Helping Nica into the truck, he walked around and slid into the driver’s seat.“What if it’s not about you at all?What if it’s someone I know?A student’s parent, maybe, or…”
“Then we’ll figure that out too,” Gabe assured her, starting the engine.“Mike is good at what he does.Between him and Rafe, we’ll get answers.”
As they pulled out of the parking lot, Gabe couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched.He checked the rearview mirror repeatedly, studying each car that followed them for too many blocks, each pedestrian who seemed to glance their way.
The truth was, he was terrified.Not for himself, but for Nica.His brilliant, beautiful wife who had chosen to share her life with him despite knowing his complicated past.He would do anything—anything—to keep her safe.
“I should have told you about everything sooner,” he said as they approached his apartment building.“I’m sorry.”
Nica reached over and placed her hand on his thigh.“We both kept things from each other.I didn’t tell you about the window right away either.”
“I will keep my promise, Nica.No more secrets,” Gabe said firmly.“Not even to protect each other.We face this together.”
She nodded, a small smile touching her lips.“Together.”
As he parked the truck, Gabe made a silent vow.He would find whoever was threatening them.He would uncover the truth, whether it led back to Melissa Carpenter’s grieving family or somewhere entirely unexpected.And he would ensure that Nica never had cause to feel afraid in their home again.
The security system installer would arrive by afternoon.Mike would be in town by nightfall.Tomorrow, Gabe would begin his own investigation—starting with contacting his former colleagues at Stanford.
Someone was trying to dismantle the new life he and Nica were building.Gabe clenched his jaw as he exited the vehicle, his eyes still scanning their surroundings.Whoever it was had no idea who they were dealing with.He might be a doctor who had sworn to do no harm, but when it came to protecting the woman he loved, all bets were off.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gabe paced thelength of his home office, no longer having to wonder how Nica would react when she found out he’d called in outside help.Outside, the Texas sun beat down on Shiloh Springs, casting long shadows across the parking lot as evening approached.The familiar sound of Nica humming in the kitchen should have been comforting, but all Gabe could think about was the stranger who had been watching her.Following her.Invading their lives.
Ceasing his pacing, he flung himself in his chair, staring out the window.The view of rows of covered parking spaces wasn’t exactly the kind of view he preferred, and he wondered how Nica would feel about getting a bigger place.Then again, if they decided to take the World Health Organization offer, they might be gone for at least a year, maybe longer.They hadn’t really had much time to discuss the offer, and with everything going on now, he wondered if the timing was right for that kind of career change.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and remembered the phone call he’d placed earlier that morning.
“Reynolds.”The familiar voice on the other end of the line brought immediate relief.
“Mike, it’s Gabe.I need your help.”He kept his voice low, glancing toward the hallway to make sure Nica couldn’t hear.
“Doc!Been a while.What’s going on?”Mike’s tone shifted from casual to concerned in an instant.They might not have spoken in months, but ten years of friendship meant Mike could read his voice like an open book.
Gabe sank into his leather chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.“Someone’s targeting me—and worse, they’re stalking Nica.”
He explained the escalating situation, the phone calls that had started weeks ago, always from different numbers, always untraceable.How they’d begun with silence and hang ups, evolved to breathing, and finally to whispered threats.“They’ll all know what you did, Dr.Summers.Every person in your precious little town.How do you think the townsfolk will feel, knowing their precious physician is a murderer?”
“The calls I could handle,” Gabe said, his free hand clenching into a fist.“But now whoever this is, they are a threat to my wife.She’s spotted someone following her—always keeping his distance, always in dark clothing.Then this morning…” His voice caught.“She received flowers at the school where she works.Two dozen pink roses.They’re her favorite flower.”
“That doesn’t sound threatening on its face,” Mike noted.
“The card quoted something she wrote in her private journal, word for word.Something she’s never shared with anyone.”Gabe’s stomach turned remembering the look on Nica’s face when she’d shown him.“The only way someone could know that—”
“Is if they’d been in your house,” Mike finished.“I see why you’re worried.”
“There’s more.A couple days before that, she received a package containing newspaper clippings about Melissa Carpenter’s case and a copy of the complaint filed against me by Melissa’s family.Whoever sent it has access to medical records, confidential files.It also had a letter talking about how I was a murderer, that I’d deliberately mishandled Melissa Carpenter’s case and she’d died from malpractice.”
The line went quiet for a moment.When Mike spoke again, his voice had the detached, analytical tone Gabe recognized from their med school days—the voice Mike used when he was already working on a problem.While Mike would have made a fine doctor, his brain was geared toward analytical thinking, and working for the FBI suited him far better.
“The timing can’t be coincidental.This is all connected to the Carpenter case, even though that was what, four years ago?”
“Three years, nine months.”Gabe corrected automatically.He’d counted every day since the surgery that had gone catastrophically wrong, since the moment he realized he’d been drugged by Dr.Richardson, since his life and career had nearly ended.
“And the investigation cleared you completely,” Mike added.“Everyone who matters knows you were sabotaged, and what happened was in no way your fault.You were set up by someone you trusted, and though what Richardson did had catastrophic consequences, you were not to blame.”
Gabe stood again, unable to stay still.“That’s just it—Rafe and Douglas know the truth.Or most of it anyway.But the people here in town, they don’t know about Stanford or what happened.There was no reason they needed to know.But this caller is threatening to go to the local press, make sure everything about what happened in California is dragged through the mud all over again.And the timing couldn’t be worse.WHO has offered me a position in Geneva—or they were.I’m not sure they’re still considering me.”He could hear Nica puttering around in the kitchen, and he exhaled a deep breath.“I think this is about more than just exposing me, Mike.I think they’re trying to get to Nica.I’m worried they intend to hurt her.”
