Page 153 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

“I have no idea. That address wouldn’t have been on your phone. The only way he could have known where we were was if…”

As loathe as he was to allow the guy, if there was any chance he was following them, to catch up, Dante stepped on the brakes and eased the car to the shoulder.

Jules stared at him. “What are you doing?”

“I need to check something. Keep your eyes on the road behind us, okay? If you see anyone coming, let me know and we’ll take off.”

She nodded.

Dante jumped out, rounded the hood, and crouched to feel beneath the front bumper. Although he searched from one end to the other, he found nothing. He straightened and strode to the back of the vehicle to do the same. He’d covered the length of the bumper and was about to give up when he found what he was searching for, tucked deep into the corner on the driver’s side. Yanking out the three-inch-long, black, magnetized box with two small antenna, he bit back a curse word and carried it to Jules’ window to show her.

She rolled down the glass. “Is that a tracker?”

“Yeah.”

“So, he’s known where we were all along.” Jules’ voice shook slightly.

“Looks like it.” Dante dropped the box to the ground and stomped on it with his heel until it was ground it into tiny pieces. “Well, we’re off his radar now.”

After kicking the plastic bits into the ditch, he slid behind the wheel again and squealed away from the shoulder. Jules was right. That psycho had known where they were from the moment they left Calgary. Why had he held out so long before making his move? Had he been watching them? Waiting for an opportunity to torment Jules further? All those sweet moments he and Jules had spent together passed through his mind. The thought of an evil, demented madman bearing witness to all of them made Dante’s stomach churn.

Jules slumped against the seat and covered her eyes with her arm. “He stood there watching me while I slept on that floatie. Like he probably did that night in my room. Why? What is he getting out of this?”

“Some sick pleasure I can’t begin to comprehend.” Dante struggled to keep the fury out of his voice. Maybe, instead of the retribution he’d planned for the man making Jules’ life so unbearable, he’d settle for simply gouging his eyes out. See how well the freak made out behind bars when he couldn’t see any faces in real life any more than she could see his in her mind.

She lowered her arm and shifted slightly to face him. “No. You wouldn’t.” With her thumbnail, she scratched at a tiny speck of something, dried ketchup maybe, on the console between them. “As creepy as it is, this feels like a de-escalation. I mean, the last time he confronted me, in the burning building, he was clearly attempting to kill me. Why would he only leave me flowers today?”

Dante stared out the front window, at the rock face on either side of the road, scraggly trees clinging to cracks in the stone, and the majestic, mist-strewn, blue-gray mountains surrounding them. “Is there any way he could know that you leave daisies on your sister’s grave?”

Jules bit her lip before moaning. “I was there a couple of weeks ago and took a picture of her headstone with the flowers. I never posted it anywhere, but the photo would be in the gallery on my phone.”

The horror he’d seen in her eyes when she realized Dante wasn’t the one who had left the daisies by the pool filled them again. “So, not a de-escalation. He was leaving flowers at my grave. As though I was already dead.”

Dante let go of the wheel to grasp her forearm. “We won’t let that happen, Jules. I promise.”

“Can you, though?”

The question hung in the air between them, along with the faint, lingering aromas of French fries and stale coffee. Finally, she rested ice-cold fingers on his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I know you’re doing everything you can and that you’ve sacrificed a lot to try and keep me safe. I appreciate it. Truly.”

Dante turned his hand over to wrap his fingers around hers. “I’m not about to stop. Not until this guy is behind bars or dead. No way we are letting this monster win.”

She managed a tremulous smile. “Got it.”

When she turned to watch the breathtaking scenery they were passing by, he continued to hold her hand, offering silent comfort. Jules made no effort to pull away. Not until his work phone vibrated in his shirt pocket did he release her to tug it free. Glancing from the road to the screen, he read the short message his boss had sent.

Relief flowed through him. “They got him.”

She straightened abruptly. “They did?”

“Yep. A heat-seeking drone picked him up in the woods. He’s in custody and being transported to Calgary now.”

Jules clasped his arm. “I can’t believe it.”

As she had done earlier with him, Dante covered her hand with his. “Believe it, Jules. You’re safe. Your family is safe. Your friends are safe. That vermin will never again see the light of day. That, Icanpromise you.”

She glanced upwards. “Thank you, Lord.”

“Amen.” He had never said a word more fervently in his life. That was one good thing that had come out of this horrific situation. One incredible thing, actually. He and Jules both appeared to be making their way back onto the pathway they had veered off. The pathway of a deepening faith in the God who was good, all the time, even if their definition ofgoodwas different than his.