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Since there’d been a security camera mounted on the gate, Jesse had caught glimpses of how everything had gone to hell in a handbasket the night Bull and Arnie had come for that confrontation. The men had both exited Arnie’s truck and had words with Hanna, who had arrived just seconds earlier. Exactly what words, Jesse didn’t know since there’d been no audio on the camera and Hanna couldn’t remember because of the brain trauma.
Whatever had been said had obviously caused Arnie to snap. Maybe because he’d been high. Maybe because he just had a very short fuse. Along with being a serious drug user and a member of that notorious militia group, Arnie had also been on the verge of being arrested, and he’d been the one to drag Hanna out of her car.
Something that Bull damn sure hadn’t stopped.
Nor had Bull stopped Arnie from shooting out the camera. But that hadn’t happened before Jesse had seen Hanna, and it was an image that was forever branded in his mind.
Jesse had witnessed the stark fear on Hanna’s face while she’d tried to keep her hand protectively over her pregnant belly. Arnie had then started running with her. So had Bull. They’d disappeared into a cluster of thick oaks about fifteen yards from the gate.
That’s where Jesse had found them.
After the frantic race to get to Hanna. After he’d heard the two shots. After everything inside had pinnacled in a red haze of fury and sickening dread.
Jesse had found Hanna on the ground, shot and bleeding.
Arnie had been shot and bleeding, too, and he was no longer the one holding the gun. Bull was. Arnie had used his dying breath to say that Bull had shot both of them when Hanna had struggled to get away. The .38 jacketed bullet had hit her in the frontal lobe of her brain.
Immediate surgery had saved Evan’s and Hanna’s lives. But not her memories. There were times when Jesse thought that was more of a blessing than a curse.
Jesse expected her to blow off his reminder that Bull hadn’t intentionally targeted her, to give in to the fear that had to be crawling its way through her right now. But she didn’t. Standing across from him, Hanna released a long, slow sigh and leaned back against the wall, but she also seemed to be steadying herself. Her hands certainly weren’t shaking any longer.
“But Bull has threatened you,” she pointed out, putting some of that steel in her voice. “And your father.”
Yeah, he had indeed. Bad blood sometimes turned ugly, and that’s what had happened with Bull and Boone. Even before Boone had gotten the tip about Bull being in the militia, there had been a land dispute that had escalated into a lawsuit and more than a year of ill will.
Of course, Bull had denied being in the militia. The man had also claimed that shooting Hanna and Arnie had been purely an accident, that the gun had gone off when he’d tried to wrestle it from his buddy, Arnie, and that he’d never intended Hanna and the baby any real harm. The last part might have been true.
Back then anyway.
But with six months of prison under his belt, Bull might be willing to act on that bad blood by going after anyone and everyone in the Ryland clan. If so, that gave the man a hell of a lot of targets. Dozens, what with Boone’s kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews. Friends, too, who might be on Bull’s hit list. That meant anyone in Silver Creek could become another victim of Bull’s so-called collateral damage.
“Have you had your security system on for the past couple of hours?” Jesse asked her just to verify.
“Yes, and I haven’t gone outside.” She paused. “It was a tough day because I couldn’t stop thinking about tomorrow, when Bull’s trial starts. Or rather, when hewasdue back in court.”
Jesse certainly hadn’t forgotten that, and he’d figured it would be hard on Hanna.
Bull had been put in jail, yes, but there was always the possibility that a jury would buy his insistence that it was an accidental shooting. Added to that, the trial meant going over all the details of what’d happened to her. Details she couldn’t remember. Couldn’t confirm. And that might sway a jury, too, in the wrong direction.
So, why had Bull escaped when there’d been the looming possibility that he could walk out of that courtroom as a free man? Well, free of the charges against Hanna and Arnie anyway. Eventually, he would have to stand trial for his participation in the militia.
“I looked out the window a couple of times but didn’t see anyone or anything,” Hanna added a moment later. “You think he’ll come here?”
No way could he try to lie to her or give her false hope. “I think that’s a strong possibility,” Jesse answered.
Hanna nodded, and she clamped her teeth over her trembling bottom lip. He would have added a whole lot more if his phone hadn’t buzzed with an incoming call. When Jesse saw the name on the screen, he knew he had to answer it right away.
“It’s Grayson,” he relayed to Hanna.
Sheriff Grayson Ryland, who was Jesse’s adopted brother and the oldest of the Ryland siblings. He was also the law in Silver Creek, for the next couple of months anyway until his well-earned retirement.
“Just making sure you’re with Hanna and that everything’s secured,” Grayson said the moment Jesse answered.
“I am and it is,” Jesse verified and, after giving it a couple seconds of thought, he put the call on speaker. It was possible Hanna would hear something in this conversation that would upset her even more than she already was, but Jesse didn’t want to keep anything from her. “I’m with Hanna now, and she’s listening. Has anyone reported seeing Bull?” He’d tacked the question on.
“Not yet, but they found the EMT’s truck that Bull used to escape. It was abandoned on a side road about ten miles from the prison. Anisolatedside road,” Grayson emphasized.
“Has anyone reported a stolen vehicle in the area?” Jesse immediately asked. Because a remote area meant Bull had needed some way to get out of there, and Jesse doubted the man planned to walk to whatever destination he had in mind, especially since he would have likely still been wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
