The female guard hurriedly picked up the phone while the other two guards sprang into action. The glass door slid open, one of the men grabbed him, spun him around, and snapped on a pair of cuffs.
A medic appeared to apply first aid to the slice in his shoulder, while two more raced back to the injured men in his cell. Then the female guard and one of the men led him down the corridor into a windowless interrogation room.
Better there, he thought, than back in the cell.
Or at least Bran hoped so.
Now he just prayed one of them had actually made the call.
It was four thirty in the morning when Jessie’s cell rang, sending a stab of terror straight to the heart. Her hand shook as she grabbed the phone from the nightstand. Hearing the ring, Chase knocked, then opened the bedroom door. Hawk appeared in the doorway beside him.
“This...this is Jessica Kegan.” Since she was sharing the suite with two men, she had slept in her yoga pants and a Denver Broncos T-shirt.
“Jessie, it’s Thomas Anson. There’s been an incident at the detention facility.”
She clamped down on a fresh rush of terror, saw the same fear reflected in Chase’s whiskey-brown eyes. “Is...is Brandon all right?”
“Colonel Larkin phoned. Brandon was attacked in his cell, Jessie, just as you were afraid he would be.”
“Oh, God.”
“He’s all right, Jess. The two inmates he fought with fared much worse. They’re in serious condition in the infirmary. The good news is what happened was enough to convince Larkin to take a look at whatever information the two of you can assemble. In the meantime, he’s releasing Brandon into your custody. Apparently he feels that if anyone can keep him in line, it’s you.”
Relief made her muscles go limp and her eyes burn. She was glad she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She covered the phone. “He’s okay,” she said, and both Chase and Maddox looked relieved.
Jessie brushed a tear from her cheek. “Thank the colonel for me.”
“You can pick him up anytime after 8:00 a.m.”
“Thank you, Thomas.”
“Also...I should know about the exhumation sometime early tomorrow. I’ll call as soon as I have the information.” The line went dead, and Jessie looked over at the men waiting to hear the news.
“That was my father’s military counsel, Thomas Anson. He says they’re releasing Bran this morning. Two men attacked him in his cell. Apparently Bran defended himself with enough vigor to put them in the hospital in serious condition.”
Chase released a sigh of relief. “Maybe now we can actually get some sleep.”
Maddox chuckled. “Your turn on the sofa.”
They were taking turns keeping watch over her, she realized. “I haven’t thanked you both for coming all the way out here.”
“You don’t have to thank us,” Chase said. “Looking out for each other is what we do. Get some sleep. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night, Jessie,” Maddox said.
“Good night, Hawk.”
She remembered meeting him that first day in Dallas, a big man, muscular and handsome, with thick dark brown hair cut short, and blue eyes. He was a bounty hunter, Bran had told her. He’d also said Maddox was former marine spec ops and could do just about anything.
Her stomach contracted as she recalled the events of last night. Maddox had arrived at the hotel just after dark and taken up his duties as her protector. Chase, tall and athletically built, with dark gold hair and a short-cropped beard along a hard jaw, had shown up an hour later.
He’d brought an attorney named Russell Addison, a man in his midforties with slightly receding straw-colored hair. Addison had spent the night in a hotel room down the hall while Hawk and Chase had slept in the living room of the suite.
Maddox had talked about the woman he was going to marry in just a few weeks. “I think you’d like her. Kate’s smart and she’s fun. And I know she’d like you.”
Jessie smiled. “You like her so I know I’ll like her.” She could tell he was deeply in love. And Chase had a wife he adored.
Jessie was surprised to feel a stab of envy. She had never come close to a permanent relationship, never felt the kind of connection that would last a lifetime.
