Pride swelled inside Rami for a beat. If they could save other women or minors from being trafficked, it wouldn’t be just a bonus—it would be a miracle. As cool as that was, though, there was only one person who held his heart. “Good. But you’ve got a location on Ivy? Now?”
“Sending you the coordinates.”
Toth smacked Rami’s shoulder. “Ha! Yeah, man. We’ve got her.”
Rami released his clenched teeth. The tension cinching his chest eased a fraction, only to be replaced with urgency.
Now they had to devise a rescue plan under pressure—the kind of pressure that made his head split in two.
“Thanks.” Toth disconnected and a beat later, a message came through.
Snatching the phone from his friend, Rami stared at the red dot on the screen. Blood hammered against his eardrums, and his relief was so great it almost cut him at the fucking knees.
But a sobering truth immediately hit him: just because they had her location didn’t mean she was alive. The realization that they could be hunting for her lifeless body was enough to turn his skin cold and clammy. Emotion burned his eyes, but he fought it down.
Ivy’s a fighter.
Shoving all other thoughts from his mind, he swallowed the ball of tension building in his throat. He quickly allowed their location to be picked up by GPS. A little red route line showed the way down the road then jutted off into the forest.
“Twenty-three minutes away,” Rami confirmed, despite his tightening vocal cords. He jerked his head toward the vehicles. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll hop in with Rami,” August announced, flicking his gaze from the screen to them. “Toth, follow in your vehicle.”
Rami got in the driver’s seat and set the phone on the console while the navigator called out his first direction.
“Can you type the coordinates into the drone?” Rami asked, as August got in the passenger seat.
“On it.”
Rami shifted into drive, anticipation thundering through him. He stomped on the gas and turned onto the highway. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Toth was right behind him.
“Go slow by the gas station,” August instructed absently. “Don’t want to get pulled over.”
Rami grunted but eased off the gas. They coasted by the rest stop without drawing attention. He didn’t even try to look for Taschen, who was likely losing his shit standing around answering the cops’ questions.
When the rest stop fell behind them, he accelerated. The lines in the road blipped by his vision, never ending. Twenty-three fucking minutes.
He’d do it in fifteen.
Which might still be too late.
“Any sighting near the coordinates?” he asked.
“It’s loading. One sec—” August straightened in his seat. “Got ’em. They’re a little off the mark where Toth found them. Close, but... she’s on the move.”
Rami’s heart beat in triple time. She was moving. Thank god.
August turned the screen to show him. Sure enough, a little marker with a serial number blinked over an active heat source. Three other fast-moving, colorful figures weren’t far behind.
“Someone’s chasing her.” As the words left Rami’s lips, his foot sank heavily onto the pedal. Fiery rage boiled over inside him.
His woman was running from a fucking sociopath. Scared. Alone. Fighting for her goddamn life and likely injured. The need to teleport himself to her side was so great, he felt he could defy science by will alone.
“It’s all right man. We’re close.” August’s reassuring tone fell flat.
Rami moved his tongue around his dry mouth. It wasn’t all right. He white-knuckled the steering wheel. “I need you to see if there’s a road close to where they’re running. Can we get ahead of them?” If they had to run through the forest in Ivy’s wake, it’d take forever to reach them.
“Hang on.”