Page 71 of Stalked

“Look, just tell me where you are.”

“I can’t right now, Steve.”

Jon pointed at his watch. They needed to wrap this up. Not give the Watcher enough time to find her today. It had to be tomorrow, when they were ready.

“When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow. I’m taking a bus. That worked before and the Watcher didn’t find me for a long time. I’m hoping that will work again.”

“Okay, well, just meet me for breakfast or coffee or something before you go, okay? I just want to see you. To feel the baby kick one more time. You might have him before I can catch the Watcher.”

“Okay, fine. My bus leaves at 9:45 a.m. tomorrow.”

“Good. Let’s meet at eight.”

“Fine. There’s a little café I’ll meet you at.” Rosalyn gave him the name and directions to the place she was at now.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart.”

“Be careful, Steve. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Then she clicked the off button.

Steve tapped his communication button to Derek’s earpiece. “Okay, get her out of there.”

Derek was wearing an apron, posing as a cook in the back. He could see the entire seating area from where he stood.

“Roger that. Everyone in here is still Omega.”

Steve watched on the screen as Derek nodded to Lillian, a SWAT team member no less deadly just because she stood barely over five feet tall. She brought Rosalyn a bill. “Here’s your check, ma’am.”

“Thank you.” Rosalyn made a wincing sound as if she was in pain.

“Are you okay?”

“Just my tooth. Something’s wrong. But I hate going to the dentist, you know?”

Hopefully the Watcher would buy that there was something wrong with the transmitter. It would force him to move up any timetable he had. To come after Rosalyn tomorrow even if he wasn’t planning to. To make a mistake.

“I hope you feel better.” Lillian touched the check. “I can take that whenever you’re ready.”

“Thank you.”

That was the agreed-upon code that it was time for Rosalyn to leave. Steve watched as she got up and went out the front door and around to a car in the side parking lot. The camera lost her then, but he knew from there she would drive, as if she was looking for a tail.

Just like she always had done before she’d known how the Watcher was following her. Four different Omega vehicles would be following her, piggybacking off each other so they wouldn’t get made. Once they gave her the signal that she was clear, she would drive immediately to Omega, where the transmitter would once again be jammed.

The Watcher would think he’d lost her again for whatever reason. Maybe it was the mountains, or maybe the transmitter itself was faulty—after all, he hadn’t had a signal from her the entire time she’d lived with the Ammonses. But hopefully he wouldn’t decide to dig too far into it tonight.

But Steve didn’t feel like he could draw a complete breath until Rosalyn made it safely back through the gates of Omega. As soon as a member of SWAT brought her up to the offices, Steve pulled her to him, breathing in the scent of her hair.

“How do you think it went? Do you think he bought it?” she asked.

“I hope so.”

Jon walked out of the control room. “You did great, Rosalyn. If he doesn’t buy it, it’s definitely not because of anything you did or didn’t do.”

She looked up at Steve. “I just want this to be over with.”

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