Vengeance in Death (In Death #6)(110)

“You gave it to me.” He smiled as he eased her up, his arm supporting her neck. “Your clinch piece. I never gave it back.”

“I forgot.”

“I hardly think the authorities are going to give me any trouble about it. Drink this.”

“What is it? I don’t want it.”

“Don’t be such a baby. It’s just a soother — mild, I promise. It’ll help the pain.”

“No, I —” She choked a bit when Roarke simply poured some of the tranq down her throat. “I have to call this in.”

Roarke sighed. “Summerset, would you contact Commander Whitney and tell him what’s happened here tonight?”

“Yes.” He hesitated, then gathered up the bloody cloth. “I’m very obliged to you, Lieutenant, and I regret that you were injured performing your duties.”

When he walked out she pursed her lips. “I’ll have to get blasted more often. He didn’t even sneer at me.”

“He told me what happened. And that you’re the most courageous and foolish woman he’s ever known. At the moment, I have to agree.”

“Yeah, well, we lived. I’ll take the rest of that soother now that he’s gone. The arm’s some better, but my side’s killing me.”

“You took a kick.” Gently, Roarke lifted her higher so that he could sit down with her resting against him. “My brave and foolish cop. I love you.”

“I know. He was only nineteen.”

“Evil isn’t the exclusive territory of adults.”

“No.” She closed her eyes as the pain eased away toward numbness. “I wanted to take him alive. You wanted him dead. He swung the tide in your favor.” She turned her head. “You’d have killed him anyway.”

“Do you want me to deny it?” He lowered his lips to her brow. “Justice, Eve, is weak and thin without the underpinning of retribution.”

She sighed, rested her head, closed her eyes again. “What the hell are we doing together anyway?”

“Leading lives that are often too interesting. Darling Eve, I wouldn’t change a moment.”

She looked around the wreckage of the lovely room, at the wasted boy on the floor. And felt Roarke’s lips brush over her hair. “Me either.”

The End