Page 77 of Montana Silence

I heard what he wasn’t saying. Our flights were the last ones that could get us to Missoula today, so unless we wanted to spend another night, this needed to be fixed. If there was one thing I knew, it was that both of us desperately wanted to be home. Arizona may have been my home for a long time, but it wasn’t anymore. Montana was my home.

Liamwas my home.

“Is it safe?” I asked.

His lips tightened into a line. “With Claire? Yes. Once you’re in the courthouse, they won’t touch you. No one will risk adding to Malcolm’s sentence or catching one of their own.”

And notably, none of the angry men who’d been with Malcolm last time were in the courtroom yesterday. I pulled out my phone and called Claire.

“Hello? Mara? Where are you?”

“Our car died at the hotel. Can you come get me?”

She didn’t even question it. “I’ll be right there.”

The line went dead.

“Okay. She’s coming.”

Liam still looked torn. “I should come with you. We can stay another night.”

“I want to go home,” I told him. “This is easy. It’s just listening to people talk. And you’re right, inside the courthouse, everything is fine. Malcolm can only do so much while he’s in handcuffs in a courthouse.”

One more long breath, and he nodded. “Don’t leave the courthouse without calling me,” he said. “I’m going to take care of this as quickly as possible.”

“Maybe we’ll be done before you are,” I said, leaning across the seat to kiss him. “I feel good. I promise.”

He caught me and kissed me hard, a wordless reminder of everything between us.

“There she is,” he said.

I looked over my shoulder. Claire had pulled up next to us. Reaching out, I tapped his hand three times. “See you soon.”

“I love you,” he told me.

My gut fluttered, and I was grinning like a fool as I slid into Claire’s car. “Sorry about this.”

“Hell of a way to start the day,” she smiled. “But things happen. Let’s just get there. I can’t wait to watch him go down.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Chapter24

Liam

Nothing I sawunder the hood made sense. It seemed like the car should be working, but itverydistinctly wasn’t.

Finally, I called the rental place. As much as the puzzle lover in me wanted to figure out what was wrong, I wanted to get this over with more. So Mara and I could go home and leave all of this behind. She would still struggle, and so would I, but we would have each other, and that was everything.

A car pulled up next to the rental, and the guy waved before he got out. “Hey. I’m Dave. Sorry about this.”

“Thank you for coming so quickly.”

He laughed. “Believe me, if there’s a problem with the car, they want it fixed fast. Turn her over for me?”

I slid back into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. It sputtered like it wastryingto start, but there was no life in it. If anything, it sounded like it was on its last legs.

“I took a look,” I said. “I do some tune-up work on trucks, and nothing stood out to me. I’m stumped.”

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