Page 28 of Montana Manhunt

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Noah.”

“That’s only fair, since I don’t know what I’d do without you. I don’t want to find out, either.”

She froze for a few seconds, then eased out of his arms to stare at him. “What does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I don’t lie unless it’s in the course of a job. You’re not a job to me and never have been.” He rested his forefinger against her lips. “We’ll talk more about this later. I have a feeling the detectives are eager to get on with their questions.”

“They know nothing.”

“Too early to tell.”

Her eyebrow rose. “You don’t have confidence in their ability to solve this murder.”

Not wanting to throw the detectives under the bus yet, he hedged. “They don’t see murders every day. This isn’t an enormous city. The detectives may have more experience than we know.”

“Not buying it, but you’re right. We need to finish the rest of this interview. We have other things to do today.”

He kissed her lightly and stood. Noah opened the door to the hallway. As he’d suspected, the detectives were waiting impatiently near the door. Grant and Rayne stood nearby. “She’s ready. Go easy.”

“She’s in black ops,” Freeman said. “She can handle whatever we dish out.”

“She could,” Noah agreed. “I won’t let you badger her. Ask your questions. We have another appointment this morning.”

“Pardon us for interrupting your busy schedule.”

“Enough,” Ellis murmured. He gestured toward the interrogation room. “Let’s resume our discussion.”

Noah returned to his seat, joined by their teammates.

Ellis closed the door and dropped into his seat across from the operatives. “Violet, did you talk to your sister after the messages she left you?”

She shook her head. “Our teams were in a hot zone. Once we rescued our principal, I treated her for a gunshot wound and monitored her throughout the flight to the US.”

Ellis’ gaze sharpened. “She was wounded during the rescue?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take her to a hospital?”

“We were in a hostile environment. Taking her to the hospital in Mexico would have put her life in jeopardy. She also would have been in danger of falling back into the enemy’s hands, so I treated her on the jet.”

“You’re only a paramedic,” Freeman said.

“I have more training than many doctors. However, I was in contact with one of our physicians throughout the flight.”

“This isn’t relevant,” Grant said. “Get back on topic, gentlemen.”

“So you were too busy to talk to your only sibling and now she’s dead,” Freeman said, a sneer on his face.

“That’s enough.” Noah stood, slammed his hands on the wooden tabletop, and leaned toward the detectives. “One more comment like that, and we’ll be out of here.”

Freeman’s face reddened. “You can’t….”

Ellis held up his hand to stop his partner’s response. “You’re right. We apologize. Please, take a seat and we’ll finish this interview so you can get on with the things you need to do.” When Noah sat again, Ellis said, “Violet, did Camilla’s message give you any idea what she wanted to talk about?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing in earlier conversations gave you a hint?”

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