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Eve was still faster, even injured, she gained speed through terror. She wrenched at the door, cursed security, and slammed her hand down on the palm plate.
She all but ran over him as he stepped to the threshold.
“Roarke.” She burrowed into him, would have climbed inside him if she could. “Oh God. You’re all right. You’re alive.”
“What’s happened to you?” He tightened his grip on her as she shuddered.
But she was jerking back, grabbing his face in her hands, staring into his eyes. “Look at me. Did you use it? Did you test the VR unit?”
“No. Eve—”
“Peabody, drop if he moves wrong. Call the MTs. We’re taking him in for a brain scan.”
“The hell you are, but go ahead and call them, Peabody. She’s going to the health center this time, if I have to knock her unconscious.”
Eve stepped back, fighting for breath as she carefully measured him. She couldn’t feel her legs, wondered why she could still stand upright. “You didn’t use it.”
“I said I didn’t.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “It’s aimed at me this time, is it? I should have seen it.” He turned away, glanced over his shoulder as Eve lifted her weapon. “Oh, put that damn thing down. I’m not suicidal. I’m pissed. She slipped it right by me. It just started to click five minutes ago. Mindoc. Mind doctor,” he elaborated. “That’s the name she used in her game playing. She’s still using it, still playing. Mathias had dozens of transmissions to her in the year before he died. And I took a close look at the data report on the unit. The one they just gave me, and the stats from the files. They hadn’t buried those deeply enough.”
“She knew you’d find it. That’s why she—” Eve broke off, sucked in air that she could hear whistle eerily in her swimming head. “That’s why she personalized a unit for you.”
“I might have gotten around to testing it if I hadn’t been interrupted.” He thought of Mavis, nearly smiled. “I doubt Ree put much effort into altering data. She knew I trusted her and William.”
“It wasn’t William—not voluntarily.”
He only nodded, looked at her ruined shirt, the bright red splashes. “Did she bloody you?”
“It’s mostly hers.” She hoped. “She didn’t want to be taken in.” Eve blew out a breath. “She’s dead, Roarke. Self-terminated. I couldn’t stop her. Maybe I didn’t want to. She told me—the unit, your unit.” Her breath was wheezing again, hitching, skipping. “I thought—I didn’t think I’d be in time. I couldn’t make the ’link work, and I couldn’t get here.”
She didn’t hear Peabody close the door to give her privacy. She didn’t care about privacy. She only continued to stare, blind now, and shudder. “I couldn’t,” she said again. “I stalled her, all that time I was stalling her, building my case, and you could have been—”
“Eve.” He came to her, gathered her close. “I’m not. And you did get here. I won’t leave you.” He pressed his lips to her hair when she buried her face against his shoulder. “It’s over now.”
She knew she’d replay that endless run, the panic and the helpless grief, a thousand times in her dreams. “It’s not. There’ll be a full investigation, not just of Reeanna, but of your company, the people who worked with her on the project.”
“I can stand it.” He tipped her head back. “The company’s clean. I promise. I won’t cause you any official embarrassment, Lieutenant, by being arrested.”
She took the handkerchief he pressed into her hand, blew her nose. “Be hell for my career, being married to a con.”
“Be easy on that account. Why did she do it?”
“Because she could. That’s what she said. She enjoyed the power, the control.” Briskly, she rubbed her cheeks dry with the heels of her hands, hands that were nearly steady now. “She had big plans for me.” The shudder was hard but brief. “Kind of a pet, I imagine. Like William. Her little trained dog. And with you dead, she figured I’d inh
erit all your goodies. You’re not going to do that to me, are you?”
“What, die?”
“Leave me all this stuff.”
He laughed, kissed her. “Only you would be annoyed by that.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “She had a unit for you.”
“Yeah, we didn’t get around to testing it out. Feeney’s down there now. I’d better let him know what happened.”
“We’ll have to go down. She disengaged the ’link, which is why I was on my way to you when you jumped me. I was worried when I couldn’t get through.”
“It’s tough.” She touched his face. “Caring.”
“I can live with it. You’ll want to go into the station, I imagine, to clean this up tonight.”
