Page 53 of Counter Attack

“See you in the morning,” Nathan called after her. Without looking back, she gave him a thumbs-up.

He shook his head. “That girl has way too much self-confidence.”

“Yeah, but if she does apply to the academy, the instructors there will take her down a notch or two. Then she’ll make a great detective.”

He smiled. “She reminds me of you.”

“I was never that cocky.”

This time he laughed out loud. “Yeah, right. Come on, let’s go.”

Nathan took her hand as they climbed the steep hill to the tracks, then they walked single file until they reached the place to cut over to his truck. A sense of peace settled in her heart. They worked well together as a team, something that wasn’t easy for her.

After her mom died and her dad dumped her on her grandparents, she’d created barriers to keep people out. Even in middle school, she’d kept her nose buried in a book so people wouldn’t approach her. As a cop, she’d been a team player at work, but Alex had never joined the others at the coffeeshop-slash-diner where they hung out.

She’d even found herself trying to withdraw from her grandparents since she’d returned home, especially after Gramps had the heart attack. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him or Gram.

Nathan stopped walking and turned toward her. “You okay?”

She glanced down at their entwined hands then slowly raised her gaze to find him staring at her. The moonlight bathed him in a soft glow, and when he pulled her toward him, his embrace was so inviting. Funny how she remembered that she fit so well in his arms. And that he was just the rightheight that she could rest her head on his chest and feel his heart beat in time with her own.

Alex ignored the voice in her head yelling for her to move out of his arms. She was too tired.

“I’ve missed our friendship,” Nathan said softly.

“Me too.” Friendship. That was all she wanted. Right? So why did his words hurt? Before she could dig deeper into her feelings, her phone rang, shattering the quiet.

He dropped his arms from around her. “You better answer that.”

With a fortifying breath, she stepped back and fished her phone out of her back pocket. Dylan Wells. He wouldn’t be calling unless it was important.

“Stone,” she answered and put the call on speaker.

“Alex, thought you might need to know that we discovered a photo with writing on the back. It was under the driver seat of your SUV, and I’m assuming it’s from Gina Norman’s killer since a pawn is taped to it.”

Nathan tensed beside her as icy fingers gripped Alex’s stomach. How had the killer even known the vehicle she would be driving? “What’s in the photo?”

“It looks like a chessboard with the White king on its side. There’s an O minus written across the top.”

Alex didn’t have to understand chess to know the killer meant the note as a taunt, indicating she’d lost the game. She lifted her chin. The killer may have meant the note to intimidate her, but for Alex, it was a challenge. She would just have to prove the killer wrong. “Anything else on the photo?”

“There’s something written on the back.”

“Read it.”

Dylan cleared his throat and started reading. “This was to let you know I can find you anytime I want to.”

Alex swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. A mindgame. That’s all it was. She couldn’t let the killer get into her head. “Anything else?”

There was a hesitation. She cringed, waiting for more bad news, and beside her, Nathan leaned closer to the phone, intensity radiating off him.

“Taylor found a tracking device under the back bumper.”

Alex shouldn’t have been surprised. “Get rid of it. Whoever put it there would expect our CSI team to find it.”

“Done,” Dylan said. “It’ll be in the property room with the other evidence.”

She disconnected the call and turned to Nathan. “Now all we have to do is find out who had access to my SUV.”

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