“I know. I read that. You said he was looking for his wife and son.”
“Caroline and Tom. They’d escaped, started a new life. Tom and I became friends and he was never supposed to tell anyone what happened to him, but he had to talk to someone. He told me everything, every slap, every burn… Tom hated him.”
“I can understand that.”
“They ran away, came to Chicago. Dana, my guardian, helped women like Caroline start over.” She hesitated, then shrugged. “Dana faked IDs, procured Socials.”
His brows lifted. “She really put herself out there. And Hunter?”
“Knew it all. Never participated in any of the borderline illegal stuff, but he did his part, odd jobs. Kept the shelter physically functional.”
“Fixed the roof?”
She smiled sadly. “Yeah. But that was long after Caroline first came. By the time I met her, Caro had her GED, a job at a university, was working on her degree. I worked for her, in the history department’s office. She always made me feel like I belonged.”
“Then?”
“Our old boss died and David’s brother, Max, came in to replace him.”
Noah was frowning. “Max Hunter. I know that name.”
“Played for the Lakers, eons ago. Tall, handsome, tortured soul.” Like you, she thought, but kept that to herself. “Max was in an accident that ended his sports career. He went back to school, became a professor, and years later, our department chair. And I did what any normal red-blooded eighteen-year-old girl would have done.”
“Fell for him?”
“Like a rock. But Max only had eyes for Caroline. When I realized that, I said some things I really shouldn’t have to both of them, things that with anyone else would have burned my bridges to the ground. But Caroline loved me.” Eve had to clear her throat.
“What we didn’t know was that Caro’s ex had found her. He wanted Tom back and he wanted Caroline to pay. I’d gone to Caro’s to apologize for the things I said, and Winters was there, searching for Tom. Tom was gone for the weekend. Camping trip, as I recall. Winters sized me up, saw I was young, stupid, and very vulnerable. He pretended to be a maintenance guy named Mike. He pretended to have sympathy for my faux pas with Max. He pretended to think I was attractive.”
“You were,” Noah said fiercely. “You are.”
“I was. He asked me out, got me drunk. No, he bought the beer. I willingly drank every drop he poured in my glass. I was so not legal and so didn’t care. I willingly took him home and… willingly entertained him.”
A muscle twitched in Noah’s cheek, but he said nothing.
“Next morning he tried to go. I tried to keep him with me, tried to get him to want me again.” She closed her eyes, this part as clear as if it were happening right now. “I put on his coat, danced a little, and a picture fell out of his pocket. A baby picture of Tom. I knew Caro had left Tom’s baby pictures behind when she’d run years before.”
“And then you knew,” he said quietly, and she opened her eyes to see he’d paled.
“And then I knew. The rest you know. Stab, stab, slice, slice, strangle with twine, and left me for dead. I did die. Twice. I’m damn lucky to be here.”
He tried to speak, pursed his lips. “Eve…”
“It’s all right, Noah. It’s past. But I need you to understand. No one can live through something like that and not be changed. Hell, I was screwed up enough before I ended up in Dana’s shelter. My mother was an addict, would sell her soul for a hit.”
“And her daughter, too?” Noah asked, hoarse.
“No. Because I ran. Got caught, stuck in foster. Ran again, different foster. Ran again and made it to Chicago. I would have had a hard enough time forming attachments, having a normal relationship with any man, but now… It’s just not possible.”
He met her eyes. “Why? I still don’t understand.”
Her cheeks heated. “Fine. After Winters, I had a hysterectomy. Everything’s gone.”
He exhaled. “That’s it?”
She glared at him. He looked immensely relieved. “No, that’s not it. But it’s enough.”
“So? You can’t have kids. I don’t care, Eve.”
“You say that.”
“I mean that.”
She smiled at him, trying to lessen the sting. “You think you mean that. And if that were ‘it’ then I’d give you the opportunity to find out for yourself. But that’s only part of it. Noah, I…” She shrugged, her smile gone. “I wake up at night, screaming like it’s happening all over again. And I’m… violent. Really violent.”
“You’re worried you’d hurt me?” he asked incredulously.
“I know I would. Sometimes I walk in my sleep. I’ve woken up in the kitchen, a butcher knife in my hand. I used to lock myself in my bedroom at the shelter so that I didn’t hurt anyone by accident. Most of the time I just didn’t sleep. I became a creature of the night.” She forced a smile. “Slept odd times during the day. Still do.”
He nodded slowly. “So… that’s it?”
She rolled her eyes. “Goddammit, what will it take to make you go away?”
“More than that. Is that it?”
“No.” She stood up, poured herself a cup of coffee that had long grown cold, then set it aside. “I just don’t want to be with anyone. Can’t you accept that?”
“Eve, look at me.” His voice was low and so warm. She turned stiffly, as if a giant hand forced her. Met his gaze because somehow he commanded it. His eyes glittered. “Tell me you don’t want me and I promise I’ll go away.”
She wanted to. Needed to. But could not. So she closed her eyes and said nothing.
“I thought as much,” he said quietly. “You need time, that’s fine. I have time. You need space, I’ll give you space. And if you ever tell me to go away and mean it, I will. But for now, I’m here. I came back because I needed to. Eve, I needed you.”
And then he was there, his arms tight around her again. He rested his cheek against her hair and she had to try, once more. For his own good. “I’m not a good bet, Noah.”
“Neither am I. Let’s just see where it goes, okay?”
She remained unconvinced. “I’ll hurt you,” she said tonelessly.
“I’ll hide the knives,” he said, wry amusement in his voice, but she couldn’t smile.
There was more, so much more, and she didn’t have words to tell him. He’ll figure it out himself and then he’ll leave on his own. And you can tell him “I told you so.”
She knew it would be a hollow victory. She pulled away. “Have you eaten?”
He frowned slightly. “Not since the last time you fed me.”
“Sit.” She had opened the fridge when her cell phone chirped. “Text,” she said and read the screen. Then froze, her mouth open.
Noah took the phone from her hand. “ ‘Didn’t your parents teach you not to get into cars with strange men?’ What the hell does that mean?”
Eve’s knees went weak and she didn’t fight when Noah pushed her into a chair. “That’s the last thing Rob Winters said before he killed me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Wednesday, February 24, 6:30 a.m.
He closed the cell and powered it down, his text complete. That ought to shake her up, he thought with a smile. Then he got back in his car and started for home. He still had about forty-five minutes before his wife’s alarm woke her up. If he wasn’t at home reading his morning paper, she’d ask questions he had no intention of answering.
He was quite fortunate to have a wife who slept so soundly. Of course the occasional sedative he put in her cup of evening herbal tea went a long way toward assuring her sleep was deep when he needed it to be. He was also fortunate she was so completely absorbed in her work that she didn’t notice what he did even when she was awake. She rarely read a paper, preferring science journals to television.
She moved in her own little world, after twenty years never suspecting a thing.
Nobody did. Because I am very, very careful and very, very good.
Wednesday, February 24, 7:05 a.m.
“Well?” David Hunter demanded. When Eve received the text, Noah had pounded on the door to wake him up. She’d been so pale, Noah had thought she’d pass out. Luckily Eve had come around on her own. Now Hunter was cooking breakfast with the intensity of a man possessed. Or a man terrified. “What are you doing to catch him?”