Page 89 of Montana Silence

I took a breath. “Tell them again, please. Make sure.”

He didn’t question it. They were driving straight into a mess of police cars and guns. If there were bullets involved, they needed to be aimed at the tires and nowhere else.

“How far out are they?” A faint murmur of voices was audible on the end of the line. “How far, guys?”

“Three minutes. Everything’s set.”

“Okay,” I said and pushed down the pedal, flooring it. “Let’s do this.”

I’m coming, Mara.

Chapter29

Mara

He was here.Liam washere.

Somewhere behind this car, he was coming after me.

He’d tapped his heart three times. It was all I needed to see. I swiped away the tears on my face. They were a reaction I couldn’t stop, my body knowing the fear that my mind held at bay.

I leaned away from Neil as far as I could, keeping my body facing him. Gone was the man who tried to be charming and told me he wanted me. As much as I hated that version of Neil, I preferred it to this one.

This Neil tapped the gun against his thigh, looking behind us. “You lied to me, Mara. You told me you wanted to come with me, and then you crashed the car.Youcrashed the car.Youshowed everyone where we fucking were.”

He looked behind us again, and I turned.

The road was empty. For now.

I didn’t respond to his words. What would I say? It was true. I’d lied. I didn’t ever want to go with him.

“Him?” he asked. “He is who you choose over The Family who raised you? The Family who gave youeverything?”

New fear took root. Neil was still tapping the gun.

“You did this, Mara. I knew it might happen, but I hoped it wouldn’t. But no one ever leaves The Family. You know that. Even in death.”

My breath stilled in my chest. He would kill us both before letting us be taken. That was always the backup plan. Take me back to the compound, or kill me and make sure I died a bride of honor.

“You could get away,” I said. “Right now. Pull over and run. There’s no one in sight, and I won’t say anything. All I want is to go home, Neil. Not to The Family.Home. And you can go home too.”

He snarled—a sound that should never come from a human. “And what kind of leader does that make me? A coward. Besides, they’ll all know once we’re gone. If we don’t make it, they’ll know it was because of you.”

In the side mirror, a car appeared behind us. My heart leaped into my throat. It was just the one car, and there was only one person who would be chasing us.

Liam.

Neil noticed at the same time.

Ahead of us in the distance, I saw flashing lights. So many flashing lights. Police all across the road, spread out. They were going to puncture the tires and make us stop. Relief and terror lived side by side within me.

“I’m not Malcolm, Mara. I will not spend my life in prison. Nor am I a coward. I am the leader of The Family, and they will remember me doing whatever I had to do to bring back someone who was lost. The Family will go on without us, and we’ll meet everyone else we’ve lost on the other side.”

He didn’t slow down. We hurtled toward the blockade of police at full speed, and I saw guns pointed at us. Liam would never let them shoot at me. But Neil would shoot me. Before, I’d worried about getting run over by another car or causing an accident. Now, I had none of that to consider. Risking my life was a better option than getting shot in the head.

And Neil hadn’t locked the doors on this car.

Neil looked over at me and smiled. “I loved you, you know. All this time, I saw you for what you were and knew that when we were finally together, it would be beautiful. I’m sorry it can’t be in this life. But we’ll be together forever now.”