Page 32 of Montana Rain

“I’m sorry, Rayne,” Lucas said. “I want you to stay.”

“No,” she said. “I get it. I can barely live with myself, thinking about Susan White dying when it could have been prevented. If it were one of you? I couldn’t survive it.”

Given everything that had happened tonight, I didn’t know how Rayne would take the next words out of my mouth. But there weren’t many options, and I wasn’t going to let her stay at a fucking hotel unless I was staying with her.

“My cabin is off the grid. Not only that, but the owner is a paranoid guy. The basement is a prepper shelter, and I’ve been instructed very explicitly not to touch it.” Jude smiled before letting it fall. “Rayne can stay with me until we figure out where everyone stands. The mafia has a location, and we clearly can’t send those files to the FBI without taking out their servers. We need to make contact with them quietly.”

“That, we can do,” Daniel said.

“Thank you. I’m too high on their shit list to make that kind of contact ‘quiet,’ and they don’t trust me enough to take me at my word. But you? Hell, I think they’d bend over backward to make you happy.”

Jude took the flash drive and plugged it back into the computer. “Don’t worry, I’ve put protections in place now. This is fine. Just want to check something.”

Rayne stared at me. “I can’t stay with you.”

I met her gaze head on. “Why not?”

“Does this ‘off-the-grid’ cabin have Wi-Fi? I still have clients I need to see.”

“I think your clients would understand missing a session since you’re being hunted by the literal mafia, but yes, the cabin has Wi-Fi. But you won’t be using it.”

She opened her mouth, and I held out a hand. “You want to stay off the grid? You’re not online, Rayne. We can use my phone to check in, and the cabin has more than one radio.”

“I can drive down to Missoula and stay in a hotel,” she said. “Pay in cash.”

“Like hell.”

Fire blazed in her eyes as she stood. “Are you seriously telling me what I can and cannot do right now?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jude doing something on the computer, but I said nothing about it. Instead, I focused on the glorious, fiery woman in front of me. For the first time tonight, I’d seen the real Rayne, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my face.

“Yes, Rayne. I am telling you what to do. Because in spite of the fact of making everyone here uncomfortable, I’m still an FBI agent, and I do know a thing or two about protecting people.”

“I don’t need your help.”

Her tone didn’t sound that way, but I needed her to do this. “Outside for a second.” I gestured out of the security office door.

“Anything you need to say, you can say in front of them.”

“Rayne,” I sighed. “Please.”

She crossed her arms and stormed past me. I gave the others an awkward smile as I followed her out and shut the door.

“Is this the point in the conversation where you lord your status over me again and insist that I need you? Because I’m not dumb, Cole. I might not have experience in fleeing the mob, but I can handle myself.”

I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. “I never said you couldn’t.”

“Then why—”

“Why did you call me?” I asked. “Earlier? You could have called the police first or Daniel, Jude, Lucas. Hell, you could have called Lena first, but you didn’t. You called me.”

Rayne stared straight through my chest. “I don’t know why.”

“Do you trust me?”

Her eyes lifted to mine. “Yes.”

“Do you think I’m asking you to come with me under some guise to…I don’t know…turn you over to the people who want to hurt you?”

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