Page 17 of Jay Bird

A few quiet laughs followed, but Jay Bird ignored them, his attention already drifting back down to the kid.

For reasons he couldn’t begin to explain, the little girl trusted him, and that alone settled something deep in his chest. Whatever this was, whatever had led her to him in the middle of all this chaos, he wasn’t going to screw it up.

Sirens sounded in the distance. Within minutes, the parking lot filled with flashing lights. Riley took charge almost immediately, using her position as the police department’s spokesperson and her familiarity with the responding officers to explain enough of the situation without turning the sidewalk into an interrogation scene.

Jay Bird was grateful for that. Willow didn’t need a crowd of questions or people picking apart every detail right now. She needed a hospital, steady hands, and a chance to be taken care of without anything else getting in the way.

He and the others gave the officers the basic facts while the paramedics assessed Willow. Riley explained who Willow was, that she had apparently escaped from Chen Pham, and that the FBI would need to be notified. Mia provided what she knew about Willow’s disappearance three years earlier, while Duke and Stitch gave the paramedics the medical observations they had made before the ambulance arrived.

Through it all, Lily refused to leave Jay Bird. The paramedics made a single attempt to take her from him, but the moment they reached for her, she let out a sharp, terrified scream that cut through the chaos and brought everything to a halt. After that, no one tried again.

One of the officers approached Riley.

“What about the little girl?” he asked quietly. “Do we need to contact CPS until we get all this sorted out?”

“No.” The word came out of Jay Bird’s mouth before Riley could answer.

The officer looked at him.

Jay Bird stepped away from the ambulance with Lily still firmly attached to him.

“She’s staying with me.”

“Sir, we don’t know the child’s—”

“Her name is Lily, her mother is going to the hospital, and she’s scared shitless.” Jay Bird kept his voice controlled, but there was no mistaking the finality in it. “She’s not getting handed over to another stranger tonight.”

The officer looked toward Riley, and she didn’t hesitate for even a second. “She’s safe with him. I’ll personally vouch for that.”

The officer studied Jay Bird for another second, then nodded. “As long as we can confirm everything once her mother wakes up.”

“She will,” Riley assured him.

Jay Bird stood beside the ambulance, Lily still tucked securely in his arms as the vehicle started to pull away. She didn’t take her eyes off it for a second, watching it like if she looked away even briefly, she might lose her mother all over again.

“Momma.”

“We’re going too,” Jay Bird promised.

She looked at him. “Momma?”

“We’re gonna follow your mommy.”

Apparently that was enough, because Lily tucked her head beneath his chin.

Fuck me. Jay Bird rested one large hand against the center of her tiny back.

He suddenly became aware of the silence behind him.

When he turned around, he found Riley, Nails, Snow, Bear, Joker, Duke, Stitch, Mia, and the others all still watching him—like they were waiting for him to say something, or maybe just trying to figure out what the hell they were seeing.

Duke finally broke the silence. “You sure about this, Jay?”

Jay Bird knew exactly why he was asking.

They had served together long enough to know almost everything about one another. They knew how each man fought, how he handled pressure, what pissed him off, and which buttons to push when they wanted a reaction.

But when it came to Jay Bird’s personal life, there wasn’t much to know, and that was entirely by design. Only Derek knew.