forth. Rolling to one side, he aimed the beam at the wheel well.
“Bingo.”
“What? You found something?” Elise’s voice had risen to a frantic pitch.
He wrapped his fingers around the black box and yanked it from the metal, breaking the magnetic force. Gathering his legs beneath him, he rose to a crouch and cradled the device in the palm of his hand.
As Elise drew closer, he illuminated it with the flashlight.
“What is it?”
“It’s a GPS tracking device.”
She gasped and fell back on her hands. “It’s been there since the night of the attack. He’s been following me, tracking my every move. That’s how he followed me to Chinatown. That’s how he knew about my school. That’s how he found out about Ty.”
“It should’ve occurred to me sooner.”
“That some killer would just happen to have a GPS tracking device handy?”
“He’s a clever SOB.”
“Sean!” She tugged on his arm, nearly toppling him over. “We have to warn Courtney. He knows where she lives, knows I’m staying there.”
“Not anymore you’re not. Give Courtney a call. You’re staying here tonight, and I’ll take you back to her place early tomorrow morning so you can get your things and get to school.”
She jabbed her finger at the tracking device. “What are we going to do with this thing?”
“Oh, I have a plan. If the Alphabet Killer likes games, I’ve got a good one for him.”
* * *
THE SOUND OF the alarm grated against her eardrums, and Elise sighed and snuggled closer to Sean’s warm, smooth back.
She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to face the harsh world outside. But the alarm was insistent.
Sean growled and threw out an arm, his hand groping for the clock on the nightstand. With one well-aimed smack, he ended the sound that had intruded on Elise’s sweet dreams.
She yawned and dug her chin into his shoulder. “You can’t wake up to soothing music or wind chimes?”
“Those sounds would never wake me up. I have a hard enough time with that obnoxious noise blaring in my ear.”
Elise squinted at the green numbers floating in the dark room. “Ugh, I haven’t seen five o’clock a.m. since—since a maniac tried to kill me five days ago.”
Sean swiveled around, twisting the covers in his legs, and pulled her against his chest. He kissed the top of her head. “He can’t continue at this pace. You don’t murder two people and dump their bodies in an alley without leaving a trail of clues.”
She burrowed deeper into his arms and inhaled his scent. She wanted to bottle it and take it with her everywhere.
“Are you going to have to answer some questions about Ty today?”
“Of course, but I doubt my supervisors are going to believe I hired someone to mess up your ex-fiancé and then had my hit man tell him it was me.”
He stroked her back and she almost purred. They hadn’t made love last night after they’d discovered the GPS, but he’d held her all night long and that was almost as good.
“I want to be in on the questioning of Ty, so I hope they grant me that privilege since the guy accused me of chopping off his finger.”
Her gut rolled. “I can’t even think about that without feeling ill. Ty is going to be devastated when he wakes up and it all comes back to him.”
“Ty should be thankful he’s alive. I’m sure Katie Duncan wouldn’t mind waking up about now missing one digit.”
“You’re right.” She smoothed her hand down his arm, across his tattoo. “He has no idea how close he came to dying.”
“We’d better get moving if we hope to collect your stuff from Courtney’s and get you to school.” He rolled away from her and planted his feet on the carpet. “She’s checking into a hotel today, right? I think that’s best right now.”
“Yes. That girl has money to burn. She’ll probably book a suite in some fancy hotel and live it up.”
“When is she going back to pack up?”
“Well, since she spent the night with her new man, I think he’s going to take her back.”
“Have you met this new man of hers?”
“I met him briefly that night at the Speakeasy. He bought us a couple of drinks.” She tumbled out of bed and shot him a quick glance. “You don’t suspect him, do you?”
“Just covering all bases here.”
“Derrick is African-American. I don’t think he’s the Alphabet Killer.”
“Okay, okay. Does this Derrick look like he can handle himself in a fight?”
She hugged her sweater to her body. “Really? You think it’s going to come to that? The killer probably doesn’t even know who Courtney is.”
“Can he?”
“He looks like he could’ve played football in college.”
“Good.” He pointed to the bathroom door. “I’m going to hit the shower first because I’ll be quick about it.”
She longed to hit the shower with him again, but there was no going back to that moment last night. But they’d have other moments—so he said.
An hour later, they stepped outside into the damp, misty air.
Sean tilted his head back. “June gloom is in full swing.”
“Yeah, I pity all those tourists who come out here expecting a sunny California day.”
“Spoken like a true San Franciscan native.” He tossed the GPS device in the air and then clamped it back under her car.
“So what is your plan? You’re just going to let him continue following me around?”
“You’ll see. First stop, Courtney’s condo.”
Elise drove back into the city, and the tracker on her car made her feel exposed and vulnerable. She hated that. Only Sean’s presence behind her made it bearable.
While Sean waited by the front door of Courtney’s condo with his arms crossed, daring anyone to cross the threshold, Elise buzzed around the spare room and bathroom, tossing her stuff into her suitcase.
Joining Sean at the entrance, she took a last look around the immaculate downstairs. “If Courtney’s homeowners’ association was mad about the garlic, just wait until those fine folks discover
