“Then come over here and play Florence Nightingale,” he said mockingly. “I’m at your disposal.”
When she didn’t move, his voice lowered to wheedling softness. “Come here, Kendra. Don’t you want to save me from myself?”
“Why should I?” Then she couldn’t stand it any longer but was striding over to where he was standing. She carefully removed the bandage and placed it on the end table. Slowly, with the utmost care, she examined the tissue surrounding the bullet wound on his arm and the lesser one that had opened on his back. She looked up to see his gaze on her face.
“I told you it was nothing,” he said quietly. “I’ve had a lot worse.”
“Tell me about it,” she said bitterly. “I remember I told Jessie about the first time I visited you in the hospital after we started to work together and I got a look at all those scars on your body. It almost made me sick.”
“I wouldn’t want to do that to you.” He shrugged. “I’ve led a rough life. I’m sure Korkil was disappointed when the interrogator he sent to question me didn’t succeed. He just couldn’t compete with some of the nutcases from my younger years. But maybe he’ll still get his chance to—”
“Shutup—”
“Okay.” He cupped her face in his two hands to look into her eyes. “It’s done. It never would have started if you hadn’t been so upset that you wanted to punish me for being clumsyenough to get wounded. I got a little testy because I feel like that almost every time that you even come close to having that happen to you. Tit for tat.”
“Bullshit. It wasn’t like that. It’s almost a miracle when youdon’tget hurt. I’m careful and intelligent, and I help you and contribute when we work a case together. But this time you left me behind and rode off into the sunset. That wasn’t ethical or fair.”
“You’re absolutely correct. But it still felt like the right thing to do. So I did it.”
“What do you mean? You’re not making sense.”
His hold moved down to gently rub her throat. “You’re everything that you’ve mentioned and more. You forgot to add that brilliant ability to find clues at a crime site that no one else can see. I really appreciate that one.”
She could feel her pulse pounding beneath his fingers, and she wondered why she was letting him touch her like this. Unless it had something to do with the fact that until just recently she had thought he might never be able to touch her again. And she was still suffering from the shock of seeing all that hideous blood. She forced herself to try to back away from him. “Which only proves how unreasonable you were to treat me like that.”
“No.” He bent his head and brushed his lips back and forth on the hollow of her throat. “Because my reasoning was entirely based on the current state of our relationship. I’ve been trying to reach you and show you how it’s changing, but you haven’t been willing to investigate and explore the nuances.”
“Changing?”
“Deepening, evolving, building on the old to get to the new. You’ve been content to go along as we have been as if you didn’trealize it.” He paused. “Or perhaps you’re afraid. That’s always a possibility. What do you think?”
“I think you’re trying to avoid the admission that you were completely wrong and should not have tried to keep me in the dark about such an important case. There are all kinds of ramifications that could have developed from it.” She pushed his hands away from her throat and stepped back. “And you still haven’t told me everything about what you were doing here.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I was just hitting the highlights. Ask me and I’ll answer.”
“I admit those highlights were pretty potent.” She shook her head. “But I want to know about Palmer Nolan and whose hand he chopped off for you.”
He started laughing. “No one. Nolan would be insulted that you thought that he was one of the bad guys. He can be a bit arrogant, but he takes pride in his work.” He snapped his fingers. “You must have found the prosthetic. It’s the only reason you might have drawn that conclusion.” He tilted his head. “Or maybe you just threw that remark out there to see what effect it would have. It’s something you would do.” He added softly, “Lord, I’ve missed you, Kendra.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said coldly. “Since I’m the one who had to cross an ocean to search for you.”
“Ouch. That hurt.”
“Yes, it did. I’m guessing that there was no victim in this case? The hand belonged to the robot courtesy of Stevie’s father. How did it get into that cave where I found it?”
“It happened after Stevie and Archie rescued me from that gas station. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, and Archie actually had to carry me. I pointed out that cave, and we hid outthere so that Archie could tend to my wound. Stevie took the opportunity to repair Archie’s damage, which wasn’t too bad.” Lynch smiled. “As the saying goes, you should have seen the other guys. Stevie had already been meaning to replace Archie’s hand with a more modern version she had with her, so she did the upgrade while we were there. I was unconscious most of the time, but as we left, I convinced her to leave the discarded prosthetic in the cave. I knew it could be traced back to her father’s company, and I had hopes you would find it if you made it that far.” He paused. “Are you finished with me for tonight? As I said, no more secrets. Ask and I’ll give you anything you want.”
“That sounds very generous. What I want to know right now is about the Queen’s Walk. That Porter woman’s death was very upsetting to me. Did you have anything to do with it? Did she die because I went there to the Queen’s Walk Book Mart trying to find you?”
“No, it wasn’t about you. Korkil already knew about Porter’s connection with Stevie. He’d been researching everything to do with Stevie and her father for the past year, just waiting for the right target. At one point, Elizabeth Porter was going to be the hostage to force Stevie to come over to the dark side with Archie.”
“Why?”
“Because his research had revealed that Elizabeth had been one of her prime mathematics tutors while she was growing up. She was both teacher and close friend, and often came to her home to discuss Stevie’s ambitions. The friendship continued even after Stevie’s knowledge and abilities surpassed Elizabeth’s own. Stevie wouldn’t entirely give up one of the only friends she’d hadgrowing up. She’d still send her books she’d read and notes on the texts that she’d studied and wanted to discuss with her.”
“I think I might have seen a few of those books,” Kendra murmured. “Elizabeth reacted angrily when I disturbed books on mathematical physiology at her booth at the book mart.”
He nodded his head. “That makes sense. Those books were likely given to her by Stevie, or perhaps she was holding them to give to Stevie. Archie is very much a product of that interest of Stevie’s.”
