Page 159 of Deacon

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.

42

Lila

The apartment felt wrong the second Jackson walked out.

Too quiet where Jade should have been, too crowded everywhere else. Fear had taken up space in every room, sitting between people, clinging to the walls, turning ordinary sounds into something sharp. I stood staring at the closed door for a second with one hand still half lifted, like some part of me thought I could call Jackson back and keep him from disappearing into the same night that had swallowed our daughter.