Page 57 of Under Fire in Big Sky

Just a kid.

“I’m afraid only Ms. Lane is allowed to go deeper into the forest to speak with Shepherd,” Tristan said. “You’ll have to wait here, Mr. Easton.”

“Where she goes, I go.” Eli took a step forward. “Got it?”

“Sorry. Those are the rules. If you don’t agree, I can’t escort Ms. Lane any farther.”

Eli drew his gun and put it to Tristan’s head.

Olivia’s pulse sped up and she put a hand on Eli’s arm. “What are you doing?” she asked, even though she knew he wouldn’t shoot an unarmed teenager.

“You’ll take us both,” Eli demanded.

Tristan pushed up his sleeves and lifted his sweatshirt. “I’m unarmed, Mr. Easton. No harm will come to Ms. Lane, and no violence will occur here unless it’s by your hand. I assure you.”

“You can take your assurance,” Eli said, “and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”

“I was told you’d be antagonistic and wary.” Tristan slowly reached for his back pocket and withdrew a small, yellow rectangular packet that he handed to Olivia. “Ms. Lane will put that on.” He handed Eli the binoculars. “So you can keep an eye on her.”

Olivia opened the packet. It was a bright yellow poncho.

“I don’t like it,” Eli said, with the gun still trained on Tristan’s head.

“You shoot me. Or leave. Or I can take Ms. Lane into the forest, alone, to speak with Shepherd,” Tristan said, calmly. “Those are the only options.”

She shoved Eli’s arm down. Once he holstered his gun, she took him off to the side, where they couldn’t be overheard. “He only wants to talk.”

“Stop saying that. It’s some kind of trap,” he said, and she agreed. “Why even bother with a parley? Why not just kill us?”

“Because we would be replaced by two Aegis agents. He keeps besting us, but he spared our lives for a reason. So that I could talk to him. That’s what I’m going to do because if he wanted either of us dead, we would be.”

“A parley isn’t a truce. It isn’t surrender. Any conversation can still be dangerous.”

“I know.”

“What do you think he wants to talk about?”

They’d had this conversation already and had weighed the pros and cons. They had nothing to go on, besides this.

“I think he wants me to hear him out. Try to soften me to his perspective. He has a bunch of loyal followers because he’s excellent at recruitment. If he could turn an Aegis agent to his side, that would be valuable to him.” No doubt his pitch would be compelling.

“And what happens when you’re not persuaded?”

“I’ll let him think otherwise.” She pressed a hand to his cheek. “Audrey is dead and the others in custody are going to be more tight-lipped. Having a face-to-face conversation with Shepherd means at the least I’ll be able to help a forensic artist create a sketch of him. That’ll be something since there were no prints on the surveillance equipment,” she said, also confident she could get the smallest nugget of information out of Shepherd. “We need this. It might be the only break we get in this case. Shepherd is too careful, too thorough.”

“That’s what worries me. He’s considered all of this, gamed it out, and is several steps ahead of us.”

All true. “This is our best chance.” A better option than waiting for Shepherd to find them again. The next time, they might not survive.

“Liv, you can’t trust this parley.”

“I don’t.” The alternative was to fly to Fiji and hand this off to someone else who might very well end up dead. “But I won’t throw in the towel. I’ll get the guy to talk. Even a minor mistake on his part, we might be able to take advantage of it.”

“How can you be so sure he’ll give you something?”

“Shepherd is confident his position is right. That he’s assessed every possibility and contingency. That kind of hubris can be exploited.” She put her hands on his chest. “You’ll have eyes on me,” she said with a slight nod. “With the binoculars and the drones. And I’m wearing the necklace with the tracker and listening device.” They’d prepared for this. “Right?”

Finally, he nodded. Reluctantly.