Page 2 of Jay Bird

She stared for another second, then slowly shook her head as if trying to clear the unease building in her chest. This was New York City. Eight million people lived in this city. She wasn’t alone out here. She knew that. And yet, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, the silence around her suddenly felt strange.

She pulled out her phone as a precaution. As her dad would always tell her, “Better to be safe than sorry.”

She had barely taken two steps when something slammed into her from behind. A scream tore out of her as she slammed into the ground, pain exploding through her shoulder on impact while her phone slipped from her grasp and skidded across the pavement.

Willow twisted, kicking blindly as someone grabbed her. She connected with something solid.

A man cursed.

“Get off me!” she screamed, clawing at the hand gripping her jacket as she tried to scramble away. But another set of hands caught her legs.

Two of them! Oh, God!

“Help!” Willow screamed. “Somebody help me!”

“Shut her the fuck up before somebody hears and comes looking,” a deep voice said.

A hand slammed over her mouth, cutting off her scream before it could fully form. Willow reacted on instinct, biting down as hard as she could. The man swore and jerked his hand away.

She sucked in a desperate breath, trying to scream again, but she never got the chance because something sharp pierced the side of her neck, the shock stealing her voice instantly.

“What did you—” Her words slurred, and a strange heaviness spread through her body quickly.

She tried to push herself up, but her arms wouldn’t respond the way she needed them to, no matter how hard she tried to move them. Panic surged through her, stealing the last bit of control she had left.

She tried again, but nothing.

The trees above her began to blur as her vision wavered, and the men’s voices sounded distant and muffled, like she was sinking underwater.

Her eyelids grew heavier as the world around her began to fade. She fought to keep them open, desperately trying to hold on to consciousness as strong hands lifted her from the ground.

Someone had to have heard her cries for help. She tried to think, but within seconds the darkness swallowed her.

When Willow opened her eyes again, she had no idea where she was, how long she had been unconscious, or what had happened to her after those men carried her away.

She only knew one thing. She had woken up in hell.

CHAPTER ONE

Present Day

“And the little rabbit said good night to the moon, because even though he couldn’t see where tomorrow would take him, he knew the moon would still be there when he woke up.”

Willow smiled softly as she closed the worn children’s book and looked down at the little girl curled against her side.

Her daughter Lily’s tiny hand rested on Willow’s stomach, her fingers curled into the fabric of her shirt, while her other arm was wrapped around the stuffed gray elephant she had carried everywhere for nearly a year. Her lips were parted slightly, and every few breaths she made the sweetest little snuffling sound that Willow had teased her about more than once.

At two years old, Lily was the brightest light in a world Willow had once believed would never hold anything beautiful again.

She carefully set the book on the nightstand before brushing several strands of light brown hair away from Lily’s face, allowing her fingers to linger against her daughter’s warm cheek.

“You missed the ending again, bug,” she whispered.

Lily didn’t move. Willow’s smile grew even as the familiar ache settled around her heart.

She looked so much like her. Everyone said it, although there weren’t many people in Willow’s life these days who were allowed close enough to make the observation. Lily had her light brown hair, her big brown eyes, and even the tiny heart-shaped birthmark low on her back that Willow had always joked was proof she had been born with more love than she knew what to do with.

Thank God those were the things Lily had inherited from her. Because there were other things Willow prayed every night she never would.