Chapter Thirteen Tess Angelhart #2
Tess jumped up and screamed, knocking over her nearly empty coffee. Nate stood in the doorway of the library, intimidating
in his black T-shirt and tactical pants.
“Dammit, Nate!” She looked frantically for a towel, but of course there weren’t any in the den. She grabbed blank paper from
the printer and pressed it onto the spilled coffee before it dripped to the floor and stained the beautiful antique rug.
“You locked the door, but didn’t dead-bolt it. Picking the lock was easy. Color me surprised when I didn’t hear the beep of
an alarm. Then, I made quite a bit of noise walking around the house, but you couldn’t hear anything over the music.”
“You broke into the house?”
“You’re missing my point,” Nate said.
She hadn’t missed it, but she was still angry with him for scaring her.
Tess turned off the music, went to the kitchen to grab paper towels, then returned to fully clean up the spill. Nate was still
there, standing just inside the library entry.
“Okay,” she said, mostly to try and get Nate out of here before Gabriel returned. “I’ll set the alarm when you leave.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Gabriel will be home soon, and if you’re hovering he’s going to be worried.”
“He should be worried.”
“You’re going to make this worse.”
“Make what worse?”
“Are you being deliberately obtuse?”
He cracked half a smile. “Maybe.”
She relaxed. That was the old Nate, and she was glad he was still in there somewhere. “You should be sitting on Margo,” Tess said. “She’s the one stirring the pot. And don’t tell me it’s because Margo can take care of herself,” she added quickly.
“Well, she can, but Luisa is with her today, and I heard that her boyfriend has practically moved in with her.”
Tess tried not to act surprised. She knew that Margo and Cal had gotten serious, but she didn’t realize it was that serious. Every time Tess tried to talk to Margo about Cal, her sister would just make cryptic comments like “they’re having
fun,” “taking it one day at a time,” “it’s not serious.” Maybe in planning her wedding Tess hadn’t been paying enough attention
to what was going on in her sister’s life.
“I have Gabriel,” she said.
“A doctor.”
“So?”
“Does he own a gun?”
She opened her mouth then closed it. “I don’t know.” She doubted it. “I have one.” But it was at her condo. She decided not
to mention that to Nate.
“You’re above average on the gun range, but you’re an analyst. You have no practical tactical training.”
She resented his blunt honesty. She’d taken advanced self-defense classes and went to the gun range once a month. Sure, she
wasn’t obsessed with guns like Margo or obsessed with physical fitness like Luisa, but she could hold her own.
You couldn’t get out of the grip of a gun-toting jerk last September.
Her fear had gotten the better of her then. Maybe Nate was right. Maybe she needed more training.
“Tess, I’m not trying to make you feel bad,” Nate said. “I just want you to assess your skills and situation honestly because
I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
She heard the door open from the garage into the kitchen. “Gabriel’s home.”
“You don’t know that,” Nate said. He left the room. A moment later he returned, right behind Gabriel. “You’re right,” he said to Tess and winked.
Gabriel had a frown on his handsome face. She loved him so much and every time she saw him, her heart skipped a beat. “Hey,”
she said, forced a smile.
“You didn’t text me that we had company.”
“You remember Nate?”
“Yes.” But he was looking at her for more than an introduction.
“Remember how I told you that Margo was still investigating Dr. Klein’s murder?”
“Of course.”
“It was on the back burner until yesterday.” She told him what happened. She hadn’t wanted to tell him about the murder, but
he’d find out eventually and be angry she hadn’t told him. She didn’t want a wedge between them when their wedding was right
around the corner. She focused on her dad’s unexpected transfer and how Jack wanted everyone to take precautions until they
had more information. “Nate’s doing a security assessment on your house and is going to stick with me for a couple days.”
Gabriel didn’t say anything for a long minute, and she was worried. Really worried. She was constantly thinking about all
the ways her relationship could fall apart. Sometimes, it paralyzed her.
Then he walked over to her, drew her into his arms, and held her tight. “You are the most important person in the world to
me, Teresa,” he whispered in her ear. “If this is what must be, I understand.”
“I love you,” she said, sighing in relief.
He kissed her lightly, looked down at her notes. “What are you researching?”
“Mom doesn’t know who killed Dr. Klein, but said he was concerned about a PTSD drug trial with several of his patients because there was missing or false data. Mom and Aunt Rita are going to Colorado tomorrow to talk to Dad, see if he has more information.”
Gabriel was reading one of the reports she’d printed out, a slight frown on his face.
“What? Do you see something?”
“No, nothing specific. I’m just . . .” He paused, cleared his throat and glanced over at Nate. Tess had almost forgotten he
was in the room. “I may be able to offer some insight, at least in how to read these reports.”
“I didn’t want to ask.”
“Why?”
“You don’t always approve of what I do.”
“Honey, that’s not true. I worry about you, especially after what happened in September. Your family takes risks that I’m
not comfortable with. But I will always support you.”
Thank you, she mouthed, because she felt like she was going to cry.
“Put your papers and thoughts in order, and I’ll talk to Nate about how I can improve our security. Then we can have dinner
and discuss these reports.”
He rubbed her arms, then crossed the room. “Tell me where the holes are and how to plug them,” Gabriel said to Nate as they
walked out of the room.
Tess was relieved. She had been worried . . . clearly for no reason.
Now she could focus on her research without the dark cloud of Gabriel’s possible reaction hanging over her.