He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 344

Chapter 344

{Daisy’s POV)

I stared at the screen for a second longer than necessary, genuinely confused on two completely separate levels.

One: how did Mabel even have my number? Two: why, in any conceivable universe, was she using it right now.

“Why is Mabel calling me?” I muttered out loud, to nobody, before answering anyway, because the only reasonable explanation involved something going wrong with my mother, and that possibility alone made hesitating unacceptable.

I stepped a few paces off to the side as the call connected, away from the tight cluster of men still scanning the perimeter, away from DeLuca, who stood a short distance off in tense conversation with several others, everyone trying to figure out whether we’d just walked into an ambush disguised as an empty building.

“Hello?”

“This is Daisy, right?”

“Yes.” My grip tightened on the phone. “Did something happen with my mom?”

“With your what?”

“My mom.”

“Oh.” A pause. “You mean the old lady? No, that’s not why I called.”

I blinked, momentarily thrown, then settled into a wary, “Okay.”

“I called for something else,” Mabel continued, “which honestly feels like none of my business. But

it’s weird, and I don’t like carrying weird stuff around in my head longer than I have to.”

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“Okay,” I said again, slower this time, mentally cycling through every possible thing that could have

earned this designation. A post she disliked. Some kind of gossip. I genuinely had no framework for

what “weird” meant in Mabel’s specific vocabulary.

“So I was talking to Nathan,” she said. “He came to find me. Long story short, mid-conversation, his

phone rang. None of my business, obviously. But the caller ID said Lillian. Just Lillian. And I

remembered, from the whole thing back at that big open area with all those men, there was that girl

from our school who was standing with the enemy. Her name was Lillian too. So…”

A dramatic exhale. “I don’t know. I just thought I should mention it, especially since Nathan was

acting weird about it. Figured you guys could figure out what it means.”

I went completely still.

“You think Nathan’s working with Lillian?”

“I don’t think anything,” Mabel said, breezy, almost bored, a startling contrast to the ice suddenly

flooding my chest. “I don’t know. I don’t care. That’s literally why I’m calling you with it instead of

dealing with it myself.”

“But-”

“Bye.”

The call ended.

I stood there, phone still pressed to my ear, staring at nothing, for a full, dazed moment.

Then I moved.

DeLuca was already heading toward the car by the time I reached him, mid-instruction to the group.

“Check that perimeter, then scatter. We’ll regroup at the designated point. It can’t be far.”

“Wait.” Nobody heard me the first time. “Wait – DeLuca!”

He turned. Whatever sharp, impatient edge had been sitting on his face eased slightly the second his

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eyes landed on me, and with his attention, everyone else’s followed too.

“I got a call from Mabel,” I said, not letting myself hesitate. “She said she saw Nathan take a call from someone. Someone saved as Lillian.”

DeLuca crossed the remaining distance and stopped directly in front of me.

“Mabel called to tell you she thinks she caught Nathan talking to Lillian.”

“I don’t know if it’s actually her,” I said quickly. “Mabel didn’t sound sure either. She just wanted us

to know.”

DeLuca’s gaze drifted sideways for a beat, calculating something I couldn’t follow.

Then it snapped back.

“That’s him,” he said. “Let’s move.”

He was already climbing into the driver’s seat. “Get in.”

“What?” The word tumbled out before I had anything more useful to attach to it. Everything about this felt too fast, too sudden, edged with the very real possibility that this could be wrong in some way none of us had considered yet.

DeLuca didn’t share the hesitation. He looked entirely, terrifyingly certain as he settled behind the

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