Page 55 of That Emerald Vow

“Are you okay?” he asks.

My body shakes with each escaping tear, opening a floodgate of emotion. Damon takes the backs of my thighs and lifts me up to wrap my legs around his waist. He carefully kicks my front door closed as he takes me to the couch. I continue to cry into his chest as he runs his fingers over my hair and back. He even peppers kisses along my head every now and again, reminding me he’s here with me—that I don’t have to do this alone.

We sit there for God knows how long, but once I feel like I have absolutely no tears left to cry, I sit up, realizing his shirt is soaked. “I’m sorry. I’m such a mess.”

“Your best friend is missing. You have every fucking right to be upset,” he says softly as he takes my hand. “How about you go get cleaned up and I’ll get something cooking for dinner.”

“I’m not hungr—”

“I know. Neither am I. But for Lily’s sake, we all need to take care of ourselves so we can put all our energy into finding her. Food equals energy.”

I sniffle. “What about Ade? This must be killing him too.”

“I’m going to send him some food, and we can call him to make sure he eats it. ‘Cause, like you, I’m sure he’s going to be stubborn.” He chuckles but purses his lips almost immediately. I stick my tongue out at him,allowing myself a single moment of normalcy.

“Okay. I’m not sure what’s in the fridge to cook.”

He smiles at me. “It’s like you don’t know me. I ordered ahead to get groceries delivered. It worked out ‘cause I was always planning to cook for you tonight.” My heart constricts, remembering we had a date tonight—what was supposed to be our first night, the beginning of us.

I lean over and hug him, hyperaware that I’m still straddling this gorgeous man. “You are incredible.”

“I know,” he says with sass.

Pulling back, I roll my eyes before leaning in to give him a lingering kiss on the cheek. As much as I want to let this moment take its course, I know that, yet again, it’s not the time for us. “I’ll be back.”

I can’t help but shed more tears of fear, anger, and sadness in the shower. By the time I come out, there’s a wonderful aroma wafting through my home. I quickly towel dry my hair and put on the first pajamas I find—not giving two shits for once in my life about my appearance.

“What are you making? It smells amazing,” I say as I enter the kitchen.

Damon looks concentrated, but it changes into an enamored look. “You look breathtaking, baby.” I look down, suddenly self-conscious again. He walks over and kisses my cheek as his hand slowly trails down my arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “You are perfect.” Damon walks back to the stove. “I’m making chicken with string beans. I know Chinese is your favorite comfort meal.”

I raise my eyebrow at him. “Seems like someone has been paying attention.”

“Actually, I bought a bunch of groceries for the week to cook for you.” His cheeks flush in embarrassment.

“And you callmeperfect.” I grab a cooked string bean from the wok, slightly burning my finger but not caring. My eyes roll to the back of my head as I moan out. “This tastes fucking divine. And the string beans are perfectly crunchy!”

“Only the best for my gem,” he says, making me smile.

We eat quickly and then clean up the kitchen. Damon and I sit in the living room with folders splayed out and my laptop open. He helps me go through more of my physical and digital files. Unfortunately, while we get through more than half of them, there’s nothing that helps us get any closer to finding Lily.

I wake up to a loud, ringing noise. My arms are wrapped around Charlie in our makeshift bed on the floor of her living room. We made it after the first night, as we kept falling asleep spending hours upon hours researching and trying to find new leads. It’s been a few days since Lily was taken, and we’ve all gone stir crazy trying to find her. Despite the vast network we have, there are no leads, and we can’t very well go to the police and risk ourselves. That wouldn’t help Lily or us.

“Who is it?” Charlie asks groggily as she moves out of my arms to stretch.

Looking at the phone, I respond, saying, “It’s Ade.” I put the call on speaker. “Hello? You’re on speaker with Charlie.”

“What time is it?” Charlie asks.

“Half past two,” Adrian says. “I’m going crazy over here. And I can’t find anything. I was wondering if you guys found anything.”

Charlie says, “No, I’m sorry. I even took a third deep dive through her personal files, and nothing.” At this point, we’re just retracing our steps, wondering if there’s anything we missed. We barely sleep other than these accidental power naps.

“It’s been almost a fucking week,” he yells as we hear something hard smash into a wall.

“Adrian!” we both shout.

“Damon’s gonna head over to you to help,” she says.

---