Page 83 of Montana Freedom

Moving to the other side, I gasped in shock, this time trying to keep myself quiet. The strap was loose, having been looped lower, in a recess I couldn’t see. The cage was free. Now, what could I do with it?

Slowly, I maneuvered myself into a crouching position, using my feet below the bottom bars. Fuck, the cage was heavy, but I was able to move it. The sound of driving covered the slow scraping of my movement, and I kept going until I was pressed up against the doors. I tried the door, but it was predictably locked. Part of me had hoped they’d forgotten since I was unconscious. Too much to hope for, it seemed.

I moved again, shuffling until the edge to the cage tilted into the door well. When we stopped, maybe I could use my momentum when the doors opened to break the cage and take them by surprise. It was another long shot, but everything was a long shot now.

Sitting back, I finally let myself rest. My head still ached, and my fingers were raw. I tucked them under my arms, trying to apply some pressure to them.

It was definitely getting darker in the van. My stomach was starting to grumble. How far were we going?

I didn’t know whether to wish for the drive to stop or for it to keep going indefinitely to give Daniel a chance to do whatever he was doing. Because he would be doing something. He’d saved my life three times, and he would try again.

As if I’d conjured it out of the air, the van angled, turning around a huge corner like an off-ramp. The cage slid with the momentum but not too much.

New nerves spiked in my chest. Were we almost there? My whole body went cold. I could be brave all I wanted in my head, but the reality of facing death was terrifying.

The van kept moving, still on smooth roads for a while, and I got drowsy. Lulled by my stillness and the exhaustion of adrenaline.

A sharp turn had the van on rougher terrain, which felt like a dirt road. It rumbled, but the van didn’t seem to slow down at all. A bump tossed me, jostling both my body and the cage, thanks to their speed.

My heart was in my throat, and my hands shook. If they were speeding up, we might be closer to our destination…and Simon.

Pain slammed into my head. I was in the air and not sure how I got there, crashing into the bars as the cage left the floor. Ahugebump. That’s what it was. A pothole or big dip in the road.

Another one, along with a turn, tossed the cage backward toward the front, and I crashed into the bars again, a smallcrunchnotable in my shoulder.

“Fuck,” I groaned the single word, already knowing the bars would leave bruises.

Reaching back under my shirt, I felt for the tracker and peeled it off my skin. In the dimming light, it was clear the disk was shattered, broken by my impact against the bars.

“Fuck,” I said the word again. My stomach dropped down to the ground. We were still driving, and the tracker was gone. Daniel had no way of finding me now.

Tears flooded my eyes, and I blinked them back.

No. He could still find me. There had to be a way. I wasn’t going to give up hope now. Not when I’d realized how much he meant to me. If I was going to die, I was going to die with hope until the very last second.

I got the cage back against the doors again and waited.

It wasn’t long this time until the van slowed and finally stopped. The front doors to the van opened, and I readied myself. The lock ground open, and as soon as I heard the handle pop, I hurled myself at the front of the cage, bursting out of the doors to curses and shouts, landing on the feet of the man who’d opened them.

Blood was on my tongue where I’d been jostled and had bitten the inside of my mouth. I shoved against the cage, but it hadn’t broken. There hadn’t been enough force behind it.

“Youbitch,” the man yelled, kicking at the cage.

The bars were too close for his foot to make it all the way through. Small favors.

There was still light in the sky, so I could see the men above me. I remembered them. They’d been at the house and had seen me in this cage once before.

Another kick clanged against the bars. “I don’t often say I’m going to enjoy grave-digging duty, but I think I might with you.”

I simply moved, making myself as comfortable as I could, ready for whatever came next.

“Nothing to say? Probably for the best.” I heard the rough metal sound of a gun being drawn, and I closed my eyes.

The sound was so loud, I couldn’t hear anything. My ears rang, and I was dizzy. But I wasn’t dead. I was still here and breathing.

Beside the cage, the man who had kicked it fell to the ground. I’d seen enough death in my month of captivity to know he was gone. The way he hit the ground told me that.

“I thought my instructions were very clear,” a voice said. “Bring her to me, and no one touches her. She’ll die, but I’ll do it in my own way and in my own time.”

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