"Give the lady a stuffed panda. The substance used stimulates the heart, and it's quickly absorbed. If we'd gotten him in here twenty, thirty minutes later, we wouldn't have found a trace of it."
"They kept him alive so they could get him to a dumping site and kill him there. He'd have died anyway, right, from the initial beating?"
"Without immediate medical attention, yes. And even then his chances were minimal. He'd certainly have drowned without that final blow."
"So they wanted to give him that last shot. When he was unconscious, helpless. Stripped of his dignity."
"You've got yourself mighty nasty customers, Dallas. I'm sending the data to our mutual friend Renfrew. His robbery theory doesn't cut the mustard."
"Thanks. I appreciate you handling this yourself."
"Just part of our luxury package. Get some sleep, for sweet Christ's sake, Dallas. I've got customers in here who look perkier than you."
"Yeah, I'll do that." She broke transmission, then just sat, staring down at her 'link. She blinked back when Roarke released her weapon harness. "You put them in a room together, didn't you?"
"Haven't you more to worry about than the sexual activities of your subordinates?"
"My subordinates come dragging their asses into the briefing because they've spent what's left of the night playing hide the salami… What're you doing?"
"Taking off your boots. You're going to bed."
She stared down at the top of his head. Jesus, the man had the most incredible hair… All black and silky, she thought as her head started to loll. So you just wanted to bury your hands in it. Your face in it and…
She snapped back. "I'm going to grab a shower and get another hour in."
"No, Eve, you're not." Temper simmered in his voice as he tossed her boots aside with just enough force to have them bounce and skitter. "I'm not standing here watching while you make yourself sick. You go to bed on your own, or I knock you out and put you there."
She frowned at him. It wasn't often the rage showed, that hot and bubbling violence they both knew lived inside him. Seeing it leap, she knew she must look every bit as ragged as Morris indicated.
"I saw his face. I looked in his face." She spoke quietly. "I can't sleep, Roarke, because I'll see it." She pressed her fingers to her eyes, then rose. "I looked at him, and if I hadn't known what he was, I wouldn't have seen it."
She walked away, dragged open a window. Breathed. "He's young. His face is still a little soft around the edges. His hair's all red and curly like, I don't know, a pretty kid's doll or something. He'd killed tonight, taken a life – a life connected to him by blood – with deliberation and forethought and extreme violence. And he sat there talking to me. Teary. Remorseful. He played it perfectly, and I wouldn't have seen it. I wouldn't have seen what's in him."
He hated to hear the fatigue in her voice, and more the discouragement that ghosted through it. "Why should you?"
"Because I was watching for it, and it wasn't there." She whirled back. "He enjoyed it. I know that, in my gut, but I didn't see it on his face, didn't see it in his eyes. He was… entertained. I'd upped the stakes for him again. Same game, new level.
"I wanted to hurt him," she continued. "Personally. I wanted to ram my fist into his face until I erased it. Erased him."
"Instead you walked away." He crossed to her, certain she was unaware that her cheeks were wet. "Because you'll erase him by stopping him, by putting him in a cage for the rest of his life. Eve." He framed her face in his hands, brushed at the damp with his thumbs. "Darling Eve, you're exhausted, right down to the bone. If you don't rest, who'll stand for those women?"
She lifted her hands to his wrists. "The dream I had, the last one, with my father standing there bleeding from dozens of holes I'd put in him. He said I'd never be rid of him. He was right. You take one down and another one's right there. Right there waiting. I can't sleep, because I'll see them."
"Not tonight." He drew her in. "We won't let them come in tonight. If you won't sleep…" He brushed his lips over her temple. "… you'll rest."
He picked her up, carried her back to the sofa.
"What are we doing?"
"We'll watch a movie," he told her.
"A movie. Roarke – "
"It's something you don't do enough of." He laid her down, selected a film disc. "Go outside yourself and into make-believe. Dramas or comedies, joys and sorrows that pull you away from your own for a bit of time."
He came back, slid behind her, and tucked her head on his shoulder. "I've told you about this one, Magda Lane. It took me out of my own miseries once."
It felt so good to lie with him, to have his arm hooked cozily around her waist. The opening music swept into the room, color and costume swirled on-screen. "How many times have you seen this?" she asked him.
"Oh, dozens, I suppose. Shh. You'll miss the opening lines."
She watched, and when her lids drooped, she listened. Then she slept.
When she woke, it was quiet, and it was dark, and his arm was still around her. Fatigue wanted to drag her back under, but she willed it back and turned her wrist up to check the time.
Already after five,she thought. She'd had a solid three hours' sleep, and it would have to be enough. But when she started to move, Roarke's arm tightened.
"Take a few minutes more."
"Can't. It's going to take a half hour in the shower to beat my brain back into shape. I wonder if I can take a shower lying down."
"It's called a bath."
"Not the same."
"Why are you whispering?"
"I'm not whispering." She cleared her throat. And felt as if she'd swallowed splinters of glass. "Just a little hoarse."
"Lights on, ten percent." In the dim glow he nudged her onto her back. "Pale as a ghost, too," he said and laid a hand on her brow. Something like panic ran over his face. "I think you're running a fever."
"I am not." If he could feel panic at the thought of illness, she could feel fear. "I'm not sick. I don't get sick."
"You don't sleep more than a handful of hours in a week and live on coffee, you get sick. Damn it, Eve, you've sabotaged your immune system once too often."
"I have not." She started to sit up, then plopped back when the room spun. "I'm just getting my bearings."
"I ought to strap you in bed for the next month. You need a bloody keeper." He rolled off the sofa, strode to the house 'link.
"I don't know what you're so pissed off about." Her voice was perilously close to a whine, and appalled her. "I'm just a little muggy yet."
"You set a single toe off that sofa, and I'm hauling you to the doctor."
"You just try it, pal, and we'll see who needs medical attention." Since the threat came out in a wheeze, it wasn't particularly effective.
Roarke simply glared at her, and snapped into the 'link. "Summerset. Eve's ill. I need you up here."
"What? What are you doing?" She shoved herself up, nearly gained her feet before Roarke stalked back and held her down. "He's not touching me. He lays one hand on me and I'm beating you both bloody. Where's my weapon?"
"It's him or the health center."
She sucked in air. "You are not the boss here."
"Prove it," he challenged. "Take me down."
She pushed up, he shoved her back. She reared again, and this time pumped her fist into his belly.
"It's gratifying to see you have some strength left, even if that was a girl punch."
The insult nearly rendered her speechless. "The first chance, the very first chance I get, I'm tying your dick into a knot."