Page 88 of Montana Mystery

“I haven’t done anything,” I said. “All I’ve done is try to protect my younger brother after your thugs put him in the hospital.”

Simon frowned. “Your brother needs to learn what it means to be a man of his word. He said that he had the money, and he didn’t. Therefore, he deserved the discipline he was given.”

I bristled at the tone. Like Brandon had been some sort of naughty toddler instead of a young man struggling with things he never should have had to deal with in the first place.

“No, what you’ve done, Kate, is threaten the entire operation that I’ve built. My whole network has to hide because of you. Because your brother didn’t have the good sense to just die, he brought you and the Boy Scouts into it.

“I don’t like messes. Now I have to risk myself and everyone else to clean up the one that you created. I have to burn everything to the ground and make sure there’s nothing to trace before we set up again. You have no fucking idea how much money it’s going to cost me. Far more than the stupid twenty grand your brother sold his life for.”

I felt hollow. I wasn’t worth that to them. He’d already shown how little he considered the price of a life. I wasn’t going to walk out of here alive.

“Unfortunately for you, the loose ends also include your boyfriend. And his friends. And you’re going to help me get him if you want any chance of surviving.”

Staring at Simon, I had the sudden urge to laugh. Did he really think it would be that easy? “Explain to me how I’m supposed to do that. You had me retrieved and knocked out. I don’t even know where I am, let alone where Noah is. Besides, you seem like you’re pretty good at finding people.”

“What I didn’t say,” Simon replied, “was that I wanted you to tell me where he is. I know exactly where the Resting Warrior Ranch is. I know that Noah Scott is a deeply troubled man. So alike, him and your brother. The things they have in their past make them violent. It won’t shock anyone when he falls into a flashback and kills you, and then himself.”

Nausea hit me in a wave. He’d make it look that way. “You can’t make all of Resting Warrior disappear and make it look like an accident. That’s not possible.”

“That’s my problem. Yours is going to be helping me get them here.”

There was absolutely no way in fucking hell I was going to do that. If anything, I would tell Noah to run away and get out. Protect everyone at the ranch. Simon didn’t think I was worth more than his organization, but I knew that my life wasn’t worth everyone at the ranch.

“I can help you in a different way,” I said quickly. “You won’t have to rebuild your business. I can make that happen.”

The only sign he’d heard me was a single arched eyebrow.

“It wasn’t my plan to fuck up your business,” I lied. “I was just trying to help my brother. But this can help you. I promise. I own a business that house-sits for people.”

Simon scoffed. “House-sits?”

“Yes. People who go on vacation or people who have summer or winter homes here. There are tons of empty houses all across the state. They wouldn’t be good for the fighting, but for that—” I nodded toward the open door where they were packaging what looked like cocaine. “It would be good for that. We’d clean up and make it look like no one was ever there. You’d be ghosts.”

He glanced at one of the men near the door. “Look it up.”

In the darkness of the room, the screen of his phone shone bright on his face. He flicked through a couple of pages and turned the screen to me. “This it?”

The home page of my website was on the screen. “Yes.”

He handed the phone to Simon, and I watched him click through the website. There wasn’t any positive or negative reaction from him, just assessment. Finally, he looked up and handed the phone back to his man. “Interesting.”

I swallowed, not sure what interesting meant in this context.

“You seem to think you’re in some kind of position to negotiate with me. I’m not sure why. Maybe because Max bargained with you when he didn’t have the right. Let me set the record straight.” Simon cleared his throat. “You and Noah Scott have put me in an impossible situation. The kind that can’t be solved by offering me short-term stays in empty houses, as useful as that may be for someone with a business like mine.

“I’m willing to let you live if you help me take care of the problem. But you are going to help me fix it, whether or not that help is voluntary.”

He nodded at the two guys, and they came for me. It took a minute to untie me from the chair, but there was no chance to run or gain any advantage—not that I would have made it more than a few steps.

Together they marched me across the space, and as soon as I realized where I was going, I fought. They were going to put me in a cage. With the other girl who was already there. Being tied to a chair was one thing. The cage made it so much more real. Too fucking real. I wouldn’t go in there willingly.

Pain exploded through my side as the man holding me shoved me against the bars of another cage, close to a dog that was cowering against the back wall. “Stop it,” he said.

“No!”

The other man had gotten the cage unlocked, and I unleashed everything I had as they pushed me down and shoved. I collided with flesh and metal. It was going to hurt later, and it didn’t matter. What did bruises matter if they were going to kill me anyway?

It was too much. They were too strong, shoving me hard enough that I went flying into the back bars, dazed. It was enough time to get the cage locked, curse at me, and spit for good measure. My head ached and my vision spun.

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