Quinn (19 page)

“Then I’d better stop thinking and start moving.” She chuckled. “I don’t want you to have to keep that promise to tie Joe to the bed. How is Jane?”

“Protective, loving. She’s with Joe now. Good-bye, Catherine. Take care.” She hung up.

Catherine slowly put the phone back in her jacket. Eve had been of little help. Catherine wouldn’t believe Eve? They were close friends. Eve should know that she’d trust anything she told her.

But the bond that was between Eve and Gallo was complicated, and Catherine had been aware of the emotion that still lay between them. No longer sex. Not love. Eve loved Joe with her entire being. But that clearly didn’t stop her from feeling something for Gallo.

What? If Catherine was forced to kill him, would Eve feel a hidden sense of resentment? She said she’d kill him herself because of Bonnie’s murder, and Catherine had believed her.

Eve was not going to talk to her about it, so she might just as well block it out and work it through on her own. That was her usual procedure anyway. Why was this any different?

Because Eve was her friend, and that was a treasure beyond price, and Catherine was trying to bend over backward to keep from hurting her.

Stop fretting about it. She got up from the table and went to the tiny bedroom and lay down. Four hours’ sleep. Then she’d be up and leave the cabin.

She pulled up the coverlet and closed her eyes. She was lying in Gallo’s bed. It felt … strange to have this strong sense of awareness of him. If anything, she should be aware of those deputies who had recently used this bed. Before they left, they had changed the linens and made up the bed in case she wanted to use it, but it wasn’t of them that she was thinking.

Gallo.

He was dominating her thoughts, and it was natural she would imagine him lying in this bed in the cabin that belonged to him.

But it was closer to
feeling.
She could almost smell the scent of him. The mattress was hard against her body, and she wondered if that was the way he liked it.

She had promised herself that she was going to be as close to Gallo as a lover.

Was this the way it started…?

St. Joseph’s Hospital
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“I JUST SPOKE TO CATHERINE,”
Eve said as she sat down beside Joe’s bed in ICU. “She said to tend to your business of getting out of this hospital and not to nag her. Or words to that effect.”

“She’s on Gallo’s property?”

Eve nodded. “She’s at the cabin.” She added quietly, “She’ll find him, Joe. I know how you’re feeling. I want to be out there hunting Gallo, too. It’s my job, not Catherine’s. But we have to wait until you’re better.”

“I am better. They’re moving me out of ICU in a few hours,” he said impatiently. “What would it hurt to give me a little more time?”

“It would be more than a little. You almost died, Joe.”

“Yeah, I know.” He was silent. “But I’m going to heal fast. She won’t have to wait long.”

“Tell that to the doctors. Their most optimistic prediction is four weeks.”

“Then they’d better go back to the drawing board. I’m not going to be here that long.”

“Joe…” Her lips tightened. “Dammit, stop this. Do you want to scare me? You can’t jump out of bed just because you want to do it. Let yourself heal.”

“You think I’m just being bullheaded.” He didn’t speak for a moment, looking down at their clasped hands. “And considering the fact that I’m usually the most stubborn ass on the planet, you have a right. But I’m not about to get out of this bed until I’m strong enough to function. I’m just telling you that time is coming very soon.”

“That’s not what—” There was something in his expression that caused her to stop the protest she was about to make. Her gaze searched his face. “How can you know that?”

“We’re coming to the end,” Joe said simply. “She says I have to be there for it.”

She stiffened. “Catherine?”

He shook his head.

She whispered, “Bonnie?”

“She brought me back. She took my hand and told me it wasn’t time for me to go.” He looked up and met her gaze. “She said you were going to need me.”

“I always need you.”

“No, this is different.” He paused. “We’re coming to the end, Eve.”

She laughed shakily. “Does that mean we’re going to be called to the great beyond?”

“Maybe. I don’t think so.” His hand tightened. “But if it did, I wouldn’t mind if you were there with me. That was my only regret when I was in that darkness. I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted you to live, but I wanted to be there to make sure you were happy.”

“Joe, you’ve spent most of our years together trying to make me happy.”

“And that was my privilege.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I don’t think that a love like this happens every day. I couldn’t believe that it happened to me. And then I realized there had to be a reason that I had to nurture that love and the gifts it was bringing me.”

“Yeah, some gifts.” She stroked his cheek. “Dealing with my obsession for finding Bonnie, being put on the back burner whenever I was doing a reconstruction.”

“And the gift of your honesty … and your love.”

“Oh, I
do
love you, Joe,” she said softly. “It’s a wonder you were patient enough to put up with me until I saw it. Talk about gifts.” She could feel the tears welling, but she had to get the words out. “When Bonnie was taken from me, I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Everything was dark. But then you were there, and I knew something was … different. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt as if I might be able to make it through.” She drew a deep shaky breath. “And then later, when I knew how much I loved you, I’m not even sure that you knew it, too. I said the words, I tried to show you, but my love for Bonnie was always there between us.”

“I knew it.” He smiled. “And how could I blame Bonnie? I wouldn’t have known you if it hadn’t been for her. As I’ve been lying here all these hours since I came around, I’ve been wondering if maybe it was Bonnie who purposely brought us together. You were alone. Did she know you needed someone to love you as much as I do?” He made a face. “Though I’m glad that she didn’t make a ghostly appearance on that first day I met you. I was having enough trouble coping with the way I was feeling.”

And Joe had begun seeing Bonnie only recently, and it had still shaken him, Eve thought. He had been on edge and uncertain and questioning his own sanity. It had taken him a long time to accept that the spirit Bonnie was no hallucination, and he had never been comfortable with the idea.

But there had been no hint of disturbance in his demeanor now when he was talking about Bonnie bringing him back to Eve. His expression was calm, thoughtful, and yet there was determination and strength in the set of his mouth and chin.

“It’s possible, I suppose,” she said. “I believe in the power of love, and Bonnie loved me. And she loves you, too, Joe.”

He nodded. “I know she does. She told me.” He was silent again, thinking. “I got to know her very well while we were traveling in that darkness. All through our years together, Eve, I could never love her because I never knew her. She was gone before I came to you. But I know her now. She
touched
me. She took my hand, and I experienced everything about her. She’s … beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.” The tears were falling now. “Like you, Joe.”

“Don’t say that too loud. It will destroy my macho image,” he said. “But I can love her now. It’s so easy…”

It had been a long time coming, but the joy Eve knew at those words would have been worth a much longer wait. It formed a bridge that spanned the emotional abyss that had been the only rift between them. “I’m glad that you got to know her,” she said unsteadily. “I tried to tell you, but there weren’t any words.”

“There still aren’t.” He reached out and touched the tears on her cheeks. “Don’t do this. It hurts me.”

“It shouldn’t. I’m happy.” She wiped her eyes. “But next time you talk with Bonnie, tell her that she should bring me into the conversation. I can never count on when she’s going to show up, and it’s disconcerting when she tells you to disobey doctor’s orders.”

“She didn’t exactly tell me that. I just knew.”

“Knew what? That she wanted you to bail out of this hospital?”

“No, that she was going to help me to heal. It should be a cinch for her to offer a little mojo in that direction. After all, she managed to pull me back from the pearly gates.” He chuckled. “If that was where I was heading. It felt pretty good, so maybe I might have gotten lucky.”

“No, I was the one who got lucky.”

“Keep thinking that way.” His gaze went to the door, where a nurse and two orderlies were coming into the ICU. “And here’s my escort to my new room. It’s the first step, Eve. Tell Catherine I’m on my way.”

One Week Later

SHE HAD
found him!

Catherine wriggled snakelike down the incline that led to the cliff that fell off steeply to the lake below.

She had caught a glimpse of Gallo as he moved through the forest a half mile back. At first she hadn’t been certain it was Gallo, but then he had come out of the shadows of the trees, and she had caught a glimpse of his face. Slight indentation at the chin, dark hair …

Yes.

She had been concentrating on this area of the property for the last three days, and she’d had a hunch she was getting near.

She propped herself against a boulder, and her gaze narrowed on the thicket of trees on the slope. He should be coming out of those trees any minute, and she’d have him.

Eve wanted him alive. Catherine silently took her dart gun from her backpack and inserted one of Hu Chang’s special darts. Not as special as some others her old teacher had made for her. But the mamba venom and a few other lethal poisons weren’t applicable in this case. This sedative would put Gallo out for a solid five minutes and give him another fifteen of lethargy.

“Come on, Gallo,” she whispered. “Let me give you a little nap.”

One minute.

Two.

He didn’t come out of the trees.

Five minutes.

Dammit, where was he?

And then she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck in the most primitive of signals.

Someone was watching her.

He
was watching her.

She instinctively dove behind the boulder and waited.

Where are you, Gallo?

Her heart was pounding.

She could feel him out there in the darkness.

Or was he behind her?

She wasn’t sure. She listened.

She couldn’t hear him. God, he was good.

But she couldn’t stay there when he knew her location, and she didn’t know his. Since she was trying to get him without a lethal commitment, she was at a disadvantage.

Fade away. Disappear. If she caught a glimpse of him, then try to line up the shot.

If not, give up the opportunity and come back another time.

She dove into the bushes that bordered the scraggly line of pines beside the boulders.

No sound.

Move swiftly.

She no longer felt his eyes on her.

But that might only mean he was close but could not see her.

And she couldn’t see him, dammit.

Put distance between them.

Damn, she hated to run from Gallo.

She’d almost had the bastard.

She
would
have him.

Only an opening foray, Gallo.

The battle is yet to come …

Two Days Later

SHE WAS GETTING CLOSE
again, Gallo realized.

He felt a rush of excitement as he caught a fleeting glimpse of Catherine before she disappeared into the pines.

She was probably going to circle and come at him from behind. He was still, listening for a sound.

There was no sound. But he’d bet that she was in motion.

Stay and confront her? Risky. She had almost gotten close enough to take him out twice in the last few days.

Why not stay? What did he care?

But he did care, or he would have plunged off the cliff into the lake in those first hours after he’d gone on the run.

Bonnie had made him care.

And he cared because Catherine Ling’s pursuit had pierced the wall of despair and desperation that surrounded him and injected him with a shot of pure adrenaline. The hunt brought back memories of the missions that had been his life for so many years. Memories that enabled him to block out the more recent painful recollections.

The missions had been brutal, fast, deadly. Hunt, find, kill.

But Catherine Ling’s pursuit had not been brutal. In the few glimpses he had caught of her, he had thought she was like a black panther, stalking, graceful, beautiful.