New York to Dallas - J. D. Robb [127]
“Get us out. Can’t you see how scared they are?”
“They?”
“I’m scared. I’m scared.”
“Progress!” With a pleased smile, Mira lifted her teacup in salute. “Now let’s talk about that.”
“There’s no time.” Her head swiveled side to side while panic gnawed at her, belly and bone. “He’ll come back.”
“He’ll only come back if you let him. Well, that’s all the time we have for today.”
“For God’s sake don’t leave us like this. Take the girls. Take them out of here. They don’t deserve to be here.”
“No.” Her voice gentle as a kiss, Mira shook her head. “You don’t.”
“What about me!” The woman, the partner, the mother stood, her throat gaping and wet with blood. “Look what you did to me.”
“I didn’t kill you.” Eve cringed while the girls, all the girls curled into defensive balls.
“Stupid bitch, it’s all your fault.” When she slapped one of the girls aside, Eve felt the blow. “Stupid, ugly, worthless bitch. You should never have been born.”
“But I was. How could you hate what came out of you? How could you hate what needed you? How could you let him touch me?”
“Whine, whine, whine, all you ever did was whine. You’re nothing but a mistake, and now I’m dead because you’re alive.” The face changed, image over image. Stella to Sylvia, Sylvia to Stella. “You deserved everything he did to you, everything he’s going to do.”
“He’s dead! He can’t do anything because he’s dead.”
“Stupid little cunt. Then how did you get here?”
“Boy, nobody lays the guilt on like a mom.”
With a sympathetic smile, Peabody crouched in front of Eve. “How’re you doing?”
“How the hell does it look like I’m doing? Get these kids to safety. Call for backup. Get me a weapon. I need a weapon.”
“Jeez, Dallas, take it easy.”
Incensed, Eve yanked at the shackles. “Take it easy? What the fuck’s wrong with you? Get off your ass and do your job.”
“I am doing my job. We’re all doing the job. See?”
She could, like a dream over a dream, see her bullpen, cops at desks, in cubes. And Feeney in his rumpled suit in the middle of the clashing colors and constant movement of EDD. Above them Whitney stood, his hands clasped behind his back. Watchful.
“Officer needs assistance,” Eve murmured, dizzy.
“You’re getting it, Dallas. Best we got, just like you taught me. Look at my guy.” She grinned and pointed to McNab, who pranced around on wildly striped ankle skids, talking incessantly in e-geek. “That’s how he works. Doesn’t he have the cutest skinny butt? Now your guy, he’s got it rough right now.”
Eve saw Roarke behind a wall of glass. At his desk he worked a comp, two smart screens, a headset. His ’link signaled, and codes and figures whizzed by on the wall screens.
He had his hair tied back. His eyes were fierce and intense, and even from a distance she could see they were filled with fatigue and worry.
“Roarke.” Everything in her spilled out in the single word, the love, the fear, the anguish.
“It’s hard to think really clear, catch the little details when you’re that worried. He loves you. You hurt, he hurts.”
“I know. Roarke.”
“Gotta break the glass, I guess.” Peabody smiled. “You’re my hero.”
“I’m nobody’s hero.”
Peabody gave the wrist cuffs a tap. “Not like this, you aren’t.”
“Get me out of these!”
“How?”
“Find the key. Find the goddamn key and get me out.”
“Wish I could, Dallas, but that’s the whole thing. You’ve got to find it. Better find the key before he gets another one. Before he gets you. You’ve never been stupid. Don’t let her make you stupid.”
“How am I supposed to find anything when I’m locked in? How—” She broke off, cringing back when she heard the footsteps. “He’s coming.”
“He never left.” The mother walked to the door.
“Don’t open it. Please!”
“Whine, whine, whine.” She opened the door.
McQueen walked in, flashed a charming smile. “Hello, little girl,” he said in her father’s voice.
And bleeding from a dozen wounds, he came for her.
She bolted up in bed, clutching at her throat. The breath wouldn’t come, no matter how wildly her heart hammered, the breath