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 abouther.
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’thaveenemies, 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.”
