Page 2 of Targeted in Silver Creek

“They let him out of jail?” she murmured.

Jesse shook his head and glanced behind him and around the yard. “He escaped.”

He gave her a couple of seconds to let that sink in. Of course, it would take a lot longer than that for her to deal with it, but this was a start. There were lots of steps that needed to happen now.

Because the sweltering summer sun had finally set, making it next to impossible for Jesse to see if Bull was anywhere near the house, he took hold of Hanna’s arm. Keeping his touch light and brief, he eased her backward so he could step inside and shut the door. He locked it and then motioned toward her phone that she was now holding in a death grip.

“Use your app to turn the security system back on,” Jesse instructed, knowing it was going to give her another mental jolt.

It did. Her fingers were trembling when she did as he’d said. But she didn’t stop there.

“Evan,” she breathed, and she turned and started running down the hall in the direction of the nursery. Her bare feet sounded out in quick, soft thuds on the hardwood floors.

Jesse followed her while he glanced around the living room, taking particular notice of the windows. As usual, they were all shut, and Hanna had all the blinds fully lowered. That was routine for her now, but before she’d been shot and had her life turned upside down, those blinds had usually been open. No doubt so she could see the amazing views on the five acres of her property.

The house and the land had been in Hanna’s family for several generations. An old money kind of place that managed to look both important and welcoming at the same time. A hard thing to accomplish, which was probably why Hanna had chosen to live here after her late father had left her the property when she’d barely been twenty. This was her home in every sense of the word, which meant it was Evan’s home as well.

The main area had an open floor plan, so it was easy for him to take in the living room, dining room and kitchen with only a couple of sweeping glances. After Jesse had finished checking to make sure all the windows in this part of the house were locked—they were—he went down the hall, tracing her steps, and he found Hanna standing over Evan’s crib.

The room was dark except for a smattering of milky-colored stars on the ceiling from the machine pumping out the soothing sounds of a gentle rain. All very serene. The perfect place for a baby to sleep.

Jesse went closer, moving shoulder to shoulder with her while looking down at their son, and got the same slam of emotion he always did when he saw that precious little face. The love. The fierce need to make him happy and keep him safe.

Evan’s hair was nearly identical in color to Jesse’s own dark brown. So were his son’s eyes, though Jesse couldn’t see them now because Evan was sacked out. He certainly made a precious picture lying there.

When Jesse had been younger, he’d vowed he would never have children, but that had all changed with Evan. The love had been instant and solid. Of course, that love only reminded him of just how much was at stake right now. If Bull wanted to get back at him in the worst possible way, then going after Evan would be the way to do it.

And Jesse wasn’t going to let that happen.

“When? How?” Hanna asked in a whisper.

There was no need for her to clarify her questions, and Jesse was ready with the answers. “Bull escaped this afternoon. I didn’t get the call, though, until about twenty minutes ago.”

That’d felt like a gut punch, and Jesse’s first instincts had been to call Hanna to tell her to lock up. But since he’d known she would have already done that, he had decided this was news best delivered in person. Especially since he was going to do much more than just play messenger tonight.

“According to the prison official who called the sheriff’s office,” Jesse went on, keeping his voice at a whisper so he wouldn’t wake up Evan, “Bull said he was having chest pains and was taken to the infirmary. He somehow knocked out the EMT on duty and escaped.”

The details of that escape were definitely sketchy, but it wouldn’t stay that way. Jesse would want to hear exactly what’d happened because he needed to know if Bull had had any help getting out. The man had plenty of friends and even a sibling who might do his bidding to give him a second shot at getting revenge.

“Your family knows?” Hanna asked.

Jesse nodded again, and he tipped his head, motioning for her to follow him out of the nursery. Evan was asleep, but he didn’t want the possibility of the baby picking up on anything he was saying. Of course, Evan was too young to understand the words or the danger. However, he might pick up on the vibes. Or Hanna’s fear. Because Jesse knew that her fear was there and already skyrocketing.

“My family knows,” Jesse assured her once they were out in the hall.

On the five-minute drive from the Silver Creek Sheriff’s Office to Hanna’s place on the edge of town, he’d called Boone Ryland, the man who’d adopted and raised him and his siblings after their widowed mother, Melissa, had married him when Jesse was ten. That adoption had given Jesse six more brothers and numerous cousins, many of whom carried a badge or were retired law enforcement. By now, Boone had no doubt informed the entire family, and they all had already started taking security measures.

Just as Jesse was about to do.

“Bull’s never made a threat to come after you,” Jesse reminded Hanna. “You were what he’d consider accidental collateral damage.”

Bad collateral damage and a case of wrong place, wrong time.

Hanna had had the misfortune of coming to Jesse’s house on the grounds of the Ryland family’s Silver Creek Ranch to drop off photos of the latest ultrasound and some medical consent forms she had wanted him to sign. She’d been at the massive wrought-iron security gates that fronted the property at the exact moment Bull and his cohort, Arnie Ross, had arrived to confront Boone before they could be arrested.

To confront Jesse, too.

Boone had been the one to get the tip about Arnie and Bull being part of a dangerous gun-running militia. A tip that’d come from an old friend who was now a retired San Antonio cop. Boone had passed the info along to Jesse and the other lawmen in the Silver Creek Sheriff’s Office, and that, in turn, had spurred a full-scale investigation.

---