Eve - Iris Johansen [9]
Rosa gave her a hug and whirled. “I’ve got to go back to Manuel. They won’t let me stay in the same room with him without a nurse being there, but they said I could watch him through the window.”
Eve watched her running down the corridor. What were they afraid she’d do to her baby? Smother him? Anyone could see that she adored Manuel. It was a crazy world.
“Hi.” John Gallo was coming toward her from the direction of the elevators. “How’s the kid?”
“He’ll be okay,” she said curtly. “It’s a miracle. They could have killed him.”
“You look like you’re unraveling.” He went to the coffee machine. “Coffee? Or maybe, a Coke?”
She nodded. “Coffee. Black.” She sat back down. “And I’m not unraveling. What are you doing here?”
“I got to thinking about the kid.” He handed her the coffee. Then he went to the soft-drink machine and got a Coke for himself. “I don’t know how anyone drinks black coffee. It tastes like tar to me.”
“It was all my mother kept in the house when I was a kid.”
“You’re not much more than a kid now.”
“Sixteen.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. I was hoping for a little older.” He sat down beside her. “Eve, Rosa called you. Eve what?”
“Eve Duncan.” She took a drink of the coffee. It was strong and generally foul-tasting. She didn’t care. It was hot. “And why do you care how old I am? Are you making a pass at me?”
“No, you’ll know when I do.” He lifted his cup to his lips. “Just a comment. You’re still in high school?”
“I graduate next year. You?”
“I graduated over a year ago. I’ve been moving around the country and raising a little hell with a couple of buddies for the last year. Sort of a last hurrah before I go into the service.”
“You’re joining the Army?”
He nodded. “My parents are dead, and I don’t have money for college. I thought it was my best bet to get more education and move up in the world. The Army’s not a bad deal.” His lips tightened. “And I won’t be caught in the same trap that choked my folks to death. Minimum-wage jobs and kids they never wanted. You think that housing development you live in is bad? I moved down here from Milwaukee, and the place I lived was called the Bricks. We had a killing nearly every two months, and the cops never came near it without a backup.”
“Is that where you learned to— You broke Frank Martinelli’s arm.”
He shrugged. “I learned a little self-defense from living at the Bricks. But my uncle was a Ranger in the Army, and he taught me everything he knew. Uncle Ted is the reason I’m down here. He’s got a back problem, and he moved down here because the VA Hospital has some specialists in Atlanta. I wanted to get him settled before I checked in for basic training.”
“Self-defense?” Eve’s brows rose. “It didn’t look like self-defense to me. They didn’t have a chance.”
He smiled. “If I’d let them move first, it would have been self-defense. It’s all how you look at it.” His smile faded. “And they made me mad. I didn’t like what they were doing to you.”
“Neither did I.” She leaned back in the seat. “I was scared.”
“But you went running in after them anyway.”
“They were hurting the baby.” She lifted her hand and rubbed her neck. “No one has a right to hurt the helpless. Most of us can take care of ourselves. But you have to do something about it if they go after babies or animals or—”
“Is your neck hurting?”
“Aching. That bastard was jerking me backward by my hair.”
“I can help.” He put his Coke down and stood up. “Lean forward a little.”
She looked at him warily. “What?”
“I won’t hurt you.” He stood a little behind her. “My uncle taught me this, too. It helped when I got whiplash from an accident.” His hands were on the back of her neck. “It’s all in the thumbs…” His thumbs were digging into her neck in deep massage. “Relax.”
She couldn’t relax. Her flesh felt hot beneath his touch, and that heat was spreading out in waves throughout her body. The muscles of her stomach were clenching, and her breasts …
What the hell was happening to her?
She knew