Page 87 of Jessica's Hero
The red dot. We need to get it back. We need to find Jess.
“Where the fuck is it?” I repeat, my voice close to breaking. “Her tracker was just there. We’ve been following her for hours. How could it just disappear?”
Cole tears his gaze away from the road to glance at me in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know,” he replies calmly, but with a thread of strain in his voice. “But we’ll figure it out.”
From the passenger seat, Leo frowns at the laptop balanced on his lap. “There was no sign of a malfunction with her tracker. It was working fine just a minute ago.” He pauses. “The only thing I can think of is?—”
He stops. Frowns again.
My stomach turns to lead. “All you can think of iswhat?”
“That she’s someplace the signal can’t reach.”
From beside me, Zane bites out a low curse. “Do you think it’s like what happened to Charlie all over again?”
“What?” I turn my attention to Zane. “What do you mean, what happened to Charlie?” Charlie—Charlotte—is the wife of another Blade and Arrow team member. She went through some shit back before I moved to Sleepy Hollow, and I know she was kidnapped at one point, but I’m not sure how that connects to Jess.
“Charlie’s abductor had a jammer in his van,” Leo says. “So we couldn’t track her. But that’s clearly not the same situation here, since we’ve been on Jess’s trail since she left Sleepy Hollow.”
“Except an hour behind,” I snap. “A fucking hour. This fucking asshole could do anything to her in that time. We already know he hurt her. What else?—”
“Don’t jump to the worst,” Cole warns. But I don’t miss the sudden burst of speed as our SUV accelerates even faster, now a good twenty miles over the limit. I’d be happier if we hit ninety, or even a hundred, but the logical voice in my head reminds me we won’t be any help to Jess if we get pulled over for speeding or get into an accident.
“How can you say that?” I retort. “Someone took her. They’re driving her into the damned Adirondack Mountains. Do you know how remote some of the places up here are? If he gets her to… Shit. It was one thing with her tracker working. But now…”
Icy fingers wrap around my heart; squeezing. Every breath is an effort. My pulse slams in painful drumbeats, each one echoing with the same haunting question.
How could I fail her?
Why didn’t I insist on more security? Or better yet, whydidn’t I work harder to convince Jess to stay home? Why did I fold when she insisted on going back to work, even though my instincts were telling me to keep her at home?
But I know why.
Because I love her. And I wanted Jess to be happy.
And now…
I could lose her. She could be lost already.
All the crimes I’ve responded to—the assaults, the homicides—fly through my head at a dizzying speed. And in each of them, I see my beautiful Jess as the victim, the only woman I’ve ever loved. The woman I want to spend my life with.
Leo turns around in his seat to catch Zane’s gaze. “Pull up the tracking app on your phone. I want to check the satellite images again. See if there’s a location nearby that might have walls thick enough to block Jess’s signal.”
Zane lifts his chin at him. “Done.”
As Zane opens the app, there’s a hopeful moment when I think,Maybe her tracker will be back once it loads. Maybe Leo’s laptop isn’t working right and that’s why we couldn’t see her.
But seconds later, my hopes fall flat. Her little red dot still isn’t there. And we’re no closer to finding Jess than we were before.
“What’s around here?” Cole asks. He slows slightly as we take a sharp right, but I can still feel the wheels fighting for traction. “Any old military buildings? Bomb shelters? Being near Plattsburgh, shouldn’t there be some of those around?”
“That’s what I’m looking for,” Leo answers. “During the Cold War, there were a number of shelters builtaround here. And—” Pausing, his fingers fly across the keyboard. “Missile silos.”
I stop breathing for a second. “Fuck. Do you think…” Being from New York, I have vague memories of social studies teachers talking about the rich military history in our state, from Revolutionary War battle sites to ballistics testing sites. And I know there are plenty of abandoned missile silos in the northern part of the state, but the idea of Jess being in one…
“Do you think?” Cole starts. “It would explain the tracker dropping off the map.”
“But how would we know?” I ask tightly. My molars nearly shatter from trying not to scream in frustration. “If we can’t track her, how would we even know if she’s there? We could end up on a wild goose chase while this fucker is?—”
