Page 53 of Hell or High Water

There was a pause.

“So, she’s got a stalker. One she brought with her, not that she acquired while here.”

“Yes, but in the note he left today, he calls Than by his full name. He knows him. He knew what kind of security the distillery had and how to pause it. You can see why I’m concerned. We didn’t know about her existence until a week ago. Yet…” Linc stopped talking.

“The only person who could know our security and how to freeze it would be someone attached to us. Closely.”

“And we need to find out who and shut it down. If they know who we are and they’ve been stalking her, then they know who she is. Who her father is. I don’t like knowing the security on my property could be compromised.”

Levi was typing on his computer as his father spoke. The familiar tapping of keys came over the line. “No shit,” he replied. “I’m sending a secure message to Wilder now. I don’t trust the phone lines. Don’t say anything else you don’t want heard and recorded on this call.”

Linc’s brows drew together. He didn’t like hearing that his secure line could possibly be tapped into.

“I’m bringing my girls to Ocala. Today,” he told Levi.

“I’ll have Aspen get the guest bedrooms ready.”

“No. I want them at the farm.”

The farm was the Hughes Farm. Even if this fucker could control our security, it would take an army to get him inside the gate at the Hughes Farm. The manpower that stood guard there was intense. They didn’t just rely on their security systems and cameras. But whoever it was didn’t want Linc’s girls. They wanted Montana.

“All right,” Levi replied, “I’ll go see Blaise now. Don’t call me with any new information. Blaise will call you for an update.”

From a burner phone or a line that Wilder set up for him, which would be untraceable.

“What do I tell him you’re doing with the girl?” Levi asked.

Linc looked at her, then at me. “Leaving her where she has been. With Than. But I’ll have the property guarded.”

“Are you telling the governor?”

“No. This is a family issue.”

“All right,” he agreed. “Blaise will get back with you shortly.”

Linc said his goodbye and ended the call.

When he locked his gaze on me, it was stern. “My first concern is getting my girls somewhere that security can’t be breached. You are to take care of her. Stay in the cabin. I’ll set up security detail between the others on the perimeter of the property and send Jayda home. Don’t call me. I’ll call you.”

I nodded while relief flooded me. I didn’t care that Linc was leaving to get his wife and daughter to safety. None of the other stuff mattered. Montana wasn’t being shipped off or handed over to a psycho. That was what I cared about.

Twenty-Four

Montana

I said nothing until we were out of Linc’s house and inside Than’s truck. Once the doors were closed, I turned to him.

“How are you and Linc related?” I asked, already knowing they weren’t. It wasn’t that kind of relationship.

Linc was the boss, and he’d said Bane would be taking his place one day. My choices and decisions had been taken away from me, yet I’d been focused on the way they spoke to each other. Even the man on the phone.

“We aren’t,” Than replied as he started up the truck.

Yeah, already knew that.

“You don’t work for him,” I said. He didn’t respond, so I continued on, “Yet you and Linc are very concerned about Jericho keeping his reputation clean. Why is that?”

Than cut his eyes at me, then back to the road leading us to the cabin.

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