Page 82 of Montana Silence

My voice was gone when I needed it most.

Neil smiled. “Get in the fucking car, Mara.”

Chapter26

Liam

“Please, you have to find her,”Brynn said, eyes full of tears as her hands were cuffed behind her back. The police at the courthouse took her into custody as an accessory. Because she was right.

Claire and Mara had never shown up at the announcement. Malcolm was already on his way back to prison to complete his sentence without parole, and it didn’t fucking matter, because Marawasn’t here.

Everyone at the ranch knew, because I’d called them, nearly screaming. Now my mind was a deadly silent place. Malcolm was irrelevant. He was in custody. Brynn didn’t know where Neil was, only that Claire was delivering Mara to him, and they were going to The Family’s compound.

Out of the country.

Terror gripped my entire body.

If they got her across the border, she was gone. Everything changed once you left the US. Anything could happen, and you couldn’t rely on government support or swiftness. And if they were smart, they’d set up camp in a country without extradition.

“Liam, you need to help her,” Brynn called. They pulled her away, and I watched her leave, frozen to the spot. I was going to help Mara, but I didn’t know where she was.

My phone buzzed, and I answered it. “Yeah.”

“We have eyes on the lawyer’s car,” Jude said. My mind snapped into focus, and I began to move. The cops at the courthouse wanted me to wait and give a statement.

Fuck that.

I wasn’t waiting. Every second away from Mara was another second closer to losing her forever, and I wasn’t letting that happen.

Her lawyer. They got to her fuckinglawyer.

“Where?” I was already in motion, ducking past the chaos of people trying to figure out why a lawyer and witness were missing. But they weren’t going to find them.

“South on seventeen,” Jude said. “Moving fast. Looks like they’re going to run into the ten.”

The ten, which ran half the way to Mexico. “Daniel,” I said.

“We know,” Daniel said. “We’re going to do everything we can to help you from here. Start driving, and I don’t care how many traffic laws you break, I’m already on it. Get to her.”

I slid into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine. Thankfully, the mechanic, Dave, had left me with a full tank of gas in the new car.

My phone buzzed with a text. “Fuck,” I breathed the word.

“What?”

I swallowed, pain in my throat. “It’s a text from Mara.”

Only one word.

HELP.

“She texted for help.” My voice sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass.

“Liam,drive,” Daniel ordered.

I did. Throwing the car into gear, I burned rubber leaving the parking lot and left honking horns in my wake. As long as I didn’t cause any accidents, I wasn’t slowing down, and I wasn’t stopping for anything.

“What do we know?” I snapped. “Anything on this Neil guy?”

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