Promises in Death (In Death #28)(70)

“In a sense, yes. It takes the data and reconstructs. And . . . There. What do you think?”

Eve bent down for an eye-level study as the hologram of Louise circled inches off the table in the moonlight gown. “I’ve gotta say, that is seriously iced. It’s really close. Maybe she doesn’t have quite that much—” Eve wiggled her fingers in front of her own br**sts.

“More delicate there?” Adrian made a slight adjustment.

“Okay, yeah. Very frosty. If I had one of these in my department . . . I’m not sure what I’d do with it, but I’d find a use. We can do holos, but not right off a comp station. They use them more in the lab, for forensics. Reconstructing a DB.”

“DB?”

“Dead body.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry.” Eve shook her head, straightened. “It’s bull’s-eye. Thanks.”

“I love when it works! The computer says size six, which is also my opinion from the data, but—”

“That’s my information,” Roarke assured her.

“Excellent. Still, if for any reason it doesn’t work for her, she can bring it back. I’ll box and wrap it for you. But in the meantime. Mini Waterfall, wasn’t it? We have your data on here already, so this will just take a moment.”

Eve barely blinked before Louise disappeared and she saw her own form wearing the short, nearly transparent gown. “Holy shit.”

Adrian laughed. “It looks delicious on you. You’re never wrong,” she said to Roarke.

“We’ll have that as well.”

Eve swallowed, ordered herself to look away from herself and couldn’t. “Would you turn that off? It’s strangely disturbing.”

“Of course.” Still beaming at Eve, Adrian ordered the image off. “Is there anything else while you’re here? Do you have enough tanks?”

“Enough what?”

“Support tanks. You prefer them to a bra for work.”

Eve opened her mouth, but couldn’t quite choke out a word.

“She could probably use a half dozen,” Roarke said.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“I know you will.” Roarke leaned over to kiss Adrian’s cheek. “We’re going out to dinner. Why don’t you wrap all that up, put it on the account, and have it sent?”

“My pleasure. Sincerely, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks.”

“Our best to Liv,” Roarke added as he led Eve out.

“She knows what I’m wearing under my clothes. She knows what I look like naked. Yes, this is very disturbing.”

“It’s her business to know,” Roarke pointed out. “And however attractive she may find you, she’s devoted to Liv.”

“That’s not the point. That is not the point. And people wonder why I hate shopping. I want that wine. A really big glass of it.”

“I can take care of that.” He put an arm around her shoulders, kissed the side of her head as they walked across Madison.

It was good and it was right, Eve thought later, to remember her actual life now and again. To step away from the work, even just for a few hours, and enjoy sitting at a sidewalk table on a balmy May evening in the city, drinking good wine and eating good food with the man she loved.

She leaned across the table toward him. “Consider this the wine talking.”

He leaned toward her so their foreheads nearly touched. “All right.”

“You’re never wrong, just like she said.”

“About the nightgown?”

“That’s for you, and we both know it. About dinner. Here. Us. It’s a good thing.”

“It is a good thing.”

“I don’t remember to give you the good things enough.”

“Eve.” He closed his hand over hers on the table. “I think you remember exactly the right amount.”

“That’s the wine talking.”

“Maybe. Or my calculating getting you in—and out—of that nightgown tonight.”

“Slick operator.” She sat back, took a long breath as she watched people, watched traffic. Hurry, hurry by. “It’s a good city,” she said quietly. “It’s not pure and it’s not perfect. It has some nasty edges, some hard lines. But it’s a good city. We both chose it.”

“I’ve never asked you why, exactly. Why you did choose it.”

“Escape.” Her brows lifted as she frowned into her wine. “Maybe it is the wine for that to be the first thought. I guess it was a part of the motivation. It was big enough to swallow me if I needed it to. It’s fast, and I wanted fast, and the crowds. The work. I needed the work more than I needed to breathe back then.”

“That hasn’t changed overmuch.”

“Maybe not, but I’m breathing now.” She lifted her wine, sipped.

“So you are.”

“When I came here, I knew. I can’t explain why, but I knew. This is my place. Then there was Feeney. He saw something in me, and he lifted me out. He made me more than I ever thought I could be. This was my place, but if he’d transferred to Bumf*ck, Idaho, I’d have gone with him.”

Had she ever thought of that before? Eve wondered. Ever realized or admitted that? She wasn’t sure.