Page 58 of That Emerald Vow

Before I can say anything else, Adrian runs back. “She’s not there! She’s not fucking here. But there was a man beaten to a pulp with a gunshot wound to the head.”

“It’s okay,” I say to the other guys who are helping some of the women they found. They work to direct them while keeping their distance to respect the womens’ boundaries. All of them have been through enough and don’t need any more uncalled for physical touch. “Take them up front.”

“That’syourgirl. Lily knows how to handle herself and always has a plan. She has to be here somewhere,” I say as the others pass me.

We go through the whole house, then out the front door and decide to check the back, and that’s when I see Lily talking to someone. Butnot just anyone—Rowan. He’s one of the members of X. It’s not that uncommon for some members of X to rotate to watch over Alex’s informants. And by her body language, I can tell she’s comfortable with him.Was he trying to help her?

“Adrian! Look!” I yell as his eyes quickly find his target.

“Lily!” he screams out. “Lily!”

“Adrian!” she yells back as she bolts across the yard to hug him, leaping into his arms. “Adrian! You came for me!” she cries out.

“Of course I came for you,mi reina!” he says, kissing all over her.

“Wait! The others. We’re not safe here!” she says, urgently looking around for any signs of threat.

Adrian caresses her cheek. “Don’t worry, baby. We took care of them. You’re safe now. The girls are safe.”

I have two missed calls and voicemails from Damon when I finally get out of surgery. There is a hot, painful stinging sensation emanating from where my hand clings to my phone so hard that the side-buttons dig in. That stupid fucking surgery took hours. I’m glad it was successful and the patient will be okay, but I could not stop thinking about Lily.

It wasn’t possible for me to scrub out in the middle of a surgery because us nurses don’t get to stop until the doctor does or the surgery ends. But as soon as I finish, I go straight to tell the hospital that I will be taking the rest of the day off for a family emergency. Without even listening to the messages, I know I need to get the fuck out of here because I’m a danger to my patients unfocused. The voicemail only solidified the need. Lily is coming home to me. They are going to find her and bring her safely home.

I’m not even paying any mind to the intrusive other thoughts of her state of being.

As soon as I get home, I take a shower and get clean. Then I start to clean up the mess that has been my home this past week with papers and files strewn about. I even get the guest bedroom ready in case Lily wants to stay here, as I’m doubtful she wants to be alone right now. I know I wouldn’t.

As I start smacking the pillows to fluff them, my phone chimes withan incoming text, and the words immediately make me fall to my knees. I sob in relief as the breath I had been holding for the past week finally releases.

Lily is safe and coming home.

I can hear the engine of Adrian’s car coming around the corner and immediately run downstairs and rip the door open just as they pull into the driveaway.

I rush to her and lunge to embrace her as soon as she’s out of the car, almost making her fall back into the seat. “Lily!” I shove her body away as I quickly assess her, making note to check more thoroughly later. “You are never allowed to do that to me again,” I say before pulling her back into a hug.

“I love you too,” she says, squeezing me back. “Now, can I please go inside?”

Letting her out of the embrace, I grab her wrist and lead her to my house, not giving her any opportunity to say goodbye to Adrian or Damon. “They’ll come by later. Right now, I need to make sure you’re okay.” I texted Damon earlier that we would need alone time, especially after everything she went through, but they were welcome to come over later.

We spend the next couple hours talking about what happened to her, how one of the men, Rowan, helped her, the kindness shown by some of the girls and the cruelty of others, how we ended up finding her, and more. I tend to her wounds, and while I am able to keep my composure externally since I’m used to it from work, internally, I’m breaking at thesight of what my beautiful, resilient best friend went through. There are scars from a knife or something all over her torso.

We both decide that what she needs is something that will take our minds off of the worst things in the world and focus on what we can control. Which is what led us to the abandoned building outside of town. I’m sure Adrian and Damon are somewhere nearby in case we need them but are also allowing us some space.

“Shall we, babe?” I ask as I hand her the serrated blade.

She gives a weak smile but takes it from me before saying, “Yes.”

We picked up someone on our list, and Reid was willing to help us determine that he was at a local bar. I snuck him a special cocktail blend of drugs I made. It seems to have worked great because he’s slowly waking up—just when I want him to—bound and gagged on the floor.

“Looks like he’s awake now,” I sing-song. “You want to start?”

“Actually, I do,” she says, the fire in her eyes returning as he wakes up. She walks over and kneels down before stabbing him in the shoulder, forcing him to jolt wide awake.

“What the fuck? That hurt,” he screams.

“Cause you gave a fuck when you hurt all those kids?” I ask.

“W-what are you talking about?” he stammers.

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