Page 77 of Montana Freedom

“Mr. Clark, my name is Special Agent Joshua Powell. Please tell me what you told Special Agent Knight.”

I did tell him. Only this time, I added detail as quickly as I could. “Please. I understand this isn’t conventional, and I know I’m a civilian, but Miss Derine’s life is in danger. You and I both know he won’t hesitate. And if he does, it won’t be out of the kindness of his heart.”

“No, it won’t. And you’re correct, the circumstances warrant an ease in protocol, because today’s operation is not something we’re aware of. The last we heard from Agent Jones, he and Agent Phillips were going to watch and observe, using the information both you and Miss Derine gave us in an attempt to find a more solid location for Simon’s whereabouts. I heard nothing else. Not about witness protection or an attempt to use her information as bait—which we never would have approved.”

“He said the answer was no operational support for today’s activity because you needed more information.”

“Yeah, well, it’s no operational support because no one over here knows fuck-all about what’s happening. It doesn’t help you now, but we’ll get to the bottom of this. Here’s my direct number. Keep me updated, and tell me what we can do. Not much I can from this far away, but if there is something, we’ll do it.”

“Any idea which of these guys is the mastermind here?”

Agent Powell’s voice was dark. “Believe me, I wish I had one. Be careful, Mr. Clark.”

The warning wasn’t much use now, but it was a relief to know it was one or two rogue agents and not the entire FBI acting against us.

Nerves twisted in my gut. Just days ago, I had been glad the entire thing was resting on the shoulders of the FBI, and now it wasn’t. It lay with us once again. Everyone would help, and I was going to take the help so I could save Emma, but I felt sick deep inside too. If they got hurt trying to help me…

It would haunt me forever.

“I’ll call you back,” I said, hanging up the phone. “It’s not them. They don’t even know what we’re doing here. They’re completely in the dark and were told these guys were looking for more information based on our Seattle visit. I have no idea if it’s either or both of them. But my money is on—”

“That guy?” Noah nodded at the van. “Yeah. Me too.”

“How do we do this?” Liam asked.

Jude pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Grant and Harlan. Maybe they can be our eyes from the ranch, and if Emma’s heading east, maybe there’s a chance for an intercept.”

“I don’t know how we do it,” I said. “I have absolutely no fucking idea, and I can barely think straight as it is.” My voice was quiet and even, trying not to send up alarms to Phillips or anyone who might be walking by. But with every minute that passed, Emma was getting farther and farther away from me, and it was becoming harder to hear over the alarm sirens in my head.

“Force Phillips to reach out to Emma,” Noah said, looking at me. He was calm too, but I saw the determination in his gaze. He’d been here too, when Simon had Kate. He knew what was going on in my head and what to do to get me out of it. I needed points of action.

“She’s been taken, and her communication transmitter is gone. We don’t know how long she’s been in motion, but demanding he make contact either forces them to lie or makes one of them realize what the other is doing. I’m not sure we can make more of a plan without their reaction.”

I looked down on my phone, the blinking dot moving steadily east. My mind had seen too many bad things, and it was currently filling in all the blanks I didn’t know with the worst possibilities of what she could be going through. Nothing about the thoughts was going to help me, but I couldn’t seem to banish them from my mind.

Jude stepped back into our circle. “Daniel, let me see your phone.”

Without question, I handed it to him. “What are you doing?”

“Sending the tracking signal to Grant and Harlan so they can keep an eye on it from the security office. You’re going to want up-to-the-minute information, and I already know you can’t have your eyes glued to the screen every second. Not if we want to help her.”

“Right.” My mind spun the tape through to the end. “Fuck, it’s been more than an hour. If he’s anywhere in the state—anywhere close, we’re going to be way too late.”

Too late. I was always too late when I needed to be there. How had I not seen this coming? Why had I not been able to follow the signs? Again.

“Daniel,” Liam said quietly, and the tone in his voice made me look at him. “Stop. If you focus on that, it’s only going to slow you down. Don’t bother trouble before it finds you. Focus on getting to her. Do not worry about being late. It will delay every thought by three seconds, and that is time you don’t have to waste.”

The words snapped through me like an order. He was right. The only way to get through this was to act like I didn’t feel as if my heart had just been ripped out of my chest.

“Let’s do this. I want to know why they thought they could get away with this, and how they managed to do it with everyone watching.”

As if I’d summoned him, Agent Jones pulled up in his other van and got out with a grim look on his face. It was an act, but he didn’t know we were aware.

It was time for one or both of them to tell the truth.

Chapter25

Emma

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