Gabe felt the same way about the town’s response. As they walked up the sidewalk to Lillian’s, she took his hand. He squeezed her fingers with a smile.

How could she feel so frightened…and so blessed?

He’d held her hand when she called Dennison to say she wanted to be bait. After a long pause, the Special Agent had reluctantly agreed. Then he’d shared that the Chicago police hotline had received reports of Spyros and his men at a gas station. The hitman hadn’t headed for Alaska yet.

The sense of relief was overwhelming.

Nonetheless, Gabe had still insisted on giving her guards. Just in case. Because he loved her.

How could she argue when he said stuff like that?

Gabe bent to give her a long, lingering kiss. He followed the sweetness with a stern look. “Call me when you’re ready to leave.”

She wouldn’t do anything to add to the worry in his expression, so she smiled up at him. “Yes, Mister Bossy Chief. I’ll be good.”

Her reward was the slight relaxing of his jaw. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“I’ll keep her safe, Gabriel.” Lillian stood in the doorway.

Gabe’s kisses were awfully potent. Audrey hadn’t even heard the door open.

Gabe smiled slightly. “Thank you, Lillian.”

As he headed back to his car, Audrey noticed two men leaning against a parked pickup.

Her muscular guards nodded at Gabe, then smiled at her and Lillian.

“Come, child.” Lillian led her through the house to the back. “There’s gardening to be done.”

Good. She needed something to occupy her hands. “I know. It seems wrong to have fun while those men are stuck out there, just wasting their time.”

“Protecting you is not a waste of time.” Lillian positioned a folding chair next to the garden cart beside the row of carrots and sat down. “Let me teach you the fine art of thinning—also known as the slaughter of innocent seedlings.”

Even as Audrey laughed, a tremor ran down her spine.

Kneeling in a garden row an hour later, Audrey sang along with Lillian as she harvested lettuce and beets. The song by Hobo Jim—and what a name—was a melancholy ballad about a fisherman who hadn’t returned to his woman.

The woman was probably imaginary. Even so, the sad tune had Audrey choking up. Because she couldn’t bear it if something happened to Gabe.

Romance books were all about the wonders of falling in love, the sex, even the fighting. Didn’t they ever mention how a woman could fold at just the thought of losing the new center of her universe?

Gabe was her center.

As Lillian took up a haunting descant to the melody, and the song turned even more sorrowful, Audrey blinked back tears.

Catching her friend’s worried look, she tried to smile. What had Lillian done when her husband died? How had she survived?