Page 80 of Montana Freedom
But that alone wasn’t going to fly. I followed him into the back of the van. “Phillips, I want you to check on her. Hear her talk. It’s been too long.”
Jones whirled and looked at me. “I let you come along for the ride, Mr. Clark, but I draw the line at you giving orders. We don’t break radio silence unless we have to.”
“And I’m telling you that Miss Derine wouldn’t simply be silent for over an hour. The transmitter is voice-activated. Do you really think she hasn’t been within range of a voice this whole time? Or hasn’t spoken?”
I needed to hold the line as long as I could to get them to reveal themselves without letting them know I knew. The other guys were behind me, and I knew them well enough to know they were listening at the door I had cracked, touching the handles in case they needed to come in.
But fuck, the line was hard to hold when a ticking clock was flashing in my mind, telling me Emma was speeding away from me and toward danger every second.
Phillips looked at me and then at the back of his partner’s head. I read the confusion there and held my breath. “Eric, it’s fine. He’s right. It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from her. It might be good to verify the transmitter.”
“And startle her? Make her act suddenly and irrationally in front of Simon’s agents, giving away that it’s a trap? No. We hold tight.”
Phillips looked at me then back at Jones again, stiffening. “She’s inside. They won’t see her if they’re not in there with her yet, which they’re not, because we would have heard, assuming the transmitter’s working. Why are you back here at all? You should have eyes on her.”
“I don’t need a reason to come back and take a breather. When I left her, she was fine, playing on one of the computers. Everybody just needs to calm down.”
Phillips’s spine straightened. “Let’s just check.” He reached toward the button that would open the comm channel.
Jones caught his wrist. “No.”
“Jones, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“This.” I couldn’t hold back anymore. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I turned the screen toward the two of them, showing the tracker I’d put on Emma and how it was moving east at seventy miles per hour. “If you call out to her, Phillips, she won’t answer. She’s already gone.”
Jones moved, and my deepest instincts recognized the movement as him reaching for his gun. And he wasn’t turning toward me. He was turning toward Phillips, which was all I needed to know.
“Gun!”
The doors of the van flew open at the same time I hurled myself into Jones, slamming him into the wall and sending his weapon clattering to the floor. It was chaos, and I let myself fade into the only place I could—pure action.
Pain slammed through my shoulder as the hit landed directly where I’d been shot, and for long moments, my arm went dead. I couldn’t move it. All I could do was try to turn and protect my body from the onslaught of a man who knew he’d been caught and was now fighting like a caged animal to take me down.
It didn’t matter. There were too many of us and only one of him. Still, he’d gotten three hits to my jaw before Jude hauled him off me, pinning him to the floor with a knee in his back.
Phillips was staring down at him, gun drawn, in absolute shock. “You did this?” The tone in his voice was only further confirmation that he hadn’t been a part of it, and beneath the pain, the panic, and the fear, a part of myself I’d been trying to ignore ripped free.
“I’m not saying anything.”
Phillips holstered his gun and handed Jude the cuffs before turning around and running a hand through his hair. His shoulders heaved, and he turned around with pure fury in his eyes. “You absolute piece of shit. After everything. Aftereverything, you’re with him? You just handed her over to him like it was nothing? All of this—”
Phillips cut off as the realization of how far he’d accidentally gone down the wrong path caught up with him. “Every time I questioned, and every time I wondered about whether we were doing the right thing…Every time, you were right there, your charming ass telling me it was fine and that it was what upstairs wanted.” He looked at me. “This asshole showed me signatures. I swear on whatever grave or God matters to you, I am not a part of it.”
I smiled grimly. “It only takes one look at you to know. But thank you. While I was outside, I called the field office and spoke to Agent Powell. He’s waiting for an update. Jude, give Phillips the signal information so we can track it here. Liam, I’m going to need some ibuprofen and another bandage. I think I’m bleeding.”
Sure enough, I looked down at my shirt and saw blood seeping through it. The wound wasn’t nearly healed enough to do what I’d just done. Sex was one thing, giving and taking a beating was another.
Phillips was already on the phone. I stepped out of the van, favoring my shoulder and stepping away to breathe for just a second, because I was spiraling. Once again, I’d believed someone I shouldn’t have. Once again, I’d made the assumption someone was operating in good faith, and it was going to cost me.
Because Agent Phillips was prickly and an asshole—not betraying us didn’t get him off the hook there—I’d assumed he would be the one on Simon’s side. And if I’d taken a step back and looked at the facts, maybe we wouldn’t be here. Maybe Emma would still be in my arms. Maybe we would be at home in bed and I would be listening to the sound of her breath and telling her I loved—
Fire raced into me with my breath. I loved her. I loved Emma Derine.
I didn’t know what to do with the whirlwind of emotions pouring through me. Relief and pride were the first. Emma was incredible. Beautiful, smart, fierce, and a survivor. She challenged me and accepted me exactly the way I was. She was the only person to crack my walls so thoroughly I knew they’d never be the same.
And it was about time. Those walls needed to come down, and I’d known it. But knowing something was wrong and someone proving it to you were two entirely different things. Emma showed me I didn’t need to live a life of penance to make my life meaningful, in spite of my mistakes.
She showed me what it meant to be human and how to embrace the imperfection of it while trying to do better. I loved her, and I didn’t want her to go anywhere. From the second I’d locked eyes on her face and those gorgeous, two-colored eyes, something in my soul had shifted and I hadn’t looked back.