Page 81 of Montana Memory

I shifted in my seat, glanced over. “Should I be worried?”

He didn’t answer right away. Which didn’t help.

Finally, he said, “There’s still no warrant out for you, Jada. I checked again before I pulled in at Pawsitive. If there were, you’d be in the back of this car, not the front.”

That was…something.

“And you really think this is just about Alan Ard?”

“I think it’s likely,” he said, flicking on the turn signal. “You were involved with him, and now he’s dead. It’s not surprising someone’s still trying to dot their I’s and cross their T’s on the case.”

I nodded, but my stomach was still a twisted mess of nerves. “You don’t like them,” I said quietly.

“No,” Lachlan said, without hesitation. “I don’t. They didn’t check in with the sheriff’s department when they got here, and that rubs me wrong. Not the polite way to go. They’ve been in town long enough to find your location. But I wanted to bring you to the station so I could keep an eye on things. That’s what Hunter would want.”

That made my throat tighten. Hunter. God, I wished he were here.

I stared at the dash for a second, then asked, “Should I tell them I don’t have my memory?”

“That’s up to you.” His voice stayed calm. Steady. “My advice? Answer as truthfully as you can. Don’t volunteer the information, but let them know you’ve had trauma that’s impacted your memory if you have to. I can confirm that if it comes up. You’re allowed to have a lawyer present. You’re allowed to stop the conversation at any time. Just remember—you’re not powerless in there.”

I nodded, though my heart was pounding like I was about to jump off a cliff. “Okay. They just make me uneasy.”

“If they get the info they need,” he added, “maybe this’ll help close things up. That’d be good for you. Good for Hunter too.”

That reminded me. “I left my phone. My bag’s still at the cabin.”

“I’ll send someone to grab it if you’re here long,” he said, easing the car into the parking lot of the sheriff’s department. “You focus on doing the best you can.”

I stared at the building as we pulled in. The brick looked harmless enough. But I was still scared.

Really scared.

And I didn’t know how this was going to end.

Chapter 26

Jada

The door to the police interview room clicked shut behind me with a heavy finality that made my chest lock up. I stood frozen just inside the room, every nerve ending on edge. There was nothing in here except a rectangular table, four chairs, and a two-way mirror I couldn’t stop staring at, even though it didn’t help one damn bit.

If someone was watching me, I didn’t feel safer. I felt exposed. Judged. Like they were trying to figure out how dangerous I was—or how broken.

My palms were slick and cold. I wiped them on the thighs of my jeans, then crossed my arms and immediately dropped them. I didn’t know how to hold my body. Didn’t know what I was supposed to look like. Innocent? Cooperative? Less…unstable?

The chair scraped when I pulled it out, too loud in the silence, and I flinched like I’d broken something. I sat anyway. Folded my hands and unfolded them. Counted the tiles on the ceiling. I stopped at forty-three before I lost track of which one I was on.

God, I wished Hunter were here.

Even knowing he was out of town, even knowing there was nothing he could do to magically fix this, I still ached for his voice in my ear. His steady hands. That quiet calm he carried like armor, like nothing could touch him—and if you were close enough, nothing could touch you either.

But he wasn’t here. And this—whatever this was—I had to do on my own.

I pressed my fingertips to my temples. Tried to breathe through the panic building in my throat.

What if they asked me something I couldn’t answer? What if I said the wrong thing? What if they found out something even I didn’t know?

The door creaked open, and I tensed before I even looked up.

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