Page 51 of Hell or High Water

I had barely stepped foot out of the Uber when Linc Shephard opened his front door and stepped outside.

I’d called him once the driver left the distillery and asked if I could talk to him. When he found out I had left in an Uber, he had said to come straight to his house.

I’d thought that Than worked for Linc, but seeing as his family owned a distillery and he worked there, that couldn’t be the case. Their connection to Jericho wasn’t something I understood.

Linc didn’t walk down to meet me. He waited at the top of the stairs as I made my way to him. I’d never been to his house, only passed by it, going to and from the cabin. I’d thought I would be safe here, but after today, I knew that whoever had been leaving me the notes could get to me anywhere. If he could bypass the security cameras at the distillery, then he could do it to the ones on this property.

“Montana,” Linc greeted me, but there was no smile. If anything, he looked displeased.

I’d left without my watchdog. Broken the rules. I was sure he was about to threaten me for Jericho again. There was no need. I would be gone soon.

I didn’t have time to waste, so I didn’t greet him in return. “I need to leave. I won’t contact Jericho again. I’ll never tell a soul who my father is. It’s not something I’m proud of. I shouldn’t have come here, and I apologize for the hassle I caused you. Once I find a place to stay, could you ship me my things? I’m going to take the bus, and I can’t carry all of that with me.” There. That was straight and to the point.

Linc studied me, his expression not showing any reaction other than the crinkle between his brows. “Let’s go to my office,” he finally replied and turned to the door.

“I don’t have time. Than or Ransom can fill you in on the why. I just need to go. It’s for your safety and your wife’s and daughter’s.”

At the mention of his wife and daughter, his brows lifted. “My safety and my girls’ safety?” He asked that as if it were almost amusing.

Nothing about this was funny.

I just nodded.

He smirked then. “I assure you that we are safe from whatever you think might be out to get us.”

That might be the case, but I wasn’t, and I was here on his property. “I’m not, and I need to leave. I don’t want my trouble brought to your door. I’m trying to help you. I just need my things shipped once I contact you with an address.”

He opened the front door as if I hadn’t been talking and then glanced back at me. “Come inside.” It wasn’t an invitation. It was an order, and it sounded like one.

I couldn’t leave without knowing I would get my things, so I had little choice but to go inside with him.

The opulence of the place screamed wealth, just as the outside of the house and the land it sat on did. Linc walked in front of me, and I followed him without saying anything more.

We passed a large room with a gorgeous fireplace that was floor to ceiling. Several toys were scattered around the area, but other than that, it looked like something out of a magazine. The hallway was wide with a tall ceiling and a chandelier in the center lighting the way.

He stopped at a door and opened it, then waved a hand for me to enter. The scent of cigar filled the room, although there wasn’t one lit. Much like my house had smelled of cigarette smoke all the time. I walked inside, but stopped in the middle of the room and waited.

“All right,” Linc began, “tell me why it is you think you’re in danger and your being here puts my family and myself in danger.” He walked behind the large desk and pulled out the leather chair. He nodded at the different seating options on my side before he sat down.

I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to leave, but he wasn’t going to let me do that yet, it seemed. With a sigh, I sank down onto the nearest chair and met his stern gaze.

“I would have never contacted Jericho if I’d had any other option. But I was desperate. Not for the reasons you believe though. I had somewhere to sleep, and my mother had friends who were helping me until I could graduate,” I told him. “I needed to get out of Monroe. Someone was…leaving me notes.” I paused and took a deep breath when the fear tightened my throat. “And he’s found me here.”

Twenty-Three

Than

“Is he in his office?” I asked Jayda as I walked into Linc’s house, not stopping to wait for her answer.

“I think so,” she said. “I wasn’t in here…” She trailed off when I turned the corner that led to his office door.

I’d watched Montana come here through the tracking app. I hadn’t been far behind her, but then a fucking train stopped traffic for fifteen minutes. She’d been here for over twenty minutes.

When I reached his door, I started to knock, but then I just opened it. He might not answer or allow me in if I gave him the chance.Don’t ask permission, ask for forgiveness. She’d left under my watch, and I was sure I’d be in trouble for that. But that wasn’t my first concern. I was worried about what she’d come here to say. I had to stop her or fix whatever she’d said because I already knew it was going to be something I didn’t like.

Linc’s eyes locked on me the second I stepped inside the room. Mine went from him to Montana, who turned around to stare up at me in surprise.

Yeah, Six, I followed your ass.

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