Chapter Twenty-Eight
By the time they reached the front of the house, Willow’s legs were steadier, although every step reminded her of the fight she had put up earlier.
Her ribs hurt, her shoulder ached whenever Chen tightened his grip around her upper arm, and a dull headache continued to throb behind her eyes.
The drugs were still making everything feel slightly disconnected, but the fog had lifted enough that she could think clearly, and right now, thinking was the only thing keeping her from panicking.
Two dark SUVs were parked in the circular driveway, and one of Chen’s men was already moving toward the first one. Liu walked several feet ahead of them with his phone pressed to his ear, speaking quietly to someone Willow assumed had something to do with the plane.
She couldn’t get on that plane. She kept repeating that to herself as Chen guided her down the walkway. She had no idea where they were other than somewhere in Virginia, and the property appeared secluded enough that screaming probably wouldn’t bring anyone running.
Trees surrounded most of the house, and she couldn’t see another home nearby, but that didn’t mean she was giving up. There had to be an opportunity somewhere between the front door and that airplane, and Willow intended to find it.
She had survived three years with Chen because she had learned patience.
She had learned how to watch him, read his moods, and wait for those rare moments when his confidence made him careless.
The difference was that the Willow who had survived Morocco hadn’t known how to fight. But the new Willow did.
“Keep moving,” Chen muttered when her steps slowed.
Willow glared at him but continued forward. They were almost to the first SUV when the entire property suddenly exploded with light.
She cried out and instinctively turned her face away as powerful beams illuminated the front of the house from every direction.
Chen swore and yanked her backward while Liu and the other men immediately reached for their weapons.
Before Willow could fully understand what was happening, the unmistakable thunder of helicopter blades filled the air above them, and a powerful spotlight swept across the property before settling directly over the driveway.
Then came the voices. “Drop your weapons! Hands where we can see them!”
Willow’s heart beat wildly as figures emerged from the darkness surrounding the property. There were so many that she couldn’t take everything in at once.
Federal agents and police officers were positioned behind vehicles and trees, while other men wearing tactical gear approached from several directions with their weapons trained on Chen and his men.
Then Willow started recognizing faces. Derek was there, along with Bear and Nails. She spotted Ace and Stitch farther off to one side, and several more men from Alpha and Bravo were positioned throughout the perimeter.
The cavalry had come. A sob rose in Willow’s throat as relief hit her so hard that her knees nearly buckled. Somehow, despite everything Chen had done to hide her and misdirect everyone looking for her, they had found her.
Her gaze moved frantically among the men until she found the only face she desperately needed to see.
Jay Bird stood behind one of the vehicles dressed in tactical gear, his weapon raised and his entire body radiating a kind of controlled fury that Willow could feel even from where she stood.
His dark eyes found hers almost immediately, and for the briefest moment, everything else disappeared.
She forgot about Chen, the helicopter hovering above them, and the dozens of weapons pointed in their direction because all she could see was Jay Bird.
He had come for her. She didn’t know why that surprised her. He had promised repeatedly that if she ever needed him, he would come, and apparently he had meant every word.
Before Willow could hold on to that relief, Chen’s arm suddenly wrapped around her throat and pulled her hard against his chest.
She gasped as the crook of his elbow tightened beneath her chin. His other hand came up, and the cold press of metal against the side of her head told her exactly what he was holding before she ever saw the gun.
“Don’t come any closer!” Chen shouted.
Every bit of movement around the property seemed to stop at once.
“Chen Pham!” a man near the center of the driveway called out. FBI was clearly visible across his tactical vest. “Put down the weapon and release the woman. You are surrounded, and there is nowhere for you to go.”
Chen laughed beside Willow’s ear, tightening his arm until breathing became more difficult. “You think I’m surrendering? If I go down, she goes with me.”
Fear crawled through Willow as she stared across the driveway at Jay Bird. She expected to see panic on his face, especially with a gun pressed against her head, but what she saw instead was absolute concentration.
His weapon remained trained in her direction, yet his eyes stayed locked on hers.
Then he gave her the smallest nod.
Willow wasn’t sure whether he had meant anything by it, but something inside her immediately responded.
She heard Nova’s voice in her head. “Whatever you do, never quit.”
Being afraid didn’t make her weak, and panic didn’t have to control what happened next. She could feel both and still fight. That was exactly what she intended to do now.
Willow drew in as much air as Chen’s hold allowed and forced herself to stop fighting against his arm. She needed him to believe she was frightened enough to cooperate. She needed him concentrating on the dozens of armed men surrounding him instead of her.
Liu slowly lowered his weapon and looked around the property.
“Chen, it’s over.”
“Don’t,” Chen snapped.
“There is no way out of this.”
“I said shut the fuck up!”
One of Chen’s other guards moved suddenly. Willow never knew whether he had panicked or believed he had spotted an opening, but the sharp crack of a gunshot shattered the standoff.
Everything changed in an instant.
People shouted as Chen jerked behind her, and Willow didn’t wait to understand what was happening.
She dropped her weight the way Nova had taught her and turned hard into Chen instead of trying to pull away.
Surprise loosened his arm just enough for Willow to wedge her bound hands between his forearm and her throat.
Then she drove her elbow backward.
Chen grunted as her elbow connected with him, and the arm around her neck loosened another fraction.
Willow twisted, throwing everything she had into the movement despite the pain tearing through her bruised body.
Her bound hands made the maneuver awkward, but she didn’t stop.
She struck him again, turned her shoulders, and finally felt his arm slip away from her throat.
Chen grabbed for the back of her shirt as she stumbled forward, but Willow tore away from him just as more gunfire erupted behind her.
She threw herself toward the ground, landing hard on her shoulder and hip while bullets struck the concrete somewhere nearby.
Tiny pieces of concrete sprayed across her arms and legs, stinging her skin, and Willow curled inward as much as her bound hands allowed.
She barely had time to cover her head before something heavy came down over her.
Willow screamed and instinctively tried to fight until a familiar voice reached her through the chaos.
“I’ve got you, Willow. I’ve got you.”
Jay Bird.
Every bit of fight went out of her at once.
He covered her completely with his body, shielding her while shouting continued around them.
Willow buried her face against his chest and grabbed whatever part of him she could reach.
The gunfire seemed to last forever, although she knew it couldn’t have been more than several seconds before it finally stopped.
The helicopter still thundered overhead, and men continued shouting commands around them, but Jay Bird didn’t immediately move. He remained over her until someone called that the scene was secure, and even then he only lifted himself enough to see her face.
“Willow, look at me.”
She did, and the expression on his face nearly broke her.
Jay Bird looked scared. She had watched this man handle everything with an almost irritating calmness since the day she met him, yet nothing about the way his eyes searched her face or how his hands moved over her shoulders, arms, and sides felt calm.
“Were you hit?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean, you don’t think so?”
Willow almost laughed at the sharpness in his voice because it sounded so much like him. “I hit the ground pretty hard, and pieces of the concrete hit my legs and arms, but I don’t think I was shot.”
Jay Bird continued checking anyway, and that was when Willow noticed his hands were shaking.
This man could apparently run directly into gunfire without hesitation, yet his hands were trembling as he touched her.
“Jay.”
His eyes immediately lifted to hers.
“Lily. Where’s Lily? Chen said he had her. He told me if I didn’t cooperate—”
“She’s safe, baby.”
Jay Bird cupped her face between his hands, his touch so gentle that the contrast between him and everything she had endured over the last several hours almost overwhelmed her.
“We found her. Lily’s safe,” he assured her.
Tears immediately filled Willow’s eyes. “She’s okay?”
“She was drugged, but she’s okay. She’s at the hospital, and Juliette, Riley, and the others are with her.”
The sob that tore from Willow’s chest felt as though it came from somewhere deep inside her. Jay Bird pulled her against him, and despite her bound wrists, she managed to wrap her arms around his neck and bury her face against his shoulder.
“My baby.”
“She’s okay,” he whispered against her hair.
Willow cried against him, finally allowing everything she had been holding inside since she had awakened in that bedroom to come pouring out. She was safe, and so was Lily. But most importantly, she was finally free.
When she finally pulled back, his hands remained on either side of her face. He stared at her for several seconds, and Willow could almost see something inside him breaking loose.
“I love you,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “Jesus Christ, Willow, I fucking love you. I should’ve told you before, and I swear to God, if you ever scare me like this again, I’m going to lose my damn mind.”
A watery laugh escaped her. “You couldn’t have told me that at home?”
His laugh came out shaky as he pressed his forehead against hers. “Apparently, I needed an audience.”
Even after everything that had happened, Willow smiled. “Well, since you went through all this trouble, I suppose I should tell you that I love you too.”
Jay Bird pulled back enough to look at her. “You do?”
“Don’t make me repeat it while I’m lying on concrete with my hands tied.”
That finally earned her something resembling his normal grin. “Fair enough.”
He kissed her then, and there was nothing frantic about it. His lips pressed gently against hers, almost as though he needed the contact to reassure himself that she was really there. Willow leaned into him for several seconds before he pulled back and kissed her forehead.
“Jay Bird.”
Derek’s voice brought them both back to everything happening around them.
“We need to get her checked.”
Jay Bird nodded and carefully helped Willow sit up, keeping one arm around her as a paramedic approached.
That was when Willow saw Chen. Two agents had him several yards away, and blood covered part of his shirt, although Willow couldn’t tell where he had been injured. His hands were secured behind his back while another agent stood nearby.
Chen lifted his head. His eyes immediately found hers.
For years, Willow had feared that look. Even after escaping him, she had sometimes awakened in the middle of the night convinced those eyes were watching her from the darkness.
Now, looking at him surrounded by law enforcement with his hands restrained behind him, Willow realized something she hadn’t truly understood until that moment.
Chen wasn’t powerful. He was simply a man who had spent years making other people believe he was.
“Willow!” he shouted as the agents pulled him to his feet.
Jay Bird immediately shifted in front of her, blocking Chen from view, but Willow placed a hand against his arm.
“It’s okay.”
Jay Bird looked down at her. “You don’t owe him anything.”
“I know. That’s why I need to do this.”
She stepped around Jay Bird but didn’t move any closer. There were several armed agents between her and Chen, and she had no intention of ever allowing that man within reach of her again.
Chen stared at her with rage twisting his features. “You think this is finished? You think these people can keep you from me?”
Willow didn’t respond.
“You belong to me!” he shouted. “Do you hear me? You will always belong to me!”
Once, those words had been enough to make her tremble. Now they sounded almost pathetic.
Willow looked at the man who had stolen three years of her life. But in the last few months of freedom, she had found something Chen would never understand.
She had found Mia again. She had found Riley and the enormous collection of people who had somehow welcomed her and Lily into their lives without expecting anything in return.
She had found confidence she hadn’t known she still possessed, and she had learned that the scars Chen had left on her body weren’t proof that he had won. They proved she had survived him.
Most importantly, she had found the man standing a few feet behind her who had shown her what it meant to feel safe without ever demanding her trust. Jay Bird had given her a bedroom with a lock and told her she could use it.
He had offered his hand but always waited for her to decide whether she wanted to take it.
Even when he had fallen in love with her, he had never once tried to decide what she should feel in return.
Chen had spent three years grabbing whatever he wanted.
Jay Bird always waited for Willow to choose.
And she finally understood how enormous that difference was.
“This is over, Chen.”
His face twisted with rage as he started shouting again, but Willow didn’t listen to the words. She turned her back on him.
Jay Bird was waiting for her exactly where she had left him, his dark eyes watching her as he held out his hand.
Willow looked down at it, and despite the tears still dampening her cheeks, she smiled.
Then she placed her hand in his. His fingers closed gently around hers, and he pulled her against his side as the paramedics came toward them.
Somewhere behind her, Chen was still shouting her name as agents led him away, but for the first time in more than three years, the sound of his voice didn’t make Willow afraid.
She never looked back.