a knee on the center of the man’s back and his gun jammed into his neck. He was frisking him with his free hand. “You have a gun on you?”
“In—in the glove box,” the guy grunted.
“What are you doing following this young lady?”
The guy didn’t answer. Brad put more pressure on the muzzle of his gun. The guy winced. Zoe stepped in and checked his back pockets while fielding a bewildered look from Brad. She came away with a wallet, flipped it open, and plucked out the driver’s license. “David Raines. He’s from South Miami.”
“I’m calling the cops!” Raines squealed. “You can’t do this. I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“I am the cops,” Brad growled.
The guy quit squirming as all color drained from his face.
“And even better, I’m Homeland Security. Are you some kind of perv or something? You’ve been following her since she left Key Largo.”
David Raines was of average build and had greasy blond hair. An earring glistened in his right ear.
“You might want to start talking,” Brad said, still bearing down on him.
Raines swallowed hard. “Look, someone told me to capture a video of her. That’s all, okay? I’m not a perv. I was just supposed to get some shots of her.”
Zoe exchanged a glance with Brad.
“Who is this someone?” Brad asked.
“I don’t know, man. I swear. It was just supposed to be a few pics, some video, and then upload it to an email. That’s it.”
“Don’t move.” Keeping his gun trained on Raines, Brad stood up, reached into the car, and slipped the keys from the ignition. Raine’s phone was lying near the gearshift. He grabbed that too. “Stand up. Slowly.”
Raines pressed his hands into the gravelly dirt and picked himself up. Brad ordered him to the rear of the car and told him to place his hands on top of the trunk. “Who wants the images?”
“I don’t know, man. I swear. The job was posted online, and I grabbed it up. All I was supposed to do was get some images of her going about her day. I was supposed to upload them and then they would pay me in Bitcoin.”
Brad turned to Zoe. “There's a pair of handcuffs in my Jeep. Should be in the front cupholder.”
“Okay.” She hurried off as Brad frisked Raines.
“What’s your phone password?” Brad asked him. He recited it. Brad typed it in, and the home screen lit up. He navigated to the photo app and scrolled through the images. There were dozens of Zoe and three videos.
“You sonofabitch,” Brad said. “You messed with the wrong girl.”
Zoe returned with the handcuffs. Brad snapped one across Raines’s left wrist and then led him around to the open driver’s door, where he snapped the remaining cuff onto the door’s striker latch. He went around to the passenger side, crawled into the front, and after removing Raines’s revolver from the glove box, searched the vehicle for additional weapons. Finding nothing, he stepped out and called Homestead PD.
“The police will be here soon,” he said to Raines. “I promise you, I am going to be your worst nightmare.”
He walked Zoe back to her car and opened the door for her. “I’m going to call Roscoe and tell him what just went down. I want you to go stay with him and Amy. They have that extra bed. Just lay low over there until I tell you any different. No work, no school. Don’t even step out onto the porch. Do you understand?”
She nodded anxiously.
“Come here.” Brad wrapped her in a bear hug. “Everything is fine now. No one is going to hurt you.”
“Thanks, Brad. It means a lot.”
He peered over her shoulder into the car. “Are those
