He did not focus on the fact a psychopath had Rosalyn in his clutches. Did not focus on the fact that they had no idea where said psychopath was taking her or how they would find her. That they still had no idea what the Watcher looked like or where he was from.
Because if he focused on those things, the fear and agony would overwhelm him.
He’d known helplessness when Melanie had died; it had ripped a hole in his heart.
But he knew he wouldn’t survive if Rosalyn didn’t make it.
He kept that all pushed aside because it would do nothing to help them find her now.
Travis Loveridge was dead. Evidently the Watcher had walked up to their car while they were stopped at a red light and shot him point-blank in the head. There had been witnesses, but no one had been able to see the Watcher’s face. They’d seen him pick up a woman—an unconscious woman with long black hair—and carry her to his car parked at the side of the street.
A gray sedan. There were thousands of them on the roads. They were checking, but so far a dead end.
They’d pulled up the feed from the traffic camera, but it had been pointing in the wrong direction. Another dead end.
Brandon was interviewing Gavin from the café and his wife. Molly’s lab crew was checking for forensics at the house. But so far...
Steve was studying computerized maps. Working on the assumption that the Watcher was taking Rosalyn out of Colorado. He assumed back to Mobile.
But it was too far to make it in one day. Steve knew from personal experience a week ago going the opposite way. He had every Omega person who could be spared making calls to hotels along the interstate heading south.
Steve personally had called the state and highway patrols for New Mexico, Kansas and Texas. He wanted them to understand the direness of the situation; he didn’t want it to be just be another report that came across their desks.
It was all long shots, but Steve would keep taking long shots until one of them paid off. It was getting late now. Dark. The thought of her alone with the Watcher overnight...
Derek put a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “How are you holding up?”
Steve wiped a hand across his face. What could he say?
That panic was crawling up his spine, threatening to take over not only his whole body but the whole world?
How would anyone understand that?
“She’s alive, Steve. When the panic starts to overwhelm you, you push it back down with the thought that until we know definitely otherwise, Rosalyn and the baby are both alive.”
Maybe someone could understand that.
Derek could. Hadn’t Steve seen the very agony in his own eyes in Derek’s eighteen months ago when a sadistic bastard had kidnapped Molly?
Derek had moved heaven and earth to get her back. Steve had helped. He prayed he would get his own happily-ever-after with Rosalyn and their child.
“I thought she was dead once, Derek. And that was before I knew what she meant to me. I’ll be damned if I’ll let her die again not knowing I love her.”
Molly walked through the door. “You’re not going to have to.”
Both men turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve found the frequency the Watcher was using to track Rosalyn from a transmitter Jon and Brandon brought back from other victims. The transmitters were still live.”
“What?” Derek asked.
“I don’t know if the Watcher was trying to keep tabs on the families or what. But I was able to use them to find other transmitters. Actually, I’ve foundallthe women—since he used the same frequency for all the transmitters.”
“How do we know which one is Rosalyn?”
She ran over to the computer and brought up a navigation system on the screen.
“I’m going to assume she’s the one halfway between here and Mobile.” She pointed to a red dot near Oklahoma City.