The In Death Collection 06-10 (62 page)

“And making love like animals.”

“I recall suggesting that.”

It was simpler yet to put the wine aside and jump him.

Peabody stayed out later than she’d intended, enjoyed herself more than she’d imagined. Of course, she thought, as she clomped up the stairs to her apartment, that was probably the result of the liquor and not the company.

Though, she could admit, McNab hadn’t been as much of an asshole as usual.

Now that she was pleasantly oiled, she thought she’d like to bundle into her ratty robe, turn on her tree, and curl up in bed to watch some sappy Christmas special on screen. At midnight, she’d call her parents and they’d all get sloppy and sentimental.

It had turned out to be a halfway decent Christmas Eve after all.

She turned at the top of the stairs and, humming a bit, walked toward her door.

Santa Claus stepped around the corner with his big silver box in hand, and beamed at her out of mad eyes. “Hello, little girl! You’re out late. I was afraid I’d miss giving you your Christmas present.”

Oh, Peabody thought. Oh shit. She had a split second to make up her mind. Run or stand. Her stunner was strapped inside her coat, and her coat was buttoned. But the communicator was in the pocket, within reach.

She opted to stand. Straining for a smile, she slid her hand into her pocket, engaged the unit. “Wow, Santa Claus. I never expected to run into you right here in front of my apartment door. Bearing gifts, too. I don’t even have a chimney.”

He threw back his head and laughed.

Eve groaned, rolled over, and stretched. They’d never made it to the bed, but had torn into each other on the floor. She felt bruised, used, and fabulous.

“That was pretty good for starters.”

Beside her Roarke chuckled and slid a fingertip down her warm, damp breast. “I was just thinking the same thing. But I want my Christmas present.”

“Wasn’t that it?” But she laughed, sat up, and rubbed her hands over her hair. “But next year—”

She broke off as she heard Peabody’s voice coming out of a pile of discarded clothes.

Wow. Santa Claus. I never expected to run into you right in front of my apartment door.

“Oh my God. Oh God.” She was already up, ripping at the clothes, dragging on trousers. “Call it in, call it in. Officer needs assistance. Oh Jesus, Roarke.”

He was pulling on his pants one-handed and snatching his porta-’link with the other. “Let’s move. Go. We’ll call on the run.”

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Simon told her. “With something very special.”

Stall, stall, stall. “Do I get a hint?”

“Something someone who loves you chose just for you.” He started toward her, and she kept the smile in place as she frantically flipped open the buttons of her coat.

“Yeah? Who loves me?”

“Santa loves you, Delia. Pretty Delia.”

She saw his hand come up, caught a glimpse of the pressure syringe palmed in it. Pivoting, she brought up her elbow to block, fighting to get past the stiff wool to her weapon.

“Naughty!” His breath wheezed out as he slapped her into the wall. She countered with a backhand punch, but it bounced off the box. And now her weapon hand was trapped between her body and the wall.

“Get off me, you son of a bitch.” She swiveled, and kicked back to hook her foot around his ankle, cursing herself for indulging in that last drink. She felt the quick sting of the syringe against her neck even as he went down behind her.

“Damn, oh damn,” she managed, as she stumbled two steps away, then just slid bonelessly down the wall.

“Look what you’ve done. Just look.” He scolded her as he opened her bag, searched through for her key card. “You might have broken something. I’m going to be very angry if you’ve broken any of my things. Now, you be a good girl and let’s go inside.”

He hauled her up first, steering her to the door, where he
disengaged the locks, then simply let her drop.

She felt the jolt, but it was distant, as if her body were padded with foam. Her mind was screaming for her to move, the message so loud she imagined herself springing up, but she couldn’t feel her legs.

Dimly, she heard him come in and close the door. “Now, let’s get you into bed. We have a great deal to do. It’s nearly Christmas, you know. There’s my love,” he murmured and carried her into the bedroom as if she were a doll.

“I don’t give a flying fuck about skeleton crews and available units,” Eve shouted into the ’link. “Officer Peabody is down! She’s down, goddamn you.”

Profanity is unacceptable on this channel, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve. This offense will be on record. Units are being dispatched. ETA twelve minutes.

“She doesn’t have twelve minutes. If she’s injured, you asshole, I’m personally going to come in and rip out every one of your circuits.”

She pounded her fist into the ’link. “Droids, they put goddamn droids on Dispatch, on the desk, every place, because it’s Christmas. Jesus, Roarke, can’t you get this thing to go any faster?”

He was already up to a hundred and ten, screaming through the vicious curtain of icy rain. But he pushed it.

“Nearly there, Eve. We’ll be in time.”

She was suffering unspeakable agonies listening to Simon’s voice through her communicator. She could picture it too clearly in her mind.

He was securing the restraints, carefully cutting away her clothes.

Eve’s mouth went dry.

Spraying her, inside and out, so she would be clean and perfect.

She was out of the car before Roarke had fully screamed to a stop. Her boots skidded, slid, then she dug in and flew to
the door. Because her hands weren’t steady, it took her two tries to bypass the locks.

When she pounded up the steps, Roarke was beside her.

And now at last, in the distance, came the shriek of sirens.

Eve slipped the master through the slot and shoved the door open.

“Police!” Weapon out, she charged the bedroom.

Peabody’s eyes were wide and dazed. Naked and bound, she shivered violently as the cold air rushed through the open window.

“He went out, down the fire escape. He ran. I’m okay.”

Eve hesitated for a heartbeat then dived for the window. “Stay with her,” she called to Roarke.

“No, no.” Shaking her head frantically, Peabody strained against the restraints. “She’ll kill him, Roarke. She means to kill him. Try to stop her.”

“You hold on.” He snatched the blanket off the floor, tossed it over her, then went out the window after his wife.

Her ankles sang as she leaped the last two feet to the ground, and her feet slid out from under her on the slick ground. She went down hard on one knee, then scrambled up. She could see him, heading east in a limping run, his bright red suit like a beacon.

“Police! Stop where you are.” But she was already running after him, knowing she was wasting her breath with the order.

There were a thousand bees buzzing in her head, a thousand of them stinging on her skin. In her gut was a ball of hate so hard and bitter it burned. In a deliberate move, she jammed her weapon into the waist of her slacks. She wanted to take him down with her own hands.

She leaped on him like a tiger on the hunt, sent him skidding on his face and belly over the pavement.

She was clawing at him, pounding on him, but couldn’t feel it. Cursing him between harsh, labored breaths, but couldn’t hear it.

Then she was dragging him onto his back and her weapon was in her hand. At his throat.

“Eve.” Roarke stood where he was, a foot away, and kept his voice quiet.

“I told you to stay with her. Stay out of this.” She stared into the bleeding, weeping face under hers. And God help her, she could see her father.

Her weapon was on full stun—not fatal. Except when pressed directly to a pulse. She jammed it harder against his throat. And wanted to, craved.

“You’ve beaten him. You’ve stopped him.” Suffering with her, Roarke moved closer, crouched down, and looked into her eyes. “Taking that next step, it’s not your way. It’s not who you are.”

Her finger trembled on the trigger. Little bullet points of ice hissed and cracked against the ground, pricked her skin. “It could be.”

“No.” He brushed a gentle hand over her hair. “Not anymore.”

“No.” She shuddered, shifted her weapon. “Not anymore.”

While the man beneath her cried for his mother, she rose. On the pavement, Simon curled into a ball. Hot tears cut through the happy color he’d painted on his face.

And made him pitiful.

Beaten, Eve thought. Destroyed. Over.

“I need you to get a couple of uniforms back here,” she said to Roarke. “I don’t have my restraints.”

“I have mine.” Feeney crossed the pavement. “I still had my communicator tuned for her and McNab. The boy and I got here right behind you.” He held her gaze for a moment. “Good job, Dallas. I’ll take him in for you. You oughta go check on your aide.”

“Yeah, okay.” She wiped blood from her face, unsure if it was Simon’s or her own. “Thanks, Feeney.”

Roarke wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Neither of
them had stopped for a coat. Her shirt was soaked through, and she was just starting to shiver. “Around or up?”

“Up.” She glanced at the iron steps above her head. “It’s quicker. “Give me a boost and I’ll pull you up after me.”

He cupped his hands, and lifted when she set her boot in them, then watched as she vaulted agilely onto the platform. “I’ll wait for you out front,” he told her. “You’ll want a little time with her.”

“Yeah, I do.” She stayed there, kneeling in the wind. Her nose was beginning to run, from the cold, from the storm of emotion still beating inside her. “I couldn’t do it, Roarke. I wondered if I could. I was afraid I could. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t.”

“I know it. You’ve grown your own way, Eve.” He reached up and squeezed the hand she held down to him. “Go inside, you’re cold. I’ll be in the car.”

It had been easier, Eve realized, to go out of the window than to talk herself back in. She took a couple of bracing breaths, then pushed up the window and tossed her leg over the sill.

Peabody sat in bed, wrapped in a blanket with a white-faced McNab’s arm around her.

“She’s okay,” he said quickly. “He didn’t . . . She’s just shaken up. I told the uniforms to stay out there.”

“That’s good. We’re under control here, McNab. Go on home, get some rest.”

“I . . . I can bunk on the couch if you want,” he said to Peabody.

“No. Thanks. Really. I’m okay.”

“I’ll just—” He didn’t have a clue what to do or how to do it and rose awkwardly. “Should I report in the morning, to close this out?”

“Day after’s soon enough. Take your Christmas. You earned it.”

He managed a quick grin at Eve. “Yeah, guess we all did. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“He was really nice.” Peabody let out a long breath when he left the room. “He kept everyone out, and got me loose and just let me sit. Closed the window because I was cold. So cold. God.” She covered her face with her hands.

“Do you want me to take you to a health center?”

“No, I’m okay. A little woozy yet. Worse, I guess, ’cause I’d had a few drinks before I got home. You got him, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I got him.”

Peabody dropped her hands. She fought to keep her face blank and calm, but her eyes were stark. “Is he alive?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I thought . . .”

“So did I. I didn’t.”

Abruptly the tears welled up and overflowed. “Oh man. Shit. Here it comes.”

“Okay, let it rip.” Eve sat down, wrapped her arms around Peabody and held on while she cried it out.

“I was so scared, so scared. I didn’t expect him to be that strong. I couldn’t get to my weapon.”

“You should have run.”

“Would you have?” She drew in a shuddering breath, let it out. They both knew the answer. “I knew you’d come to back me up. But when I came out of it, and I was here and . . . I didn’t think you’d be in time.”

“You did good. You stalled and held him off just long enough.” Eve wanted to hang on, to hold on to the sturdiness that was Peabody. Instead she rose. “You want a soother or something? You can take an inducer. He only used over-the-counters.”

“No, I think I’d rather not. Alcohol and tranqs are a bad enough mix without topping it with a soother.”

“I’m going to cut the uniforms loose. Do you want me to call someone to stay with you?”

“No.” The distance was forming, Peabody noted. Inch by inch. “Dallas, I’m sorry. Last night.”

“This isn’t an appropriate time to discuss it.”

Peabody set her jaw, then opened and closed the blanket. “I’m not in uniform, so I’m not speaking as aide to superior officer. That means I can say what the hell I want. I didn’t like the things you said. I still don’t. But I’m glad it mattered enough that you said them. I’m not sorry I jumped you for it, but I am sorry I didn’t see it as a friend’s concern.”