AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I still want to set up an appointment for hypnosis,” she said. “But...”
“But even if you get your memory back, you might not want a relationship with me. Or with anyone. In fact, remembering might make things worse in that area. I get that.” He stopped and looked her straight in the eyes. “FYI, I want to beat your ex to a pulp for hitting you.”
She mentally compared that to her mother’s reaction, and it touched her. So many emotions welled up inside her, and they collided with the fear and uncertainty. Maybe that’s why she took those steps toward him. And why she went into his arms when he reached for her.
Her body landed on his and Hanna could feel herself melting against him. Now, this was what she needed. The close contact. Being in his arms with his scent right there for her to take in. He was strong, so strong, with the muscles corded in his chest and biceps. And while he would respect her no-marriage wish, she had a clear sense that he still cared for her.
So that’s why she pulled back.
“Sorry,” she muttered just as Jesse said, “Don’t say you’re sorry.”
“You’re shaken up,” he continued a moment later. “You have a right to be shaken up.”
She did, but playing with fire wouldn’t help, and that’s what she would be doing if she’d stayed in his arms. Scalding-hot fire that had led to sex once and could again if she wasn’t careful. She was in no position whatsoever to allow that to happen.
“The investigation...” she said, forcing herself to change the subject. “Have you found anything that’ll help?”
Jesse kept his eyes on her for a while longer. Perhaps because he was trying to decide whether to go with the new topic or linger on that hug that shouldn’t have happened. Thankfully, he went with the first.
“I haven’t been able to confirm that Bull is or isn’t an agent,” Jesse explained. “I don’t know if I can trust Shaw, which means I don’t know if he told us the truth. It’s possible Bull is just his criminal informant. Possible, too, that Shaw’s worked out some kind of deal with Bull to get him info on the militia so he can get the credit for taking it down.”
Hanna imagined that would give Agent Shaw a stellar mark on his record, if he closed such a big case. The agent might go to any lengths to make that happen.
“A deal with Bull that Shaw’s possibly kept off the books?” she asked.
Jesse nodded. “But it could be worse than that. A lot worse.”
Hanna knew where he was going with this. “Shaw could be dirty and want to silence me before my memory returns.”
Another nod. “And maybe he needs to silence Bull, too. Or anybody else who could prove he’s dirty.”
Yes, and that would include Jesse. With all the digging he was doing, Shaw had to know that something might be uncovered that he could want to stay hidden.
“Of course, there’s the possibility that Shaw’s clean and that Bull actually is a deep cover agent,” Jesse went on. “If so, that means Marlene could be the criminal in all of this.”
“Are there any signs that’s possible?” Hanna wanted to know.
“There are a few flags. Not bright red ones, but still flags.” Jesse went back to his laptop and looked at the screen. Hanna took a glance at it, too, and realized Jesse had a financial report on the woman.
Hanna zoomed right into one particular bit of info. “Marlene has an offshore account.”
“She does, and while that’s not automatically illegal, it makes me wonder why she’d need something like that. Of course, it’s possible someone else set up the account without her knowledge.”
True. Because if Marlene had wanted to hide funds she’d gotten from the militia, then why use her own name? Then again, maybe the woman had thought the cops wouldn’t look that deep into her background.
“Her local bank account and investments look normal enough,” Jesse went on, “but since she buys and sells real estate, there’s always ways to conceal things like money laundering or the purchase of weapons and such.” He looked up from the screen and met her gaze. “She did business with your mother, sold her some land and worked with her to get tax breaks on some of the property she already owned.”
“Isabel never mentioned that,” Hanna muttered, “and she would have had the perfect opening to do that when you asked her about Marlene.”
Her mother had said they were in the samesocial circleand werefriendly. Nothing about doing business with the woman who might be a criminal.
Jesse made a sound of agreement, but his attention whipped to his phone when he got a text. “It’s Theo,” he told her, and he started toward the door.
Theo Sheldon. Another deputy in the Silver Creek sheriff’s office and a Ryland relative. Well, sort of. From what Hanna had gathered from the bits and pieces of talk she’d heard from Isabel and others, Theo’s parents had been murdered when he was a kid, and he’d been raised by Grayson and his wife. If the other talk she’d heard was true, then Theo was the top candidate to replace Grayson as sheriff when he retired in a couple of months.
She stayed back, away from the door and windows, something Jesse had drilled into her, and watched as Jesse ushered in his fellow deputy. Unlike the dark-haired Rylands, Theo was blond, but he still had the cop’s eyes.
“Hanna,” Theo greeted while Jesse locked up. “We haven’t found Bull or Marlene yet,” he volunteered, probably because he knew that Hanna was about to ask that particular question. “No sightings of either of them.”
