Chapter Two #4
Sirens sounded in the distance. Within minutes, the parking lot filled with flashing lights.
Riley took charge almost immediately, using her position as the police department’s spokesperson and her familiarity with the responding officers to explain enough of the situation without turning the sidewalk into an interrogation scene.
Jay Bird was grateful for that. Willow didn’t need a crowd of questions or people picking apart every detail right now. She needed a hospital, steady hands, and a chance to be taken care of without anything else getting in the way.
He and the others gave the officers the basic facts while the paramedics assessed Willow.
Riley explained who Willow was, that she had apparently escaped from Chen Pham, and that the FBI would need to be notified.
Mia provided what she knew about Willow’s disappearance three years earlier, while Duke and Stitch gave the paramedics the medical observations they had made before the ambulance arrived.
Through it all, Lily refused to leave Jay Bird. The paramedics made a single attempt to take her from him, but the moment they reached for her, she let out a sharp, terrified scream that cut through the chaos and brought everything to a halt. After that, no one tried again.
One of the officers approached Riley.
“What about the little girl?” he asked quietly. “Do we need to contact CPS until we get all this sorted out?”
“No.” The word came out of Jay Bird’s mouth before Riley could answer.
The officer looked at him.
Jay Bird stepped away from the ambulance with Lily still firmly attached to him.
“She’s staying with me.”
“Sir, we don’t know the child’s—”
“Her name is Lily, her mother is going to the hospital, and she’s scared shitless.” Jay Bird kept his voice controlled, but there was no mistaking the finality in it. “She’s not getting handed over to another stranger tonight.”
The officer looked toward Riley, and she didn’t hesitate for even a second. “She’s safe with him. I’ll personally vouch for that.”
The officer studied Jay Bird for another second, then nodded. “As long as we can confirm everything once her mother wakes up.”
“She will,” Riley assured him.
Jay Bird stood beside the ambulance, Lily still tucked securely in his arms as the vehicle started to pull away. She didn’t take her eyes off it for a second, watching it like if she looked away even briefly, she might lose her mother all over again.
“Momma.”
“We’re going too,” Jay Bird promised.
She looked at him. “Momma?”
“We’re gonna follow your mommy.”
Apparently that was enough, because Lily tucked her head beneath his chin.
Fuck me. Jay Bird rested one large hand against the center of her tiny back.
He suddenly became aware of the silence behind him.
When he turned around, he found Riley, Nails, Snow, Bear, Joker, Duke, Stitch, Mia, and the others all still watching him—like they were waiting for him to say something, or maybe just trying to figure out what the hell they were seeing.
Duke finally broke the silence. “You sure about this, Jay?”
Jay Bird knew exactly why he was asking.
They had served together long enough to know almost everything about one another. They knew how each man fought, how he handled pressure, what pissed him off, and which buttons to push when they wanted a reaction.
But when it came to Jay Bird’s personal life, there wasn’t much to know, and that was entirely by design. Only Derek knew.
He didn’t date seriously. He didn’t talk about his childhood. He didn’t discuss family, and he sure as hell didn’t talk about feelings. He had spent most of his adult life making sure nobody got close enough to ask the questions he didn’t want to answer.
There was a reason for that—one he had never bothered to explain to the rest of them, and the team had eventually accepted that he was built differently, that maybe there was a chunk of ice where everyone else had a heart.
Jay Bird had never bothered correcting them, and he wasn’t about to start now.
But apparently the tiny girl clutching his shirt hadn’t gotten that memo either.
He looked down at Lily.
She was exhausted, scared, and separated from the only person in the world she trusted. Yet somehow she had latched onto him.
He couldn’t explain why it mattered, but it just did.
His gaze followed the ambulance as it disappeared down the road, then slowly drifted back to his team.
“Lily’s staying with me.”
A beat of silence followed before Joker’s mouth curved into a grin, quickly mirrored by Bear. Playboy and Aussie were both shaking their heads, clearly amused by something Jay Bird wasn’t interested in hearing about, while Duke gave a quiet nod.
“Okay, then,” Nails said quietly as he reached into his pocket for his keys, already moving with the rest of them. “Let’s head to the hospital.”
The group started moving toward their vehicles, but Jay Bird remained where he was for another second, adjusting Lily more securely against his chest.
She sighed softly and relaxed against him.
Jay Bird had a feeling that whatever Willow had been running from wasn’t finished with her.
And somehow, without a single conversation or conscious decision on his part, he had already decided it would have to go through him first.