Page 14 of Montana Freedom

My hand went to my side, feeling the new bandage there. It still hurt like a bitch when I touched it, but it wasn’t quite as hot. An improvement, at least.

“Thank you.”

Daniel’s phone buzzed in his hand, and he smiled a little. “I’ll be right back. If you can stomach trying to remember, I have some questions I’d like to ask you?”

“Sure. I don’t know what good it will do, though.”

“That’s all right. We can still try.” He stood and left the room. Someone was out there, and their voices were low, but with the cracked door I could still hear them.

“She’s awake?” It was a second male voice.

“Yeah. Still clearly groggy. I don’t expect her to stay awake for long. Her body is exhausted.”

A sigh. “Have you asked her yet? About the—”

“About the Riders?” My whole body went still with fear, just the word causing all my senses to fire. “Not yet. She claims not to remember anything.”

“Do you believe her?”

I couldn’t see Daniel’s face, but a long silence followed the question. “I don’t have a reason not to. We have no idea what they did to her. If there was a trauma, her mind could have blocked it entirely. She said I can ask her questions, but if she really doesn’t remember anything…”

“Yeah.”

“Dinner’s here. Take a break for a minute and eat it. You’ve been sitting in here for hours.”

A shuffle of footsteps. “Hold on one second.”

I went limp, falling back onto the pillows and letting my eyes close. I evened my breathing and made it seem as if I was asleep.

The door closed softly, and the footsteps retreated. Now his voice was muffled. “I was right. She’s already out again. I guess food it is.”

I opened my eyes. He was bothered I didn’t remember him, and a small piece of my heart started to hope for all the wrong reasons. The one-in-a-million chance he’d been thinking about me the same way I’d been thinking about him.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Even if Daniel was a good man—and despite my dreams and them trying to take out Simon, I had no actual proof of that—I couldn’t stay here. Sure, this wasn’t a hospital, but being around any people at all was a risk. I’d given him my real name,andhe knew about the Riders.

It was too risky. It put my life in danger, and possibly theirs too.

Fuck.

I leaned my head back and shut my eyes for a second. Leaving was the last thing I wanted to do. Having someone take care of me and actually give a damn if I made it? That sounded nice.

Too bad I didn’t have room fornicein my life anymore.

Slowly, I looked around the room. It had a couple windows, and outside, the light told me the day was fading. There was still plenty of light left, but if I wanted to make it back to the cabin before it was pitch black outside, I needed to go now.

I reached for the needle in my arm and paused. Taking it out was not a good idea. I’d planned on taking the bag with me, but I didn’t have a way to put the needle back in. I’d have to make do.

My shirt was at the end of the bed. I slipped it on, being careful of the IV line. My shoes were still on, proving what Daniel had said was true—the shirt was the only part of me they touched.

Moving so slowly I felt like a sloth, I eased myself off the bed and unhooked the bags of fluids from the stand by the bed. At the very least, I would get the rest of these in me. Then I could try again at a different pharmacy. Or drive to a different town altogether.

My car.

Crap, I didn’t have my car. Not like the car wouldn’t make them notice me anyway. But it wasn’t enough to make me stop. These guys had had the police with them when they came for Simon. If they said my name in connection with the Riders in front of the police, questions might get asked about the car and me in the parking lot. Simon could already know I was here.

I’d figure out the car thing later.

Pain flared in my side as I moved, and I fought down the cry of distress that wanted to come out of my mouth. I needed to stay quiet. Only the low hum of voices came from the other room; anything more than a whisper, and they’d hear me.

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