Page 57 of Our Little Secret

Neal whispered to her, “Leah’s going to be fine.”

Brooke doubted her sister would ever be “fine,” but she couldn’t worry about it now, not with the adjuster scouring her vehicle.

Blair Johnson closed the driver’s door without incident and Brooke let out her breath only to worry again as the adjuster got down on her hands and knees to peer at the undercarriage.

Brooke could barely breathe and hardly noticed as Neal opened the side door to let Shep into the yard. She watched the flashlight’s beam move steadily under the SUV. Maybe she was wrong, maybe Gideon hadn’t—

“Hey, what’s this?” Blair asked, her voice muffled.

Oh. God.

“What’s what?” Neal asked.

“Don’t know,” came the reply, a question in Blair’s voice. It looks like—” There was the scrape of metal on metal. “Oh.” She straightened up and held out a small black device.

Brooke thought she might be sick.

“Oh that.” Neal gave a nervous little laugh. “I forgot all about that.”

What?

The tiny black box had a short antenna attached to it.

“It’s a tracker,” Blair said, her voice clipped, all friendliness having evaporated from her face.

Oh God. Brooke steadied herself against the fender of her vehicle.

“Yeah, I know.” Neal was nodding as Blair’s gaze swept from husband to wife.

“Didyouknow?” the adjuster asked Brooke.

Of course not. Why would I track myself? Why would my husband? What the hell was Neal doing?

Her insides were shredding at the thought of what her husband had discovered with his secretive little bug, but she managed a bland expression and shook her head. “No. Had no idea.”

Shep, picking up on the tension in the tight space, began to whine.

Brooke caught her husband’s eye. Did she see just the hint of guilt in his gaze? Something darker? “Why would you be tracking me?” All too vividly she remembered the places she’d driven and how many times she’d lied about where she really was.

Neal knew!

And he hadn’t said a damned word.

What in God’s name was going on?

“No—no, not really.” Neal held up his hands, as if embarrassed. “Geez, I forgot I even had it.”

“Youforgot?” Brooke said, disbelieving. Then again, why would Neal be keeping tabs on her unless he suspected she was lying about her whereabouts?

“Yeah, I mean . . .” Neal sighed, his shoulders slumping. “A client sells them and gave me one for free, said he’d hook it up for me. It’s some kind of GPS deal, one of the first of his prototypes. At the time, when he was in the office setting up a new company, he asked everyone to give it a whirl and I told him I’d try it.”

“What client?” Brooke demanded. This was too far-fetched.

“Bill Clayton. He inherited his dad’s tech company a few years back and wanted to expand, get into surveillance.”

“So you put a bug on my car and didn’t bother to tell me?”

“No!” He shook his head. “I was driving the Explorer at the time,” he said. “It was before I got the Range Rover.”