He looked over and gave a brief smile.

“You’ve already done that.”

He smiled again.

Gwen relaxed in her seat and stared at the landscape as it thickened with trees with the climb up the mountain. No wonder Neil was so quiet. There was a lot of information to process. Lots of possibilities, but only a few probabilities.

If none of the men in his unit were the killer and Raven was dead, that left someone loyal to Raven, or someone in Neil’s own government who wanted him and possibly the others dead.

Gwen thought of what Neil had said about the recent death of one of the men. “Your friend who died…recently. What happened?”

“Officially a suicide.”

Not unheard of from retired military who lived through combat. “You don’t believe that.”

Neil shook his head.

That left all of this up to a government conspiracy or Raven loyalists…

Government conspiracy ranked in Gwen’s mind as impossible. If Neil mentioned a conspiracy chances were others would think he’d been in one too many gunfights. Post-traumatic stress had a way of making sane men paranoid.

There was no faking dead neighbors and birds left for her to find, however.

Yet in the back of Gwen’s mind, she thought of Karen’s phobia…and how originally they thought the dead birds were directed at her.

“I don’t know what to think, Sam.” Blake looked out over the city from the bay window of his West Coast office. “I trust him. I do.”

“You sound doubtful.”

“What if I’m wrong? What if something sprung loose inside of him and he’s chasing shadows? When we first met, he was less than stable. Granted, he’s done nothing since that made me question anything.” He hated that he doubted Neil now. “The war was hell for him.”

“Does he ever talk about it?”

“No. Only that first night, when we met. A bunch of his guys were blown to bits right in front of him. He blamed himself. That’s all I know.”

“That couldn’t have been easy.”

“No.”

“There’s one thing you can count on,” Sam said. “If he is chasing shadows, eventually he or Gwen will realize there’s no one there and they’ll come home.”

Blake ran a hand through his hair. “Not sure if that makes me feel better. I sure as hell don’t want to think there’s someone out there after them. And the thought of my sister falling for a guy chasing shadows…”

“Are you sure you’re just not worried about your sister falling for anyone? Even Neil?”

Blake moved away from the window to his desk. “Maybe when she was twenty. Now I’d love nothing better than for her to find someone.” A picture of Sam and Eddie sat on his desk and he pulled it closer. I’m a lucky man.

“Someone stable.”

“Yeah.” Even on a normal day Blake wasn’t a thousand percent sure that man was Neil. He hated that he thought that way.

“Hmm. When will you hear from him again?”

“Dean said we’d hear something tomorrow. Then again in three days.”

“That’s a long time.”

“It’s forever. Dean said they’re keeping the electrocuted neighbors case open as a homicide. They have more questions for Gwen and Neil and they’re not happy they left.”

“They don’t suspect them, do they?”

“Jim and Dean don’t. Can’t say the same for their colleagues.”

“It keeps getting worse,” Sam said.

“It would help if we found the trace he talked about. Dillon hasn’t found anything.”

“Dillon doesn’t have Neil’s background in intelligence. Wasn’t he special ops or something like that?”

Once again, Blake was reminded of just how smart his wife was. “He was.”

“Hmm.” Samantha sighed. “Want my opinion?”

Blake found a smile on his lips. “I can’t believe I’ve escaped it.”

She laughed. “Remind me to slap you for that later.”

“Promises, promises.”

“I think,” she began, “that you need to give Neil the next four days. If you went looking for him now and led whoever might be out there to him you’d never forgive yourself. If there isn’t anyone out there, then I think that will be evident by day four. Neil would never hurt Gwen. And Gwen…well, we all know how she feels about Neil.”

“I sure as hell didn’t.”

“I tried pointing it out to you after Carter and Eliza hooked up. You, my Duke, just don’t listen.”

“I listen.” Maybe not as much as he did before he had a wife.

“Really?”

Sam took some of the daily burden of life off his shoulders. Even now, just talking to her helped calm him down like no one else could.

“I’m pregnant.”

One minute he was broken up about Gwen liking Neil and the next…What?

“What did you say?”

Sam started laughing. “Wasn’t the stomach flu after all.”

Good thing he was sitting. “Pregnant? You sure?”

“Been there. Done that.”

They’d been less than careful. Tempting pregnancy more than really planning one. But Eddie was toddling and they both wanted more kids. “Oh, Sam. I love you.” He couldn’t stop smiling.

“I love you, too. I thought I’d wait to tell you when I saw you again…but we both know I’m not good at keeping the pregnancy thing to myself.”

“Want me to fly home?”

“Don’t be silly. And I’m not getting on a plane until my stomach settles. I’ll wait to say anything to Eddie until we’re together.”

Blake leaned back in his high back leather chair. “Eddie’s going to be a wonderful big brother.”

“If he’s anything like his dad.”

“I’m smiling…damn happy to know I’m going to be a dad again…and feeling guilty all at the same time.”

“Stop, Blake. If Gwen’s in any real danger there is no one better to protect her than Neil. If there isn’t anyone out there…then at least she and Neil can hammer out the sultry come-hither looks they’ve been sending each other for the last year.”

“I never saw any come-hither anything.” The thought of his sister as a sexual person made his skin crawl.

“You weren’t looking.”