“You think he’s jealous?” Now that Quinn’s put the idea in my head, I can’t shake the question.
“I’d say he still cares. Enough to hire a PI…” He pauses and swipes his lips again with a balled-up napkin. “Something going on with you two?”
I sniff and scratch at my jaw.
“I mean…if there is, would he know?” Gabe clarifies.
“No.” What’s happened between Alicia and me has been on the down low. But… “We went out to dinner last Friday.”
“Dinner like a date?”
“Her daughter was at a sleepover. I’ll have to ask Quinn when the report was pulled. If it hit after Friday, that narrows it.”
I rub the back of my neck. KOAN isn’t military, but they still expect discipline—and this crosses some invisible line. We’re informal and don’t push employee manuals, but there is a code of conduct and expectations. My choices are looking unwise.
“It’s worth asking Quinn,” Gabe says nonchalantly. “You’ll know if someone read into the dinner and you sparked something—I mean, it could just be…” He reaches for a fry and I can tell he’s thinking. “Nah. If it was just concern for his daughter, he’d ask Alicia for backgrounds on the men in her detail. He wouldn’t go behind her back.”
“Might not be him,” I say. “Remember the back of her Rivian. It was ajar.”
We both look at Alicia’s car, parked in her reserved spot.
“You know, I’ve thought about that, and it’s possible she accidentally pushed a button on the key fob to open the rear and didn’t realize it.”
“No.” I point to the back. “See how it’s split. The key fob can automatically pop the top window, but the bottom gate requires a manual open.”
“It was ajar too?”
“Slightly. Like maybe someone closed it quickly and didn’t stick around to double-check it closed.”
I ball up my burger wrapper and throw it in the bag, then stroll over to Alicia’s vehicle, rubbing a hand over the body. It’s all locked up, but I’m remembering how I found the back before. No, someone opened it. If Alicia tried to drive with it ajar, she would’ve seen the red light on the dashboard.
Now if she did get out, open it, fail to close it properly, and just didn’t remember accessing the rear… But this is Alicia we’re talking about, and that’s unlikely.
On a whim, I squat and peer at the undercarriage. It’s dark and I can see through to the curb.
“It’s a nice car,” Gabriel says, joining me. He studies it with me, pulling out his phone and flicking on the light feature. “Crazy to think it runs on a computer. No engine.”
“Right?”
“That tire looks like it’s low on air.” Gabe pushes up and goes around to the passenger side rear wheel and pushes against the tire. “Treads low too.”
I study the four tires noticing how the one tire does look like it’s showing more wear.
“Wait. Come here.”
I join Gabe by the tire and kneel. Following the stream of light from his phone I see a black plastic box attached to the metal frame.
Gabe reaches for it and I stop him. “We touch it and someone’s going to know we’re onto them.”
“It’s a GPS tracker,” he says, stating the obvious.
“Which means someone is definitely monitoring Alicia.” There have been times I’ve thought protective detail was overkill, but now… “Someone’s studying her schedule.”
I pull out my phone and dial Quinn, setting the phone to speaker. She answers on the first ring. “Quinn. I’m with Gabriel. We located a GPS tracker on Alicia’s vehicle.”
“And we found the invoice and payment to the PI. Paid in Bitcoin.”
“So someone doesn’t want to be found.”