41
Deacon
Matty and I never made it to Harbor & Bean.
Church had just let out. I was already on my feet with my keys in one hand and that meeting in my head when the prospect by the door held out my phone. “It’s been ringin’ off the hook, brother.”
Lila’s name glowed across the screen, and the smile came before I could stop it. Automatic. “Hey, Princess.”
What answered me was pain. “Jackson.” Her voice broke around my name, and every part of me locked. Then she said the words that emptied the room around me. “Jade is missing.”
My hand tightened around the phone. “What?”
“She’s gone.” Lila dragged in a breath that shook all the way through the speaker.
“Cage was outside the apartment banging on the door when I got home. They were supposed to meet up. She didn’t show, so he called her and she didn’t answer.
He came over and could hear her phone ringing inside.
He kept knocking. She never answered.” Her voice cracked again.
“I got in the apartment, Jackson, and her phone is there, but she’s not. She’s gone.”
For one second I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. Jade’s phone was in the apartment. Jade wasn’t.
“Lila.” I made myself breathe before I tried to make her do the same. “Listen to me. Try to calm down.”
A broken sound came through the phone. “Don’t tell me to calm down.”
“I know.” My pulse hammered so hard it blurred the edges of everything in front of me.
“I know. I’m comin’. Your brother’s in town.
We were just about to meet. When we hang up, you call him and get him over there right now.
I’m goin’ back into Church, I’m tellin’ the club what’s happenin’, and then I’ll be at the apartment. ”
Movement sounded behind her, then Cage’s voice, tight and scared, followed by Evan cutting through everything. “What do you mean my Gemstone is missing?”
Any other day, that would have sounded like Evan. Right then all I heard was proof Lila wasn’t alone. “We’ll find her,” I said, forcing every bit of certainty I had into the words. “You hear me? We will find her. I promise.”
Her breathing hitched. “Jackson...”
“I’m comin’, baby.” The endearment came out before I thought about it. “Call Matty. Stay there. Don’t go lookin’ on your own. Let Evan do whatever dramatic bullshit he’s gonna do if it keeps you from fallin’ apart till I get there.”
The breath she let out sounded almost like a sob and almost like a laugh. “I love you,” I said, then ended the call before I could wait to hear whether she said it back. If silence answered me, I would lose something I needed right now.
When I turned, Priest was already watching me. Every man still in Church was. “We need emergency Church,” I snapped.
Nobody wasted a second. Chairs scraped back. Ghost pulled his laptop toward him. Ink went still in that way that meant his head had already started working. Rook swore under his breath. I stayed on my feet and planted both hands on the table. “Lila just called. Jade’s missing.”
The room stopped, but I kept talking. “Cage was supposed to meet her. She never showed. He kept callin’.
No answer. Went to the apartment, could hear her phone inside.
Kept knockin’. No answer. Lila got home, got in there, and Jade was gone.
” I swallowed against the image trying to form in my head. “Phone’s in her room. She is not.”
Ledger came forward so fast his chair scraped hard against the floor. “Cage must be beside himself.”
His face told me he already knew what his son would be doing to himself. “You asked him to keep an eye on her. And he’s got real feelings for that girl. He’s gonna take this like it’s on him.”
“It ain’t on him. I asked him to look out for her at school, make sure she was comfortable, make sure nobody gave her shit. I didn’t put my daughter’s life on a kid’s shoulders.”
Ledger’s voice dropped. “You know that,” He held my gaze. “He won’t.”
Cage wouldn’t. “We’ll clear that up when we find her,” I said. When was the only word I was willing to use.
Priest rose. “Alright. You get to your woman. I’ll handle the rest here.”
He was already looking toward Ghost and Rook, the club shifting with him before the orders even came. “We’ll get men on the streets,” he said. “Everybody we got. If you hear anything, anything at all, you contact me first.”
I nodded. “Got it. Thanks, brother.”
Priest came around the table and caught me in a rough one-armed hug.
It lasted barely a second, but it almost broke me.
“She’s family,” he said against the side of my head.
“We’ll turn this town over lookin’ for her and burn any others down if we gotta.
I’ll put as much into findin’ her as I would if it was Little Jax. ”
I gripped him hard. “I know you will.”
I let go. Ghost was already on a call, Ink was moving, and Rook looked ready to tear through walls. Ledger had his phone out, his thumb hovering over Cage’s name. I ran.
The drive to Tide Lofts took too long. Every red light felt obscene, every car in front of me moving like it had all the time in the world while mine narrowed down to one thought: Find Jade. I parked with my hands shaking.
The apartment was chaos. Cage sat folded over in one of the dining chairs, elbows on his knees, hands locked so tight together his knuckles had gone white. Evan moved between the kitchen and Lila with a mug in his hands, trying to turn terror into something useful.
“I don’t care if you want it or not,” he snapped, pushing the mug toward her. “Drink the tea, Lila. This is not a democracy.”
Matty stood near the window with his phone pressed hard to his ear.
“I said this is Detective Morgan with Wicker Falls PD. My sixteen-year-old niece vanished and left her cell phone behind. No, I don’t give a damn what protocol says, this is not a runaway.
She had plans. She was supposed to meet her boyfriend.
She never showed. Her phone is in her room and she is not.
I need a local unit dispatched to this address right now to take an endangered juvenile report. ”
At boyfriend, Cage’s head snapped up. Even scared out of his mind, color climbed his face. His gaze dropped again, but Ledger’s words came back to me: He’s got real feelings for that girl.
Then Lila saw me, and the sound she made tore through me. She crossed the room and hit my chest hard enough to rock me. I wrapped both arms around her, one hand cradling the back of her head while she buried her face against me.
“It’s okay,” I said, hating the lie even as I gave it to her. My mouth pressed into her hair. “We’re gonna get her back, baby. We will.”
Matty ended his call and kicked the side of the couch hard enough to make Evan flinch.
He dragged a hand through his hair before looking at the room.
“They’re verifying my credentials, but they’re sending detectives over,” he said.
His eyes went to Cage. “They’re gonna want to talk to you.
Ask when the last time you saw her was, what her mood seemed like, what your plans were, whether she said anything off. Anything that might help.”
Cage nodded too quickly. Lila eased back enough to breathe, and Evan immediately tried the tea again, but I kept one arm around her and looked at Cage. “This ain’t on you.”
His eyes came to mine. The kid looked wrecked, fear and guilt written all over him. Words weren’t going to move either yet.
Evan’s voice softened around the edges of his own panic. “Please drink something,” he said to Lila. “I am begging one person in this apartment to act like they’ve met hydration before.”
She finally took the mug with both hands, her fingers shaking against the ceramic.
I touched her face and waited until she looked at me.
“Okay,” I said. I needed something to do besides imagine where my daughter might be.
“Good. We got movement. We got a plan.” I looked toward Matty.
“Cops are coming. Club’s already on it. Priest’s gettin’ men out. ”
Then I looked back at Lila. “I’m gonna go join the search. I can’t sit here and wait.”
Her grip tightened around the mug. “You’re going to find her, right?”
That question nearly put me on my knees. She looked at me like I could make this right because I was Jade’s father, and fathers found their daughters.
I glanced at Matty. His face was stripped down to the same fear eating through me. For once, there was nothing between us except the need to bring Jade home. “We all are. We won’t stop until we do.”
I kissed Lila because I had nothing else big enough for what I needed to promise. Her mouth trembled under mine, and when I pulled back, Matty was watching with his jaw locked. He didn’t object. There wasn’t room for the old war tonight.
I brushed my thumb under Lila’s eye. “I’ll call if I hear anything.” She nodded, and I made myself step away before staying turned me into something useless.
Cage stood as I turned toward the door. “Deacon—”
I stopped. His throat worked around whatever he was trying to say. Before he could force it out, I crossed to him and put my hand on his shoulder.
“If she calls. If she texts. If anything,” I said, squeezing once. “You call me. You call Ledger. You call whoever the hell you can reach fastest.”
His eyes dropped. “And you do not blame yourself for this.”
He didn’t answer. I’d make him believe me later, when Jade was back where she belonged.
At the door, I looked at Matty. He gave me one short nod. I returned it. Harbor & Bean and seventeen years of anger would have to wait. We had skipped straight past all of it into something uglier, and somehow the truce had happened anyway.
I walked out with Lila crying behind me while my daughter was somewhere in Bay of Saints without her phone. Fear rode under my skin so hard it felt electric, sharpening everything down to one brutal certainty.
Whoever had Jade had made one mistake. They had taken a Saint’s daughter.