Midnight in Death (In Death #7.5)(10)

“I need your help,” she said instead. “I need you to tell me if you have any idea where he might go, who he might go to. He has a place,” she continued. “A private place where he can work. A house, a small building somewhere in New York. In the city or very close by.”

“He has nowhere.” Tom lifted his hands. “We sold everything when we relocated. Our home, my business, Helen’s. Even our holiday place in the Hamptons. We cut all ties. The house where David—where he lived that last year—was sold as well. We live quietly here, simply. The money we’d accumulated, the money from the sales is sitting in an account. We haven’t had the heart to… we don’t need it.”

“He had money of his own,” Eve prompted.

“Yes, inheritance, a trust fund. It was how he financed what he was doing.” Tom reached out a hand for his wife’s and clasped her fingers tightly. “We donated that money to charity. Lieutenant, all the places where he might have gone are in the hands of others now.”

“All right. You may think of something later. However far-fetched, please contact me.” She rose. “When David’s in custody again, I’ll let you know. After that, I’ll forget where you are.”

Eve said nothing more until she and Roarke were in the car and headed back. “They still love him. After all he did, after what he is, there’s a part of them that loves him.”

“Yes, and enough, I think, to help you stop him, if they knew how.”

“No one ever cared for us that way.” She took her eyes off the road briefly, met his. “No one ever felt that bond.”

“No.” He brushed the hair from her cheek. “Not until we found each other. Don’t grieve, Eve.”

“He has his mother’s eyes,” she murmured. “Soft and blue and clear. She’s the one who had to change them, I imagine, because she couldn’t look in the mirror and face them every morning.”

She sighed, shook it off.

“But he can,” she said quietly.

Chapter Four

There was nothing else to do, no other data to examine or analyze, no other route to check. Tomorrow, she knew, there would be. Now she could only wait.

Eve walked into the bedroom with some idea of taking a catnap. They needed to salvage some of the day, she thought. To have their Christmas dinner together, to squeeze in some sense of normalcy.

The strong, dreamy scent of pine made her shake her head. The man had gone wild for tradition on this, their first Christmas together. Christ knew what he had paid for the live trees he’d placed throughout the house. And this one, the one that stood by the window in their bedroom, he’d insisted they decorate together.

It mattered to him. And with some surprise she realized it had come to matter to her.

“Tree lights on,” she ordered, and smiled a little as she watched them blink and flash.

She stepped toward the seating area, released her weapon harness, and shrugged it off. She was sitting on the arm of the sofa taking off her boots when Roarke came in.

“Good. I was hoping you’d take a break. I’ve got some calls to make. Why don’t you let me know when you’re ready for a meal?”

She angled her head and studied him as he stood just inside the doorway. She let her second boot drop and stood up slowly. “Come here.”

Recognizing the glint in her eyes, he felt the light tingle of lust begin to move through his blood. “There?”

“You heard me, slick.”

Keeping his eyes on hers he walked across the room. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”

Traditions, Eve thought, had to start somewhere. She fisted a hand in the front of his shirt, straining the silk as she pulled him a step closer. “I want you naked, and quick. So unless you want me to get rough, strip.”

His smile was as cocky as hers and made her want to sink in with her teeth. “Maybe I like it rough.”

“Yeah?” She began to back him up toward the bed. “Well then, you’re going to love this.”

She moved fast, the only signal was the quick flash of her eyes before she ripped his shirt open and sent buttons flying. He gripped her hips, squeezing hard as she fixed her teeth on his shoulder and bit.

“Christ. Christ! I love your body. Give it to me.”

“You want it?” He jerked her up to her toes. “You’ll have to take it.”

When his mouth would have closed hotly over hers, she pivoted. He countered. She came in low and might have flipped him if he hadn’t anticipated her move. They’d gone hand to hand before, with very satisfying results.

They ended face-to-face again, breath quickening. “I’m taking you down,” she warned him.

“Try it.”

They grappled, both refusing to give way. The momentum took them up the stairs of the platform to the bed. She slipped a hand between his legs, gently squeezed. It was a move she’d used before. Even as the heat shot straight down the center of his body to her palm, he shifted, slid under her guard, and flipped her onto the bed.

She rolled, came up in a crouch. “Come on, tough guy.”

She was grinning now, her face flushed with battle, desire going gold in her eyes and the lights of the tree sparkling behind her.

“You look beautiful, Eve.”

That had her blinking, straightening from the fighting stance and gaping at him. Even the man who loved her had never accused her of beauty. “Huh?”