Page 71 of Montana Rain

I shut the door and placed the tray on the desk. Rayne was in the bathroom washing her face. She’d fallen apart when we came back, and I didn’t blame her. This was her worst fear, and if anything happened to her mother or sister, it would lock that fear and devastation into her for the rest of her life.

The napkin held the flash drive. It looked nearly identical to the first one, and I hoped that whoever we were about to turn it over to didn’t have the feel and weight of the other one memorized.

Rayne came out of the bathroom, her eyes red but dry. I held up the flash drive. “Got it.”

“Okay.”

I pulled her against me again, unable to stand the look of pain on her face. God, I was so fucking in love with this woman I couldn’t breathe. But this wasn’t the time to tell her. She was already going through so much. Adding the expectation of a first “I love you,” right now? No.

When I told her I loved her, I wanted it to be with nothing else in between us.

“You ready to go?” I asked quietly.

“Do I need anything special to go on a clandestine kidnapping exchange?”

I smiled into her hair. “No. We’ve got the flash drive.” I tucked the small device into the back pocket of her jeans. “So, you’re ready to go.”

“Then let’s get this over with,” she said. “I just want it to be done.”

“Me too.” I tilted her face up to mine and kissed her. “You’re incredible.”

“I don’t feel incredible.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re not.”

We had our phones and the drive. I pulled the hotel door closed behind us. This was one of the hotels that spanned an entire block, so it was easy to go out the back of the hotel and avoid the Bureau protection we’d been assigned. He relied on us to tell him when we were going anywhere, so I wasn’t concerned.

Rayne’s hand in mine, I hailed a cab. I had already looked up where we needed to go, and I’d picked an address near to it so we could get out and walk. Getting an innocent cab driver to drop you off at the exact location of a clandestine exchange was asking for trouble.

I opened the door to the cab for Rayne, and across the street, I saw the man who’d delivered the flash drive to us. You wouldn’t think anything of it passing by him, just leaning against one of the buildings, scrolling on his phone. Maybe waiting for a friend, maybe looking for directions.

Making sure not to stare at him, I helped Rayne into the car, and the man and I made eye contact briefly. What he could do for us now, I didn’t know, but I felt better having an ally, however flimsy.

We gave the intersection address to the driver, and he took off. Rayne was quiet. What could we talk about other than what we were about to do? And we couldn’t say anything in front of the driver.

Rayne kept biting her bottom lip, a sure sign of her nerves. I was just as anxious as she was, but I didn’t show it. She needed me to be the steady one right now. When this was over—and it would be over—I would spend time telling her about my fears, so she understood I wasn’t unaffected by this.

“Tell me about Rudy’s,” I said, by way of distraction.

She startled, shaking her head out of the fog of thoughts. “Um, it’s one of those places where you go in and order at the counter and then pick up the food. The big one in the city has all kinds of arcade games and pool tables. But they make a really good burger. You would like it.”

“I’m sure I would.” I squeezed her hand.

The cab pulled up to the corner where we’d asked, a few blocks away from the construction site we were headed to.

I paid the driver, and Rayne wiped the sweat off her hands on her jeans, checking her back pocket.

My phone chimed. I pulled it out to turn it off and saw it was a text from Jared Warwick, my acquaintance at the Seattle field office.

Heard you’re in the clear. You looking to come back here?

If you are, let me know. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.

I couldn’t even think about that right now, given we were about to walk into an abandoned building to meet with Thomas Peretti’s men.

A thought slipped into my head. We knew where Thomas Peretti’s men were. They were going to meet us. We had a copy of the files they wanted. It would be so easy to get these assholes arrested with evidence in their hands.

Handing over these kinds of people would secure my position at the Bureau for years to come—and hand me one hell of a career. No matter what had happened in the past, it would bump me on to the fast track for other things.

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