“Nothing.” She stared at him fiercely. “I did nothing. I watched them, frozen. Then one of them saw me. I don’t know if it was a man or a woman. But I saw those eyes focus on me and it broke the spell. I ran.”

“To where?”

“I had nowhere left to go except the cabin.”

“Cabin?”

“Once a year, Nathan would take me to the mountains in Northern California. He had a house there. I didn’t know where else to go. I ran until I found a taxi.” Voice brittle, she curled against the solid strength that was Gabriel. “I was so pathetic.”

She had watched Nathan kill a woman and done nothing. All the way to the cabin, she’d thought about calling the police, but she did nothing once more.

She’d tumbled out of the cab and wandered to the edge of the plateau. The welcoming distance to the deep thickets below. Hesitant steps and the tumble of stones into nothing. “I stood there, and I don’t know what I planned to do. I just wanted it to be over.”

His embrace trembled then, and she breathed deeply, determined to forge to the end. “I was there for two days. I walked in the forest, sat on the cliffs, and thought about everything my life had become. I was alone truly for the first time in decades. That second night, a storm moved in.”

Erin fell silent again, and Gabriel brushed the top of her head with an encouraging kiss.

“I was out in the forest, running for the cabin. Nathan called my name.” Remembering the scene, she frowned. “He’d always been beautiful. Not the way you are. You’re sculpture. He was more illusory, an artist’s rendering. The wind whipped the leaves into a frenzy behind him.

“He grabbed my wrist. I tried to pull free and he threw me into a tree. I could hear the bone splinter.” She rubbed at the old wound. “I got to my feet and ran for the cabin. He chased me inside.” Erin stared at the ring she’d taken from him after he died. “We fought. He had a gun in his pocket. I made him angry and he dropped it. I grabbed it and we struggled for the gun. It went off. I’d shot him, just before I passed out.”

In a cool voice, banked with helpless fury, he questioned. He had no option but to question. To make her see her truth. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“The phones were out.” She raised earnest eyes to meet his gaze. “When I came to, he was dead.” Honesty prompted the last fragment of admission. About how she’d sacrificed humanity for survival. She braced herself for loss. The way Gabriel held her, the solid warmth of his hands on hers, the respect she’d seen in the deep gray eyes she adored.