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.
An image of Bran Garrett rose in her head. Handsome, intelligent, the sexiest man she had ever met. A man she trusted with her life on a daily basis. She was in love with him. Deeply in love. Whatever happened, she would never regret the time she had spent with him.
She had no idea what Brandon felt for her, but even if he loved her, there was no way she could handle the kind of life he lived. A warrior who survived on the edge, Bran stared danger in the face every day and never backed down. He’d been locked in a cell where he could have died. The thought of losing him was enough to make her physically ill.
It was ten minutes to eight as Jessie stood next to Hawk Maddox in the waiting area at the front of the detention facility. He was acting as her protector again, while Chase and Russell Addison were handling the last of the paperwork for Bran’s release.
She couldn’t help thinking about the violence Bran had used against his attackers last night. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t see it as anything other than justified. Two men had died in that prison. If Bran hadn’t fought for his life, he would have been the third.
“There he is,” Hawk said.
Jessie’s heart squeezed as Bran appeared in the doorway and started walking toward her, his brother and the attorney at his side.
His eyes found hers and didn’t look away. Then she was in his arms and he was holding her like he would never let her go.
“Jessie...baby...”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I was so worried.” She hugged his neck and fought not to cry. Bran was safe. That was all that mattered.
He held her close a few moments more, then pulled away and flashed one of his heart-stopping smiles. “I understand I’m in your custody until this is over.”