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“My mom and dad have been encouraging me to get back with George. I wouldn’t put it past them to invite him,” she added.
“Constance can accompany her,” I offered quickly.
“That won’t work,” Serena insisted.
I braced for it.
“But Duke could come as my new boyfriend. That would be the best thing. It would also be a good reason to avoid my ex, just in case.”
“Good idea,” Lucas agreed before I could mount a defense. “Anything else?”
“Not at the moment,” Serena said sweetly.
Jordy shifted the angle of his laptop, still frowning.
“Okay,” Lucas said. “Duke, you and Winston stay here tonight after we bait the trap, and we’ll see if this guy was just toying with us or comes by to check the bush out front. Constance, you get some rest before you go undercover inside the federal building tomorrow.”
Constance nodded.
“Jordy, we need a spare USB drive as bait to put under the bush out front for this dirtbag.”
Jordy typed away on his computer and adjusted how it sat in his lap.
“Jordy?” Lucas prodded.
“We have a problem,” he finally said. “There’s a Wi-Fi signal coming from the front yard. My triangulation puts it by that tree next to the walk.”
“Shit,” Terry said as he fumbled through the backpack at his feet.
Lucas beat us all to the front windows, but Terry was the one with the binoculars.
Terry only searched for a second. “We’re screwed. There’s a camera in the tree pointed at the bush, and it would have caught all of us walking in. No way we catch him picking up the bait.”
“What’s this mean?” Serena asked.
“It means the asshole was a step ahead of us,” I murmured. “We have no idea how long that camera has been there.”
“Terry,” Lucas barked. “We need a full system on this house, and we needed it yesterday.”
“I brought a few cameras with me and planned on picking up the rest of the stuff tomorrow,” he said.
“Not good enough any longer,” I decided. “We need motion and door sensors tonight. The rest of the package can wait until tomorrow.”
Terry looked to Lucas.
“Do it,” he said. “Duke is right. Winston, you and Duke take shifts tonight here at the house. Leave his camera in place. Let him think he has the upper hand. Constance, no change. You get sleep for the federal building tomorrow. Good work, Jordy. As you leave, sweep each of our vehicles for a tracking signal.”
It would be a long night. And now, with the combination of danger to Serena and Winston being in the house, I wouldn’t be getting together with her this evening.
CHAPTER 16
Serena
The next morning,the face looking back at me in the mirror reflected a fitful night’s sleep with dark circles and bloodshot eyes. Basically, I was death warmed over, with bandages from the accident thrown in for good measure.
How had Duke possibly called me pretty yesterday?
My various injuries from the crash had made it difficult to sleep—that would be my go-to reason today when people asked. The real culprit was that I couldn’t stop thinking about Duke and how he’d played my body like an instrument.
