is from fear. That feeds him. I don’t believe he came to New York to confront you. Maybe to test the waters, to gauge the ground. But seeing you, after he killed, after he’d earned his fee, riding on that, then there you are, he had to gloat.
“ ‘Here I am,’ ” Mira said. “ ‘That could’ve been you. I can do that to you, and claim my birthright.’ He’d have kept track of you through the years, like worrying a sore, and that angry pain, that feeds him.”
“It’s not hard to keep track of what I let people see.”
“He will try to kill you, and because it’s so personal, so deeply dug in him, he’ll make mistakes. But because it’s so personal, so might you.”
“I won’t.” And there, Roarke was certain. “Because it’s not only my life he’d try to take. It’s Summerset’s, and it’s Eve’s—because they’re with me.”
Studying Roarke, seeing that absolute certainty, Mira sipped her wine. “He’d understand Summerset being with you as a job, and your marriage to Eve as a convenience and cover for you. He isn’t capable of understanding love.”
“Summerset saved my life, and has been an integral part of my life since. Killing him would be a by-product, even a distraction, but a pleasurable one. Eve is mine. Whether he understands what she is to me or not, she’s mine.”
He leaned forward. “I was born a thief. The foundation of everything I own came from that. I continued to steal when it was no more than a pleasant hobby. I have no regrets. I gave that up for Eve because she could never have belonged to me or me to her otherwise. I have no regrets.
“He’s only to dig down deep enough, to ask the right questions of the right people, to learn that. Understand it, no, but know it, he could. If he did know it, what would he do?”
“Try to kill her, or at least take her, first. And I know of no one more capable than Eve of stopping him.”
“Agreeing with that is what will keep me from making a mistake. I trust her to see he lives his life in a cage. But if he gets past her considerable skill and harms her in any way, he won’t be breathing when I walk away.”
“He won’t get past her, or you,” Dennis commented. “I believe that absolutely. Separately, you’re strong, clever people. Together you’re a force. There are parallels in your childhoods. You were meant to be together.”
“Two lost souls,” Roarke murmured, but Dennis shook his head.
“No, not lost. Only waiting. Can I get you another beer?”
“Thanks, no. I’ve taken enough of your evening. Unless you need more.”
“Tell Eve I’ll adjust the profile. She was right to ask you to speak to me—to us—directly. We know more, and the more we know, the quicker we’ll stop him.”
Before Roarke took his leave, Eve headed home. She’d done all she could—or wanted to do—at Central, had gone by the hotel to update the Modestos.
And that, she thought, was about all the emotion she could take for one day.
She had work, and plenty of it, but she needed a break. A quick swim, maybe, a glass of wine, and a meal with Roarke so they could update each other.
She really wanted him inside those gates. Hoped she’d find him there already.
But when she turned toward them, she saw the bag—some sort of sack, tossed in front of them. Even as the gates started to open, she backed up.
While they closed again, she drew her weapon. Another scan of the street before she slid out of the car.
A sack—and she knew bloodstains when she saw them—with a note dangling from the tie that secured it.
She took out her comm with her free hand. “Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. Send a couple of beat cops to my residence. Now.”
She slid the comm away, crossed to the bag.
She smelled blood. She smelled death.
Tipped the note up with a fingertip.
Curiosite killed the cat.
Your next!
“Can’t spell worth a—Oh Christ, no, no, no.”
She didn’t seal—didn’t think of it, but ripped at the tie.
The cat, the cat. Her cat.
The cat—but not her cat—had been gutted, its throat slit.
Pity and relief churned through her as she straightened up, turned on her recorder, turned to get her kit out of the car.
And then she saw him. As with Roarke, he made sure of it.
He stood a block away so she saw him throw his head back as he laughed.
She ran, full-out. And so did