Page 35 of Montana Freedom

While she was gone, I tried to relax. When they’d seen the wall, they’d thought I was crazy. It was why I hadn’t told anyone at Resting Warrior about it. I knew how it looked. But no matter how worthless the information might be now, I wasn’t going to write everything down for anyone to find.

A few minutes later, Agent Knight came in, followed by a slim man with a camera on a tripod. “Can I get you anything, Ms. Derine? Coffee? Water?”

“Water would be nice.”

She reappeared with a bottle a few minutes later. The change in tone was immediate. Before, she hadn’t been unkind, but knowing I was suddenly a gold mine of information made me a person of value in her eyes.

I tried to push the thought aside, but I couldn’t quite manage it, because it was always the same. I was always a resource. Never an individual. Daniel was the only one who really treated me like a person. The rest of the people at Resting Warrior too.

“If it’s all right,” Agent Knight said, “let’s start at the beginning.”

Sighing, I took a sip of the water and watched the blinking light on the camera. This was going to take a while.

* * *

My mind was a puddle, and I wasn’t even finished.

They really did wanteverything.

When it came time for everyone to go home for the day, they didn’t want to leave. But I was exhausted. Still, when Daniel asked if I wanted to find something to eat, I said yes.

Now we were wandering in a place called Pike Place Market among approximately a thousand people just like us. Tourists and locals. There were amazing smells and sounds, but it was all overwhelming. I couldn’t focus on any of it.

It seemed a shame to come all the way to Seattle and just eat pizza, but it was all I could manage. Daniel, too, was quiet, leaving me to my thoughts until we finished eating and we went down and walked by the waterfront. The sun was finally setting, and the way the light spilled across the water was beautiful.

“Now that we’re away from the watchful eyes of Agent Phillips,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

I’d already told the story once, but he deserved to hear it now. “I never knew who my father was. My mother knew, but she never let me reach out. She passed when I was eighteen, of cancer.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” I leaned against the railing and sighed. “I found his information and contacted him. Honestly, it was like a dream. He wanted to be in my life. He gave me a home and paid for college. The perfect picture of a parent, and I never understood why my mother would keep me from such a kind man.”

Daniel leaned on the railing next to me, and I was distracted by his build—and the way the shirt he was wearing showed off that build.

“Having the memory I do, school was easy. Not always fun, but easy. Thank goodness, because I’m not smart.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I smiled and continued. “I’m not saying I’m stupid, because I’m not. But people always think just because I have perfect recall, I’m some sort of genius, and I’m not. I stared at the wall of evidence for six months and couldn’t put together anything about where Simon is or what he’s doing.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that. You may have perfect recall, but you don’t know if you had all the necessary pieces.”

“I know, but it’s still frustrating to feel like you should be able to figure something out and know someone smarter might be able to do it while you sit there and spin your wheels.” I looked out at the water. “Anyway, I went to school for computer science, and when I graduated, Simon hired me at his company. Ithoughthe ran a construction company.”

Daniel blew out a breath. “Smart. Owning property or being in and around abandoned or run-down houses wouldn’t seem strange for someone in construction.”

“Right. Exactly. One day, I had a question about something, and I went into his office, figuring the answer would be in a file. That’s when I found everything. All the real records were on paper. At first, I didn’t understand because all the hard copies were different from what I’d seen online.

“As soon as I understood what it was, I started looking at every piece of paper I could get my hands on so I could do this. Come to the authorities and tell them everything. All the stuff Simon had me doing was simply surface level. Things to make the company seem legit. And I couldn’t believe the man I’d known for five years could do that. But there wasn’t any denying it.”

A cool breeze came off the water, and I shivered, scooting a little closer to Daniel and his warmth. He didn’t move away.

“He caught me. I wasn’t fast enough, and then I was in the cage. Everything else I told you was true. He was planning to kill me and still is. When you rescued me, I ran to one of the locations I’d memorized as one of Simon’s safe houses. But to answer your question, I didn’t tell you because I was—” I took a breath. “Iamafraid.”

“Of what?” The words were soft, and I didn’t dare look at him.

“Of him finding me, of what you would think of me. And at the time, I didn’tknowyou like I do now. For obvious reasons, I find it hard to trust people. But I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve to be lied to.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

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