As he scanned the gathered mass of people and didn't spot Teresa, Micah’s hope began to dim.
Where was she?
“Teresa!” he screamed out the window. She’d sounded so weak on the phone, and he was sure that if she could have held onto it, she would have, because she knew it was a lifeline that could lead him right to her.
Just as he opened his mouth to yell her name again, he noticed something on the edge of the crowd.
A man was carrying a woman.
All he could see was a dark head resting against a shoulder, but it was all he needed to see.
Uncaring about anything other than getting to Teresa before it was too late, Micah threw himself out the window. He barely felt the jar as his feet slammed into the concrete below, because he was already moving.
Had to get to his girl.
Couldn’t let them take her from him.
As he ran, Micah pulled out his cell phone and called Raven Oswald. He had no doubt that the men watching the building had already called in about the fire alarm, that more Prey operatives were already en route, but he needed them to know Teresa was gone.
“Micah? What's going on? Are you two somewhere safe?” Raven’s voice came down the line almost immediately.
“No,” he said, keeping his gaze locked on the man he’d seen carrying the woman as he dodged around a couple of little kidsgiggling about the excitement and not looking where they were going.
“What happened?”
“They got her. Maybe drugged her. Took her through an apartment and out a window. I'm following them, but they’re too far ahead of me, and there are too many people.” The next words he had to say almost clogged in his throat. He didn't want to say them. Didn't want them to be true. “I don’t think I'm going to get to her in time.”
The sense of failure that rushed through him as he admitted that out loud made him stagger. He was failing his girl all over again, and this time her very life was on the line.
“We already have the footage from the CCTV cameras running, we’ll try to get a lock on her, anything you can give us to narrow down where she is will help,” Raven told him.
“A van,” he yelled, picking up the pace, forcing himself to run faster than he ever had before. “They’re putting her into a van. Hey!” he screamed at the men still a good fifty yards or so ahead of him, with at least several dozen people blocking the way. “Put her down and get on your knees.”
One of the men looked over his shoulder at Micah as Teresa was tossed into the van. The man searched the crowd, and Micah knew the exact moment he was spotted because the other man smirked as he joined the others in the van and slammed the door shut behind him.
“No!” Micah yelled. He lifted his weapon, but there was no way to get a clear shot at the van to disable it without risking hitting one of the many people milling about.
Instead, he was forced to stand there and watch as the van disappeared, taking Teresa away with it.
She was gone.
He’d lost her.
Failed her.
Let her down when she was counting on him.
Again.
CHAPTER 18
May7th
8:39 A.M.
Hammeringinside her skull nudged her from the hazy, dreamlike state she’d been trapped in.
Teresa blinked as she opened her eyes, trying to clear her vision.
