Page 68 of Rescuing Tobias

Because if they couldn’t track where Isabella had been taken, they couldn’t find her. And if they couldn’t find her, they couldn’t save her.

Not going to lose you, firecracker.

He’d walk away if it was what she wanted, but she and their baby were going to live long, happy, safe lives.

“We tracked them to a college campus but then lost them,” Teresa said like he wasn't already aware of that fact.

“But they didn't disappear. I mean, they can't have. Not physically possible. Isabella was injured and unconscious. I saw her get hit. There was blood, there’s no way they could get into a taxi or an Uber or anything. And even if they changed vehicles, someone surely had to have seen them, and a man carrying an unconscious, bloody woman has to have drawn enough attention that someone would have called the cops.”

Frustration bubbled inside him. There had to be an answer out there somewhere, so why couldn’t six highly skilled experts find it?

“A college is a good place to get lost, though. The parking lot is huge, people come and go at all hours since everyone has a different class schedule. And while sure, they’re all adults, they’re still little more than kids, and they’re all likely going to be pretty wrapped up in their own lives,” Chelsea pointed out.

“But not so much they wouldn't notice an unconscious woman being kidnapped,” he protested. “Granted, I was never a teenage girl, but aren't young women cautious of their surroundings because they know the dangers they could face?If someone saw another woman unconscious with multiple men moving her into another vehicle, they’d do something.”

“What if they didn't see, though?” Ava asked.

“What do you mean?”

“This was planned, right? I mean, they obviously knew she was no longer in Maine, and they know who you are because they knew what route you’d take to work,” Ava continued.

While her words weren't intended to strike like stones, they did.

She was right.

He hadn't even taken the most basic precautions of ensuring Isabella’s safety like taking an alternative route to work.

“It’s clear they have a pretty big network, sources everywhere. It’s the only way they could know that you two were back here and be lying in wait. So if they were lying in wait for you outside the subway station, then it makes sense they’d have a getaway plan in place. If they had a vehicle lined up and waiting for them, all they had to do was pull in beside it, wait until no one was close enough to get a good look, then quickly transfer Isabella from one vehicle to the other, and drive away again,” Ava said.

“If they left in another vehicle, we can still track them,” Chelsea reminded him.

They could. But it wouldn't be easy.

Not in the least.

In fact, it could take them literally weeks. Because they would have to run facial recognition software on the driver of every single vehicle that left the parking lot in the hours after they’d last tracked the car used in the abduction to the vicinity of the college and assumed that’s where it went. Since there were no cameras in the parking lot, they would have to find all the nearest ones. Then they’d have to try to get clear shots of the drivers. Then run every shot through their software tosee if it matched one of the men involved in the abduction. They’d also have to run background checks on each student or faculty member leaving the college in case one of them had been targeted by the ring and was involved.

Doable, but the hours of time to get through it all made it seem impossible.

Which it could be.

If there was another driver waiting in the vehicle and it hadn't just been planted in advance, they might never be able to link which vehicle the kidnappers had transferred to.

Try as he was to remain positive, to focus on what he could do and not the millions of things he couldn’t, not allow his mind to wander too far into imagining what hell Isabella could be enduring this very second, it was hard not to lose hope.

This wasn't just some case Prey was working on where, while he cared about the outcome and didn't want there to be a loss of innocent life, there was an emotional distance he was able to maintain.

This case was his life.

His future.

His heart.

It wasn't just personal like it had been when Ava had gotten caught up in the trafficking ring. It went so far beyond that. Whatever the future held for their relationship, Isabella was forever tangled up in his life. They shared a child, and while he’d been hesitant to admit it at first, there was never any chance he would have been able to stay out of its life.

That the child was going to be half him and half an amazing woman he respected the hell out of filled him with awe. That Isabella trusted him with both her heart and her body after what she’d been through filled him with respect.

“We can do this, Tobias. As a team, we can find her. I know this seems daunting, and trust me, I want this ring broughtdown every bit as much as you do, but until we get more intel that points us in the right direction, we’re going to have to work with what we have. Right now, that’s tracking each driver of each vehicle that left the lot after we got our last visual on the SUV used in the abduction. Together we can make this work, we can find her,” Ava insisted.

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