Page 155 of Jay Bird

Jay Bird turned toward the ambulance.

Chen had deliberately left a two-year-old child drugged inside a shipping container because he knew they would find her.

That thought nearly brought Jay Bird to his knees.

“He’s going to use Lily against her.”

Derek looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Willow probably doesn’t know what Chen did with Lily or that we found her,” Jay Bird said. “Chen can tell her Lily’s hurt. He can tell her she’s dead. He can tell her whatever the fuck he wants, and Willow will believe him because she won’t know any different.”

Derek’s jaw tightened. “Then we find her before he gets the chance.”

Jay Bird looked at Tink. “Find him.”

“I already have everyone working it.”

“Then get more.”

Tink didn’t take offense. “I will.”

The ambulance doors opened.

Jay Bird looked at Derek. “I’m going with Lily.”

“You should.”

Jay Bird hesitated. Every part of him wanted to stay with the team and hunt Chen, but Lily was unconscious and alone.

Derek seemed to read the conflict on his face. “Go with your daughter.”

The word hit him, and Derek didn’t correct it. Neither did Jay Bird.

“I’ll call the second we have anything,” Derek promised.

Jay Bird climbed into the ambulance. As the doors closed behind him, he reached for Lily’s small hand and held it tightly in his.

His chest tightened as one thought played over and over in his head.

Where are you, Willow?

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.