Quinn - Iris Johansen [71]
“I knew it.” He smiled. “And how could I blame Bonnie? I wouldn’t have known you if it hadn’t been for her. As I’ve been lying here all these hours since I came around, I’ve been wondering if maybe it was Bonnie who purposely brought us together. You were alone. Did she know you needed someone to love you as much as I do?” He made a face. “Though I’m glad that she didn’t make a ghostly appearance on that first day I met you. I was having enough trouble coping with the way I was feeling.”
And Joe had begun seeing Bonnie only recently, and it had still shaken him, Eve thought. He had been on edge and uncertain and questioning his own sanity. It had taken him a long time to accept that the spirit Bonnie was no hallucination, and he had never been comfortable with the idea.
But there had been no hint of disturbance in his demeanor now when he was talking about Bonnie bringing him back to Eve. His expression was calm, thoughtful, and yet there was determination and strength in the set of his mouth and chin.
“It’s possible, I suppose,” she said. “I believe in the power of love, and Bonnie loved me. And she loves you, too, Joe.”
He nodded. “I know she does. She told me.” He was silent again, thinking. “I got to know her very well while we were traveling in that darkness. All through our years together, Eve, I could never love her because I never knew her. She was gone before I came to you. But I know her now. She touched me. She took my hand, and I experienced everything about her. She’s … beautiful.”
“Yes, she is.” The tears were falling now. “Like you, Joe.”
“Don’t say that too loud. It will destroy my macho image,” he said. “But I can love her now. It’s so easy…”
It had been a long time coming, but the joy Eve knew at those words would have been worth a much longer wait. It formed a bridge that spanned the emotional abyss that had been the only rift between them. “I’m glad that you got to know her,” she said unsteadily. “I tried to tell you, but there weren’t any words.”
“There still aren’t.” He reached out and touched the tears on her cheeks. “Don’t do this. It hurts me.”
“It shouldn’t. I’m happy.” She wiped her eyes. “But next time you talk with Bonnie, tell her that she should bring me into the conversation. I can never count on when she’s going to show up, and it’s disconcerting when she tells you to disobey doctor’s orders.”
“She didn’t exactly tell me that. I just knew.”
“Knew what? That she wanted you to bail out of this hospital?”
“No, that she was going to help me to heal. It should be a cinch for her to offer a little mojo in that direction. After all, she managed to pull me back from the pearly gates.” He chuckled. “If that was where I was heading. It felt pretty good, so maybe I might have gotten lucky.”
“No, I was the one who got lucky.”
“Keep thinking that way.” His gaze went to the door, where a nurse and two orderlies were coming into the ICU. “And here’s my escort to my new room. It’s the first step, Eve. Tell Catherine I’m on my way.”
One Week Later
SHE HAD found him!
Catherine wriggled snakelike down the incline that led to the cliff that fell off steeply to the lake below.
She had caught a glimpse of Gallo as he moved through the forest a half mile back. At first she hadn’t been certain it was Gallo, but then he had come out of the shadows of the trees, and she had caught a glimpse of his face. Slight indentation at the chin, dark hair …
Yes.
She had been concentrating on this area of the property for the last three days, and she’d had a hunch she was getting near.
She propped herself against a boulder, and her gaze narrowed on the thicket of trees on the slope. He should be coming out of those trees any minute, and she’d have him.
Eve wanted him alive. Catherine silently took her dart gun from her backpack and inserted one of Hu Chang’s special darts. Not as special as some others her old teacher had made for her. But