Page 75 of Montana Freedom

I glanced down at the license plate on the van and just managed to disguise my whole body freezing as a stumble. It wasn’t the same. This wasn’t the van Phillips and Daniel were in.

“Are you all right?” Jones asked.

“I’m fine.”

The front of the van was facing me, the back facing the end of the alley farther down.

My memory kicked in. The street ahead of me led back toward therightvan. I could circle the block and use the alleys to get back to them. The entire map was in my head. I could do it.

When I glanced back, Agent Jones was smiling, and I didn’t trust that smile.

We circled the back of the van, and Agent Jones knocked on the door. The second he turned his back, I ran.

Agent Jones cursed behind me, and the van doors opened. I didn’t slow down. The heavy sound of his boots echoed down the alley behind me, and I put on as much speed as I could.

Get around the corner. Half a block. Get to people. All I needed was people. Then I could make my way to where I needed to go.

Skidding around the corner, I slammed into a wall. Not a wall, a body. Someone huge. I tried to spin off him and couldn’t.

“Don’t let her go!”

With terrifying clarity, I realized this was what he wanted. The van wasn’t the trap.Thiswas the trap.

Pain shattered through my skull, and the world went black.

Chapter24

Daniel

After the first comment about Phillips being Grumpy, we didn’t hear anything.

It had been too long. Not long enough to cause a full alarm, but long enough. Something was wrong. Every instinct I had screamed it.

I was here with the asshole who wouldn’t tell me shit if he thought things were fine, but restless energy slithered under my skin. Emma’s transmitter was voice-activated. We should have heard something by now, even if it was her talking by accident.

We hadn’t even heard her cough or breathe.

“I need some air.”

Not waiting for permission, I slipped out the back of the van and took out my phone. So far, I’d resisted looking at it, not wanting to let Phillips know I’d interfered in that way. But I needed to know she was fine and less than a mile away.

My woman had spent six months alone in a cabin. If anyone could spend this long in silence, it was her.

The app opened, and my stomach plummeted. The tracker wasn’t here. It was speeding away from us to the east. She was gone, and no one knew.

Fuck.

Fuck.

I should have listened to my instincts earlier than this and checked, regardless of what Phillips thought. She was still within reach, but at a speed that fast? Soon, she could be gone forever.

It was only years of training and missions that kept my mind in check. Already, my heart was pounding, and adrenaline was spiking through my system with the need to run and scream and panic. But I couldn’t do that. Emma needed me to be the leader and the man I was and get her back before her father had a chance to kill her.

And I needed to be that person myself because I needed her. In my life and in my bed. I could no longer pretend Emma wasn’t the best thing to ever happen to me, pulling me out of years of drowning in my own sorrow with no end in sight.

“Jude, Liam, Noah, can you come out here for a second?” I leaned my head into the van. “Sorry, Phillips. Ranch business. It’ll only be a minute.”

He looked at me, giving me the distinct impression he didn’t give a shit what I did. If I drove off back to Resting Warrior right now, he would not care.

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