Page 167 of Deacon

Evan looked at both of us like our combined stupidity offended him. “And we can track her keys from her phone, you giant menaces. Whoever has her probably has no idea there’s a tracker on them, and Lila’s smart enough to keep them tucked somewhere if she can.”

I caught Evan’s face in both hands and kissed his forehead. “You are a genius.”

“I know,” he said breathlessly. “Get off me.”

We ran back upstairs.

Lila’s phone was on the bed. Evan grabbed it before either Matty or I could touch it. “I know her passcode,” he said, already unlocking the screen. “We’ve used each other’s phones at work before when things got insane.” He opened the tracker app and muttered, “Come on, Lila. Please.”

The map loaded, and this time the signal was moving somewhere across town.

Cold replaced the rage in me. A location meant we could reach her. It also meant she had gone exactly where whoever threatened Jade ordered her to go.

I was calling Priest before the address finished resolving. I gave him the location and told him I wanted men staged a block out and quiet until we knew what we were walking into. Castor was next. If this required precision, I wanted the best we had close.

Then I looked at Richard.

He had gone gray, the truth seeming to age him by years in less than an hour. I felt nothing for it.

“You better go get my daughter,” I told him. “You bring her back safe and sound so she’s here when I bring her mother back.”

His mouth opened. I stepped toward him, and whatever he saw stopped the words.

“If she is not returned safe and sound, I don’t care whose father and grandfather you are.” My voice stayed low. “I am done protecting you.”

Matty shifted toward me.

I stopped him with a look. “Nah, man. You’re a cop.” I tipped my head toward Richard. “You go with him. Bring my daughter home.” Holding Matty’s gaze hurt more after everything we had just said, but that was exactly why I made sure he heard me. “I’ll bring your sister home. This is not gonna go clean. You risk your whole career if you come with me.”

The war in his face lasted only a few seconds. Then he nodded.

Richard rose slowly.

I pointed at him once more. “Safe and sound, old man. She better be there.”

Then I left.

The tracker location burned in my head as I reached the bike. Lila had walked into whatever waited there because she believed Jade’s life depended on it. She had gone alone because somebody understood exactly which threat would make her stop thinking about herself.

I swung onto the bike and started it. This time, I knew where my woman was. I only had to get there before whoever had her decided she was no longer useful.

44

Lila

I had barely reached the parking lot when Jade’s phone buzzed in my hand. The sound stopped me beside the car, and my fingers shook so badly I nearly dropped it.

Unknown: before you leave delete these texts and toss the phone.

I stared at the message, then deleted the thread before fear could talk me out of obeying. Throwing away Jade’s phone felt horribly final, one more piece of her disappearing while I had no idea where she was, but if whoever had her was watching me, I couldn’t risk hesitating. I hurled it into the hedge, heard it vanish in the leaves, and got behind the wheel.

The drive became a blur of images I couldn’t control. Jade crying. Jade tied somewhere dark. Jade trying to be brave because she thought I would want her to be. Jade wondering why I wasn’t there yet. I gripped the wheel until my hands hurt and forced myself back to the only thing I could control. Get there. If someone expected me to choose between my life and my daughter’s, there had never been a choice.

The address led into a quiet neighborhood of trimmed lawns and dark windows, so ordinary it felt wrong. When I parked, the tracker tag on my keys pressed into my palm. Evan knew about it. If anyone realized I was gone and thought to look, maybe it would give them something to follow. I shoved the keys deep into my jeans pocket and walked to the house.

I reached the porch with my pulse blurring the edges of everything. I knocked, and Dr. Mason Reid opened the door.

For a second my mind refused to make him fit. Mason with the careful smile and familiar doctor’s face. Relief flashed across it when he saw me. “Lila,” he said, as if my arrival settled something. “Come inside.”