Page 78 of Montana Freedom

Pain was the first thing to wake me. A sharp, pulsing ache in the back of my skull. I tried to move, and it only got worse, so I stopped.

The last minutes before everything went dark were bright in my mind. It was a trap for me, and Agent Jones was the one to spring it. I had no idea if Agent Phillips was in on it too, but it didn’t matter. The people who were supposed to be protecting me hadn’t.

I’d never been so grateful that I’d drawn the line about witness protection. I might not have ever made it to that new life, and if I’d let them take me, Daniel wouldn’t have even known I was gone. He’d think I was blissfully living in anonymity in whatever small town they dumped me in.

Now, I’d be lucky to get out of being dumped anywhere except a grave.

Focus, Emma.

The rumble and sound told me I was in a vehicle. I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, so I didn’t know what kind of vehicle. My money was on the van from the alley, but there was no way to tell yet. How long had I been unconscious?

Again, no solid way to tell. But I wasn’t hungry, and I didn’t have to use the bathroom, so it couldn’t have been too long. That was good. The faster I could get myself together, the more chance I had to survive.

And that was already a long shot.

At the other end of this drive, wherever we were going, Simon was waiting for me. And this time, he was going to put a bullet in my head and bury me in the shallow grave he promised. Who knew? Maybe he’d make it hurt first for talking to the FBI and giving them everything. Because if Agent Jones was a part of this, Simon knew everything.

Shit. He knew everything. Like where I’d been living and who had been helping me. He’d already promised to take revenge on Resting Warrior, and now he had more than one reason to do it.

No wonder he’d known I was at the wedding. They didn’t “use my name”; they told him where I was so he could kill me, and when that didn’t work…

Slowly, I dared to open my eyes.

My stomach dropped.

Bars marred my vision of the inside of a van. I was in a cage again. Dread slammed down on me like a weight trying to drag me to the bottom of the ocean. Of course he would put me in a cage. He could have put me in handcuffs. Or just tied me up. Hell, he could have injected me with a sedative to make sure I didn’t wake up until I got to him, but he put me in a cage. Because he wanted me to see it and know what was coming.

Bastard.

Movement hurt, but I needed to do it. Slowly, ever so slowly, I straightened out my body as much as I could in the cramped little box. The temptation to reach up and touch the place they’d hit me was strong, but I didn’t want to know if I was bleeding.

Blood made me panic, and I didn’t have any room for panic right now. Though, if I was honest with myself, I wasn’t going to be able to hold out against it for long.

The cage was against one wall of the truck and tall enough to sit up in. I wasn’t sure if it was the exact cage I’d been held in all that time, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Simon had a flair for the dramatic and a way of latching on to revenge. It wouldn’t shock me at all if he’d somehow gone back to the hellhole of a house he used as a base and recovered it if the police didn’t clear it out entirely.

Moving only as fast as the pain would allow, I tested the walls of the cage. The pounding in my head was getting easier the longer I was upright. It still hurt, but it wasn’t making me want to vomit.

Nothing moved.

Not even a wiggle.

Okay.

One deep breath in, and one deep breath out.

I saw nothing else in the van. Nothing I could reach or try to scoot the cage toward in order to help me break free.

All I had right now was my memory—the very thing he wanted to kill me for.

Suddenly I reached up, searching under my shirt for the small sticker on my skin. It was still there, and I hoped it was still working. There was a reason Daniel had put it there. He would be watching, and he would already know I was gone.

Traitorous, dangerous hope filled my chest.

All right, Emma.Think. Use the memories you have.

Daniel was coming. I had no doubt of that. If he knew I was gone and could get to me, he was going to try. All I had to do was stay alive long enough to let him.

I started from the beginning, when the two special agents showed up at the ranch, and I went through every interaction. Every word said and every nuance of their expressions. Nothing I remembered pointed to this being a setup. My recollection only revealed the things I already knew to be true. Agent Phillips was an asshole, Agent Jones was charming, and they wanted to take down Simon more than anyone, including me.