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“Okay.” Distracted, she frowned at him. “Why?”
“Is that a personal or professional question?”
“You’d be more use with EDD.”
“Not necessarily. Particularly as you don’t think she’s where they’re going.”
“I don’t see why he’d lie. Why he’d go through the whole agreement deal just to lie. He wants her to live, and it was the right angle, pushing the brother, her plans to do the kid, the others. I could see him take it in, see he knew she’d go there. But he wants her to live, and he wants her to get out, to know she’ll only spend a few years inside.”
“She’s his child.”
“He wasn’t lying, but . . .”
“Take a minute.”
Shaking her head, she pulled a combat knife from her drawer, slid it from the sheath, back in. “Clock’s ticking,” she said as she hooked it to her belt.
“And Lowenbaum is even now putting men in position to pin her down. Take a moment, and let whatever’s brewing in that head of yours out.”
“It’s more gut.”
But she stopped, sat, put her boots on her desk, stared at the board.
When Peabody started in, Roarke held up a hand to silence her.
Head, gut, instinct, sixth sense, or cop logic—whatever it was, he knew it was working inside her.
They’d wait.
18
She should be on her way to Alaska—but she wasn’t.
She was supposed to take a bus to Columbus—but she didn’t.
They had a mission—but she had another of her own. Hidden from her father, her teacher, her mentor.
He wants her to live. She wants to kill.
He tells her to run, stay safe, wait it out.
Running? Safety? For losers. Waiting takes too long.
She wants to kill.
“She’s not going to listen to him,” Eve murmured. “It’s not because she’s fifteen. Maybe that plays a part, but that’s not the crux. It’s just not. She knows she’s better than he is. He’s lost his physical edge, and hers is still sharp. He’s weak, isn’t he?”
She shoved up then, paced, her eyes on the board.
“Who accomplished that? She did. Not him. Stay safe? She doesn’t want safe, she wants action. She wants the excitement, the points, the targets.
“Her targets.”
“Where would she go?” Roarke asked her.
“Not to some mangy flop with whores and junkies. Not to some hole to curl up and wait until whenever. It’s all now. It’s all today. It’s about her. She’s the center. She wants the center. If she wanted safe, she’d be gone. She’s not gone because it’s now, and it’s about what she wants. Her mission now. She’d go home.”
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