Page 84 of Montana Freedom

Turning as best I could, I saw Simon with his arm outstretched, gun still pointed where the man had stood. “Hello, Emma.”

I swallowed. “Hi, Dad.”

Chapter28

Daniel

The chopper was loud even through the headset I had on, and the sun was setting outside.

Landing at Resting Warrior had been an experience. We hadn’t thought to include a helipad on the ranch, though we had plenty of room. Grant and Harlan were there waiting with all the equipment, and now I was fitted into a bulletproof vest, watching the screen as the tracker kept speeding east.

Agent Jones was safely in the hands of Charlie in the Garnet Bend jail. Grant had called him, and I was eternally grateful I didn’t have to hear that conversation. I couldn’t imagine that going well.

I knew how lucky we were that Emma hadn’t reached her destination yet. Every passing minute felt like an hour, my mind constantly trying to drag me down into the guilt and fear I couldn’t shake.

It was my fault; at least, that’s what my emotions kept trying to tell me. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t, but it was hard to push logic to the front and emotions to the side. Regardless of who was to blame, we were going to try to save her.

We were catching up, but not fast enough for me. Anything could happen between here and there.

Please, I begged.Keep driving.

“The Seattle field office has a team on a flight to Billings,” Phillips said. “And they’re scrambling SWAT to get wherever the tracker ends up, but it’s hard to make a plan when we don’t know where we’re going.”

“Tell me about it.”

And then there were all the elements we weren’t mentioning. Almost every single factor was an unknown. Simon had nearly unlimited resources, and he knew how to use them. I was hoping because he was underground that the crew he was keeping around him was small, but it wasn’t a guarantee.

On the screen in front of me, the tracker turned, leaving the highway.

“Shit.” I kept the word under my breath, but the mic picked it up anyway.

“What?” Jude asked.

“It’s turning off the highway.”

The others were talking, but all I could do was watch that dot, following as it turned off and drove north for a while.Hold on, Emma.

I shoved down the unthinkable question of whether I was only following her body.

Fuck.

“This is helpful. We can give them a direction.”

“It’s not enough,” I said. “It’s not—”

On the screen, the tracker’s dot went out.

I sank forward, heart skipping a beat and stomach falling all the way down to the ground below us. “No.”

“Daniel?”

I couldn’t stop staring at the screen. The tracker was gone. Broken. What did that mean?

Noah took the phone from me and showed the others.

“It’s not a tracker connected to vital signs,” Jude pointed out. “They might have found it.”

“You know what it means if they did,” I said. “They’re searching her. They’re—” Stopping, I let myself sink into the mission. “The tracker was still moving when it went out. They’re still driving, and we don’t have a way to find them.”

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