Chapter Twenty-Six
Several hours later, Jay Bird sat beside Lily’s hospital bed with one of her tiny hands resting inside his.
She still hadn’t woken up, although the doctors had assured him more than once that they weren’t overly concerned.
Whatever Chen’s men had given her appeared to be a strong sedative, and while they were still waiting on the complete toxicology results, her vitals remained stable, and every test they had run so far had been reassuring.
Jay Bird knew he should have been relieved, and part of him was.
Lily was alive, she was safe, and she hadn’t suffered any obvious injuries during the kidnapping.
Yet every time he looked at her lying motionless beneath the hospital blanket, relief became tangled with an anger he was having a hell of a time controlling.
Ellie rested beside Lily’s head, the worn stuffed elephant tucked against her shoulder where it belonged.
The investigators had removed the AirTag and returned the elephant as soon as they were finished with it, and Jay Bird had made damn sure nobody took it away again.
When Lily finally opened those big brown eyes, he wanted something familiar waiting for her.
He rubbed his thumb gently over her knuckles. “Your mom’s gonna kill me when she finds out I let you sleep this long.”
The joke earned him absolutely nothing from the sleeping toddler, but Jay Bird managed a faint smile anyway.
“Yeah, I know. Somehow she’ll probably figure out a way to blame me for this too.”
Jay Bird looked down at Lily and tightened his fingers gently around hers.
He loved this little girl, and that realization no longer scared him.
He didn’t love her simply because she was Willow’s daughter or because she had needed someone to protect her when they first met.
He loved Lily because she was Lily—the funny, stubborn little peanut who hated green beans, adored anything with an elephant on it, butchered words in ways that could make an entire room laugh, and apparently believed his lap belonged exclusively to her.
Somewhere along the way, she had become his kid in every way that mattered.
And he loved her mother just as much.
That was the part tearing him apart now. Jay Bird had almost told Willow several times. The words had been right there, but every time he had held them back because he hadn’t wanted to rush her.
She had spent three years with a man who controlled every aspect of her life, and Jay Bird refused to become another person telling her what she should feel or expecting something from her before she was ready to give it.
He had thought they had time. Now he wished like hell he had told her.
Lily’s fingers moved faintly against his palm, and Jay Bird immediately leaned closer.
“Hey, peanut. You thinking about joining me anytime soon?”
Her eyelids didn’t move, but her fingers curled slightly before relaxing again. It wasn’t much, yet it was enough to ease some of the pressure sitting on his chest.
“That’s okay,” he murmured, smoothing a few strands of hair away from her forehead. “You sleep. You’ve had a shitty day.”
His gaze drifted toward the darkened window across the room, and the moment it did, his thoughts returned to Willow.
He couldn’t stop thinking about what she must be going through.
The image from the security footage had burned itself into his head.
Willow had fought those men with everything she had, even after she was knocked to the ground.
She had taken hits, broken holds, and kept trying to reach Lily until the drug they had injected into her finally took away her ability to fight.
She had done exactly what she had promised herself she would do. She hadn’t frozen or surrendered.
She had fought with everything she had in her.
But now she was alone with the monster responsible for three years of nightmares, and she had no way of knowing that the little girl she had fought so desperately to protect was lying safely in a hospital bed with Jay Bird beside her.
Chen was probably filling Willow’s head with lies about Lily and using those lies to control her.
Jay Bird’s jaw tightened as he looked back at Lily.
“Your momma’s tough as hell, you know that?”
He lifted her little hand and pressed it against his forehead for a moment, allowing himself to close his eyes.
“I saw her fight for you today. She didn’t give those bastards an inch without making them work for it.” His throat tightened enough that he had to stop for a second before continuing. “Now it’s our turn.”
He lowered Lily’s hand and carefully tucked it beneath the blanket, then leaned over and kissed her forehead.
“I’m bringing your momma home, peanut. I swear to you. I don’t care what it takes or where that bastard took her. We’re bringing her home.”
Jay Bird remained beside her for several minutes after that, listening to the steady rhythm of the monitor and forcing himself to take comfort in every beep. Each one meant Lily was safe. Each one meant he had gotten part of his family back.
Now he needed the other half.
A soft knock sounded at the door sometime later, and Jay Bird glanced up expecting another nurse. Instead, Tink stood in the doorway with Derek behind him.
The moment Jay Bird saw their expressions, something inside him shifted.
Neither man looked defeated. That was enough to make him sit straighter in the chair.
Tink stepped into the room first, while Derek quietly closed the door behind them. They both glanced toward Lily before looking back at Jay Bird.
“How’s she doing?” Derek asked.
“Still sleeping, but the doctors aren’t worried. They’re waiting for the full tox screen, but everything else looks good.”
Derek nodded, visibly relieved. “Good.”
Jay Bird studied both men. Tink hadn’t come all the way to the hospital in the middle of an active investigation to ask about Lily’s vitals, and Derek certainly wouldn’t have left the others unless there was a reason.
“You found something.” It wasn’t really a question.
Tink walked farther into the room. “Maybe.”
Jay Bird immediately stood. “What does maybe mean?”
“It means I don’t want to tell you we found Willow until I know we found Willow.”
As much as Jay Bird hated that answer, he appreciated it. The last thing he needed was false hope.
Tink pulled out his phone but didn’t immediately hand it over.
“After we left the port, I went back to the beginning. Every face from Mia’s security footage, every vehicle, every alias we’ve ever associated with Chen, and every person we could place anywhere near him.
Most of it went nowhere, but one of the men who helped take Willow gave us something. ”
Jay Bird glanced toward Derek.
His commander gave him a small nod, silently telling him to listen.
“We finally got a solid identification on him,” Tink continued. “His uncle is a close business associate of Chen’s over in Europe. His name is linked to several shell companies. One of the companies recently made a transaction that caught my attention.”
“What kind of transaction?”
“A property lease.”
Jay Bird felt his pulse quicken, although he forced himself to remain where he was instead of reaching for his gear.
Tink finally turned the phone toward him. “About a week ago, one of those companies leased a private waterfront property across the bridge in Accomack County.”
Jay Bird stared at the map on the screen. “That’s like an hour and forty minutes from here. And isn’t there an airport up there?”
Tink nodded. “Yep, and a Gulfstream is sitting at that airport, registered to the same guy who arrived right after the lease was signed.
Jay Bird thought about it.
A week. And Willow hadn’t been taken until today.
“So this was already in place.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Derek said. “Which means Chen didn’t grab Willow and then start figuring out where to take her. He came here with a plan.”
Jay Bird wasn’t surprised. Chen had spent a week watching Willow, learning her routine. The bastard had known exactly what he intended to do long before his men approached her outside the rescue center.
The realization made Jay Bird’s stomach turn, but it also gave them something they hadn’t had several hours ago—a direction.
“Have you confirmed anyone is at the property?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Tink said. “We’re working on satellite imagery, traffic cameras, and anything else we can access without tipping off whoever might be there. The property sits far enough off the road that we’re not going to get a clean visual without putting someone close.”
Tink’s phone rang, and he turned away to answer it.
Jay Bird looked down at Lily.
For the first time since they had opened that shipping container, something besides rage and helplessness moved through him.
Hope.
It wasn’t much, and he wasn’t stupid enough to mistake a leased property for confirmation that Willow was there, but it was something concrete. Chen had spent hours leading them toward the port and keeping them occupied with Lily and the explosives because he had needed time.
Jay Bird looked at Derek. “When do we move?”
Before Derek could answer, Tink turned back toward him as he slipped his phone into his pocket.
“Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?” Tink said.
“What?” Jay Bird asked.
“That was contact up in Accomack. They got a visual on one of Chen’s men. Apparently, he went into a local convenience store. When the clerk was shown a picture, he picked out the guy and said he was there about an hour ago.”
“I can be ready in five minutes,” Jay Bird said.
A faint smile touched Derek’s mouth. “I figured you’d say that.”
Jay Bird reached for the go bag he had left near the chair, but before picking it up, he stopped and looked back at Lily.
He couldn’t leave her alone.
Derek seemed to understand immediately. “Juliette and a few of the other girls should be here in about ten minutes. Riley included. Lily won’t be alone for a second.”
Jay Bird nodded slowly.
He walked back to the bed and leaned over, brushing his knuckles gently across Lily’s cheek.
“I’ve gotta go find Momma, peanut.” His voice caught slightly on the last word, but he didn’t care who heard it. “Juliette, Riley, and a few of the others are coming to hang out with you, so don’t give them too much trouble when you wake up.”
Jay Bird kissed her forehead again and lingered there for another second before straightening.
He picked up his bag and looked at Derek and Tink. The fear hadn’t disappeared, and neither had the rage, but both had settled beneath the part of him that knew how to function when everything was on the line.
“Let’s go get my girl.”
Derek opened the door. “That’s the plan.”