“I think I can help with that.”
All heads turned at the sound of Derek’s voice. Confused, Jake looked around, surprised when he saw D’s car next to his.
Jesus, he must truly be losing it if he didn’t even notice another vehicle pulling into the driveway.
“Did you check the camera feed yet?” Tablet in hand, Derek walked quickly toward them.
Shit! Fuck! Shit! He’d completely forgotten about the security cameras!
Jake’s head swung around, his gaze landing on the one above Olivia’s front door. The system Derek installed looked like a single camera setup, but was actually two. One lens faced her front stoop while a second one recorded her driveway.
Jake ran a hand over his weary face, again. Grant was right. He had to get his head on straight. Olivia didn’t have time for anything less.
He turned back to Derek whose fingers were tapping away on the tablet’s screen. Jake saw his teammate’s face go slack, his complexion suddenly pale. “Ah, hell.”
Jake’s stomach plummeted. “What?” he demanded as he closed the distance between them. “What?”he growled again when Derek didn’t answer right away.
Sympathy filled Derek’s eyes as he turned the tablet so Jake could see its screen. His body tensed as he watched Cetro carry a bloody, unconscious Olivia outside. When they moved out of the camera’s view, Jake tapped the screen to switch to the secondary camera’s recording.
The bastard laid her down in the back of a white SUV. Cetro spent a couple of minutes bent over the back bumper before closing the hatch, presumably securing Olivia.
Jake’s teeth clenched together so hard he was surprised they didn’t crush into powder from the pressure.
His brow turned in when Cetro got in on the passenger seat, rather than the driver’s. “He had someone with him,” he said mostly to himself.
Squinting, he focused on whoever was behind the wheel, but he couldn’t make out any features other than the driver was obviously male.
“Probably the other prisoner he escaped with,” Coop said.
They all watched, hovered over Jake’s shoulders, as the vehicle quickly reversed out of the drive, and then took off toward the highway.
Forcing back the stark terror screaming through his veins, Jake restarted the video. This time putting all his effort into the details, as he would for any other job.
If he didn’t, if he allowed himself to think about what Olivia could be going through this very second, he’d never make it another step.
“There!” Jake blurted. He looked up to find his entire team still surrounding him, having his back, as always.
His thoughts and vision blurred by emotions, Jake had missed it the first time. Pointing to the screen, he directed his words to Derek.
“Can you enlarge that?”
Derek took the tablet from Jake’s hands, and in seconds, he had a clear picture of the SUV’s front license plate. Another couple minutes, and he knew who it was registered to.
“It belongs to a rental company out of Dallas,” D told Jake excitedly. “It was rented out under the name Robert Jones two days ago.”
“Bob Jones? Really?” Mac asked sarcastically before muttering, “Guess Cetro doesn’t have much of an imagination.”
“How the hell is that going to help us find him?”
Jake could contact the state and local authorities to issue an APB, but by the time they got the word out, Cetro would be long gone, and Olivia would be dead.
The fingertips on Derek’s right hand tapped against the screen with lightning speed. “It’s a national rental chain.”
Jake still didn’t see his point “And?”
Head still down, Derek talked while he worked. “A few years ago, all of the major rental companies put GPS trackers in their cars. Too many people using fake ID’s to rent them and then stealing their cars.”
After another minute, D smiled and his eyes lit up with excitement. He turned his tablet around for Jake and the others to see. “I know where she is.”
Knowing the others would follow, Jake sprinted to his truck.
Hang on, baby. I’m coming for you.
Chapter 14
The pain was excruciating. In her muddled mind, Olivia wondered just how much one person could suffer before it finally became unbearable.
As a nurse, she understood there were too many variables to accurately answer that question. What she did know was that she couldn’t take much more.
Olivia wanted to think she could withstand whatever else the maniac decided to dish out but knew that simply wasn’t true.
After having walked inside the large, decrepit building, Cetro had used the ropes around her wrists to hang her from a large hook that was connected to one of the barn’s old beams. The pressure on her broken wrist was agonizing, and her shoulders burned from the constant pull. At least the large cut on her arm had finally stopped bleeding.
Olivia had passed out when Cetro first strung her up. Whether from the pain or blood loss, she wasn’t sure. Though, she was awake and alert now, she kept her eyes closed.
Most likely, the bastard would want her to be aware of exactly what he was doing to her. If she could feign being unconscious for as long as she could, Olivia figured maybe it would buy her enough time. For what?
That little voice was right. It wasn’t like anyone knew where she was. By now the hospital would have realized she hadn’t shown for her shift. They may be a little worried when they couldn’t reach her but would probably just assume she changed her mind and wasn’t ready to come back after all.
And Jake...well, he’d have no way of knowing she was missing.
A different kind of pain hit. One she’d brought on herself. She’d been the one to tell Jake not to call or come by. Told him to give her space and not contact her.
I’m so sorry, Jake.
A sob built in her throat. Why couldn’t she have seen what he and her brother had been trying so hard to get her to understand that day? Why hadn’t she realized, then, that Jake had lied because he loved her, not because he’d
