Chapter Twenty-Four #2
Jay Bird didn’t want to look at him. All he wanted was his weapon. He wanted to find that motherfucker and make him suffer for every bruise he had ever put on Willow, every nightmare he had caused her, and every tear Lily was shedding right now.
“Jay Bird.”
Something in Derek’s voice finally cut through.
Jay Bird looked at his commander.
“You want them back?”
“What the fuck do you think?”
“Then stay with me,” Derek said firmly. “You go off half-cocked and make this personal, you’re no good to Willow or Lily. We do this the way we were trained, and we bring your girls home.”
His girls. Jay Bird closed his eyes for half a second.
When he opened his eyes, Derek nodded once.
“There you are.”
Jay Bird drew in a breath. “I want Chen.”
Derek’s expression didn't change. “First we get Willow and Lily.”
Jay Bird knew exactly what Derek was telling him. The mission had to come first, and everything else—including his rage, his fear, and his need to get to Chen would have to wait until Willow and Lily were safe.
“Okay.”
Riley’s voice suddenly came from behind them. “Ellie!”
When Jay Bird turned, Riley was staring at the frozen security footage.
“What?” he asked.
“Ellie.” She pointed at the stuffed elephant still clutched in Lily’s arms. “We put an AirTag in it.”
Jay Bird stared at her.
Riley was already moving toward the officer who had Willow’s belongings.
“After Willow got here, I told her what helped us when Chen had me. Trackers. I gave her several and told her to hide them in things that people wouldn’t think twice about.” Riley looked at Jay Bird. “We put one inside Ellie.”
Hope punched through him so quickly it almost hurt.
“Willow’s phone,” Riley said. “Where is it?”
One of the officers looked toward another. “We recovered a phone near the sidewalk.”
“Get it.”
The officer hurried toward one of the cruisers.
Tink pulled into the parking lot less than a minute later, climbed out, and headed straight toward Derek.
“What do we have?”
Derek pointed toward Riley. “Possible tracker.”
That was all Tink needed.
By the time the officer returned with Willow’s phone, Riley was explaining what they needed. Willow’s screen was cracked from hitting the pavement, but the phone still worked.
They pulled up the tracking information.
Jay Bird stood so close he could barely breathe.
The map loaded, and a small dot appeared on the screen. Nobody spoke as Riley zoomed in, narrowing the location down to Norfolk at the Port.
“It’s stationary,” Tink said.
Tink was already pulling out his phone. “Then we have a location.”
“Or they found the tracker,” Nails said.
Jay Bird’s stomach tightened.
Tink shook his head. “Possible, but don’t assume that until we have reason to. If they had found it, odds are they would’ve destroyed it or dumped it somewhere less useful. Right now we treat that location as live.”
Derek turned toward the teams. Everything about him changed. He wasn’t just their friend standing in a parking lot anymore; he was their commander.
“Listen up. Nobody goes cowboy on this. We coordinate with law enforcement, confirm what we’re walking into, and move fast. I’ve already cleared this with the higher-ups. Alpha and Bravo are both on this.”
He started issuing assignments while Riley remained beside the officers, working through what they knew. Police were already putting out alerts, and Tink had people checking airports, private aviation, marinas, and vessels connected to Chen or any of his known associates.
Jay Bird looked down at Willow’s phone and watched the tiny dot on the map. It hadn’t moved.
Derek came to stand beside him. “We’ll get them back.”
Jay Bird stared at the tiny marker. “They better not hurt Lily.”
Derek’s jaw tightened. “We’re not giving them time.”
“And Willow...” Jay Bird swallowed against the pressure in his throat. “She’ll think she’s back there again.”
“No.”
Jay Bird looked at him.
Derek nodded toward the security footage. “Look at what she just did. That’s not the woman Chen held three years ago.”
Jay Bird’s gaze moved toward the frozen image on the tablet.
Willow was captured mid-fight, her face filled with determination as she tried to reach her daughter.
Derek was right. Chen had no idea who he had just taken.
Jay Bird slipped Willow’s phone into his pocket after the officer cleared it, then looked toward the vehicles where Alpha and Bravo were already preparing to move. It had already been about an hour since Willow and Lily were taken.
The fear was still there. So was the rage, and underneath both was a feeling stronger than anything he had experienced since the day he had learned Amanda and his unborn child were gone.
Her hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Willow how much he loved her. But he would because this wasn’t going to end with another woman he loved being taken away from him.
Jay Bird looked at the stationary dot marking the Norfolk port and felt everything inside him narrow into the cold, focused determination that had carried him through more missions than he cared to count.
Chen had made one hell of a mistake by taking the two people Jay Bird loved more than anything in this world.