Page 76 of Montana Justice

There was a curious mix of hallelujahs and fuck-yeahs, but everyone was in agreement.

“I say we use the watch against him,” Travis said. “It hasn’t been transmitting since I put it in the Faraday box, but Ray doesn’t know what’s happening. As far as he’s concerned, it could just be malfunctioning.”

“You want to feed him false intel,” Hunter said.

“Yep. Make him feel safe. Make him think law enforcement is looking the wrong direction.” Travis pulled up signal data. “I can modify the transmitter, make it seem active while we control what it sends.”

Coop stood up and started pacing. “We could make him think you’re focusing your attention on the east side of town closer to Billings. After last night’s failure, he’s going to be feeling cocky, thinking everything is going according to plan.”

“I think it will work.” Hunter leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Our team will focus on finding out where he really is, while you focus on feeding him false info over the next forty-eight hours.”

It could work. It was a great plan. I thought about Piper’s face when she’d talked about those thirty-second photos. The desperate way she’d memorized every detail of our daughterbefore the images vanished. I wasn’t letting her go through that again.

“We’ve got to find where he’s keeping Sadie first,” Beckett said quietly.

“It’ll all have to be timed perfectly.” I rubbed my eyes. God, I needed a cup of coffee. “We have to know Sadie is safe before any sort of raid, but the raid has to be ready because once he finds out we have Sadie, he’ll be in the wind.”

Hunter looked at the screen. “Travis?’

“Already working on it. The burner phone Piper used, Ray’s communications—patterns emerge. Give me time, I’ll find him. We’ll get her to call him a couple times, and I’ll be able to triangulate his location.”

“How much time?” My patience felt threadbare. Every minute that passed was another minute my daughter spent with that monster.

“Not long. I’ll build some programs to make it quicker. Forty hours, tops. By the time we know where his operation is hiding, I’ll know where he’s been calling Piper from.”

Travis cleared his throat. “I’ll get the watch to you when I’m done with it. I’m playing with it now so it will only transmit when you specifically want it to. Otherwise, it will just run some basic chatter sounding like the department, at home, et cetera.”

I looked around the table at these men who’d become brothers. Who’d drop everything to help me save a niece they’d never met.

“I need to be clear,” I said. “Getting Sadie back is all that matters to me. The drugs, the weapons, even Ray—everything else comes second.”

“Agreed,” Beckett said immediately.

Aiden had been quiet this whole time, as he tended to be. The man was not a talker. “We’ll bring her home,” he added. “You have our word.”

I had no doubt.

“Let’s get Sadie back,” I said. “Then we’ll figure out the rest.”

I stood, exhaustion hitting like a physical weight. But tired didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the little girl in that photo.

“I should get back. Need to…” What? Comfort the woman who’d betrayed me? Plan with the mother of my children? I didn’t know what Piper was to me anymore.

“Lachlan,” Hunter called as I reached the door. “I agree with Beck. I think Piper loves you. Real love, not manipulation. That’s why this has been killing her.”

I nodded but couldn’t respond. Couldn’t process love when everything was tangled with lies and desperation and a missing child.

The drive home stretched endlessly. Every mile, I thought about Sadie. She wasn’t old enough to be scared, but I wished she knew we were coming for her.

I thought about Piper too. The woman I’d fallen for despite every warning. Who’d carried this impossible weight alone, crying for our daughter while I held her, unable to share the burden.

Part of me still raged that she hadn’t trusted me from the beginning. But the father in me—the part that would burn the world to protect Caleb—understood with brutal clarity what she’d done.

She’d done what she had to do to keep our daughter alive.

Now, it was my turn.

Ray Matthews had made a crucial mistake. He’d threatened my family. He’d taken my daughter. He’d turned the mother of my children into a weapon against me.

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