New York to Dallas (In Death #33)(69)

“Is that how you get off? Watching? Do you like to watch while men rape children? While they hurt the innocent?”

“Nobody’s innocent! Some are just luckier than others. Get me drugs or I’ll kill you myself.”

“Melinda Jones and Darlie Morgansten. Tell me where they are. It’s your only chance.”

“They’re where you’re going to be. You won’t be so lucky this time. You’ll beg him to kill you. The ass**le you married will bleed money every time Isaac cuts you. And we’ll swim in a river of it.”

“If he’s so good, he doesn’t need Melinda and Darlie to get me. Tell me where they are, unless you don’t think he’s man enough to take me on again.”

“I hope they’re dead. Martyr bitch and whiny brat. I hope he lets me kill you when he’s finished.”

Hated me then, hates me now, Eve thought, tired of it, unspeakably tired of it. Had there ever been anything but hate? Even for a moment?

“You’re the one who’d be dead if he had his way. It’s what he does, what he’s always done. What makes you think you’re any different than the others? Or is it you? Are your others no different?”

Risky, Eve calculated. Last ditch. “What pulls you toward men like him? What’s the draw? He’s not your first. You can change your name, your looks, but it’s all the same. Richard Troy, he was the same. Stella.”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed, then cut away. “Fuck off.”

“You remember him. Long time ago, but you remember. It didn’t end well, did it? It never does. Who screwed who over that time?”

“You think I’m stupid? I get my share and I walk when I’m ready to walk. You got Rich to say any different, he’s a liar, too. I took what was mine and walked.”

“Left something behind, didn’t you?”

Her lips twisted into an ugly smile. “Nothing I wanted. Rich is nothing but a f**kup with big dreams. Isaac knows how to get things done, and how to treat me right. Nothing you can do’ll make me roll over on him.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Love, she thought, even perverted love could be unassailable. “We’ll get him without you. We’ll get Melinda and Darlie back to their families without you. And we’ll do you the favor of keeping you alive so you can spend the rest of the life we saved for you in a concrete cage.”

“He’ll get me out.”

“He won’t give you another thought.” But I will, Eve admitted to herself. I’ll think about you for a very long time. “You’ve got until the doctors put you back together to change your mind.”

She walked to the door, stopped, turned around. “You had a kid once.” The medical exam would show that, and the data would be on her chart. “What happened to it?”

“How the f**k should I know?”

Cold inside, colder and steadier than she’d have believed possible, Eve nodded. “That’s what I figured. You’re just what you seem to be, Stella,” she said, using the name she remembered from glimmers of her childhood. “Exactly what you seem.”

She walked out.

“Anything.” Bree grabbed at Eve’s arm. “Did you get anything?”

“She won’t budge.”

“We’ll take a pass at her.” Nikos stared at the porthole in the door.

“Be my guest. I don’t think we need her. Roarke’s got the accounts, and he’s tracking them back. We’ve got a better shot at McQueen’s location through that than through her.”

“We didn’t get that information,” Nikos began.

“I got it right before I went in there, and you’re getting it now. Let him f**king work it for an hour.” Okay, not as steady as she’d thought. “Listen, Roarke’s better at this than anybody you’ve got. Give him some room. McQueen’s got to make contact, has to play the game with me. We need to be ready for that. Go ahead and take a whack at her.” She shrugged toward the door. “But I’d give her a few minutes to settle in, think about things. The doctors have some fiddling to do with her.”

“We’ll let them have her first,” Laurence decided, “go at her after they’ve finished. She may be ready to talk a deal by then.”

“Good luck. Where’s your LT?” she asked Bree.

“He went back to the house. We have to issue a media statement. Too much has gotten out, and he has to tamp down any possible leaks. If McQueen’s monitoring the media, we don’t want him getting wind we’ve got his partner.”

“He will be. I want a man on the prisoner, wherever they take her, whatever they do. I need to coordinate with EDD. When McQueen contacts, I need him sent to my ’link. I have to be mobile.”

“I’ll sit on her.”

“Not you. She knows who you are, and she’ll use it to shake you. Believe me,” Eve said when Bree’s face went stony, “if I wasn’t sure you’re the last person she’d spill to, you’d be in there working her now. Keeping a plug in leaks not only through the house but here is priority.”

“Ricchio has Annalyn laying it on that she’s a suspect in a series of robberies, injured during a chase after a botched B-and-E.”