“If you’ve got a beef about the way I handled your people, you’ll have to save it. I’m in a hurry.”

“It would take more than a moment to discuss the areas of your sensitivity and people skills. I realize you’re not looking at Reva and were, in your way, establishing her alibi.”

“So?”

“I won’t work in the dark, Eve. If you want my help you can’t give me tasks to perform one moment, then close me out the next. I expect you to trust me with the details.”

“You know all you need to know. When you need to know more, I’ll tell you more.”

He grabbed her arm, spun her around. “Is this your way of slapping at me because I refuse to stand on the same elevated moral ground as you?”

“If I slap at you, pal, believe me, you’ll feel it. This, and that, are two separate issues.”

“Bollocks.”

“Oh, fuck you and the big-ass dick you rode in on.” She jerked away from him and lost control long enough to shove him back.

She saw his eyes fire, but he didn’t shove back, didn’t touch her. She hated herself for resenting that he could keep that violence in line when she couldn’t.

“This is my work, goddamn it, and I don’t have the time or the luxury to think about anything else right now. You don’t like the way I’m running this investigation and this team, then step out. Step the hell out. You don’t know what I’m dealing with.”

“You’ve just made my point. I’ve some concerns, reasonable concerns, about having my wife go up against the HSO. This isn’t just a murderer, or even organized crime. It isn’t some wild-eyed group of terrorists. This is one of the most powerful organizations in the world. If they’re involved in this, as it seems they must be in some aspect, it logically follows that they’d have little compunction about harming a New York City cop who got in their way. Personally or professionally harming that cop. My cop.”

“Deal with it. That’s part of the package you took on. You want to keep my ass out of the sling on this, get me the information. That’s what you can do. That’s all you can do.”

“It’s part of the package I took on,” he agreed in a tone that was dangerously soft. “You’d do well to remember the whole of the one you took on. The whole of it, Eve. You have to live with that, or without it.”

She stood, shocked to the bone, when he turned and walked away from her. Her skin went cold with it, and her stomach cramped and twisted as she rushed down the stairs out of the house. Something of it must have shown on her face as Peabody turned to her when she climbed into the car.

“Dallas? You okay?”

She shook her head. She wasn’t sure she could get out words. Her throat was burning. Punching the accelerator, she sent the car speeding down the drive, which was flanked by lovely trees and bushes beginning to fire with the first hints of autumn.

“Men are tough nuts,” Peabody said. “The more I’m around them, the tougher they get. It seems to me that one like Roarke would be tougher than most.”

“He’s pissed that’s all. Really pissed.” She had to press a hand to her troubled stomach. “So am I, goddamn it, so am I. But he got under my guard. He’s really good at getting under your guard. The son of a bitch.” Her breath wanted to hitch so she sucked it in, sucked it in hard. “He knows just where to jab.”

“The more somebody loves you, the better their aim.”

“Christ, he must really love me. I can’t do this now. He knows I can’t do this now.”

“Never a convenient time for relationship upheaval.”

“Who the hell’s side are you on?”

“Well, since I’m sitting beside you, and you punch really hard, I’m on yours. You bet.”

“Gotta put it away.” But she was afraid the sickness in her belly was going to plague her throughout the day. Still, she engaged the dash ’link and took the next step.

“Nadine Furst.”

“I can’t make lunch. We’ll have to reschedule. As soon as possible.”

“All right.” Nadine didn’t bat a carefully groomed lash. “I’ll clear some time and let you know.”

“Looking forward to it.” Eve signed off.

“What the hell was that?” Peabody demanded.

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net