“Thank you, Derek.” I felt my eyes water as I took hold of both his hands. “I’m so sorry you had to worry.”

“Worry? Oh, I wouldn’t call it that,” he said ruefully. “Anguish, perhaps. Or torture. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

I stretched up to kiss him lightly on the lips. “I promise.”

“Good.” We turned and walked back down the hall.

“Oh, Derek,” Mom said, running over. “It’s good of you to have come.”

He and I broke apart and Mom moved in for a hug. She and Derek had bonded awhile back when a gun-toting killer invaded my home and tried to make me the next victim.

“Hello, Rebecca,” he said. Then he shook hands with Guru Bob.

Somehow it was right that Derek had shown up. Maybe I’d wished for it. I seemed to draw strength from his presence. Warm happiness flowed from my heart into every part of me.

Could I be more sappy? I didn’t see how. But it didn’t matter. I was all bubbly inside and felt destined to live sappily ever after.

“Now, how do you know Gabriel?” Derek asked.

I blinked. Oh, dear. I wasn’t about to bring up a certain kiss in a certain hotel room in Edinburgh. And why was I even thinking about that when Derek was this close?

“Gabriel works with Guru Bob,” I said carefully. “He knows books and so do I. So we’ve had a few business dealings together.”

If you called Gabriel sneaking into my house and stealing a priceless fifteenth-century edition of Plutarch “business dealings.” But at least he’d done it for Guru Bob. The Plutarch theft was one reason why I didn’t trust Gabriel. But he clearly had Guru Bob’s seal of approval. And my father’s, I guessed. I was anxious to look more deeply into the whole Gabriel connection, but that would have to wait until he was out of the hospital.

“And what happened today?” Derek asked.

“It’s still not clear,” I said, and explained what I thought had happened.

“And you were first on the scene?”

“Yes.” I looked at him. “Again.”

Sensing my unease, he gripped my hand. “And the blood?”

“Was really bad,” I said, then added quickly, “But I didn’t pass out.”

“Good girl,” he said, and kissed my cheek.

He knew me too well. I’d passed out the first time I met him, when he found me kneeling over Abraham’s body, my hands covered in blood. It was sweet of him to be concerned.

“Do we know if Gabriel is out of danger?” Derek asked.

I waved my hand toward the nurses’ station. “They won’t tell us anything.”

He flashed the nurses a determined look. “Why don’t you go sit and let me give it a try.”

I frowned. “Sure.”

Derek walked over to the nurses’ station and struck up a conversation with the big scary nurse supervisor. Within seconds, she was giggling and touching Derek’s arm. He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially and she laughed out loud. Good grief.

He turned and walked back to me, smirking all the way.

I smirked, too, as I watched Nurse Ratched staring fondly at his ass the whole way.

“They’re getting him settled in a room,” he reported as we all gathered around him. “He’s had a CT scan. There’s no brain damage, but he’s been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last hour, so they’re keeping him overnight, at least. He may have a concussion, so they’ve given him a very light painkiller and are monitoring him constantly. Depending on how he does overnight, they’ll probably discharge him in the morning.”

“Oh, Derek, thank you,” Mom said.

“There’s more,” he said. “Apparently, he wrenched his neck when he fell. When he leaves the hospital, he’s to remain in bed, keeping very still for several days. He’ll need a caregiver. Is there someone in Dharma who can stay with him?”

“Mom will find someone,” I said.

“He’ll stay with us,” Mom said immediately. She glanced at Guru Bob, who nodded in agreement.

“I’d like to see him before we leave,” Guru Bob declared.

Derek nodded. “Let me speak with Sandy.”

Sandy. Didn’t it just figure that he and Nurse Ratched were on a first-name basis. But I couldn’t blame the poor woman for rolling over in the face of all that British hot-ness.

Guru Bob tapped his fingers on the side table, making me realize how upset he was. He rarely expended useless energy like that, rarely showed so much emotion. He always said that negative emotions pulled us out of the moment. Gabriel’s injury had shaken him badly. I wondered if he knew something we didn’t know.

Well, of course he knew things. He was all-knowing. But my mind immediately went to some worst-case scenarios. What if Gabriel was more badly injured than we were being told? Or what if he was hiding out in Dharma? Maybe killers were after him. He wasn’t exactly a paragon of virtue, after all. Let’s face it, he stole things from people. Had he taken the wrong possession from the wrong person?

Was Guru Bob in danger as well? Were we all in danger? Was my imagination running wild?

Derek jogged back from the nurses’ station less than a minute later. “They’ll allow two of you in to see Gabriel today, and for a very brief time. Sandy will let us know when he’s settled.”

Once again, Derek Stone had worked his magic.

The group decided that Guru Bob and I should be the two people to visit with Gabriel. Guru Bob went in first, and after three minutes he came out and it was my turn.

I walked into the room and saw Gabriel in bed, hooked up to an IV. His eyes were closed, his head heavily bandaged, and his skin more pale than I’d ever seen it. I almost whimpered. I didn’t even know the man that well, but I knew that he was too strong, too full of life to be brought down like this.

I wanted to know what he was doing in Dharma. Why was he seeking sanctuary? Who was after him? But I knew this wasn’t the time or place to ask.

I approached, took his hand in mine and whispered, “Gabriel.”

His eyes flickered open and he gave me a tired smile. “Hey, babe. You look hot.”

My eyes swam with tears. “Yeah, so do you.”

He tried to laugh but it took too much effort. “I look like shit. But I’ll be okay. I heard you took care of everything.”

“I just did what I could to keep you from bleeding all over the clean streets of Dharma.”

“Good little citizen,” he whispered.

“That’s me.” I fiddled with his sheets, pulled them a bit tighter. “You’re going to be okay.”

“Yeah.” He closed his eyes, exhausted by the brief exchange. A few seconds later, his eyes still closed, he whispered, “Babe, do me a favor.”

“Of course,” I said, leaning closer.

“Get me the hell out of here.”

“I’ll do my best.” I hesitated, then said, “Gabriel, did you see anything? Do you have any idea what happened out there?”

He shook his head back and forth slowly, his forehead wrinkled in pain. “Don’t remember much. They told me I was shot, but I don’t remember being hit. Don’t remember falling.”

“Do you remember me waving at you?”

“No,” he whispered. “Did you wave to me?”

“Yes.”

He closed his eyes. “I should’ve remembered that.”

“That’s okay, don’t worry,” I said, squeezing his hand lightly. “We’ll find out what happened.”

“Babe,” he whispered, opening his eyes as much as he could manage. “Be careful out there.”

“I will. You sleep for a while and we’ll have you out soon.”

I got to the door and turned around to wave good-bye, but he was already asleep. I walked out and saw Derek talking to a Sonoma County deputy sheriff. Another uniformed officer was speaking with Guru Bob.

Mom pulled me aside. “The police are interviewing all of us. They’ve confirmed that Gabriel was hit by a bullet.”

My stomach sank. I mean, I’d already concluded it was a bullet, not some stray flying pebble. But having it confirmed didn’t make me feel any better.

Mom continued, “Derek says they’ll leave a guard here tonight.”

“Good,” I said, even though it was awful to think Gabriel might still be a target. On the other hand, I was relieved to know that the police were taking his safety seriously.