Page 25 of Montana Mystery

His gaze sharpened. “You want me to go visit your pissant brother in the hospital and ask him for an identity check? I’m sure he’ll be happy to see me.”

Okay, then. In my ear, Noah swore softly.

I took the envelope out of my jacket. “This is for the next two weeks,” I said.

He went for it, and I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I pulled it out of reach. “I want you to tell me this is for two weeks and you’re not going to show up next week claiming that I didn’t pay you.”

“If you question my word again, that’s exactly what I’ll do.” He snatched the envelope out of my hand.

“Careful, Kate,” Noah said in my ear.

While he flipped through the bills, counting them, I tried to get a really good look at him. His chest might as well be a barrel for how large it was. Medium skin and tattoos on his hands. More were creeping up from the collar of his dark shirt.

I memorized his features as best I could. If I needed to recount them, I wanted to be able to.

He closed the envelope and tapped it against his hand. “Well, it looks like your brother is off the hook... for now.”

The smirk on his face didn’t give me a lot of reassurance, but I wasn’t going to ask what that meant. In this situation, it was better to take the simple win rather than worry about anything else. We’d bought some time with these couple of weeks, and hopefully it would be over by then.

He moved, putting the envelope inside the pocket of his jacket. That single movement made the gun he was carrying crystal clear.

Don’t panic. He has no reason to use that on you. But the knowledge that he was armed and the Resting Warrior guys were not close enough to prevent a shot had my heart racing.

“It’s done, Kate,” Noah said in my ear. “You can leave.”

“You know,” the man said, “when I found out Brandon had a sister, I didn’t think anything about it since he’s an ugly fucker.” His laugh was rough, like a person who’d started smoking way too young and hadn’t stopped. “But now I wish I’d known about you from the beginning. Would have kicked him out in favor of his hot sister.”

He laughed again, but it wasn’t funny. Nausea swam in my gut. I gave him a tight smile. “We’ll text you for the next payment in two weeks.”

Stepping around him, I walked.

“Good,” Noah said. “Head toward the coffee shop so you can be around some people. We’ll watch him and get you out after.”

But the footsteps behind me told me everything I needed to know. I wasn’t getting out of this that easily. Speaking as softly as I could, I forced the words out quickly. “He’s following me.”

“Hey,” he called. “Wait up.”

“No thank you.”

“I said wait.” A hand grabbed my arm, yanking me to a stop so quickly I nearly fell. “Why are you in such a rush?”

I said nothing, pulling my arm out of his grip. Just because he wasn’t touching me didn’t mean this wasn’t a bad situation. We were still far enough away from Noah that it would be hard for him to intervene.

“I have places to be,” I said, managing to keep my voice far calmer than I felt.

“You didn’t even listen to my other offer,” he said with a grin. “Your brother’s debt—it could be paid off in other ways. Ways that I’m sure would be fantastic for both of us.”

The fact that I didn’t throw up right there and then was a miracle. He reached for me again and I took a step back. “No way in hell,” I said. “You have your money, as agreed. You’re going to let me walk away now, and you’re not going to follow me.”

I didn’t recognize the voice that came out of me. Whoever was speaking wasn’t afraid of this very large, armed man.

He smirked again, and I could practically read the thoughts on his face. There was no need to follow me when he already knew where I lived. “I’m sure I can convince you otherwise. I’m throwing a party tonight, and rumor has it, payment plans can be very... flexible for anyone who accepts an invitation.”

The emphasis made it clear what he meant.

“You already said it. No way in hell, Kate.” Noah’s voice. “Tell him no.”

This man was a part of the Riders. We wanted to take them down. How many times had Noah said we didn’t have enough information to do it? Even with Brandon providing details, there wasn’t enough. This was a perfect way to get more information.