Chapter Twenty
AS SOON AS the SUV’s tires gripped the asphalt, Cam pressed the accelerator to the floor. “Get your drone into the air, Rhys. I want eyes on that road.”
“What’s the play, sir?” Dario asked.
“It’s time to go hunting, boys.” He tapped the comm device. “Zane.”
“I heard. I didn’t have a satellite in position.”
“Can you track that caravan of SUVs?”
“For a few minutes.”
“Until Rhys catches up to them with his drone. We’ll handle it after that.”
“You’ve got it. What kind of drone do you have?” Inside the SUV’s cabin, they heard Zane’s keyboard clicking as his fingers flew over the keys.
“DJI Matrice 30T.”
“Good choice. Got them. They turned right on Highway 58.”
“Copy that. You get that, Dario?”
“Yep. We’re right behind you, sir.”
Cam yanked his cell phone from his pocket and punched the speaker button. “Did you get all that, David?”
“Oh, yeah. Heads are going to roll when I find the leak. I’m sorry, Cam. I trust my people, or at least I did. Not anymore.”
“Yeah? Well, save one of those heads for me, will you? Rhys has his drone in the air. Once he catches up with them, he can follow in the air until we close the distance.”
“Good. What do you need us to do?”
“Set up roadblocks.” He gave his boss a list of roads to block off so they could box the caravan in.
“Got it. Anything else?”
“Is Sedona all right?”
“Although I can’t figure out why, she’s worried about you. I told her you were as tough as old shoe leather.”
He snorted. “Thanks a lot. Way to support me, sir.”
“Trying to give her an accurate picture of you.” He paused, then said, “We’ll find him, Cam.”
He couldn’t know that for sure, but his boss was wise enough to offer hope and encouragement when he and his team were at their lowest. “We’re not losing him, David. I don’t want to tell Sedona I failed to find and protect her student.”
“Copy that, my friend.” David paused, then said, “Roadblocks are moving into position as we speak. My brothers and a few deputies were in the area, so none of them are far from the roadblock locations.”
“Excellent.”
“Watch yourself. The Collector is sharp. Apparently, he’s outsmarted us every step of the way.”
“And isn’t that a kick in the ego?” Cam muttered.
“Stay focused, Sims. You hear me?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve got it.”
“You better, because if you don’t, you’ll end up on a slab in the morgue. Without you, your lady will make decisions with her heart instead of common sense, and she’ll join you in the morgue within forty-eight hours, tops. Do you want that to happen?”
“No, sir,” Cam snapped. “No way, sir.”
“Good. Then you better keep your mind in the game. If you don’t, I’ll be burying a good deputy.”
“Copy that, sir. Rhys, can you make the plates on any of the three SUVs?”
“They don’t have one.” A pause, then, “They’re splitting. Three directions.”
“Hold steady. Don’t commit to a chase.”
“Which one has the kid?” Isaac asked.
“We can’t guess. We have to get it right.”
Cam forced himself to take a breath, then another, and another. He hated with a white-hot passion what he was about to say. However, chasing the wrong one could doom Julio. A bright, sweet, innocent boy could be gone forever, and that possibility gutted him.
He swallowed against the lump in his throat. “Rhys, push the drone higher. I want a direction of travel on all three vehicles. Zane, do you have a satellite in position?”
“For one more minute,” Zane said. “We’re right at the edge of the pass window.”
“Watch them as long as you can. David?”
“Right here.”
“Let’s see how accurate the leak was. As soon as Rhys confirms the direction, I’ll pass it along to you. Hopefully, the men assisting your brothers aren’t responsible for the leak. We need a break. I want at least one roadblock to capture an SUV. If we’re lucky, that one has the child.”
“Copy that. Roadblocks are ready.”
Rhys’ voice came through, tight and focused. “Drone altitude increasing. Stand by. Okay, I’ve got all three. Eastbound, northbound, and westbound.”
Zane broke in. “Tracking. Okay, I’ve got them. Eastbound SUV holding forty miles an hour. Northbound accelerating. Westbound holding fifty miles an hour.”
“Keep eyes on all three,” Cam said.
“Trying,” Rhys said. “But they’re maneuvering like they know we’re overhead.” A beat, then, “Westbound SUV just went dark. Looks like it slid under a bridge. I’ve lost the radar return.”
“Mark last known,” Cam said.
“Done. Eastbound SUV entering a tunnel now. Hold. Lost track. Northbound SUV just slid under a bridge. All three are dark. Drone can’t see them. Structures are blocking everything.”
Zane’s voice sharpened. “They’re no longer visible to the satellite, and the satellite is out of range in ten seconds.” He counted down. “Out of position now. No movement from any of the SUVs. No thermal signatures before the vehicles hid from the satellite.”
“So we don’t know which vehicle Julio was in?”
“Nope. Sorry, man. Satellite’s out of position now. I’ll try to pull another one, but I can already tell you the nearest bird is fifteen minutes away. They timed this. They knew exactly when to disappear.”
“Cam, we have a location on those SUVs,” Isaac said. “We pick one and chase it down. If we’re lucky, Julio is inside. If he’s not, we still have the team inside the vehicle. You give me those men, and I guarantee they’ll talk, sir. I’ll make them tell us where the boy is.”
“I didn’t hear you say that.”
“Which one do we take?” Dario asked.
Silence filled the SUV one beat, then two. Man, he didn’t want to think it much less say it. But what choice did he have? He knew the truth. It was time to own it. “We don’t have a target.”
“Sir,” Dario said. “We take one each. That’s decent odds, two out of three. One of us might get lucky.”
“We both might chase the wrong SUV, and then he’s gone for good.”
Silence filled the cab of his vehicle, the silence of failure.
Rhys said, “They’re outpacing us, sir. I’m losing them. I can’t track all three.”
Cam gritted his teeth. This sucked so badly. How could he tell Sedona? She would be so disappointed in him. In his mind’s eye, he saw Julio’s blanket and the cut zip tie. “Bring the drone back. We regroup.”
Dario snapped, “We’re just letting him go?”
“The Collector slipped past us. He planned every step and outsmarted us. We’ve got to be better than this.
Also, we don’t chase blind. Ever. Hopefully, the roadblocks will pick them up, but I’m not counting on it, not with The Collector’s track record.
Rhys, bring the drone back. Zane, do you have time to help us? ”
“What do you need?”
“Pull traffic cam footage within a ten-mile radius and send a copy to Rhys. Rhys, build a trail. I want to know where these guys go.”
“If I can figure out what vehicles they switched to,” he muttered.
“What else can I help with?” Zane asked.
“Cell tower activity mapping.”
“Copy that. I’m on it. Rhys, I’ll let you know when to check your email for traffic cam footage.”
Their tech man’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t remember giving you my email address.”
“You didn’t. Cam, anything else?”
“Nope. Thanks for all your help. We owe you.”
“Not yet. You can owe me a favor when we find the boy. Murphy out.”
“David?”
“Right here.”
“We found three sets of tire treads on the SUVs around the detached garage. The rain has likely destroyed the tire treads by now, but see if we can match treads to vehicles.”
“You’ve got it. Nailing it down might take us a beat. We have three crime scenes to process.”
“Move this to the top of the list. This might give us that break we’ve been looking for.”
“Copy that. I’ll call when I have something to report.”
The corners of Cam’s lips curved. In other words, don’t bother him with questions he couldn’t answer yet.
He glanced in the rearview mirror and noted that Dario was tailgating him. Only one reason for that. Much as Cam understood and longed to keep going, continuing the pursuit could endanger Julio. “Break off pursuit, Dario.”
“We can still catch them.”
“Break it off. That’s an order.”
A growl of frustration filled the SUV’s cabin. “Copy that, sir,” Dario spit out.
“Dial it back, or when we have a confirmed location on Julio, you’ll be riding the bench.”
“Yes, sir.” He remained silent a beat, then added, “I hate dead ends.”
Cam chuckled. “Same, my friend.”
“Where are we going now, sir?” Spencer asked.
“You have to ask?” Isaac chuckled. “Buddy, you are slacking.”
“Ha ha. I was just making sure we were headed to the police station to pick up Sedona.”
“Of course.” Cam glanced in the rearview mirror, where he could see the medic’s face in the reflection. “Why?”
I thought you might avoid facing Sedona and Maria as long as possible. After all, the news you’re bringing is bad.”
“Missing Julio is on me. I can’t avoid the truth. I know Sedona well enough to worry she’ll do anything to help Julio, even if it’s bad for her safety.”
“That was obvious when you told us she jumped into the lion enclosure. That took a courage we’ve rarely seen.”
Boy, didn’t he know that. “She’ll do anything for her students. That’s why I brought the rest of The Thunderhawks in to help guard her.”
“Looks as though that will be a lifetime commitment for the team,” Isaac said.
The team’s lifetime commitment? “Explain that.”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like, sir. We know you’re gone over this woman, and now that we’ve met her, we understand why you’re crazy about her. In fact, we talked about it on the way to Hartman.”
“And?”
“Do you realize that you’re in love with her?”
He froze. “What? Are you serious?”
“About you being in love with her, or that we recognized it before you did?”
Cam swallowed hard. “Both,” he choked out.
His teammates laughed loudly and long. Finally, Spencer said, “We’re serious, bud. Figure out how to tell the lady you love her.”
“If she’s smart, Sedona will run for the hills as fast as she can.
” Cam felt sick. A good scare could do that to you.
This was nuts. How could he fall in love with Sedona that fast?
Worse, why would she love him back? He was just an old soldier who wanted to use his military skills to bring lost people home to their families instead of tracking terrorists and bringing them to justice.
Rhys reached over and thumped him hard on the shoulder.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“For doubting yourself for even one second. Knock that off, or we’ll do it for you. You’re a catch for your lady.”
Right. If that was true, why was he going back to her empty-handed? “You need your eyes checked.”
“You need your view of yourself to come up out of the basement,” Isaac said. “Don’t let Amelia’s view of you distort the accurate picture.”
Amelia, the woman whom he’d dated for a few months simply because she was beautiful.
It didn’t take long to realize her outward beauty didn’t carry over to beauty on the inside.
Every time he got ready to break up with her, she would have a full-blown crisis where she threatened to take her own life.
Over and over this happened until Isaac had thumped him on the back of the head and told him to open his eyes.
Thank God he’d listened to wise advice. “You’re right. ”
“Of course I am. You should always listen to me.”
That led to more jeering from the rest of The Thunderhawks. Cam let it roll for a while. Humor was good for the team, and he deserved the teasing. If he could, he’d kick himself for allowing Amelia to influence him one iota.
Thirty minutes later, Cam used his identity card to scan into the sheriff’s department parking lot.
When they exited their SUVs, Cam led his teammates into the station.
Once he settled them in the squad room with his coworkers, Cam went in search of Sedona.
He found her in the break room, fast asleep on the couch with a pillow under her head and a blanket wrapped around her.
His heart clenched in his chest. She was so beautiful. He longed to kiss her, but didn’t feel like he had the right without her consent, especially since he’d failed her.
He stilled. Where were Eddie and Maria? Surely, they weren’t still at the hospital? Perhaps they’d gone home to wait for word of Julio. He’d check on their whereabouts after he talked to Sedona.
Allowing himself to touch her for a few seconds, Cam ran the backs of his calloused fingers down her cheek. Man, her skin felt like velvet. He’d felt nothing this soft in his life. Praying she wouldn’t hate him for what he was about to tell her, Cam murmured, “Sedona.”
She woke immediately. Her gaze locked with his, and a second later, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Instead of a soft, light kiss he’d expected, she took his mouth with hers, as if they hadn’t left off from their earlier kisses.
A long minute later, she broke the kiss and smiled at him with swollen lips. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
Sedona studied him for a moment, sobering. “What’s wrong?”
His heart sank. Of course she would pick up on what he felt so deeply. This was yet another clue that this woman was meant for him, and he’d botched this relationship up good.
When he remained silent, she sat up and tugged him to the couch beside her. “Tell me.”
“We missed him by five minutes.”
She moaned. “Oh, no.”
“We tried to follow them, but The Collector has a team large enough to divide into three SUVs. We used a drone to follow them as far as we could, but they split up and went in three different directions. The SUVs parked in tunnels or under bridges. The satellite went out of position, so Fortress lost its visuals of them, and our drone had to stop because it was out of range. Roadblocks netted nothing. I’m sorry. I failed.”