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“As much as I’d enjoy seeing that—in fact, am in my head at this moment—I’m forced to agree. But it’s neither here nor there. She named the five, I agreed to it. The sixth was for the child, and she’ll see the child gets it. I admire and respect a woman who does the necessary, whatever it might be, for her child.”
She let out a breath, and it was the wind coming out of her sails. He’d thought of his mother, of course, Eve realized. Of what she’d suffered and sacrificed. Of what she’d died for. “Still,” she said because she couldn’t think of anything else. “And why did I take her off the list when she knocked that jerk out of his chair?”
“Because you saw, as I did, a direct woman who handles business in a straightforward manner. She might have killed Anders if her reasons were strong enough, but she’d never have left him to choke to death.”
“You should’ve been a cop.”
“You’re just saying that to get back at me for the ‘my wife’ comment. We’ll consider ourselves even.”
She considered. “I’m not buying dinner because I’m tapped, and we can get it free at home. Give Sulky and his friend Stupid another ten, will you?”
When he joined her in the car, she gave him a smirk. “Bet you didn’t give them a tip.”
“Actually, I did. It was that if they ever saw this particular crap ride in the neighborhood again, they should remember the pair of tenners, and your considerable wrath. Now why should you be tapped?”
“What? Oh. I don’t know. Because people keep wanting money for stuff. Buy a damn Pepsi, they expect some coin. Bastards.”
“How much shagging Pepsi do you drink?”
“I don’t know. Plus there’s, you know, stuff that comes up. Weasels to pay off.”
“Weaseling is departmentally covered in your budget.”
Her lips curled. “Yeah, and by the time I get the kickback from that I’ll be retired and taking hula lessons in Maui. What is this, an inquisition?”
“I don’t understand why—and yes, I’m saying it, so suck it up—my wife is walking around tapped. Make a bloody withdrawal from your account, or ask me for a bit of the ready.”
“Ask you for…” Fortunately, the light turned red, forcing her to stop. It was marginally safer to swing around and glare at him while stopped. “I’ll be damned if I’ll ask you for money.”
“You just asked me for ten to pay your street thug.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because…It wasn’t for me, it was for him. I’ll put in a chit for it, pay you back.”
“While we’re taking those hula lessons, possibly eating poi. Don’t be an idiot.”
“Call me an idiot again, all you’ll be able to eat is poi, seeing as you’ll be missing most of your teeth.”
“I didn’t call you an idiot, I told you not to be one,” he snapped back. “And if you don’t drive this bleeding car we’ll have a riot on our hands.”
She supposed the explosions going on in her head had blocked out the blaring horns. She zipped through the light, steamed up the next few blocks, then swung back when she hit the next red. “I’ve been handling my own ready all my life and I don’t need a freaking allowance from my daddy. I do just fine.”
“Obviously, since you’re walking about with empty pockets.”
“I got the plastic, don’t I?”
The look he gave her would have withered stone. “How things must’ve changed since I was running the streets. I never accepted the plastic.”
He had her there. “So I didn’t get around to pulling out a little cash the last few days. So what? I don’t know why you’re so pissed about it.”
“You don’t, no. Quite obviously, you don’t.”
The fact that he didn’t add to that, said nothing at all as she fought and maneuvered her way uptown, told her he wasn’t just pissed, he was over the line into furious.
She didn’t get it, didn’t get it, didn’t get it. How had they gone from perfectly fine to taking a few acceptable pokes at each other to furious?
