Bran rose from the table and so did Jessie. “Thanks for the meeting,” Bran said. “If we come up with something, we’ll let you know.” Urging Jessie toward the door, they walked away, holding hands and smiling at each other like lovers. Bonnet slipped quietly off in another direction, disappearing among the tourists as if he had never been there.
* * *
They were back in their suite. They had a lot more info and still not enough.
“Okay, so what do we do now?” Jessie asked.
Bran wished to God he knew. “Best plan at the moment, we pack up and head back to Fort Carson.”
“Why don’t we stay here? Mara Ramos and Ahmed were both living in San Diego. Maybe we’ll find something here that will lead us to the second batch of chemical weapons.”
He caught her shoulders, bringing her eyes to his face. “We’re stretched pretty thin here, Jess. Which would you rather do? Take down the man who killed your father? Or locate the second batch of weapons?”
“Both,” she said without hesitation.
Bran shook his head. “We’re not Homeland or FBI. I say we let the agency handle the domestic terrorists, which with any luck will lead them to the rest of the missing weapons. In the meantime, we go back to Fort Carson. Agent Tripp is a guy I think we can trust. The CID has no skin in the game, no involvement in the theft. They’re just looking for answers, same as we are.”
“You could be right. By now, Ahmed and Mara are probably in the hands of the counterterrorist unit, but Tripp has to be looking into Tank’s murder. He was under interrogation when he was killed. If we talk to Tripp, explain about Weaver and Holloway and their connection to my father’s death, maybe he’ll believe the general was also involved in the weapons theft.”
“We still don’t have proof your father was murdered,” Bran said.
Her chin lifted. “Then we’ll get it. I’ve wanted my father’s body exhumed from the start. After everything that’s happened, we should be able to get permission.”
Mulling over the possibilities, Bran started nodding. “So we go back to Fort Carson. We prove your dad was murdered and lay out our case against Holloway. No chance Holloway stole those weapons completely on his own. We bring him down, good chance he’ll give up whoever helped him pull the whole thing off. With enough information, the army should be able to track down the rest of the weapons.”
“While we’re there, we should talk to Charles Frazier again. If we give him the information Tabby came up with on the internet auctions on the dark web and the sale of the missing weapons, maybe he can go back into the Alamo computer systems and find something new that will help us.”
“Good idea.” Bran hauled her into his arms and kissed her. “We’re going to make this work,” he said with conviction. And as he held her, the realization hit him that he was thinking of more than just solving the case.
Jessie was the woman he’d been looking for since the day he’d left the army and begun a new life. He might not have realized it, but he did now. He could change for her. All he had to do was convince her.
When she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him back, he thought that maybe he actually had a chance.
* * *
Jessie managed to withstand the effects of that searing kiss, but it wasn’t easy. Forcing herself to end the contact, she stepped away.
“If we’re going back to Colorado, I need to pack my things.” Bran caught her as she tried to brush past him, tipped her face up, and softly kissed her.
“I’ll make the flight reservations.”
She just nodded, her pulse once more thrumming. It was insane. After what he had done in Mara Ramos’s garage, everything about their relationship had changed. It didn’t matter that Brandon was no longer a soldier. He was a warrior and always would be.
She had never even dated a military man, never imagined she could fall in love with one. She had left that life behind when she had left Fort Carson, left her dad, and headed off to college.
She understood a soldier’s world, had seen the pain their families suffered, knew that pain firsthand. Husbands and sons who died in combat, brothers who had made the ultimate sacrifice, men and women who would never come home.