Page 58 of Stolen Omega

“They could have thrown it into the woods.”

They could have, but it’s not so much the tracker itself that I’m interested in.

It’s any evidence Zelena’s kidnappers might have left out here before they moved on.

We walk along the road slowly, using the flashlights on our phones to see the ground.

I find the tracker in the grass by the side of the road.

Using my sleeve to pick it up, I let it drop into my suit pocket.

“Fingerprints?” Russ asks.

“The guy must be a con,” I tell him. “Why else would he use a fake ID?”

“You’ve got to be a little shady to get one of those. Rebellious teenagers aside.”

“He could have been a teenager, I guess,” I mutter, as I move away from the size nine shoe print in the dirt. Must belong to the driver. There’s even some kind of trendy logo on the heel.

I take a picture. It might not help us identify him, but it could be logged as evidence that he was here.

“You think a teenager kidnapped Zey?” Russ asks.

“Probably not,” I admit, as I keep looking around.

I find a set of boot prints in the dirt, bigger than the trendy sneaker print, and way more generic.

Moving back down the road, I find several prints from the guy with the boots, walking toward the spot where the van stopped. I take a few pictures and then I compare my foot’s size with the imprint.

This guy must be a size thirteen, which probably makes him at least six foot tall.

“I’m guessing the driver stopped here to pick up his accomplice.”

I shine the light on the other prints, so Russ can see them.

“Those don’t look like they belong to a teenager.”

“Back to the car,” I tell him, passing him the keys. “You can drive.”

“Which way are we heading?” he asks as he takes the keys.

“Follow this road as far as it goes. There’s a fifty-fifty chance they went forward. If they went back into the city, there are dozens of different routes they could have taken.” I check the map of the area. “This road goes on for twelve miles with no forks, then it leads into Silver Grove. We can stop outside the town and decide our next move then.”

We get back into the car, and I know what needs to be done.

The procedure for a situation like this one is set in stone.

It goes against every instinct I have, but the chances are we won’t find our mate without outside help, and I can’t risk Zelena’s safety because I don’t like the thought of calling her asshole parents. The sooner we have cops and the rest of the team out looking for the van, the better.

Russ gets the car moving, and I hit call.

Chapter Twenty-One

Russ

Zelena’s been kidnapped. I don’t know how the hell this can be happening. It feels like a weird dream and any second now I’m going to wake up next to her in her hotel room. Any damn second.

I grip the wheel tighter as I listen to Archer making his report to Zelena’s mother.

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