“I’ll have them all closed off soon. I’ll start new cases… not have to worry about those other ones anymore.”
“Yeah. Good. Because I don’t want any more accidents.”
“Me neither,” Zachary agreed.
Even so, he was still a little nervous when they finished their drinks and went out to Kenzie’s little red sports car. Zachary walked around it, looking for anything suspicious. There was no note on the windshield. Nothing attached under the bumpers. He took a good long look under the car for anything that didn’t look like it belonged, or any fluids dripping underneath. When he declared it safe and got into the passenger seat, Kenzie didn’t tease him about his paranoia.
And he noticed as she backed out and shifted gears that she kept testing the brakes. Pressing down to make sure she still had pressure. Easing out of the parking space slowly and being even more cautious when she pulled out onto the main road, slowing significantly before curves and being unusually careful at intersections. Zachary kept an eye on the mirrors, trying not to be obvious about it. He caught Kenzie’s eyes on him a couple of times and knew that she had noticed.
They both breathed a sigh of relief when they made it to the parking lot of Zachary’s building, and Kenzie pulled into Zachary’s reserved parking stall, empty because he hadn’t yet replaced his car. Zachary got out and walked around the front of the car to meet her as she got out.
He swore.
Kenzie looked at him, eyes alarmed, and turned to see what he was looking at. Bridget was striding across the parking lot toward them, and her eyes were blazing. She looked crazed. Zachary checked her hands to make sure she didn’t have a weapon. Kenzie backed away and looked at Zachary worriedly. She slid out her phone, and Zachary knew she was dialing 9-1-1, getting ready to press ‘send’ and get them on the line.
Bridget started yelling and swearing before she reached them, calling Zachary names up and down, her face bright red.
“What’s wrong?” Zachary questioned. “What’s going on?”
“You dog! You stupid, inconsiderate lowlife! I knew you were a jerk, Zachary, but this takes the cake!”
“What?” Zachary held up his hands defensively. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I took my car in to the shop for some servicing. What do you think they found?”
Zachary swallowed. He glanced aside at Kenzie, then back at Bridget. “Whatever has upset you, we can deal with it,” he soothed. “We’ll sort it out.”
She slapped him across the face. Zachary was too slow and clumsy from his spinal cord injury to react and pull away in time and took the full force of her assault. Out of the corner of his eye, Zachary saw Kenzie moving to place the emergency call and raised his hand to stop her.
“You don’t think he deserves it?” Bridget challenged Kenzie. “I should slap him silly!”
“For what?” Kenzie demanded.
“I took my car to the mechanic, and he found something on the inside of the bumper.”
Kenzie shook her head. “What did they find?”
“A tracking device! A device that transmits my location, no matter where I go. So that he—” she shot a glare at Zachary, “—can know where I am at all times. Any time, night or day, he can look at his receiver, and see where I am. What do you think of that?”
Kenzie looked at Zachary. “Really? Is that true?”
“Ask to look at his phone and computer,” Bridget said. “Which is it on, Zachary? Or is it on both?”
He swallowed, keeping his mouth shut. He’d be in trouble if he denied it, and in trouble if he admitted it. There was no right answer. He was glad that all he had on him was his old flip phone, which didn’t even have any games on it, let alone the GPS tracker app. The computer back in his apartment was another story.
“Why would you be tracking your ex-wife?” Kenzie asked slowly.
Zachary brought his hand up to his face to rub his forehead. He felt like his hand was disembodied, not actually part of him. He rubbed the furrows between his brow slowly, trying to figure out what to do or say next.
“Bridget. I was just…”
“Just what?” she demanded furiously. “I’m curious. Just what excuse do you think would justify stalking me? What would the police say if I took this to them? You want to go to jail?”
“You were so upset when you ran into me and Kenzie at the restaurant. You made it clear you didn’t want to run into me anywhere. If I could check your location, I could make sure I didn’t…”
Rather than looking reassured at this, Kenzie looked appalled. “So those times when I asked you if we were safe to go to a restaurant, to the inn, or somewhere else, the reason you knew Bridget wouldn’t be there was you were tracking her?”
Zachary could tell by her voice that she did not want an affirmative answer. He looked at Bridget, a quick sideways glance to see just how angry she was, checking her position to make sure she wasn’t going to hit him again, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid it if she did.
“I’m taking out a restraining order,” Bridget said. “This is going too far. You stay away from me, and you stay out of my life!”
“Wait a minute here,” Kenzie spoke up, addressing Bridget. “You’re the one who just hit him. You’re the one who freaks out if you see him out in public. Who keeps calling me about him. You came to see him at the hospital, acting like you’re all concerned. From everything I’ve seen, there’s pretty good reason for him to want to keep track of your location.”
“I had to go to the hospital. He still has me down as his emergency contact.”
“There’s no requirement for you to
