“What are you talking about?” Mona screwed her face up at me as I dressed myself. I could easily have stayed laying on that couch with her the whole rest of the day, but I felt invigorated, full of life—and there was shit that we needed to get on with.
“For her.” My voice mellowed a little, and I could tell she knew exactly who I was talking about as soon as the words came out of my mouth. We hadn’t spoken her name since I’d walked through the door, but I knew she had to come up; we had to acknowledge her between us.
“Ella?” Mona confirmed softly, and I nodded. Her eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
“For our baby’s sake.” I leaned down and planted a kiss on her stomach where her shirt had ridden up slightly. “I want to try. I don’t want to give up yet.”
Her eyes lit up and she scrambled into an upright position; her face looked animated and lively, reflecting mine. “What are we going to do?”
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a little puff of air. “I don’t know. But it’s got to be good.”
“Where do we start? I mean, what do you want to do to get started?” She continued. She was deferring to me, but she knew Ella better than anyone outside the family. I needed her input too.
“We have to go back to the start and put together as many of the pieces as we can,” I went on. Electricity prickled through my veins—for the first time since the fire, I felt awake. I had driven around town for hours looking for the car that took her, followed the path it had been taking out my driveway to every conceivable location—but nothing. I had wept leaning on that bike, praying that I was somehow wrong. But now, I needed to enlist more than just my own sad self. I needed everyone I could get my hands on—the time for pride was long past. Now, I needed a whole team to put together. I just wasn’t sure who I was going to need as part of it.
“How far back?”
“As far as we can go,” I replied firmly. “I think we need to get everyone together, everyone who’s connected to this, and see what we can find out if we put our heads together.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone.”
And so that started off the most hectic day of my life; you try getting hold of a motorcycle club, two elderly neighbors, a best friend, and a CSI and convincing them that coming out to a diner on the other side of town was the best way they could be spending their night because it might be the only way that I could get my daughter back.
I had never been so set on one goal in my life before, and it stunned me what we could get done when all I wanted in the world was one thing. I knew the chances of finding her were slim—the chances of finding her unharmed even more so. But I had to hold out hope, otherwise this whole thing would fall apart, and then what would we be left with? Maybe I was just playing a distraction game, hoping that as long as I kept myself occupied I could ignore the truth that was becoming more and more set in stone by the day.
But as soon as I found out about that baby… I knew I couldn’t raise any child of mine without them knowing Ella. She would be an amazing big sister. In fact, she had often asked about having a little sibling. A lot of her friends at school were oldest children, and I think she envied them and the fact they got to help bring up this tiny person. She was so kind and nurturing and thoughtful—hell, she’d probably be a better parent than I would be. In my heart of hearts, I knew depriving my unborn child of the greatest big sister in the world was something I couldn’t live with. It was something I couldn’t take without a fight. And God knows that I would fight to the very last breath to try and get my baby girl back home again.
She had never left my thoughts—in fact, I don’t think she’d ever truly been off my mind since she was born, but I just hadn’t noticed till now how intrusive the urge to be around her was. Before she disappeared, I could just stick my head into her room and watch her playing and bam, that need would be sated—but now she was gone I just wanted to hold her and hug her and be near her again.
And maybe, in some ways, this was a distraction from all the news that Mona had dropped on me since I walked through her door. As soon as I got the call from Lucy, I knew there was something up—I began putting the pieces together in my head and they made sense. Mona had been visiting the house for some more than just a courtesy call, that much was clear, and even though I never would have guessed that she was pregnant, I knew something big was up. I mean, it had never been that simple with us—the world seemed to want this relationship to go through a requisite amount of twists and turns before we got a chance to settle down.
When Mona left to go track down Scott and see if he could come out his evening, I made myself a coffee and walked around her small apartment. It was a nice place—it had her written all over it, something I’d noticed when I’d first walked in. Mismatched furniture, a warm color scheme, blankets and wall-hangings everywhere I looked. I could imagine visiting her and the baby here if she decided she didn’t want to move in with me quite yet—though I hoped and prayed that she would. The thought of being in that house if things didn’t go to plan, alone…it didn’t bear thinking about. I shuddered at the very thought of it, and went for my phone so I could call Declan, my deputy at the Marauders.
His phone buzzed a couple of times, and then he snatched it up—he sounded breathless when he greeted me, as though he’d sprinted across a room to get to his cell before I hung up.
“Jazz?”
“Declan!” I greeted him, trying to sound upbeat. “Hey, buddy. Look, I’m back in town—”
“Thank fuck,” he cut across me. “It’s been chaos here. They were all going to up sticks and go and find you, and they’re already talking about launching a search party to find Ella. They can’t believe you didn’t tell them about any of this.”
“Well, good news,” I replied. “We’re getting everything in order tonight, cards on the table. Tonight. At Frederick’s Diner, across town. You know it?”
“I do,” Declan confirmed. “But do you really think that’s going to fit all of us?”
“Not a chance,” I admitted. “Just bring a few of the guys, they can fill in the rest. Besides, all of us hanging out a diner is bit too much like a crappy cliché for my liking.”
“Maybe we can burst into song when we’ve finished our drinks?”
“Good one,” I replied sarcastically. “So, see you there? Eight?”
“I’ll let everyone else know,” he promised. I went to hang up, but before I could, he spoke again. “Jazz?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re glad to have you in town,” he muttered. I knew emotion wasn’t the strong suit of anyone in the DM, but I could tell that he meant it.
“Thanks, man.”
Declan hung up the phone, as if horrified by what he’d done. I grinned at the blank screen as I pulled it away from my ear—I knew not everyone would want them on their side, but I was glad I had the Marauders to rely on when shit like this started to go down. I was touched—yeah, actually touched—by how much they seemed to give a shit about me and, more importantly, Ella. I’d kept them out of the situation ever since she’d been taken, knowing that if they got even the slightest inkling that she was in danger they’d tear the entire town apart making sure she was safe. The last thing I needed was for a bunch of them to get charged with shit on top of everything else I was handling.
I’d given Declan permission to pass on the truth when I left just in case any of them spotted her, but in retrospect I should have known what the reaction would be. In my defense, I’d been far from my right mind when I had made the call. Maybe I should have told them sooner—maybe getting them in on this would mean I had it under control already—but I wanted to keep Ella separate from that life as far as humanely possible. Well, it looked like I didn’t have much choice in the matter anymore; it was either get them involved, or cut off another avenue of help to my daughter.
My heart ached when I thought about her, and my head spun when I considered even briefly what she might be going through. I clenched my fists and did my best to calm myself. Getting mad wasn’t going to do much good now—she needed me to be in-control and on top of shit. I could be as mad as I wanted once I’d taken Ian down, once I had her back in my arms again. But until that moment, I had to be brutally cold, logical, and removed, so I could get as many people on my side as possible. The cops weren’t acting fast enough—hell, maybe they’d already given up by now. Maybe Ian thought he had gotten away with whatever disgusting plan he had up his sleeve. But he hadn’t counted on me—hadn’t counted on all of us, in fact.
The door opened, and I jumped—but found myself faced with a grinning Mona.
“Did you get him?” I leaned forward, and she nodded.
“Says he’ll be down after his shift is done, but we can’t tell anyone that he’s helping us out,” she confirmed, unwrapping the scarf she had tied around her neck. “What about the Marauders?”
“They’re on board. So we just need…?”
“Lucy’s going to be stopping back here tonight anyway so we can just take her with us,” Mona went on breathlessly. “I’ll text her and let her know what’s going on.”
“And Mary and Paul are already in,” I rounded off. “So we’re ready to go?”
She nodded. “We’re ready to go.” My brow furrowed for a moment, and Mona seemed to notice, approaching me and wrapping her arms around my neck. “We’re going to be able to do this,” she promised. “With everyone there…trust me. We’ve got a damn good chance of figuring this shit out if we all put our heads together.”
I put my arms around her and buried my face in her neck, losing myself to the scent of her. I was so glad she was there—I would have gone batshit fucking insane without her, and knowing that someone else was on my side just made it easier to handle all of this. I would be thankful for her no matter what—though she seemed optimistic that something would come of this.
“I really hope you’re right,” I murmured in response. I wished I could be more upbeat, but I couldn’t; not yet. Not until I had Ella back in her bedroom where I could stick my head in on her whenever I needed to—and not until Ian was behind bars where he belonged. For good.