Chapter Five #2
“Not at this hour.” The pleasant glow the fire burned into his nerves vanished in an instant, replaced by alertness and a level of suspicion blazed into him from years in the military. “Someone’s trying to break in.”
Her face paled. “It could be nothing.”
Carson appeared at his elbow. “Talk to me.”
Felicity showed him the screen. The frozen image from the doorbell camera displayed a blurred shape at her front door. Hood up. No package in hand.
She lifted the phone a little closer to her mouth. “You’re on camera.” Her voice was clear and firm. “The police have been alerted. They’re on their way.”
The figure on screen jolted, then ran out of the frame.
Carson’s mouth hardened. “Gabe, take the truck. Check out her house.”
“Copy.”
She rested a hand on Gabe’s arm, her touch as light and fleeting as a butterfly landing. “I’m going too.”
He started shaking his head but stopped at the look on her face. He met Carson’s stare and nodded once. “I’ve got her.”
As they moved toward the truck, Gabe fell into step beside her. He didn’t know what waited at her house, but one thing settled hard and certain in his chest.
He would damn well be standing between her and whatever came next.
* * * * *
Felicity gripped her phone, curling forward in the passenger seat, staring at the screen until her eyes burned.
The security app showed an empty front porch. The figure was gone, and not a shadow was detected in the vicinity. Her porch light was set on a timer, the cone of light shining white on small table where she placed a potted plant every summer and a pumpkin in the fall.
Everything looked normal…but none of it reassured her. Her thumb hovered over replay, but she’d already reviewed the footage several times. She already knew she’d see a blurred shape turning in panic when she’d spoken through the speaker.
Who could it be? Her neighbors were older and kept to themselves. If she did happen to see one doing yardwork or collecting their mail, they simply waved.
Her mind wandered to the reason she had all the security measures installed in the first place—Honor’s ex. Sully.
Even thinking his name made her stiffen. That man had slunk around the town just waiting for a chance to break into the house or Honor’s van.
But no, it couldn’t be him. Honor had put a bullet in him after he kidnapped her. And a judge put him behind bars for a long time. He was no longer a threat.
But her brain didn’t care about logic. How could it, after what happened to her shop?
Could Sully have asked someone to finish what he started? Called in a favor from another criminal with nothing to lose? Men like him didn’t respect jail terms. If they were determined to get what they wanted, they’d find the means.
Or maybe this wasn’t about Honor at all. Maybe it was about her.
The questions the Willowbrook police fired off at her didn’t give her anything to go on, just as it wouldn’t give them any leads on the case.
She was boring. She didn’t have enemies, and the last man she’d dated seriously was left behind years go when she moved here to follow her dream.
Beside her in the truck, Gabe drove without shifting his attention from the quiet road.
His long fingers were loose around the wheel, the other resting near the shifter.
He didn’t speak, but she caught the tightness at the corner of his mouth and the singular focus as they passed every mailbox and parked car between the ranch and her street.
When they reached her neighborhood and her modest home came into view, she braced herself for…she didn’t know what. More destruction? Broken glass, a kicked-in door?
Instead, her house looked the same as it always did, the tidy front porch with the light on.
“Pull in the driveway,” she told Gabe.
He did, then slid the truck into park. Through the darkness, she couldn’t pick out those warm amber or gold flecks in his eyes, but she felt the intensity of his gaze on her.
She reached for the door handle.
“Wait—stay here while I have a look around.”
She slowly dropped her hand to her lap and bit down on her lip. He sent her another look like he wanted to pin her to the leather seat with the force of his stare. Then he popped the lid of the console and reached inside.
Her eyes flew wide. “Is that a gun?”
“Just a precaution, Felicity. Stay here and lock the truck doors.”
She curled her fingers into her thighs, peering through the windshield at Gabe. He kept the weapon close as he moved in unhurried steps to the front of the house. After a brief scan of the area, he vanished around the corner.
She envisioned his progress through the side yard where roses grew, supported by a trellis, to the back yard where she had spent a week last summer laying stones on a humble patio. She held her breath, waiting, waiting, until Gabe finally appeared around the corner of the garage.
His form was shadowed but distinct. He crossed the short distance to the truck and stopped at her door. She opened it.
“All clear.” He studied her face. “You okay?”
She let out a small puff of air and nodded.
“Come on.” He started to reach into the truck for her, then pulled his hand back. He stepped aside to allow her to slip out instead.
Together, they walked up the short sidewalk to the front door. She unlocked it, the skin on her neck prickling when she pushed it open.
This time Gabe touched her forearm, fingers warm and rough. He guided her behind him and entered first. He didn’t let her go, and she was glad of it. She crowded close to him, calmed by his masculine scent of pine and another note that was just Gabe.
For a beat, they stood in her entryway. The light from the front porch illuminated the table where she dropped her bag and keys every day. The closet where her coats and shoes lived.
He slipped his hand down her forearm to clasp her fingers. She clung to the connection.
Reaching out, he flipped on the light. She held her breath, then realized nothing looked out of place. Nothing was trashed.
They moved into the living room. It smelled of the lavender spray she used when she cleaned, not intruders or fear.
Gabe gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. He did a quick sweep of the house, moving to the kitchen, the laundry area at the back, then his footsteps echoed in the hall to her bedroom, the guest room and the bathroom.
She stood rooted to the living room rug like the thick fibers in shades of blue could tether her to the world that felt so topsy-turvy. Her ears thudded with her pulse and the strain of listening for anything that might mean trouble.
A minute later, Gabe returned, broad shoulders easing a notch. “House is clear. Whoever was picked up on cam never entered.”
“The windows are all locked?”
He nodded. “I checked each one. I see you have alarms on them.”
“Honor’s ex…Sully…he tried to break in.”
“Where is he now?”
“Prison.”
His gaze roamed over her face. “You’re not staying here tonight.”
A shiver seized her. “I think you’re right. It might be better to stay with Honor.”
He nodded. “We’ll both sleep better.”
She tripped over that word. “Both?”
“Yeah. How am I supposed to sleep if I’m worrying about you?”
Her stomach gave a small flutter. He was worried about her?
“If you want to pack some things…”
“I brought some boxes of antique books home from the shop the other day. They’re valuable—signed copies and first editions. I don’t want to leave them here if someone breaks in.”
He nodded. “Where are the boxes?”
She waved toward the kitchen. “I park in the garage. I brought them into the kitchen.”
“I’ll get them.”
She hurried ahead of him to point out the boxes, not that he could miss them. When he hefted one easily into his arms, she would have said it was full of pillows instead of heavy volumes. Thick muscles bunched under his shirt, and his sleeves pulled tight around his flexing biceps.
He brushed past her on the way to the front door, leaving her to gape at his back muscles flexing beneath flannel.
She stared for a long moment before shaking herself back to reality. Her shop had been broken into. Someone might be scoping out her house too. She shouldn’t be noticing Gabe’s muscles. But damn if her brain cared.
Tearing her gaze away, she walked to her bedroom to grab a few belongings. By the time she had a bag packed with a few outfits and her basic toiletries, Gabe had finished loading the boxes in the truck and waited for her in the living room.
When he turned from the bookshelves he was inspecting, he glanced at the bag in her hand. “Ready?”
She nodded, and they locked the house on the way out.
The drive back felt shorter, maybe because she wasn’t fixated on the app, waiting to see a blur materialize on her porch again.
Maybe because knowing her home was secure, and her antique books safe in the bed of the truck, made her chest hurt less.
Maybe because the man behind the wheel radiated strength that made her less afraid of every shadow, even her own.
At the ranch, he walked her to the front door. Honor met them, concern shining in her eyes, her hair up in a messy knot. She looked from Felicity to the tall man standing behind her. “You can sleep in the library.”
“The library?”
Honor’s mouth curved. “Best room in the house. The couch is comfortable and I know you’ll feel right at home there.”
For the first time in hours, she found a reason to smile.
Gabe had already started toward the truck. “I’ll bring the boxes in,” he called over his shoulder.
Her heart gave that same little flutter she’d experienced when he showed concern for her sleeping alone in the house.
“I can do it,” she called to his back, but he just kept walking.
Honor buzzed around like an endearing sister bee, making up the couch with sheets and cozy blankets, switching on a lamp beside the sofa that cast a warm glow over the space.
Felicity looked around. “Sleeping in a library is a childhood dream of mine.”
Honor laughed then came to hug her. “No rolling ladders, but I think you’ll be comfy.”
Felicity squeezed her an extra-long beat, so grateful to have her.
Honor examined her face. “Are you okay, sis? This is a lot. I’m worried about you.”
Felicity pulled in a deep breath. “Everyone is making it much easier.”
“I should have come with you to the shop.”
She shook her head before Honor got all the words out. “The vets count on you to keep their routines. Besides, Gabe and I just cleaned up a little.”
At that moment, Gabe returned, muscles bulging under the weight of one of the boxes.
He glanced around for a place to set it down, then carried it to the far wall and placed it in front of an old-fashioned record cabinet with a turntable on top and an extensive album collection on the shelf beneath.
When he straightened, his stare landed on hers—like he was checking on her without asking a question. After only a heartbeat, he turned and walked back out to retrieve the other boxes.
Honor fussed over her, bringing her a mug of hot chocolate and showing her where the bathroom was. She even offered one of her fluffiest robes to Felicity.
“Thank you. You’re the best sister.”
Honor embraced her again. “Anything for you. You should try to rest. If you need me, you know where my room is.”
“I’ll be fine. Besides, if I get restless, I can always go through these boxes. I still haven’t opened them and they were shipped to the shop months ago.” She glanced up as Gabe returned with the third box. He set it on the floor next to the others and turned to her with a quirk of his lips.
“That should do it. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you. I’ll help you go through the boxes.”
“You don’t need to do that, Gabe. You’ve already done so much.”
He arched a brow. “If you don’t know book one of a series from book three, can you really be trusted?”
She laughed. A real laugh. “All right then. I accept.”
Honor’s gaze bounced between them. “I’m heading to bed. Night, Felicity.”
“Night, Honor.”
She swept from the room, leaving her alone with Gabe once more.
Their stares met.
“You’ll be all right?” His low rumble did things to her knees that made her need to sit down.
She drifted to the sofa and sank to the cushion. “I’ll be fine.” As soon as she sat, exhaustion struck and the last of the adrenaline that had been fueling her for hours drained away.
She stretched out on the sofa with her head on the plump eiderdown pillow.
He took a step forward. As if he didn’t know what to do with himself, he clutched the edge of the blanket and drew it up over her.
Her breath caught in her throat, and her head swirled with his nearness.
He leaned closer, closer. When hard lips brushed over her forehead, her eyes slipped shut.
A forehead kiss. No man had ever given her a forehead kiss before.
Men got handsy on the dance floor or made demands after taking her out to dinner. But Gabe seemed to possess the old-fashioned manners she admired.
She issued a shivery sigh.
He pulled back, his eyes boring into her. “Sorry. Too much.”
“No.” Her response was a mere breath. “Just enough.”
In a world full of men who pushed too hard and too fast, a man who watched out for a woman—who protected her without taking from her—was the kind who could make her heart skip a beat.