Page 52 of Hell or High Water

Linc glanced at the time on the wall, then back to me. “Took you a little long to realize she was missing, didn’t it?”

I closed the door as I spoke. “I watched her drive away in the Uber. I was following when I got stopped by a train.”

I didn’t wait on a response from him before turning my attention to Montana.

“Why did you come here?” I asked her.

She blinked, and her shoulders rose and fell with a deep sigh.

“She’s wanting to take a bus and get out of town. Needs me to ship her things to her when she finds somewhere to stay,” Linc supplied.

“No,” I snapped as I swung my gaze back to him. “She’s not getting on a goddamn bus. The bastard paused our security cameras. He’ll find her wherever she goes.”

Linc leaned back in his chair. “I was unaware you were calling the shots now, Than,” he drawled with an edge of warning. “You’re not one to talk back. Never had that problem with you before. In fact, you’re acting so fucking Bane-like at the moment that I don’t recognize you. Problem with that is, you’re not taking my position one day, but he is.” He paused as his eyes cut back to Montana, and he studied for her a moment. Then he continued, “Have you had sex with her?”

I shook my head. “No! That’s not what this is about. But you stuck me in that cabin with her, and I got to know her, and she’s not…” I paused, running a hand through my hair in frustration.

No matter what I said, he was going to read it wrong. I didn’t just think with my dick…well, okay, I did a large percentage of the time, but this was different. I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out the blue letter, then tossed it onto his desk.

“Read it. He knows who I am. I had time to think about that on the drive over here, and my guess is, he knows who we are. He stopped our fucking security cameras, Linc. No one is supposed to be able to do that. But this guy”—I pointed at the letter—“did.”

Linc picked up the letter, then looked at me.

“I’d say that makes him a family problem. Don’t you think?” I asked, praying to a god that I doubted knew who the hell I was that this worked.

Because if she left, I was going with her.

Linc lifted his gaze, but it was directed at Montana, not me. “Do you have any idea who this is?”

She shook her head.

“Not even a guess?”

“No,” she said with such a fucking defeated tone. “I’ve tried to think. I lie in bed at night, running through every encounter, people I know, but nothing makes sense.”

He looked back down at the blue note, then reached over and pressed a button on his phone. The ringing filled the room.

“Hello?” Levi, Linc’s son, answered the phone.

“Got what could potentially be an issue with the bast—” He paused and cleared his throat. “The governor situation.”

He’d almost called her a bastard, then referred to her as a situation. My eyes swung over to her, and the immediate reaction to defend her lit my temper. I had to calm that shit down. But, fuck, if he’d seen her trembling and unable to even move today with that letter in her hand, he would get it. That was hard to see. It would affect anyone…right?

“What’s up? I thought you had Than on it.”

Linc looked at me. “I do. But today, someone froze the security cameras at the distillery so they could break into Than’s truck and leave a note for the daughter.”

“Montana,” I said a touch too forcefully.

Linc’s eyebrows rose as he stared at me. I was going to get my ass beat if I didn’t stop talking to him like this. But, fuck, she was sitting right here. He shouldn’t talk about her like she wasn’t a person.

“Her name is Montana,” I repeated, calmer this time.

Linc ignored me, of course.

“Uh,” Levi said over the line, having heard my outburst, “they paused it inside the building? As in someone who works there? And what is the note about?”

“Not inside the building—outside—and it’s like other notes she’s been getting since her mother’s death. Left in places for her to find. Last one she got before coming here, she woke up at the house she was staying, and there was one on the table beside her. He had gotten into the house and watched her sleep. At least, he claimed to in the note,” I explained not sure how much detail she’d given Linc.

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