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presence.
    She had to accept that she'd been too preoccupied to hear them and use the two uncomfortable incidents as a reminder of just how vulnerable she was when she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. The Feds believed they'd covered her tracks thoroughly. They believed she was as safe here in Ajax as she could possibly be, but even they had warned her that she should be vigilant at all times. Mikhail wasn't going to forgive or forget. She almost certainly had a price on her head and hit men combing the country for her to collect on it.
    A shiver skated through her. For just a moment, she saw her life lying before her and realized that was a fact that was never going to change. She might get used to her new identity and her surroundings. She might even reach a point where she was relatively content with the life she had, but she was never going to be able to count on it or count on being safe. Anyone who entered her life could be her killer.
    Thrusting those thoughts away when she saw the men had gotten her water heater lit, she unlocked the door and opened it to thank them. “I was just about to fix myself something hot to warm me. Could I offer y'all something?"
    The four of them glanced at each other and nodded, heading toward the door.
    She stepped back. “Just have a seat. I'll be right back,” she added, dashing from the kitchen to grab a pair of jeans.
    She could hear the kitchen cabinet doors opening and closing so she wasn't surprised when she got back to discover that there was a pot of water already simmering on the stove and five cups lined up on the counter. Adrian was standing at her sink, washing his hands. Jerico and Cameron had dragged chairs out from the kitchen table and settled in them and Seth was leaning against the counter near the stove, his arms folded.
    "Hot chocolate or coffee?” he asked when she came in.
    "Hot chocolate,” she responded, hiding her surprise to discover she had any, deciding she was jittery enough without adding caffeine to the equation. Instead of taking a seat at the table, she moved to the cabinets and opened them one by one, studying the contents, in search of something she could offer her guests to go with their drink. When the cabinet search turned up nothing, she moved to the refrigerator. She found a coffeecake in the freezer and took it out to read the heating instructions.
    Seth studied her speculatively, realizing grimly that there were just too many things about Abigail Winthrope that weren't adding up. He'd been willing to dismiss their first encounter and just put it down to having startled her even though he hadn't been completely satisfied any of the time.
    She'd been furious and he knew her senses weren't nearly as acute as theirs even at the best of times. He supposed that was reason enough for her not to have noticed his approach or seen him standing at the end of her porch even though it was still broad daylight.
    What had bothered him at the time was the fact that she was so furious when there didn't seem to be any obvious explanation for it and also the fact that she hadn't just been startled when he'd spoken. For just a split second he'd seen sheer terror in her eyes, and then loathing when she'd recognized his uniform.
    He wasn't sure what all that added up to, but it added up to something, and he had a bad feeling it wasn't something he was going to like.
    Beth had said her brother had brought her and said nothing to indicate that she'd been angry when he left, in fact just the opposite. She'd mentioned that they seemed close and that Abby had appeared ‘lost’ when he'd left. Since she'd been in the house alone since then, he couldn't figure out how she'd gone from being ‘lost’ to furious.
    He also couldn't figure out why finding him in her backyard had terrified her so badly. Startled, he could get. Unnerved, lashing out in anger because she'd been frightened, he understood. Stark terror seemed as excessive a reaction as the fury