Page 87 of Montana Freedom

Yanking open the door in front of us, he shoved me inside. “Disappearing doesn’t do me any good if I can’t use my resources, Emma. What those Resting Warrior bastards did was shine a spotlight on me after I’d been invisible for years. You did it too. Do you haveanyidea how much I’ve had to restructure just to keep things afloat?”

I looked at him, making it clear with my face I didn’t give a rat’s ass how much of his illegal drug and gun business he’d had to restructure.

Simon nodded, and the brute following us grabbed my hands, spinning me and snapping handcuffs around them as he glared at me. I didn’t fight him—there wasn’t any point. He marched me into a huge empty room, one wall lined with cages, and shoved me into another one. “You really have a thing for cages, you know that?”

Simon looked at me. “You know what they did?”

All I did was stare at him. The longer I was here with him and alive, the closer I was coming to the moment when he decided keeping me alive was no longer worth it.

“They started a war. Your boyfriend and the toy soldiers. Now the ball is in my court, and you’re helping with that move. That’s all you need to know.”

“So, you’re going to fight a war? Until what? Until you die?”

“If I have to.” The statement was so casual and carefree, I believed him. He started to walk away. “And if I die, it will keep going. I’ve built an empire that will be very hard to destroy.”

“Mom was right about you.” I startled, unsure why those words had come out of my mouth.

Simon whirled. “What did you just say?”

With all the fear and panic swirling around inside me, I wanted to make him feel something. Anything but the casual arrogance of inevitable victory. These were things I hadn’t told him, because at the time, I’d been so relieved, I hadn’t cared. “Mom was right about you. She told me not to contact you. She told me you weren’t worth it and I should stay away. Then she died, I was alone, and all I wanted was a parent. Instead, I got you.”

Rage cracked over his face, and he took three steps toward me, knuckles white on his gun. “That’s fine, Emma. You’re right. I’m not a good father, and you’re not a good daughter. We’re quite the pair. I’ll make sure your grave has one hell of a view.”

He turned again and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving me with the brute.

I blew out a shaky breath and tilted my head back, resting my eyes for a second. Alive. I was alive. I hadn’t expected to be.

The problem was Simon knew about the tracker, but he didn’t seem to know the tracker was now broken. Daniel and the cavalry would be trying to locate me, but would they find me in time? And once they got here, what would they be walking into?

Simon was gearing up to throw a grenade, and he didn’t hold back. He already had no respect for human life. If he thought this was a war, he would care even less.

What could I do?

I closed my eyes and ran through my memory. I couldn’t do anything now to help Daniel. All I could do was rest here and make sure I had enough energy to make a move when the time came.

And it would come.

I had one single memory I was holding on to. I needed to make plans in case I could use them. It was a stroke of luck they’d handcuffed me with my hands in front of me. That meant I could use them. And reach what I needed.

Making myself as comfortable as I could, I settled in to wait and quietly prepare.

Chapter30

Daniel

It was fully dark now, and I was losing my mind.

Two miles away from the place where we thought Simon was, we were gathered. Phillips, all of us from Resting Warrior, and local police who’d been redirected here. The FBI was still on their way—landing right now with an imported SWAT team—but the closest airport was a tiny one, still half an hour away. We’d already waited long enough. I wasn’t going to delay anymore.

“We should wait, Daniel,” Phillips said. “We don’t know what’s going on in there.”

“No, we don’t. But she could be dying. He could be torturing her. She could already be dead. We can’t—”

“That’s right,” he snapped. “She could already be dead.”

Everything around us went silent at his outburst. Phillips stepped closer.

“Believe me when I say I hope Emma is okay. But she’s been here for two hours. If she’s already dead, there’s nothing we can do about it. I hope to god she’s alive. But if she’s not, I don’t want to lose more people because we went in before we were ready.”

---