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Jesse didn’t get a chance to bargain with the man because Bull ended the call.
“Hell,” Jesse snarled and immediately texted Grayson to let him know what Bull had said.
Hanna figured there were a lot of angry lawmen right now since they’d spent so much time and manpower to set this all up. But it was puzzling why Bull had pulled the plug on this when he hadn’t gotten the answers he’d seemingly wanted about his sister. Of course, maybe that was an act and he had never intended to go through with turning himself in.
“I need to talk to Noah,” Jesse muttered after he finished talking with Grayson and made the call to his cousin. “Bull backed out of the meeting,” he told Noah, “but he knows his sister has resurfaced. He might try to come to the hospital.”
“I’ll be on the lookout for him,” Noah assured him. “The hospital security guard is here with me, too.”
“Good. Grayson will be there in about a half hour. How’s Marlene?”
“Agitated and still demanding to speak to Hanna.” Noah sighed, and in the background, Hanna could indeed hear the woman insisting on talking to her. “They’ve run some initial tests on her, and the nurse is cleaning and stitching up the head wound.”
“Hanna,” Marlene yelled again.
“Could you put her on the phone?” Hanna suggested. “Or should that wait until after she’s interviewed?”
“Put Marlene on the phone,” Jesse said after he gave it some thought.
Hanna heard some shuffling around and a few seconds later, Marlene spoke. “Hanna?”
“It’s me,” she verified. “What do you need to tell me?”
Marlene’s breath hitched, and Hanna was pretty sure the woman was crying. “I can’t tell you over the phone. I have to see you, please,” she begged. “Because I know the reason you were shot.”
Chapter Nine
“This is the right thing to do,” Jesse heard Hanna murmur. Not for the first time either. She’d already said a variation of that while Jesse had been making the security arrangements for Marlene to be brought to Hanna’s.
Arrangements he sure as hell hadn’t wanted to make.
He’d much rather keep Marlene as far away as possible so that Hanna and Evan would be safe. Well, as safe as he could make them anyway. With Bull still at large, Isabel missing, and perhaps a rogue ATF agent on their hands, maybe no place was truly free from danger. But as Hanna had pointed out, they were the likely targets. Perhaps Marlene, too. So, for that reason, it was best to go ahead and meet with the woman and hear what she had to say.
Of course, while Marlene had still been on the phone, Jesse had pressed the woman to clarify the reason she’d said what she had.
Because I know the reason you were shot.
But Marlene had continued to insist that she would only tell Hanna face-to-face. Part of Jesse wanted to dig in his heels and flat-out refuse. The other part of him wanted to hear what she had to say. Since Hanna was in the camp of wanting to hear out Marlene, too, he’d finally given in and made arrangements for an EMT to bring Marlene to Hanna’s. That wasn’t ideal, but it was much better than having Hanna leave the house and make the drive to the hospital. A trip like that would have meant traveling on a road where a shooter could easily be lying in wait for them. Especially if that shooter was working with Marlene and knew when to expect them to come driving along.
Even with having the meeting at Hanna’s house, it had still taken time and coordination to put all the pieces in place for the visit. First, Marlene had had to get her doctor on board with the idea. According to the doctor, her injuries weren’t that serious, but he’d wanted to keep her in the hospital for observation for at least twenty-four hours because of her concussion. Marlene had likely pressured him to agree to the plan by promising to return to the hospital as soon as she’d had her chat with Hanna.
Jesse had arranged for two deputies to accompany the EMTs and Marlene just in case Marlene turned out to be a target. Then he’d beefed up security at Hanna’s by asking Deputy Ava Lawson to stay with Melissa and Evan in the nursery while the ranch hands and a reserve deputy kept watch of the grounds. They could still be attacked, but Jesse had made it as secure as he possibly could.
Now, Marlene had better come through on the promise of this revelation as to the reason Hanna had been shot. If not, Jesse intended to charge the woman with obstruction of justice and withholding evidence. He had zero tolerance for someone who could put Hanna and Evan at risk.
Hanna was pacing her living room while she kept her attention nailed to the baby monitor. Jesse had taken a look at it, too, and knew that Evan was having a blast with his grandmother and the deputy entertaining him. The plan, though, was for that entertainment to not have to go on too long. He knew that Hanna would breathe easier once they had Marlene in and out of the house and she could then be with their son.
Jesse silently groaned when his phone rang and, for a moment, he thought it might be Marlene canceling. But no. It was Agent Shaw. Since he didn’t want the distraction, Jesse considered not answering it, but then he remembered that Bull had known about Marlene surfacing, and it was possible he’d gotten that info from the agent. If Shaw was in contact with Bull, then it was something Jesse needed to know.
“Make it quick,” Jesse snarled when he answered.
“I want to be there when Marlene is questioned,” Shaw immediately insisted.
Shaw would have obviously known they would interview the woman. Had to, since she was either the victim of a serious crime or she wanted law enforcement to believe that she was.
“This is my investigation too,” Shaw went on, obviously taking Jesse’s silence as a no. “I should at least be allowed to observe in case she describes or mentions someone in the militia. I’ve studied the files of every known member, and I might be able to help ID the person who either kidnapped her or assisted her in this plan.”
“If Marlene’s behind her own kidnapping, she isn’t likely to give us an accurate description of anyone who helped her,” Jesse pointed out, his voice a growl. “But you can request to see a recording of the interview whenever it happens.”
