Page 30 of Montana Freedom

Lucas nodded, and I agreed. We should tell them. “We’re familiar with them.”

The statement made them pause. Agent Jones looked at me closer. “You are?”

“I would have thought you would already have known. Everything was reported to you guys through our police chief. We were part of the raid that took them down. Or…made them pause, I guess. One of our employees had infiltrated their dog-fighting events in the course of helping a friend.”

Phillips crossed his arms. “I’m guessing you are the ‘independent ex-military assets’?”

“If that’s what they called us,” Lucas said, “then yeah.”

Liam smirked too. “I’m going to get it put on a business card.”

“We’re all SEALs,” I told them. “Former.”

That sent Phillips’s eyebrows rising. “I guess we do have something in common, then.”

Interesting.

Jones looked over at his partner. “We’re cleared to tell them.” Then he looked at me. “If you’re actually interested in helping to fully dismantle the Riders, then you need to tell us where Emma Derine is. Right now.”

“Why?” His tone made me bristle.

“Because Emma Derine is Simon Derine’s daughter. And he’s the leader of the Riders.”

My stomach plummeted through the floor. Both Liam and Lucas looked at me, and it was only years of training and practice that kept the shock off my face. No one we’d spoken to knew Simon’s last name. He’d just been “Simon,” and the moniker had enough power on its own.

Now I wondered if Emma had hidden her last name on purpose in case she thought we might know about the connection. She could have made up an identity if she was so worried about being found, but if she’d truly spent all this time in the cabin, she wouldn’t have had to worry about it.

“If Emma is still in contact with her father, and potentially helping him, it makes it very important for us to find her and question her.”

“She’s not.”

Agent Phillips smirked. Though I was a SEAL, I considered myself to be a nonviolent man unless the occasion called for it. The look on his face made me question my stance. “You think you know her well enough to tell? One of the most prolific arms and drug dealers in the northwest, and she didn’t learn anything from him? I find it unlikely.”

“And I’m telling you, the chances of her helping him are next to zero.”

“How do you know?” He tossed the accusation at me, and I kept my lips sealed. “Fine. You don’t leave me a choice. If you don’t tell us what you know and where to locate Emma Derine, I’ll have no choice but to arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

Liam scoffed. “Seriously?”

“For hindering an investigation to take down someone like Simon Derine and the Riders? Absolutely.”

I crossed my arms in an attempt to keep my hands from curling into fists. “Remember when I said you could speak to her when she came back? That offer still applies.”

“So do my handcuffs.”

“Phillips,” Agent Jones said quietly, but his partner ignored him, looking at me expectantly.

Fuck, I wished I could tell him I had no idea where she was. If I’d kept a hold on myself and my curiosity, I wouldn’t know. But if I lied and told them I didn’t know and they found out later, it could be worse for both her and me.

“Fine. The reason I hardly find it likely she’s helping Simon is because he had her locked in a fucking cage, and she told us he was planning to kill her and bury her once his operation moved. She disappeared the night of the raid. Said she spent the last few months in a cabin in the woods not far from here, and what I’ve seen confirms it. I know where the cabin is, but I haven’t gone in.”

“A cage?” Agent Jones asked. He looked sick.

“Yes. For more details, you’ll have to ask her. I’m not going to disrespect her more by telling you her story on her behalf. But if Simon is as bad as we both know he is, this can’t be a surprise.”

He shook his head. “It’s not, no. But hearing someone locked their own daughter in a cage is always shocking.”

In that, I agreed with him.

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