Gabby walked down the street with Hunter and something seemed so different. It didn’t feel as if they were two old friends who had reconnected after all these years. She felt as though all eyes were on them. As though everyone knew that she’d just helped him break into a courthouse. Well, maybe she didn’t help, but she’d participated.

It was as if she were walking down the street with a big scarlet A emblazoned across her chest. “Look at me! Look at me! I screwed this tall hunk of a man just last night! And it wasn’t even on a bed!”

But as watched as she felt, every time she glanced around her, she couldn’t find anyone even giving them the time of day.

“Are you okay?” asked Hunter from beside her.

No. She really wasn’t. “I don’t know,” she lied. “I feel paranoid. Like people are seeing right through me.”

“It’s not a bad way to live.”

“Feeling on edge all the time?”

“Being prepared all the time.”

“That just makes me feel more guilty.”

“Why?”

“Because this isn’t the life you should be living. You should be enjoying your life. Not feeling like you need to be prepared for an attack at any given moment.” She tried to imagine what his life would’ve been like if he’d never gotten involved with her family. Would he be like Ryan? Working a nine-to-five job? Maybe he would’ve married a nice girl from a normal, nuclear family. With two point five kids and maybe even a dog. Had she really ruined any chance of his happiness?

“I was destined to be fucked up from birth,” he said as though he’d read her mind and answered her question.

“Don’t say that.”

“I grew up with a dad who viewed me as a punching bag and a mom who wanted to help but figured drinking wine was easier than getting in the way of my dad’s fists. Trust me, working for your dad wasn’t the beginning of my corruption. It was the destination. If it wasn’t your father, I would’ve ended up in the city probably. I consider myself lucky.”

“How can you possibly think what happened to you was lucky?”

“Because I have lived my entire life as a pawn and now I can finally live life as a free man thanks to Hart and Toni. What about you? Do you live your life in self-pity?”

“Don’t turn this on me.”

“It’s all about you, though. You had the misfortune of being sired by your worthless dad. Then you married that son of a bitch who isn’t even worthy of breathing the same air as you. Now you don’t even have a job because you had the misfortune of missing me. Seems like if anyone got dealt the short hand here, it was you.”

She was oddly offended at his words. “No. This didn’t just happen to me. My choices led to this. I chose to marry Ryan. I chose to contact you.”

“Then why would it be any different for me? As much as I’ve spent my life blaming others for every terrible thing I’ve ever done, the fact is that I made those choices. Every life I’ve taken was because I made that choice and pulled the trigger. The fact that you were there doesn’t make you responsible. I own my actions. They’re mine and nobody else’s.”

“Does it make you happy to think that way?” she asked.

“No. It makes me think of all the things I should’ve done differently. But I can’t go back and change my decision. I can move forward and try to be a positive. Working with Toni helps me do that. Be a positive change in the world instead of a negative one.”

Gabby chewed that over and let out a deep breath. “And if you’re dating a small-town florist, you’ll probably never get that chance, will you?”

Hunter didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. They both already knew the answer. Gabby’s chest felt tight, but she kept her emotions under control. She wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t going to explain to Hunter why she was crying.

How could this have happened? How could she have fallen in love with someone so impossible? There was no way she would ever be able to make him happy. She couldn’t travel around the world with him and watch him risk his life over and over again. And yet she couldn’t force him to stay here and become domesticated. Hunter wasn’t a house cat. He was a panther. She could maybe feed him and get lucky enough to touch him from time to time, but she couldn’t keep him indoors for her own enjoyment.

Without thinking, she reached out for him, taking his hand in hers. He seemed surprised at the contact but didn’t pull back. Good, because she needed this contact right now.

“So do you have a plan?” he asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“I do,” she said, still biting back her sadness as she strove for normal conversation. “I am Kate’s best friend and they know that. So I’ll use that as my angle. I’ll tell everyone that the very idea that the police ever suspected her of any wrongdoing is preposterous and ask each one to pledge that if necessary they’d support her in court.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

Gabby snorted. “I might not be a criminal mastermind like Toni, but I have a few good ideas.”

Hunter smiled down at her. “I know,” he said simply.

Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Even though she’d just been telling herself how impossible a relationship between them could be, somehow having Hunter look at her and give her reassurance that he knew she was capable had her melting into mush. Good grief, she was in trouble.

Before she could call herself an idiot mentally any longer, they reached the real estate office.

He held the door open for her and let her lead as they started to make their way through the office. Luckily she wasn’t the only one who thought the world of Kate, so it wasn’t hard at all to get access to everyone. She told her story honestly but made a point to put a bit of emotion behind her words to make sure she sold the sympathy factor. She was no master manipulator and wasn’t used to trying to detect lies, but it came oddly easily to her. Because they were talking to person after person, it was easy to detect patterns in people’s voices as they expressed different levels of shock and outrage of what poor Kate had been through. It was apparent that Kate was loved very much, but unfortunately by the time they’d talked to everyone, Gabby had gotten nowhere. Not one person had projected guilty or had faked sympathy for Kate. At least no one that had been apparent to her.

“I have to be honest. I’m not suspicious of any of those people,” said Hunter as they walked out together.

Gabby’s face squished together in disgust. “I know. Everyone in there was so honest.”

Hunter let out a laugh. “Usually that’s a good thing.”

“Not when you’re trying to find a killer. How many people are we going to have to look into? The entire state of Michigan? It’s only a matter of time before Toni has someone to help more than me. And as soon as you’re gone, who knows if he’s going to strike again?”

“I’m not going anywhere while you’re in danger,” he promised.

Great. Now the only way she could be with Hunter was if she was under the threat of death. He wasn’t supposed to be giving her reasons to want to be a target.

“Besides,” he pointed out. “We didn’t talk to everyone. I’m sure there were Realtors taking the day off or showing houses or something.”

Gabby sighed. “What are the chances a real estate agent was trying to kill me? Dad was involved with a lot of crap, but it was all drugs and money laundering. Nothing real estate related. What connections would he have there?”

“Your dad had a pretty wide reach.”

“My dad is dead. He’s been dead for almost ten years now. So what the hell would still be here that would be connected to me? Hell, I’ve been here for years. Who here would want you dead? It’s not like you’re a witness who could get in the way. You were stopped from putting anyone behind bars when you were wrongfully arrested years ago. You’ve been a free man for a long time now and you haven’t caused any trouble. It just... it makes no sense. Soon enough Toni is going to figure that out and you all are going to leave and who knows what will happen once I’m alone here.”

“Don’t talk like that,” said Hunter.

“Like what? Logically?”

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

Well, that just made her want to ask more questions. But she didn’t. The more questions she asked, the more answers she’d get that she didn’t want. “Maybe I should sleep at my apartment tonight.”

“No,” said Hunter quickly. “As long as I’m here, you’re sleeping with me.”