Gabriel knew things about the man that he wasn’t eager to share with Michelle. The man was part of a criminal organization, and he knew Michelle’s habits. He also had a yen for her, if what Michelle had blurted out to him once was true—and he had no indication that she would lie about it. He might decide to come and try his luck with her now that her stepmother was out of the picture. That couldn’t be allowed.

He was surprised by his own affection for Michelle. It wasn’t paternal. She was, of course, far too young for anything heavy, being eighteen to his twenty-four. She was a beauty, kind and generous and sweet. She was the sort of woman he usually ran from. No, strike that, she was no woman. She was still unfledged, a dove without flight feathers. He had to keep his interest hidden. At least, until she was grown up enough that it wouldn’t hurt his conscience to pursue her. Afterward...well, who knew the future?

At the moment, however, his primary concern was to make sure she had whatever she needed to get through high school and, then, through college. Whatever it took.

Sara called him back. She wouldn’t be able to get a flight to Texas for two days, which meant that Michelle would be on her own at night. Gabriel wasn’t about to leave her, not with Bert Sims still out there. But he couldn’t risk her reputation by having her stay alone with him.

“You don’t want to be alone with me,” Michelle guessed when he mentioned Sara’s dilemma and frowned.

“It wouldn’t look right,” he said. “You have a spotless reputation here. I’m not going to be the first to put a blemish on it.”

She smiled gently. “You’re a very nice man.”

He shrugged. “Character is important, regardless of the mess some people make of theirs in public and brag about it.”

“My dad used to say that civilization rested on the bedrock of morality, and that when morality went, destruction followed,” she recalled.

“A student of history,” he said approvingly.

“Yes. He told me that first go the arts, then goes religion, then goes morality. After that, you count down the days until the society fails. Ancient Egypt. Rome. A hundred other governments, some more recently than others,” she said.

“Who’s right? I don’t know. I like the middle of the road, myself. We should live the way that suits us and leave others to do the same.”

She grinned. “I knew I liked you.”

He chuckled. He finished his coffee. “We should stop discussing history and decide what to do with you tonight.”

She stared at her own cooling coffee in the thick mug. “I could stay here by myself.”

“Never,” he said shortly. “Bert Sims might show up, looking for Roberta’s leftovers, like Zack said.”