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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.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

For nearly two hours, Jay Bird had been staring at the same goddamn shipping container.

It sat among hundreds of others at the sprawling Norfolk port. It was an ordinary steel box that shouldn’t have meant anything to him. Instead, every time his eyes landed on it, his chest tightened until breathing became something he had to consciously remind himself to do.

Inside that container might be Willow and Lily.

The AirTag Riley had hidden inside Ellie hadn’t moved since they had first picked up its location. The signal had led law enforcement directly to this section of the port and, eventually, to the dark blue container now surrounded by enough police, federal agents, military personnel, and bomb technicians to make it clear they weren’t dealing with an ordinary kidnapping.

They had been less than fifty yards away when one of the EOD techs discovered the first explosive device.

After that, everything had stopped.

Jay Bird understood why. He had spent enough years operating in places where a single wrong move could kill an entire team to know that rushing in was exactly what Chen wanted them to do.

Understanding it didn’t make standing there any easier.

“They’re still working on the backside of the container.”

Jay Bird glanced toward Derek as his commander stepped beside him. “How many?”

“Two confirmed. But all sides of the exterior are covered with wires.”

Jay Bird rubbed a hand over the back of his neck before returning his attention to the container. Nails and Diego were closer to the scene, assisting the explosive ordnance disposal team. Both had extensive training, but even knowing some of the best people available were handling the situation did little to ease the pressure building inside him.