Page 35 of Montana Justice

“Ray—”

“I’m not negotiating with you, Piper. You know the rules. You’ve always known the rules. Do what you’re told, and everyone stays safe. Disappoint me, and there will be consequences. Real ones. Get back to me with info. Soon.”

The line went dead, leaving me staring at the phone with tears burning my eyes.

I sat on a park bench and let myself cry for exactly three minutes—long enough to release some of the pressure building in my chest, not long enough to risk someone noticing and asking questions I couldn’t answer. Then I wiped my face clean and walked back to Lachlan’s house, pushing the stroller and humming softly to Caleb like I was just another normal mother enjoying a beautiful fall day with her child.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I fed Caleb when he woke, changed his diaper, started dinner like the perfect houseguest I was pretending to be. Chicken and rice with vegetables—simple, nutritious, the kind of meal a grateful woman would prepare for the man generous enough to shelter her and her child. The familiar motions gave me something to focus on besides the sick feeling in my stomach, the knowledge of what I was going to have to do.

I was seasoning the chicken when Lachlan came home, his key turning in the lock just before six p.m. He came home at the same time every day, unless he texted me on the phone he’d given me to say he’d be late. The reliability of it should have been comforting, but instead, it made the guilt worse. He was so consistent, so dependable, so fundamentally decent. And I was about to repay that decency by stabbing him in the back.

“Something smells incredible,” he called from the entryway, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

“Just chicken.” I kept my voice light as he appeared in the kitchen doorway, tall and solid and radiating the kind of quiet competence that made me feel safe despite everything. “How was your day?”

“Long. Productive.” He moved to the sink to wash his hands, rolling up his sleeves in a gesture that shouldn’t have been attractive but somehow was. Everything about him wasattractive—the way he moved with unconscious confidence, the way his eyes lit up when he looked at Caleb, the way he treated me like I was someone worth protecting instead of someone to be used.

“How’s my boy?”

“Good. He had a longer morning nap after our walk, which meant a fussier afternoon, but he’s settled now.” The lie came easier than it should have, practiced and smooth. I’d gotten too good at lying, at pretending to be something I wasn’t.

“Walk?”

“Just around the neighborhood, down to the park. He likes the fresh air, so I might try to do it more. Just bundle him up. Dr. Rankine says sunshine is good for us. Vitamin D.” Another lie, stacked on top of the first one like building blocks in a tower that would eventually collapse and crush everything underneath it.

Lachlan nodded, drying his hands on the kitchen towel. “Good. The exercise is probably helping you too.”

Was it my imagination, or did he study my face a little too carefully when he said it? Did he suspect something, or was I just paranoid? It was impossible to tell, and that uncertainty made everything worse.

“Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes,” I said, turning back to the stove to avoid his gaze.

“Perfect. I’ll go change.”

We ate together at his kitchen table, making small talk about Caleb’s sleep schedule and the weather. I tried to steer the conversation toward his work, but every attempt felt forced and obvious. He was careful about what he shared, professional even in his own home. Smart. Too smart for someone like me to manipulate.

After dinner, he helped me clean up before disappearing into his office to catch up on paperwork. I put Caleb down for the night, settling him into the portable crib. I paced back and forth,no closer to figuring out how to get info for Ray than I was when I got off the phone with him.

Maybe barging into Lachlan’s home office was the solution. Just start asking questions like I maybe wanted to get a job in law enforcement or just even at the station. I had to dosomething.

I was reaching for his office door’s handle when I heard his voice on the other side, low and professional. I stopped.

“—your intel about this drug smuggler feels solid.” I pressed myself against the wall, straining to hear every word. “We should have the checkpoint in place on Highway 37 by seven a.m., just like we discussed. We’ll be stopping every car.”

I closed my eyes, memorizing every detail even as my heart broke a little more. That was near where Ray was operating. If Ray or any of his crew were on that small state highway tomorrow, they would get caught. I couldn’t let that happen.

“Yeah, Beckett, I know it’s a long shot. But if there really are traffickers moving through that area, it’s the most logical route. Remote enough to avoid attention, but still accessible to major transport corridors.”

Beckett. That had to be Beckett Sinclair from Warrior Security, the man Lachlan had mentioned as one of his closest friends. Another detail for Ray, another piece of the puzzle he was building.

“We’ll have three units stationed there, plus backup if needed. The checkpoint will run from seven a.m. to seven p.m. tomorrow. Full twelve hours. If anyone’s moving anything illegal through that stretch, we’ll catch them.”

Twelve hours. Seven a.m. to seven p.m. Three units plus backup. A full day of law enforcement presence exactly where Ray needed to avoid it. The information was perfect, complete, everything he could have asked for and more.

I heard Lachlan finish his call, so I rushed back to the living room before he could emerge from his office, settling onto the couch with a magazine like I’d been there the whole time. He said goodnight without suspicion, headed upstairs to bed like this was just another ordinary evening in our ordinary life.

But there was nothing ordinary about any of this. There was nothing ordinary about the choice I was about to make, the betrayal I was about to commit. I was going to destroy the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I was going to do it willingly, because the alternative was unthinkable.

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