Page 70 of Montana Rain

I swallowed, head spinning. This was moving so fast, and all I could think about was whether Mom and Ava were okay. Were they in pain? Were they being tortured? Hopefully not since we hadn’t told them no.

“Assume they’ll be in touch,” Daniel said, and Cole nodded. He probably knew all of this, but they were saying it for my benefit. “Go back to the hotel and wait. We’ll have someone come to you with the flash drive. Room number?”

Cole gave them the hotel address and the room number. “They can be trusted?”

“They can. But if you want to take extra steps?”

“Yes,” Cole said. “Do it. We’ll be ready for you.”

Jude cleared his throat. “Less than an hour if we can make it work. Absolutely no more than two.”

“Got it.”

Cole hung up, and I stared at him. “Extra steps?”

“We can’t have someone walk into the hotel and go straight up to our room. They said they’re watching, and we don’t know what that means or whether they have people with current access to the security footage. The guys will have it put in something for room service. Or maintenance. Whatever will raise the least suspicion.”

I took in one slow breath through my nose. “What if they know?”

Pressing his forehead to mine, he closed his eyes. “We’ll pray they don’t. This is the only option we have, Rayne. And I promise you, I promise you, we’re going to do everything we can to get your mother and sister back, okay?”

Never in my life had I been this afraid. Not when there was the man in my house, and not when we hid behind the rocks. Not even when Ava fell out of the tree and we waited to see what kind of damage had been done to her body.

“Do you believe me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

I did believe him. Cole had followed through on everything he’d said he would do. Including back when we were dealing with Simon and the Riders. Had he gone about it the wrong way? Yes. But Emma and Daniel were here because of him. They had a child because of him. He protected me and saved me, and he was doing everything he could to hold me together right now. I believed him.

“Call the driver. He can’t know anything’s wrong.”

Nodding, I called him and told him our visit had been shorter than expected. No signs of suspicion. He would be here in five minutes.

“Look at me,” Cole said gently. With infinite tenderness, he wiped my tears away from under my eyes with his thumbs. Then the rest of my face.

“Am I a mess?”

He shook his head. “No. You’re not. You’ve never been a mess, Rayne, and you’re not now. Feeling fear and emotion isn’t being a mess—it’s being human. You’re okay. And as soon as we’re back in the hotel, you can fall apart for as long as you need to.”

I leaned on his shoulder and followed his lead into the car, not saying anything. If I opened my mouth, I might crumble, and lives depended on my not doing that. Once we were in the hotel, I could fall apart.

At least, until we had to leave.

Hold on, I prayed the words, sending them toward wherever Mom and Ava were. We’re coming.

Chapter 29

Cole

Almost an hour after we got back to the hotel, we heard a knock on the door from room service. A handsome, dark-skinned man stood outside the door with a tray. A container of coffee and what looked like a spread of fruit and chocolate.

He had the look I recognized—ex-military or current military. The way he held himself, alert and ready, this guy knew what he was doing. The warrior in me recognized the warrior in him.

“You ordered room service?”

“We did, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” His eyes flicked down to the napkin on the tray, and he nodded as I took it from him.

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