Page 91 of Montana Mystery

His hand landed on my shoulder. “Don’t fucking start with me, and don’t go there. You know I have your back. No matter what. If you go in, I’m coming with you. I’m just asking you to step back for a second. We can’t win this. And going in now will only get us killed. That doesn’t help Kate.”

Frustration itched under my skin with the need to move. I needed to get in there and get to her.

“Hear me out,” Liam said quietly. “And if you don’t like the plan, then we’ll go in, okay?”

I didn’t say anything. That was about as much as I could promise at the moment. It felt like I was the gun and my body was waiting for my mind to pull the trigger.

“It’s almost dark. The others and the fire department will take care of things, and then they’ll be back. We’ll have more people, and better odds. Plus, darkness will help with the element of surprise. There’s a reason we work as a team.”

He was right, and I knew it. That didn’t make it any easier.

Liam pulled his phone out of his pocket. It was Daniel. “Yeah?”

A long silence as he listened. Then his body sagged in relief. “Thank fuck. Yeah, we’re here. We have a position and we’ll hold it as long as we can. Just get here, okay?” He ended the call.

“It’s okay?”

“Lena came, and the girls got all the animals safe. Helped the fire department get everything under control. There’s damage, but it’s repairable. None of the guys even got to the ranch before they were called off.”

It wasn’t funny, but I blew out a relieved laugh. The Resting Warrior women were warriors the same as the rest of us, proven time and time again. “Well, that’s good. It won’t take them as long to get here.”

This time it was my phone that lit up, buzzing in my pocket. It wasn’t a number that I recognized. Turning the volume down, I put it on speaker. “Hello?”

Interminable silence was on the other end of the line before I heard it. Her voice. “Noah.”

My body shook, the relief of hearing her alive. After they’d shot Brandon, I’d been afraid of the worst and hadn’t wanted to admit it. “Kate.” By some miracle, my voice was steady. “Are you all right?”

Nothing.

“Where are you?”

She didn’t answer the question. Which either meant that she wasn’t all right or there was something else more important than the question.

“That doesn’t matter. Tell me where you are. I’m going to come get you.”

Liam looked at me, giving me a slow thumbs-up. Don’t give away where we are or that we’re close.

Finally, she spoke again. “I’m not sure.”

I took a breath and closed my eyes. “Kate, let me talk to him.”

Another too-full silence.

“Noah Scott.” A smooth, cold voice.

“You got me.”

“Not yet I don’t. But I will. Kate here is very loyal. She doesn’t want you to come get her, knowing that I’ll kill you when you do. However, I think that we both know that you’re going to come get her no matter what.”

I said nothing. I wanted to keep him talking as long as possible. At this point, stringing out the time was important. Every second we could get until backup arrived was valuable.

“So I’ll do you a favor and even give you a little incentive.”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ll tell you exactly where we are.” He rattled off the address we were currently looking at. “I offered Kate her life to help me bring you to me, but she said no. If you hurry, I’ll let you say goodbye. Loose ends and all that.”

“If you touch her—”

---