Page 25 of No Going Back

Although Branna was shrinking into herself again. He pulled out a chair for her at the table and then pulled his up beside her.

Her voice shook when she spoke. “I’m grateful to you all and so thankful. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for what you’re doing for me.”

Troy waved that away. “You brought Falcon home. That’s payment in full.”

Which hit Sean directly in the heart. Their time in the military had changed him, and he hadn’t thought he was ready for a settled life. Maybe he was readier than he’d thought because when Troy said he was home, it felt exactly right. As long as that home included Branna.

Jabba came and put his head on Sean’s lap, unwilling to miss out on the conversation. Sean turned to Marcus. “What’s the news?”

Marcus nodded. “I’ve been in contact with FBI agent Shanice Williams over in the Bedford office. She obviously couldn’t tell me much, but she said that the FBI is interested in all the information we have on Prince Hawley.”

Good. That meant they had a file on the fucker.

Marcus continued. “Shanice hopes you’ll hold off on contacting anyone regarding insurance or banking until we know more. She wants to speak with someone in the Miami FBI office and get more information. She’ll want to interview you about everything that’s happened, but that can wait until tomorrow as well.”

Branna nodded but didn’t ask questions. He knew she had to be exhausted, and she needed sleep soon.

Marcus looked at Sean and nodded, proving he was just as observant as ever. The man knew Branna was overwhelmed but also knew she needed all the information she could get.

“Shanice will look into the reports around your father and the pub. Would you give me the name of the police officer who blew you off?”

Branna nodded. “Warren Lewis.”

“Thanks. We’ll add that to the file. Anything else you want to share before you guys crash?”

“Does she want the recordings?”

Marcus frowned at her, and Sean did the same. “What recordings?”

“The one of Prince demanding protection money and when he burned down the pub. Although I haven’t listened to those yet. I don’t know how much they caught. I used the camera app, but it’s probably only the audio that’s useful, if any of them are useful at all.”

There was stunned silence at the table for several seconds. Sean leaned down. “You have recordings?”

She nodded. “Didn’t I tell you? I was cleaning in the snug when Prince showed up one time to threaten my dad. That’s the one Warren Lewis heard. I took another when I was in the snug, and Hawley came in threatening me the other day. I uploaded it to the cloud in case something happened to my phone. Then I coded in a text to Sean to send at the last minute. When I was ready to run from the snug to the roof, I recorded again. I stopped at the top, sent you the text, and then turned my phone off.”

Sean grinned and kissed her. Pride for this strong and smart woman filled him. “You are amazing, Branna. I can’t believe you even thought of taping it. I’m sure there’s something on there that will help.”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t close to Hawley, so I don’t know if there’s anything usable on them. With everything happening so quickly, I forgot about even having the videos. I haven’t turned on my phone since I texted Sean. Prince has hackers in his herd, and I didn’t want to risk it.”

Piper snorted out a laugh. “Herd? That’s perfect.”

The others agreed. Sean hugged her shoulder. “Where’s your phone?”

“In your duffel bag, with everything else I own.”

Which was nothing. But they were going to get it all back.

* * *

Branna needed to get her full level of energy and brain power back soon. She felt like a drain on these amazing people who were trying to help her.

They’d been doing all the work while she’d been hiding in a car. And bringing danger their way. Had she made a big mistake coming here? Was there any way for Prince to follow her?

Sean returned and dropped into the chair. He handed her the phone and tucked her back under his arm.

“Is there any way for them to track me here if I turn it on? I don’t want to bring any trouble to Phail. If he followed me here, he wouldn’t care if he killed all of you.”

Troy leaned forward on the table. “Is there any chance he had access to your phone?”

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