Page 23 of Targeted in Silver Creek

That didn’t help the knot in her stomach, and Hanna frantically tried to recall if Agent Shaw had had the chance to plant a bug in her house.

“Shaw was never out of my sight when he was here,” Jesse assured her. Obviously, he knew where her thoughts had gone. “And he was only in this room, nowhere else in the house. But I can have the place swept just in case.”

Hanna nodded. She didn’t want to risk the chance that a dirty ATF agent could be listening in on their conversations—both the ones that dealt with the investigation and those that were personal.

“I’m heading to San Antonio now to talk with Isabel, but I can schedule the sweep on the drive there,” Theo offered, checking the time. “We’re having the sheriff’s office swept, too, just in case Shaw’s trying to get an inside line on what we’re doing.” He glanced around. “In the meantime, if there is a bug, you two might not want to have any conversations in here.”

“Good idea,” Jesse muttered, and he walked with Theo to the door.

Once he’d locked back up, he grabbed his laptop and said, “Why don’t we move to the guest room to finish looking at Marlene’s financials?”

She nodded, nabbing her water and the baby monitor so she could follow him. This was the right thing to do, but Hanna knew it would be a little unnerving to be in a bedroom with Jesse. That hug sure hadn’t helped in that department. Then again, she hadn’t needed that hug to recall just how attracted she was to him.

“And the enhanced footage from the surveillance camera?” she asked.

He sighed in such a way that let her know he hadn’t just expected her to drop that. “It could help if I view it first because there might be nothing new to see.” The moment he finished saying that, though, he waved it off. “But there might be something new for you to see.”

“Yes,” she agreed, and she left it at that.

She watched Jesse try to deal with the dilemma, torn between sheltering her and using her. “Yes,” he finally repeated. “We’ll do that after we finish with Marlene’s financials. I don’t want to skip any steps here.”

Neither did she, and that’s why Hanna wanted to study those financial records, too. She didn’t need memories to maybe clue in to something that just didn’t seem right.

Jesse carried his laptop into the guest room and he’d just set it up when his phone rang. The sound shot through the room and frayed her nerves even more than they already were.

“Unknown caller,” he told her after he glanced at the screen. “I’m going to put it on speaker.” He also hit the record function on his phone.

“It’s me,” the caller said. Bull Freeman.

“Where the hell are you?” Jesse asked.

“Nearby. We need to meet.”

“Why?” Jesse snarled. “So you can try to kill me?”

“No, so I can turn myself in. Meet me at the fence of that old, abandoned farm out on Franklin Road.”

Hanna had no idea where that was, but she was betting it was a remote location. The perfect place for Bull to lie in wait and try to gun Jesse down.

“I suppose you expect me to be alone and unarmed?” The sarcasm was heavy in Jesse’s voice.

“No,” Bull repeated. “You can bring your fellow lawmen and an entire arsenal with you. Just be there in two hours.”

“If you’re nearby, like you say, why do you need so much time?” Jesse argued.

“Because I’ve got some things to do.” Bull paused, cursed. “I’m putting my life in your hands, Jesse. Don’t do something that’ll get us both killed.”

Chapter Seven

Jesse listened to the chatter of the conference call with Grayson, Deputy Ava Lawson and Texas Ranger Harley Ryland. They were going over the same map that Jesse had pulled up on his laptop.

The map of the area where Bull had insisted he would surrender himself.

Jesse had serious doubts about Bull’s intentions, but that wouldn’t stop him from going to the abandoned farm. However, he would do that with plenty of backup and security measures.

One of the best measures was Harley himself because he was an expert sniper. And Grayson was placing Harley in the loft of the barn on the farm. During the past hour since Bull had called, Grayson had already had a team check out the barn and surrounding area for booby traps and such.

Grayson had also made other arrangements in that same hour. There’d be deputies in the wooded area across from the farm. The road to and from there would be monitored as well. Everyone would wear Kevlar, and Jesse wouldn’t be exiting the bullet-resistant cruiser until Bull had assumed a position of surrender.

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