Page 40 of Montana Justice

Piper

The text message blurred through my tears. I read it again, then once more, my brain refusing to process what my eyes were seeing.

It’s done. Sadie is safe. Raid complete. Everyone’s coming home.

My knees gave out. The kitchen floor rushed up to meet me, cold tile shocking against my palms as I caught myself. The phone clutched to my chest, I curled into a ball and let the sobs tear through me.

Three months. Three months of phantom cries in the night, of reaching for a baby who wasn’t there. Three months of my heart being ripped out fresh every single day.

A photo loaded below Lachlan’s text. My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone trying to open it.

Sadie .

Dark hair sticking up in little clumps. Those wide, confused eyes—not scared, just bewildered by all the sudden activity. Beckett’s strong arms holding her like the precious cargo she was. Safe. Alive. Real.

The keening sound that escaped me didn’t sound human. Every bit of agony I’d been holding back, every tear I’d swallowed, every scream I’d suppressed—it all came pouring out on Lachlan’s kitchen floor.

My baby. My baby girl was coming home.

The phone rang, startling me. Evelyn’s name on the screen.

“Piper? Honey, we heard the operation went well.” Her voice was warm, careful. “Are you okay?”

“She’s safe.” The words came out broken, waterlogged. “Sadie’s safe.”

“Oh, honey. I’m so glad.” I could hear the smile in her voice, the genuine joy. “And before you ask, Caleb’s been perfect. Just went right back down to sleep after his bottle. Little man didn’t want to finish it—kept looking around like he was waiting for someone.”

Fresh tears spilled over. My son, waiting for his sister without even knowing it.

“I’ll be there soon,” I managed. “I need… I need to hold both of them tonight. I’m not sure when Beckett will be bringing Sadie.”

“Of course. Take your time. We’ll be here.”

I ended the call and struggled to my feet, legs still shaky. But that didn’t matter. Both my babies were safe.

The diaper bag sat by the door where I’d left it this morning. A lifetime ago. I grabbed it, checking for supplies even though Emma would have everything Caleb needed. Old habits. I’d need two of everything now. Two sets of bottles. Two?—

The back door opened.

“Lachlan?” I turned quickly. I hadn’t expected him back this quickly. I thought he would have?—

Ray stood in the doorway, gun already drawn.

My body went cold, then hot, then numb. Time slowed to a crawl as my brain tried to process what I was seeing. He looked like hell—clothes rumpled and stained with sweat, hair wild, eyes glittering with the kind of rage I’d learned to fear before I could properly walk.

“You betrayed me.” His voice was deadly quiet, more terrifying than any shout. “They took everything.”

Every survival instinct I’d developed over twenty-seven years kicked in at once. Don’t run —it triggers the predator response. Don’t show fear —he feeds on it. Don’t argue —it escalates his rage.

Just breathe. Think. Survive .

“Ray.” I kept my voice level, hands visible and still. The diaper bag slipped from my fingers. “I thought you’d be?—”

“At the warehouse?” His laugh was broken glass. “I knew something didn’t feel right. I got out as soon as they hit it. Didn’t wait to see if we could overpower them like everyone else.”

“They took her.” He advanced into the kitchen, gun steady despite the tremor in his hands. “They took what’s mine.”

“Sadie was never yours.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.

The backhanded slap came fast, snapping my head to the side. Familiar pain bloomed across my cheek. But this time, instead of cowering, I felt something else.

Rage.

“Where did you do it?” Ray demanded, shoving me toward the living room. “Where did you spy on me? Where did you betray your own father?”

His words didn’t even make sense. I hadn’t spied on him; I’d spied for him. But evidently, Ray was beyond comprehending that.

“Lachlan’s office.” I pointed down the hall, trying to steer him away from the kitchen. Too many knives in there. Too many weapons he could grab if his gun wasn’t enough.

He forced me ahead of him, the gun barrel occasionally touching my spine.

In the office, he went wild. Papers flew as he swept them from the desk.

The computer monitor shattered when he drove the gun butt through it.

Frame after frame of photos—Lachlan’s family, commendations, certificates—destroyed with vicious efficiency.

“Years.” He was ranting now, the controlled facade cracking. “Years of building something. Creating an empire. And you destroyed it all for what? For him?”

Ray wasn’t going to let me out of this alive. I knew that for a fact. If he couldn’t control me, manipulate me, he would make sure I didn’t live to celebrate it.

“Ray, you’re too smart for them.” I played to his ego, the one thing that might get me out of this. How long before Lachlan came home? “You got away. They don’t have you.”

“They have everything else!” He whirled on me, gun swinging wildly. “My people are probably singing right now, giving up every detail to save their own asses.”

My phone was still in my pocket. Moving slowly, naturally, I shifted my hand while he destroyed Lachlan’s desk chair.

My fingers found the phone, and I glanced down at it, pressing the speed dial for Lachlan then putting it on mute.

I stuffed the phone back in my pocket. I didn’t know if the call went through at all or if Lachlan would pick up even if it did.

“Show me where else.” Ray grabbed my arm again, dragging me from the office now that he’d destroyed it. “Show me where you whored yourself to him.”

The word hit like another slap, but I kept my face neutral. Let him think he was in control. Let him think I was the same scared girl who’d never fought back.

Up the stairs, his breathing getting labored. The bedroom door stood open—bed still unmade from this morning, Lachlan’s uniform shirt draped over the chair. The domestic normalcy of it seemed to enrage Ray further.

“Here?” He shoved me toward the bed. “Here’s where you spread your legs for a cop? Just like your mother, always choosing weakness.”

I positioned myself near the bathroom door. Possible escape route if I could get there. Ray was checking windows now, jerking back curtains like SWAT might come crashing through any second.

“They’re coming,” he muttered. “I can hear the sirens.”

There were no sirens. His paranoia was eating him alive, showing the cracks in his control.

“Your mother never understood either.” He wasn’t even looking at me now, gun waving as he talked to ghosts. “Had to teach her lessons. Had to make her see. But she was weak. Always weak.”

The front door opened downstairs.

“Piper? I’m home.”

Lachlan’s voice, normal and casual. He didn’t know. How could he?

Unless… The phone in my pocket. Had the call connected?

Ray moved faster than I’d expected, arm around my throat, gun pressed to my temple. He dragged me to the hallway, positioning us at the top of the stairs.

“The hero returns.” Ray’s voice dripped venom. “Come to save your lying whore?”

I saw Lachlan at the bottom of the stairs, still in tactical gear. His face went carefully blank as he took in the scene. His hand moved slowly to his weapon.

“Don’t!” Ray pressed the gun harder against my head. “You pull that gun, and she’s dead.”

“Okay.” Lachlan raised his hands, showing empty palms. “Let’s talk about this, Ray.”

“Talk?” Ray’s laugh vibrated through his chest into my back. “Now, he wants to talk. After destroying everything I built.”

“Tell him.” The gun shifted to my jaw. “Tell him everything you did. Every lie. Every betrayal. Tell him what kind of woman he’s been fucking. See if he wants to be with you then.”

“She doesn’t have to do that, Ray. I know all of it.” Lachlan shook his head, calm. “That’s why we were able to catch you. Because of Piper’s help. Because of her sacrifice.”

Ray’s arm tightened on my throat. “Shut up.”

“Your men have turned on you.” Lachlan took a slight step closer. “The guys that you left tonight in order to save yourself are now doing the same thing to save their skin. You’re going to jail, Ray. For the rest of your life if I have anything to do with it.”

The gun wavered for just a second. Ray’s shock was palpable.

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?” Another step. “It’s over. You lost.”

I felt it—the slight loosening of Ray’s grip as the reality hit him. His kingdom hadn’t just crumbled. It had been ransacked, pillaged, sold off piece by piece by the very people he’d trusted.

“You poisoned Piper against me!” The gun swung toward Lachlan now. “She was mine! My legacy! My?—”

Twenty-seven years of programmed obedience shattered.

“I was never yours!”

The words erupted from somewhere deep, somewhere I’d kept locked and buried and silent for so long. Ray jerked back, genuinely stunned. I’d never raised my voice to him. Never fought back. Never defied.

“You destroyed everything good!” The dam broke completely. “Every birthday, every Christmas, every moment that should have been happy—you defiled it all! You beat us, terrorized us, turned our lives into hell, and for what? For your ego? For your pathetic little crimes?”

“You ungrateful?—”

“I was a child!” I twisted in his grip, not caring about the gun anymore.

“A child who just wanted her father to love her! But you’re just a small, pathetic man who hurts people because it makes you feel big.

What’s even worse is that you were going to carry on that tradition of pain and terror with your own grandchildren!

You are a useless piece of shit, and no matter what happens from here on out, my father is dead to me ! ”

His face went purple. The gun swung back toward me, but his shock had made him sloppy. His grip was wrong, his stance off-balance.