Free Dylan's Redemption by Jennifer Ryan

of gruesome wounds in the military, on the Atlanta police force, and as a sheriff, but nothing prepared him to even think of something like that happening to the woman he loved.
    Oh, he had no doubt he loved her. It had taken him not two seconds to figure that out the minute he saw her this morning, and the relief had nearly sent him to his knees. Jessie had knocked him on his ass, figuratively and literally. He smiled thinking of it now. Tough. Strong. God, he’d missed her. He didn’t know what he’d done to earn it, but he’d been given a second chance at a real life with Jessie, and he wasn’t about to blow it again. To think he might actually have a chance to get her back after spending the last years thinking she was dead. More than he could hope for, that’s exactly what he wanted and planned to make happen.
    A knock at the door drew his attention. Lynn’s robust figure filled the space between the doorframe. Her white hair and smooth skin didn’t give away her age, except to say she was older than everyone in the sheriff’s office. He figured her age around sixty. A nice enough woman, great assistant, but she tended to be nosy as hell and talked a lot. She knew everything about everyone in town.
    Right now, he wanted thirty uninterrupted minutes to mine his computer’s knowledge and find the information he needed to know about Jessie under whatever name she’d been using, because he’d never found anything in her name.
    “What now?” He hadn’t meant to snap it out like that, but damnit he needed some peace and quiet.
    “In a foul mood, I see. You often get this way after a long day, or something’s on your mind. Word is Jessie Thompson showed up out of the blue this morning. Most of the town is talking about it. Marilee told the cashier at the grocery store Jessie got Brian a job.”
    When he didn’t remark, she continued. Who could stop her?
    “I also heard you arrived at the house shortly after Marilee left. If memory serves, you and Jessie used to be close friends. You took her to the prom and disappeared just days later. Sure, everyone found out you’d joined the military, but Jessie had already disappeared herself by then.
    “So, Sheriff. Did you see Jessie Thompson this morning? Is it true she’s back?”
    Jessie wouldn’t like him, or everyone else in town for that matter, talking about her. They’d done enough of that over the years. Not one of those people, himself included, ever tried to help her. As far as he knew, no one knew what was happening at the Thompson house.
    “She came by to visit Brian this morning and make arrangements for Buddy’s funeral tomorrow.”
    The best course, keep it simple and not give out too much information. Lord knew, if Lynn had already gotten wind of Jessie’s miraculous return, then the whole town already knew about it. Hell, Lynn probably knew more about it than he did, and he was there this morning.
    “I heard from Frank, who lives two doors down from Brian, he saw you two talking in the yard for quite some time, and she flew out of there driving one of those fancy cars. A Porsche,” she said and nodded with her lips pressed tight together.
    He neither confirmed nor denied anything about his conversation with Jessie. “She does drive a Porsche. It’s nice. Black.” He wondered how she could afford such an expensive car.
    Drunk most of the time, Buddy had scraped by on construction jobs, always riding the line between prosperous and poor. He might have done better if he didn’t drink away his profits.
    Ten minutes, that’s all he needed alone to find out about her past and present. Then he could decide what to do next. How to approach her and get her to talk about what happened, why he left, and apologize for being a dick and what his mother did, sending her that email. Jessie had something to tell him too. Something big. The stress settled firmly between his tense shoulder blades. His mind told him he’d failed her somehow and it had