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She made a sound of agreement, maybe because she figured she wouldn’t be getting much sleep, either, and she took a quilt and pillow from the closet. She handed them to him and pulled out a second quilt.
“For me,” she said. “I’ll stay in the nursery with Evan.”
No way would Jesse try to talk her out of that. It was probably overkill but, at the moment, no precaution seemed too much for them to take. In fact, he just might end up in the hall outside the nursery door. That way, they could both make sure Bull didn’t get close to the baby.
Hanna opened her mouth again, maybe to voice the worries that he knew had to be eating away at her, but she must have changed her mind about that because she just shook her head.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Hanna added, already turning toward the nursery.
Jesse watched her go in and was about to head to the living room when his phone buzzed again. It was a soft sound, but Hanna must have heard it because she hurried back to him.
“It’s Grayson,” he told her and, as he’d done before, Jesse put the call on speaker.
“Make sure everything’s secure,” Grayson immediately said. “Bull’s just been sighted in Silver Creek.”
Chapter Two
Breathe, Hanna reminded herself. She tried a trick that her doctor had recommended to help her with the panic attacks. She brought up the image of her son in her mind.
The image of Evan smiling and babbling.
As usual, it slowed her racing heart, but she knew she would no doubt need a lot more steeling up to listen to the rest of what Grayson had to say.
“Where was Bull spotted?” Jesse asked the sheriff while he walked to the front window to look out.
Hanna went with him, and she grabbed the baby monitor from the foyer table so she could keep an eye on Evan while she also looked to see if a killer was nearby. Yes, she would definitely need more steeling up.
“Out on Miller Road,” Grayson answered. “Sheri Cartwright was driving home from work and said she saw Bull behind the wheel of a black truck. He was going in the opposite direction from her.”
Hanna was familiar with the road since it was only about a mile from her house. Much too close. She was familiar with the name Sheri Cartwright, too, and was told that they’d been friends in high school.
“It’s dark,” Jesse pointed out. “You think Sheri could be mistaken about it being Bull?”
“No, I think she saw him. It hasn’t hit the media yet about Bull’s escape, so Sheri wasn’t actually looking for the man. She said she passed him and when she caught a quick glimpse of his face, she did a sort of mental double take at seeing him out and about. She decided to call the sheriff’s office.”
Good thing that she had made that call because at least now they had a heads-up about Bull being so close. Of course, Hanna knew a heads-up wouldn’t stop the man from trying to get onto her property and into the house.
So he could try to kill her.
But Bull had to know that Jesse would be there with her, that he would do whatever it took to protect Evan and her. Bull, though, might be in the “whatever it takes” mode as well. He could be willing to take all kinds of risks to get to Jesse and her.
“I don’t suppose Sheri got a look at the license plate of the truck Bull was driving?” Jesse pressed.
“No, and she didn’t have much of a description for the vehicle itself either. Older model, black or dark blue. That’s it. We’ll get out the word, ask if anyone’s missing a truck like that or if one was recently sold in the area. We might get lucky.”
Grayson didn’t sound especially hopeful. Neither was Hanna. She’d done a lot of reading about Bull in the past couple of months and knew he was a smart man. He was not only former military, but he’d also run a successful real estate business before moving to Silver Creek three years earlier. If he’d arranged this escape, then he would likely have also arranged to trade out vehicles to throw the cops off his trail.
She had also done some reading about the militia group that Bull had been part of. The Brotherhood. According to the reports Hanna found, there had been at least a hundred members, and they’d been involved in all sorts of illegal activity including weapons, drugs and perhaps even human trafficking.
What was missing from those reports was why Bull had gotten involved with a group like that in the first place. He’d gone to school with Arnie Ross, the man who’d taken Hanna from her car, so maybe that was the link. Or maybe Bull had just gotten greedy and wanted a piece of the lucrative illegal deals being made. Added to that, his real estate business would have been a good place to launder any money from those ill-gotten gains.
“I sent two of the reserve deputies out to Miller Road,” Grayson continued. “And I’ll get out the word to make sure anyone who sees Bull reports it.”
“It wasn’t smart, though, for Bull to come to Silver Creek,” she muttered.
Until she heard the words, Hanna hadn’t even known she was going to say them, but it was the truth. He might not have lived in Silver Creek that long, but he would still be very recognizable since his name had been plastered all over the news.
“No, not smart,” Jesse and Grayson agreed in unison.
