"I'm fit to kick righteous ass if one more person sees my tits this morning."
She turned away again and tried to bury herself in water and steam.
* * *
"You're very lucky," Louise told her a bit later as she closed her medical bag. "You could easily have fractured your skull instead of bruising it. Even so, it's a small miracle you're back on your feet this morning. Sam's very gifted, and was a great deal of help."
"I owe him." Eve buttoned up a shirt. "Owe both of you."
"And here's my bill. There's a fundraiser on Saturday night to drum up money for three new med-vans. You've already been sent an invitation, which you, or I imagine Roarke, has accepted. But I know you often find a way to wiggle out of these things. This time, be there."
Eve said nothing. She'd have to pay Louise back another time, another way. Roarke wasn't going to any public functions until Julianna Dunne was locked in a cage.
Louise glanced at her wrist unit. "Gotta go. I told Charles I'd pick him up at the airport. He's coming back from Chicago this morning."
"Okay." Hesitating, Eve reached for her weapon harness. "Louise, it really doesn't bother you? What he does?"
"No, it doesn't bother me. I think I'm falling in love with him, and it's just lovely." Her face seemed to radiate happiness. "You know what it's like when there's just the two of you, and that rush inside you?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do."
"The rest? It's just details. Don't overdo it, Dallas. When you get tired, sit. When you feel shaky, lie down, and don't be a hero. Take something for the discomfort." She angled her head as she paused at the doorway. "A little makeup would cover most of that bruising."
"What's the point?"
Laughing, Louise headed out the door, and Eve for the elevator.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Eve smelled coffee and baked goods the minute the elevator doors opened into her office. Both were being consumed with apparent enthusiasm by her team. Roarke seemed to be content with coffee.
"You've got a nine o'clock conference via 'link," she reminded him.
"My admin's handling it." He handed her his cup of coffee. "Updated schedule's on your desk. Have a muffin." He chose one, bursting with blueberries, from a tray.
"Whatever your schedule, you should get to it. I have my own."
"In which I have a vested interest. Push at me on this," he added, lowering his voice, "and I'll push back. I doubt you're sufficiently recovered to be much of a challenge."
"Don't make book on it. But if you want to waste your time sitting in on this briefing, I've got no problem with it."
"That's lucky for both of us." He strolled away to get himself another cup of coffee.
To stop herself from saying something nasty she might not be able to back up, she stuffed her mouth with the muffin, then sat on the edge of her desk. "I need to be brought up to speed on the guy who clocked me yesterday, and the airboard vid-kid."
"I took those." Feeney polished off a Danish then took out his memo book for reference. "Sidewalk sleeper's Emmett Farmer, licensed beggar. Trolls the sector around Central, hangs around intersections and does the windshield gag to pick up loose change. A lot of the uniforms know him, and reports are he's excitable but basically harmless."
He glanced up at Eve, pursed his lips as he eyeballed her face. "Don't guess you'd agree with the harmless part under the circumstances. His statement is the blonde gave him five dollars and told him he was supposed to wait for your vehicle, do the windshield, and you'd give him another five. She told him he had to keep you by the vehicle or he wouldn't get paid. Farmer tends to be really insistent about being paid."
"So she'd picked him specifically—smear the windshield so my vehicle's blinded and I can't pursue that way. Pit me against Gibraltar so she buys enough time to get a good lead on me."
Feeney nodded. "And if you get kicked around in the process, so much the better. Statement the airboard kid, Michael Yardley, gave you on-scene's what he's sticking to. Given his age, the fact he's never been in trouble, it holds. She claimed to be a vid producer, set the scene for him. Kid lapped it up. He's scared brainless he's going to go to jail for taking you down."
"A lot of flaws in the plan." Eve frowned as she drank her coffee. "Timing's off, just a little, either one of her stooges doesn't follow through, or doesn't follow through hard enough to immobilize me, she's the one eating pavement."
And oh, she thought as she rolled her achy shoulder, what a glorious day that would have been.
"But she took the risk," Eve continued. "That tells me the interview with Nadine got under her skin."