EIGHT
Jessie walked into the suite, Bran right behind her. For a moment, he stood glaring down at her, his hands on his hips. There was a cut next to his lower lip and a bruise forming on his cheek. She wanted to reach out and touch him, make sure he was okay.
He ran his fingers through his too-long hair. “You were amazing out there.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
His expression hardened. “Don’t do it again. Next time I tell you to do stay put, you do it. You got that?”
Irritation trickled through her. “No, I don’tgotthat. I’m an army brat. I don’t stand by and let people I care about get hurt. You gotthat?”
Surprise widened his eyes, then they crinkled at the corners and his mouth edged into a smile. She had the most shocking desire to kiss him.
“Yeah, I guess I do. In that case, thanks.” He sighed. “Couple of lowlife flunkies. I was hoping to take one of them down without hurting him too much, find out who the hell they worked for.”
He was worried about hurting that massive mountain of a man? And she’d thought he needed her help.
“It wasn’t your fault he got away,” she said. “Kira and her kids walked out at exactly the wrong time.”
“The way those guys moved, they’re ex-military. The long hair and beard aren’t regulation so they’re not active duty. Could be mercenaries, ex-military for hire, but they’re definitely not at the top of the food chain.”
“The guy with the man bun had a tattoo on his neck. I couldn’t quite make it out, but it looked like a gang tat of some kind.”
“Yeah, I caught a glimpse, not enough to tell what it was. You’re right, it could be a gang tat. Believe it or not, there are gangs in the army, same as anywhere else.”
“What about the license plate number? Did you get a look at it?”
“I got the number, but odds are the plate is stolen. I’ll run it down, see what I can find out, but don’t get your hopes up.”
“How did they know we were here?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “Good question. Either someone at the base put a tail on us or they’re tracking you, may have been tracking you all along. I was watching for a tail, didn’t see any sign of one, which means...”
He strode over to his black canvas duffel, tossed it up on the sofa, and unzipped it. He pulled out a handheld, black plastic device with tiny lights on the front.
“What is it?”
“Bug detector.”
She followed him into the bedroom, watched him check her carry-on, then run the device over the clothes in the closet. Finding nothing, he walked back out and checked her purse. LED lights began to flicker, growing brighter and brighter, and a buzzing sound went off.
“Fuck.” Bran grabbed her purse and dumped the contents on the sofa, then started digging around inside. He found a small round chip about the size of a thumbnail in the bottom of one of the pockets and held it up.
“Oh, my God.”
Carrying it over to the stone-floored entry, he dropped the disk on the floor and crushed it beneath the heel of his boot.
“There’s a good chance your car is bugged, too. That’s probably how they knew you were flying into Dallas. Tracked you to the Denver Airport. If they watched you check in, it wouldn’t be hard to figure which flight you were on.”
“So they called someone in Dallas and had them waiting at the terminal when I landed.”
He nodded. “Hired guns. Like you said, they were probably watching for you, followed your taxi to The Max.”
Her hand shook as she started putting the contents of her purse back inside. “How did they get the bug into my bag?”
“You were on the base asking questions before you flew to Dallas, right?”
“That’s right. Once I decided to look into the theft, I drove down from Denver and stayed overnight. I drove down again right before I left for Texas. Both times I got stonewalled by just about everyone. They wanted me to back off, but I told them I was going to keep digging.”
