Page 43 of Targeted in Silver Creek

“Grayson will be pulling Hector in for a chat about that very soon,” Jesse added.

“Where’s Grayson?” Hanna wanted to know.

“He went in pursuit of the SUV, and he followed it out to the interstate where he lost it. He’s making his way back here so he can transport Bull to jail.”

“The Silver Creek jail,” Bull insisted. “You can’t turn me over to federal custody because I’m not sure who I can trust.”

“Welcome to the club,” Hanna mumbled, but that wasn’t exactly true. She knew she could trust Jesse, Boone and the other Rylands. She just wasn’t so sure about everyone else.

Especially Bull.

Leveling her breathing as much as she could, Hanna walked closer to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesse so she could stare down at Bull. Facing her own personal bogeyman.

“Tell me what happened the night I was shot,” she said, and it wasn’t a request. It was a demand.

Bull ground out a single word of raw profanity. “I was hoping you could tell me. I was hoping you’d gotten your memory back.”

“I regained some of it,” she told him and went with the threat she’d already used. “Enough of it that I’ll know if you’re lying.”

Bull groaned. “You need to remember all of it. Because I’m damn sure you saw or heard something I didn’t.”

Maybe she had. That’s what her gut was telling her anyway. But nothing she’d done so far had caused those particular memories to return. Perhaps talking with Bull would help with that.

“Go over everything that happened,” Hanna insisted.

“I didn’t lie when I was taken into custody,” Bull argued. “I just didn’t include certain things. Like the fact that I was ATF, because someone would have killed me right off. Somebody in the militia would have gotten to me, and since I didn’t know who was pulling the strings there, I wouldn’t have been able to watch my back.”

“Everything that happened that night,” she repeated. “I want to hear it.”

Obviously, Bull had wanted her to be the one to provide the answers. Exactly what answers, she didn’t know, but he was going to have to wait on that. Maybe forever if her memory never fully returned.

“Like I told Jesse, the sheriff, and every ATF agent and deputy who asked me after I was arrested, Arnie called me that night to say he was going to the ranch to have it out with Boone and Jesse. He was certain he was about to be arrested.”

“He was,” Jesse verified. “So were you and any other militia members we could round up.”

“Yeah, well, Arnie had gotten wind of that, and he was spitting mad. And high. Not a good combination, so I told him to pick me up and we’d go together. I thought I could talk him out of doing something stupid.” Bull paused, cursed again. “Needless to say, I failed.”

“Yes, you did,” Hanna agreed. “Keep going.”

Bull didn’t dodge her gaze, but his jaw muscles were tight and flexing. “I tried to calm Arnie down by saying we should go get a beer or something and work out a plan. That if we just showed up at the security gate, the hands probably wouldn’t let us onto the ranch. But Arnie said we’d just break down the gate or go over the fence. He was determined to get to Boone and you.”

Jesse huffed. “And at this point you didn’t think to call me? Or Grayson? Or your handler in the ATF to warn us of Arnie’s intentions?”

“I didn’t know if I could trust you to keep it quiet that I was deep cover.”

“You could have,” Jesse assured him. “We aren’t dirty cops.”

“No, but I didn’t know that, did I? And, as for my handler...well, that was Shaw.” Bull snarled. “No way was I going to trust him.”

“Why not?” Jesse pressed, but he held up his hand to put the pause on Bull’s answer when they all heard a vehicle stop in front of the house. “Grayson’s here.”

Boone kept his gun trained on Bull while Jesse went to the door to let in the sheriff. Grayson stepped in, and he made a sweeping glance around the room.

“Are Evan and you all right?” Grayson asked her.

Hanna nodded, and Grayson did a repeat of the question to his dad. Boone nodded, too, but when Grayson glanced down at Boone’s leg, Hanna knew that someone, probably Jesse, had told him of their father’s possible injury. She was betting Boone would soon be making a trip to the ER to be examined.

“Bull here was just telling us how he already knew he couldn’t trust Shaw the night Hanna was shot. Oh, and FYI, I read him the Miranda again in case he forgot his rights.”

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