Purity in Death (In Death #15)(89)

Too late. She'd been too late to save the baby. Killed the father, but lost the child.

She hadn't saved them, the baby, the girl. And their blood was on her hands.

The knife gleamed over her fingers.

The room wasn't white any longer. It was small and duty and cold. So cold. The red washed in from the light through the window. Over her hands. Little hands now on the hilt of a knife.

When he walked in the door, the red light bounced off his face like a shadow of the blood yet to be spilled.

"Eve." Roarke gathered her close, holding tight when she struggled. Her skin was iced. As she wept in her sleep, it tore his heart to pieces. "Eve, wake up. Come back now. Just a dream." He pressed his lips to her brow, her cheeks. "Just a dream."

"Kill the father, save the child."

"Ssh." He ran his hands soothingly over her back, under the old white shirt she favored for sleeping. "I'm here with you. You're safe."

"So much blood."

"God." He sat up with her, held her in his lap and rocked her in the dark.

"I'm all right." She turned her face into his shoulder. Somehow just the scent of him could center her. "Sorry. I'm okay."

"I'm not, so you can hold on to me awhile."

She slid her arms around his waist. "Something about Hannah Wade, the way . . . the way she died. It reminded me of this little girl. Baby really. The little girl whose father ripped her up. I got there too late."

"Yes, I remember. It was just before we met."

"She haunts me. I couldn't save her, couldn't get to her in time. And I think that maybe if you hadn't come into my life right after, that's the one that might've broken me. But she haunts me, Roarke. A little ghost to add to all the others. To add to myself."

"You remember her, Eve." He brushed his lips over her hair. "Perhaps you're the only one who does."

In the morning, she got up early enough to do a hard, sweaty workout, then took a long swim. She beat off the fatigue and the vague, nagging hangover from the nightmare.

And because she knew he'd keep at her until she gave in anyway, she sat down in the sitting area of the bedroom and ate the oatmeal Roarke ordered for her.

But she cast a suspicious eye on the milky liquid in the glass beside her coffee. "What's that?"

"A protein drink."

"I don't need a protein drink. I'm eating the stupid oatmeal, aren't I?"

"You'll have both." He stroked a hand over Galahad's head, then gave his attention to Eve rather than the morning financials scrolling by on-screen. "They'll offset the candy bar you probably plan to have for lunch. You didn't sleep well."

"I've got a lot on my mind. How come you don't have to have a protein drink?"

He forked up a section of grapefruit. "Can't abide the stuff. And I'm not the one who's going to have to deal with the mayor today."

"Yeah. I have to get started on that."

"I'm sure he'll find it an even more unpleasant way to start his day than you do yours. Drink up, Lieutenant."

She scowled, but drank. She was actually starting to like whatever he dumped in those mixes. "This data doesn't go to the rest of the team yet. I have to report it to Whitney, probably Tibble, and won't that be fun?"

"We should have your virus fully ID'd today. You're closing in."

"I've been thinking about that, too." She looked toward the data center. "I've been making plenty of noise. They'll know I've got some solid leads now. Could they dump that virus in this system here?"

"This system's security is a great deal more complex than what you'll find on other home systems."

Galahad inched toward the table, the plates. Roarke merely gave him one cool look. The cat shot up a leg and began to wash as if that had been the plan all along.

"And I've taken separate precautions," he continued, "based on the shield we've been working on in the lab. I can't give you a hundred percent guarantee, but unless they upgrade and modify what they've used to date, no. They can't infect this system."

"Let me take it in another direction. If there was an attempt to infect, can you rig some alarm, some detector, whatever, to alert us to it, maybe track the source?"

"You interest me, Lieutenant. I've already started working on that. It can't be done with any real success until we complete the full ID. But your lab rats have been devising some creative options. Jamie's particularly skilled in this area. I swear, if the boy wasn't determined to be you, he'd make his first billion before . . . well, before I made mine."

"If you could track it from this system, would you be able to track it back from one of the infected units?" She saw the look on his face. "Okay, so I'm one step behind the master geek plan. You get me that today, I might just dig up a pair of garters."

"I want the corset, too. And the shoes."

"You get me a source location, you get the shoes."

"I'm really starting to like this job. You have to wear the shoes the whole time we-"

"Let's not push it, pal." She rose. "I'm going to make this call from my office."