Page 164 of Deacon

Her life for mine.

There was nothing to consider.

I pulled the window down behind me and descended as quickly as I dared. Metal vibrated beneath my shoes, the fire escape trembling faintly with every step while my heart tried to beat through my ribs.

My feet hit the ground with fear already burned down to one purpose.

Get to Jade.

I hurried toward my car, keys cutting into my palm. My hands shook so badly I missed the ignition once before forcing the key in.

Hold on, baby.

Mama’s coming.

43

Deacon

Matty’s name lit up my phone while I was already heading back toward Tide Lofts, and every part of me went cold.

Ghost had sent me two grainy stills from the apartment security footage minutes earlier. Richard Morgan outside the building with Jade. Jade getting into his truck. I’d been staring at those images at every stoplight, trying to make them fit with everything we knew, when Matty called. If he had good news, Lila would’ve been the one reaching out. If it could wait, Matty sure as hell wouldn’t be calling me in the middle of the worst night of our lives.

I yanked the bike onto the shoulder, gravel spitting under the tires, killed the engine, and answered. “Yeah?”

“Jackson!” Matty’s voice came through shredded raw. “Jackson, Lila’s gone!”

For one sick second, everything inside me dropped. “What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?” The words tore out hard enough to burn my throat. “I left her in the apartment with you. How does she just walk out the door and disappear in front of all of you? Where did she go?”

“She didn’t go out the front door,” he shot back. Fear shook through the anger in his voice. “She was in Jade’s room. Said she wanted some time alone. Time with Jade’s things. Truth is, I think she just wanted to get away from our dad.”

I cut straight across him. “Your dad is there?”

The still frame of Richard with Jade flashed through my head again.

“Yeah,” Matty said, having no idea yet what Ghost had found. “I thought he deserved to know something had happened to Jade, so I called him and he came over. Evan went to check on Lila after a while and she wasn’t in there. She left a note.” His breath hitched hard enough that I heard him fight for the next words. “She said Jade’s phone got a text. Somebody said they had Jade and if she wanted her back, she had to meet them somewhere and couldn’t say shit to anyone. She snuck out the fire escape.” He broke for a second before forcing himself on. “God, Jackson, there’s more. So much more. I can’t do this over the phone. You need to get here. I’m sorry. Just hurry and get here.”

My grip tightened around the phone until the case creaked. Ghost had proof Richard took Jade willingly. Someone else knew she was gone quickly enough to use it against Lila. None of those pieces belonged together in any way that didn’t make my stomach turn.

“I’m coming,” I said, already reaching for the ignition. “Don’t let anybody move. Don’t let your old man out of your sight.”

I hung up and tore back toward Tide Lofts with two images fighting for space in my head: my daughter climbing into Richard’s truck and Lila slipping out a fire escape alone because somebody had threatened Jade.

I hit the building with whatever patience I had left already burned away. I took the stairs two at a time and hit the apartment hard enough that the door banged against the stop.

“Someone better explain to me what the hell is going on here!”

Richard sat near the couch with his head in his hands. Matty was on his feet before the door finished swinging, his face wrecked by fury and fear.

“This whole thing is his fucking fault.” He pointed at his father. “We’d talked about doing one last trip up to the cabin, but nothing had actually been set. He went to Jade outside the apartments and told her he’d already cleared it with Lila, said he wanted some extra grandpa and Jade time so he offered to take her up right after school. Told her Lila was going to bring their bags and drive up later after work once he’d had time to get groceries and supplies in.” His voice roughened with every sentence. “Cabin rules are no electronics, so that’s how he got her to leave her phone. She thought her mom was coming later, that everything was planned, that she was just getting some extra time with her grandpa before the weekend really started. It was a setup. He wanted it to look like she’d been kidnapped. He wanted to scare Lila, show her what life tied to you could look like for a few hours.”

Every muscle in my body locked.

Matty’s chest heaved as he looked at me. “Jade is safe. She’s at our cabin.”

Relief hit so hard my knees nearly loosened. Jade was safe. For half a heartbeat, that was everything.

Then Lila’s note slammed straight through it.