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betraying Trent. Not with Gabe. Trent had cheated on me in our marriage, and I had refused to see it. I had betrayed myself then, but now with Gabe? That wasn’t a betrayal to Trent, that was taking a chance on love. A chance that scared the hell out of me, but it didn’t make me feel guilty.
    But Grandpa had been married to Grandma for fifty years, and they had a good marriage. What Gabe said made sense. “You could be right. That would explain why he was angry with me. If he is seeing someone, he might be dealing with some guilt.” I hated that. Had I made him feel that way? I looked up at Gabe. “So what do I do?”
    â€œI’ll check with my source in the police department and see what all I can find out. It may be that the hit man theory has no credibility at all.”
    I shook my head. “But Vance questioned Grandpa.”
    Gabe smiled. “Because Vance is very smart. Didn’t you say that this Shane Masters is pretty well known? This way Vance can show he’s taking Mr. Masters’s problems seriously. But it might have just been a simple break-in or something like that. Even a jealous girlfriend, or the husband of a girlfriend—any number of scenarios.”
    My shoulders dropped in relief. “You mean like someone scaring Shane Masters?”
    â€œCould be. Let me get some more information, then we can talk. In the meantime, try to coax Barney into talking about where he was last night.”
    I put my hand over his fingers on my thigh and smiled in relief. “Thank you. I know you are worried about your brother, so I appreciate your doing this.”
    â€œCal will come to his senses. And I’m sure Barney will be fine. As soon as Cal’s done showering, we’re going to get back to the office. What about you?”
    â€œI have to get back. I’m already a half hour past when I told Blaine that I’d be there.” Then I leaned down, putting my mouth on his.
    Gabe reacted by wrapping his left arm around my waist and taking his hand from my hold to slide his fingers up my thigh to the edge of my panties. Then he plunged his tongue deep into my mouth. Heat rushed into my body, filling up every crevice. But I also could feel the tension in Gabe.
    And that reminded me of his brother. I pulled back from the kiss. Grabbing hold of his wrist, I moved his hand. “Talk to your brother, Gabe. You two are too old to try solving your problems with violence.” I stood up.
    He grinned at me. “You’re the one that attacked him.”
    I glared down at him. “A slight miscalculation.”
    â€œAnd funny as hell.”
    â€œTry to grow up before you get to work, Pulizzi.” I turned and left.
    Driving to work, I was still puzzling over Gabe and his brother. Had they been fighting? Or were they just messing around? Gabe was a very physical man, though with me his physical side ran to sex, or touching. He was never violent. Cal had been in a fight, and Gabe mentioned he was on a time-out from work, so what was going on?
    Why didn’t Gabe just tell me?
    I didn’t know the answer. I passed the lake, then veered right on Lakeshore and left on Limited, catching sight of the police station. That reminded me of Grandpa. That was even more confusing. Why would Shane claim Grandpa hired a hit man? The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that Grandpa knew Shane.
    More secrets. It was enough to give me a complex. So when my cell phone rang, I took my eyes off the road for a second to stare at my purse suspiciously. Now what? I came to the stop sign at Main Street and reached over to the passenger seat to get my phone out of my purse. The screen told me it was Rosy. I took a deep breath, put the phone to my ear, and turned right on Main Street. “Hi, Rosy. Grandpa is fine.”
    â€œGlad to hear it. Sam, we need to meet.”
    That comment struck me right in the center of my chest. Rosy had been a friend of both my