Page 54 of That Emerald Vow

I run over to it to see Adrian’s name on the screen, which is odd, since we never call each other. We usually only speak through Lily.

“Hey, Ade. What’s up?”

“I-I was wondering if you’ve spoken to Lily today?” he asks

“I spoke to her yesterday when we had lunch. But other than that, we haven’t spoken.” I’m now fully alert. “Why?”

“I’m worried . . .” He explains to me that he’s tried calling her several times since coming home, and every time, it went straight to voicemail.So he decided to check the camera feeds that we all share with each other. With our line of work, one can never be too careful.

Adrian says she left for a run but never returned.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I exclaim. “That’s not normal. Where are you?” I can hear his feet hitting the pavement faster than before.

“I’m heading to the park where she usually runs,” he says as I’m already grabbing my key off of the hook and heading for my car. I look down at myself and honestly give zero fucks that I’m wearing pj’s and slippers. But I need to change so I can hide some weapons, because I’m craving blood now and am unsure what to expect. I don’t know where Lily is, but if someone has hurt her . . . that person is about to die.

“I’ll meet you there. Let me know if you see her,” I say.

“Okay. Please let me know if you hear from her?” he pleads.

“Of course . . .” I say. “Ade . . . what if . . . what if they took her?” I ask nervously. We have been plotting this revenge for months, but they could have found us . . .her. . . first.

“We’ll find her,” he tries to say confidently, but his shaky voice gives him away. “I don’t think it’s X. I would have heard about it. But I . . . I don’t know.”

“Okay,” I whisper as I am already halfway changed. “I-I’m coming.”

Less than five minutes later, I’m driving like a bat out of hell to the park when I get another phone call.

“Hello?” My voice comes out shaky.

“Hey, where are you?” Damon asks.

It feels so nice to hear his voice, but I feel equally guilty. While I was busy daydreaming about Damon, the first person to ever truly care for me romantically, my guardian angel of a best friend went missing. I know those two things don’t correlate at all, but it doesn’t stop the needles stabbing me in the chest over and over again.

“I’m driving to the park. I assume Adrian called you too.”

“Yeah, I’m getting on my bike now. Didn’t know if you wanted me to come get you.” I hear his engine purr to life. This man is so fucking considerate.

“Thank you for always thinking of everything, but I’ll meet you at the park.”

“Okay. See you in a bit.” I reach out to the console to end the call. “And, gem?”

“Yeah?” I ask, leaving my hand midair.

“We’re going to find her and make whoever did this bleed. I promise you that. I’ll see you soon.”

Bringing my hand back to the wheel, I groan in both excitement for finding someone just as ruthless as me and for fear of my best friend being hurt.

We scour the entire park and other surveillance in the area with the help of Reid and Octavia—Adrian and Damon’s go-to tech duo. It’s clear she did her run for about thirty minutes and headed towards her house. The last footage we find is from a camera in front of the bank three blocks from her house. There’s no other footage that shows where she went or if anyone followed her. But the lack of video evidence means someone definitely has her, someone with reach. Wiping out this many cameras without a trace isn’t easy.

Adrian and Damon go to X’s headquarters to talk to Alex. Damon was reluctant to leave me behind, but I assured him I would be fine. We shouldn’t reveal that I know about X, as that would risk everything we have planned, especially if they weren’t the ones who took her.

So I head home and look through all of our tabbed files that contain every piece of info on scum within a thirty mile radius, which makes this a formidable task. It’s organized by potential predators, confirmed predators, and those we’ve already dealt with.

My vision is starting to blur when I’m about twenty percent done withthe files, but then my doorbell chimes, indicating Damon is here. He immediately pulls me into a hug as soon as the door opens a crack.

“It seems like Alex doesn’t know anything about this. I’m sorry I don’t have better news.”

I take a deep inhale, filling my lungs, and choke when I go to exhale as a sob breaks free. All day, I had refused to stop and let myself truly sit in the very real possibility that Lily could be somewhere dead . . . or worse, alive and being tortured.

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