Page 80 of Recovering Ivy

“Yep.” Tex’s voice came over the line. “Traffic cam at the Woodrow Wilson bridge caught this.” A grainy image of Sarah Long in her car appeared on the screen.

“Try to enhance that. I want eyes on Ivy,” I told Linc.

“Already on it.”

“Then again here at the 95-south interchange,” Tex said before the image changed. This was a slightly different angle but still no Ivy. “Last one is here, right before the North Carolina border.”

Still no visual on Ivy.

“Fuck.”

“I got nothin’,” Linc told the room. “There’s no angle where I have a clear view of the back seat.”

“Get a map up of the area,” I asked no one in particular.

“Got it,” Leo answered, pulling up Google Earth on the big screen, zooming in on the Virginia – North Carolina border.

“Nothing but farmland,” I noted. “Tex, where’s the next traffic cam?”

“Ten miles south,” he answered.

I studied the map. There was only two possible exits. One was for a truck stop.

“Pull the footage from the truck stop.”

“Copy.” Declan went to work on his tablet.

“Garrett, do any side streets in the area have feeds?”

“Negative,” Tex answered for him, obviously tracking my thoughts.

“Truck stop is clean,” Declan answered.

Come on, Ivy, where are you?

“Pull up motels in a ten-mile radius from the off-ramp.”

It had been five hours. Five hours my woman had been in the hands of a crazy woman. I had no doubt Sarah had taken her. My palms itched to wrap my hands around the bitch’s throat and watch the light dim from her eyes. A bullet to her head was too easy, too fast. I wanted Sarah Long to suffer, knowing I was the man who was dispatching her evil ass to hell. My face would be the last thing she saw before her world went dark.

“Zane!”

“What?” I barked.

“I know that look, brother. You’re plotting murder. Not yet. Keep your shit together and talk through this with us,” Linc said.

“Keep my shit together? That motherfucker has my woman. She ran her off the road, pulled her out of my car, and took her. Under the circumstances, I’d say I’m locking my shit down pretty tight.”

Leo and Jaxon both faced me, and I braced.

“We’re gonna find her, LT,” Leo said. “Nothing we wouldn’t do to bring her home.’

Jaxon contemplated his words before he spoke. “I remember the feeling of helplessness. Total devastation when Violet was taken. Whatever you need, I have your six. We all do. Keep your head in the game a while longer. Once we have her, the team will take care of Ivy for you.”

I understood what Jaxon was saying without needing him to explain further. After we found Violet with the help of one of Tex’s friends, Cutter, she was taken back to the US ahead of the rest of the team. Jaxon had been clear he wanted Violet protected while he took care of the man who had kidnapped her.

I lifted my chin to the unspoken offer. The last thing I wanted was Ivy having to watch me kill her mother.

“I have a hit. Traffic camera twenty miles south of the border.” Tex’s voice cut through the room.