“Are you sure you can do this on your own? Maybe we should call the police, let them bring him in.”
“We don’t have enough evidence. Not yet. We’ll see how tonight plays out.”
He gave her a quick hard kiss and left her there to worry. Since they hadn’t made it to her apartment, Jessie busied herself washing their dirty clothes, then used her disposable phone to call her best friend. Hallie picked up on the second ring but didn’t recognize the caller ID, since it wasn’t Jessie’s cell.
“This had better not be some phony credit card sales call,” she said, making Jessie laugh.
“Nope, not a sales call, I promise.”
“Jessie! Where in the hell have you been, girl?”
“It’s a long, not the least bit boring story, some of which I told you when we talked the last time, some you will not believe.” Hallie knew about her investigation into her father’s death. She’d been at the funeral. She knew Bran was in Colorado helping her, didn’t know Jessie was sleeping with her self-appointed bodyguard.
“Where are you?” Hallie asked. “Are you back in Denver?”
“Actually, I’m in Evergreen. It’s a long story.”
“I want to hear it. I desperately need a best friend fix.”
“So do I. I can’t begin to tell you how much.” She glanced around for Ty, who was never far away. Like Brandon, he took his job as her protector extremely seriously. “Hold on a minute.”
She covered the phone. “Ty, would it be all right if I invited a girlfriend up to the house? I haven’t seen her in ages, not since the trouble began. You’ll like her, I promise.”
Ty frowned. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. It’s my job to keep you safe, and your friend is an unknown factor.”
“She’s not connected to what we’ve been doing. She actually knows very little about it. She’s my best friend since college, Ty. I really need to see her.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “All right, I guess. I don’t see how it could be a problem. Hand me the phone and I’ll give her directions.”
Jessie handed him the burner, and Ty gave Hallie instructions on how to find the house up in the hills. “I’ll leave word with the guard at the gate.”
Hallie must have said something funny because Ty laughed. “You got it.” He handed Jessie the burner.
“Is that guy as sexy as he sounds on the phone?” Hallie asked.
Jessie cast him a glance. She hadn’t really thought of Ty that way but... “Actually, yes. And he has the cutest two kids you’ve ever seen.” Hallie had always loved children. She couldn’t wait to have some of her own.
“Single?”
“At the moment.”
Hallie laughed. “I’m on my way.”
Forty-five minutes later Hallie’s little red Mazda CX-3 drove up in front of the guesthouse, and Jessie hurried outside to meet her. Splashes of sunlight appeared between the clouds, but the temperature had only reached the midthirties. The weather was getting colder, with light snow showers predicted for tomorrow.
The two women hugged. They were close to the same size, both of them petite and around five-four, but Hallie was half Latina, with glossy straight black hair to the middle of her back and velvet-brown eyes. She was wearing black leggings and knee-high boots with a red wool sweater, and she had some very nice curves.
“I’ve called you like a thousand times,” Hallie said. “But the phone went straight to voice mail every time. I would have been really worried except I know the kind of work you do for your blog. I was really relieved when I got your last email.”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you over lunch. I made soup and sandwiches for all of us.”
Hallie looked over at the man standing on the front porch steps in jeans and a pair of heavy work boots. If Jessie’s life hadn’t become so crazy, she might not have noticed the bulge of a pistol at his waist beneath the long-sleeve T-shirt he was wearing under a gray hoodie sweatshirt.
He’d given strict instruction to the gate guard to keep a close watch for trouble, and made several trips around the perimeter of the estate that morning. Neither Ty nor Bran expected trouble here in the mountains, but Ty knew the situation and it was always better to be safe.
Jessie made introductions. “Hallie, meet Tyler Folsom. Ty’s a friend of Brandon’s.”
Hallie smiled up at him. “It’s nice to meet you, Ty.”