Eve (6 page)

He moved Eve quickly through the glittering lobby to the elevators. “Casual,” he said in a low tone. “Smile.”

She smiled with an effort as she got into the elevator. “It’s 2012.”

He pressed the button. “Right.”

“I thought I’d try to find a housekeeping maid to let me into the room.”

“That’s one way.” The elevator stopped, and he nudged her out of the elevator. “It might take time to find one that we can con into unlocking the door. But, you know, I don’t understand how he could lock her in.” He stopped in front of 2012. “At any rate, let’s try my way first.” He bent over the lock. “You’re sure this is the right room? Otherwise, it could prove embarrassing.”

“She said 2012. But no, I’m not sure. I’m never sure with Sandra. What are you doing?”

“Picking the lock.”

“Something your uncle taught you?”

“No, something I learned when I was running with a gang when I was fourteen. I told you I wasn’t a good guy.” He frowned. “Oh, that’s how he did it.” He pulled on the knob, and it came off in his hand. “He smashed the knob off.” His gaze narrowed on the lock and then he took out his pocketknife and started to work on the tumblers. “And then he stuck in something metal to jam the lock and put the knob back. I don’t think this is the first time that he did something like this. Your mom should be more careful with her friends.” He worked for a minute and straightened. “That should do it.” He pushed and the door swung open. “There we go.”

“Sandra?” Eve pushed ahead of John into the room. “It’s Eve. Are you—”

“Eve!” Sandra came running out of the bathroom. Her hair was mussed, her pink dress torn, her face bruised and washed clean of makeup. “I knew you’d find a way, honey.” She gave Eve a hug. “It’s been positively terrible for me. Men like him should be arrested.”

“Then stay away from men like him.” Eve pushed her back and looked at her. Yeah, she was definitely on something, but Eve didn’t know how deep. Deep enough for her not to realize that she’d been beaten worse than she’d thought. Four bruises marked her fair skin, she had a black eye, and her lip was cut. “He worked you over, Sandra.”

“I told you he wasn’t nice to me.” She lifted her hand to her lips. “See my cut? He didn’t have to do that.” Her gaze wandered to John Gallo. “Who is this, honey?”

“John Gallo,” John said. “I’m a friend of Eve’s.” He looked around the room. “We should get out of here. Do you have anything you need to take with you?”

“My purse.” She gestured vaguely. “On the bed.” She was studying John as he got her purse and handed it to her. “What a good-looking young man. Have you been keeping him from me, Eve? And he’s so polite. I wouldn’t mind you having a young man like him. A woman needs a man to take care of her needs. You’ve never seemed to understand that.”

“We have to go, Sandra.” She took Sandra’s elbow and pushed her toward the door. “Try to walk straight. When we get to the lobby, you have to move fast if you don’t want to attract attention.”

She nodded. “Mustn’t do that. Hotel people are so suspicious…” She looked back at them over her shoulder. “How did you get in the door? I didn’t ask—”

“What’s this?” A big, muscular man in a tan sport coat was standing in the doorway. “Where do you think you’re going, Sandra?”

She stopped. “Hello, Jimmy.” She moistened her lips. “I’m going now.”

“The hell you are. You promised me a party.”

“Party’s over.” Eve took Sandra’s arm and pushed her forward. “And parties don’t usually start with assault and battery. She’s leaving.”

“This is my daughter, Eve,” Sandra said. “And she’s right, you didn’t treat me right. I didn’t like you—”

The man she’d called Jimmy grabbed Eve’s arm as she passed with Sandra. “You can stay. I’ve never had a mother and daughter together before. But you don’t take her anywhere.”

“Yes, she does.” John was suddenly between them. He grabbed the hand that was grasping Eve’s arm. His thumb was pressing into Jimmy’s wrist. “Let her go.”

Jimmy gasped with pain, his hand releasing Eve’s arm.

“Get your mother out of here,” John said. “I’ll be right with you.”

Eve grabbed Sandra’s arm and hustled her out of the room and down the hall.

“Should we leave him?” Sandra asked. “I don’t want Jimmy to—”

“I don’t think you have to worry about John Gallo.” Eve punched the elevator button. But she didn’t like the idea of leaving him, either. The situation was her responsibility. When the elevator door opened, she pushed Sandra inside and hit the lobby button. “Go outside and get in the tan Chevy at the far end of the driveway.”

“But I want you to come with—” The door closed on her protest.

Eve was running back down the hall to the hotel room.

The door was still open. The big man in the tan sport coat was lying on the floor unconscious.

She hoped he was unconscious. Jimmy was lying very still. As she drew closer, she saw his face. His jaw and left eye were already starting to swell, his nose was smashed, and his lips were cut and bloody.

John turned to face her. He didn’t have a mark on him, she realized in astonishment. “I told you to take off.”

“He’s not dead?”

“He’ll be okay.” He shrugged. “I bloodied him up a little. I don’t like guys beating up women. I thought he should see how it feels.” He took her arm and led her out the door. “It’s been a frustrating night. I thought I deserved to enjoy myself.”

“And doing that to him made you enjoy yourself?”

He glanced sidewise at her. “Are you surprised?” His smile was chilling. “Oh, yes, I enjoyed the hell out of what I did to him.”

CHAPTER

4

SANDRA WASN’T GOING TO BE
able to climb the four flights of stairs at the development, Eve realized, after her mother almost fell twice on the first few steps. She moved to stand on the step beside her and put Sandra’s arm around her shoulders. “Hold on to the banister and lean on me. We can make it.”

“Sure we can,” Sandra said. “I just feel a little wobbly…”

“I’ll do it.” John was suddenly beside them, pushing Eve aside. “It will take you half the night to get up those stairs. What floor?”

“Four.”

“Go on upstairs and unlock the door.” He was picking Sandra up in his arms and starting up the stairs. “Come on, Ms. Duncan. This will be much easier for you.”

“Call me Sandra.” Sandra smiled. “Like I said, nice and polite, Eve. A real Sir Galahad, like I saw in that movie.”

“Wrong.” John smiled down at her. “But I make a good packhorse.” He was moving quickly up the stairs. “We’ll get you into your place in no time.”

Eve had the door unlocked and thrown wide by the time he reached the fourth floor. “Take her to her bedroom. It’s the door on the right.”

She went to the bathroom and got a damp washcloth and some salve.

John was looking down at Sandra lying on the bed. “I think she’s fading fast. Do you want me to help you undress her?”

“No, it won’t be the first time she’s slept in her clothes.” She turned on the lamp by the bed. “When I was younger, there was no way I could manage to help her.” She carefully bathed the cuts and bruises on Sandra’s face. “Bastard. Why would he want to hurt her like this? All he’d have to do is treat her nice, and she’d do anything he wanted.”

“He’ll think twice about doing it again.”

Yes, the beating John had given him had been brutal and merciless. She had been a little shocked at how merciless at first. She wasn’t shocked after getting a closer look at Sandra’s face. “Do you think he’ll call the police?”

“No chance. Not if he had heroin in his pocket. He’ll just cut his losses and get out of Dodge.”

“Good.” She was gently rubbing salve on Sandra’s cut lip. “I just hope he doesn’t try to look up Sandra again.”

“I’ll be around for a while. Let me know if there’s a problem.”

“I’ll handle it. She’s my mother.”

“Hurts, Eve…” Sandra was opening her eyes. “What are you doing, honey?”

“Just putting some salve on your lip. Go to sleep, Sandra.”

“I was bleeding … and there were bruises.”

“Yes, but they’ll go away.”

“I’ll be just as pretty as ever?”

Eve nodded. “In a week or so.”

“That’s good.” She was gazing drowsily up at Eve. “You have a bruise, too.” She reached up and touched the purple mark on Eve’s cheek. “Did Jimmy do that to you?”

“No, someone else. A couple days ago. I’m okay.”

“Poor Eve.” She gently patted Eve’s face. “Poor little girl. Like mother, like daughter.” Her eyes closed. “Like mother, like daughter…”

Eve stiffened as if Sandra had struck her.

She threw the salve on the nightstand and got to her feet. Her voice was shaking when she said, “She’ll be okay for the night.” She turned and strode out of the room. “Turn out her lamp.”

An instant later, the light went out, and John came out of the bedroom.

“Thank you for helping with her.” She was standing at the window with her back to him, looking down at the street. “Though I didn’t give you much choice, did I?”

“I had a choice.” He paused. “And you’re not like your mother, Eve. She’s not a bad woman, but she’s weak. There’s nothing about you that’s weak.”

“I know that,” she said. “But when I see her like that, I have to keep reminding myself. And how can I be sure that she wasn’t stronger when she was my age? Was she like me? Can life beat me down and turn me into what she’s become?”

“Not if you don’t let it.”

She drew a deep breath. “That’s right. I’m not thinking straight right now.” She turned around to face him. “Sometimes I get scared, but it doesn’t last long. Do you ever get scared, John?”

“Now and then. Usually it’s about being trapped somewhere and not able to get out.”

“And that’s why you’re going to join the Army and see the world. You’re going to avoid all the traps,” she said. “I don’t have to see the world. I’m going to make my own world.”

He smiled. “And what a world it will be. I’d like to stay around and see it.”

And she would like him to be there to see what she could accomplish, she realized. He would give life an edge, an excitement.

What was she thinking? That edge and excitement were what was most dangerous to her. She needed steadiness and focus to reach her goals.

He was looking around the room. “Very clean, very neat. It looks like you.”

“It’s the only way I can stand it. I taught myself to keep house, but I’m still a lousy cook. Strictly TV dinners.”

“I like to cook. It relaxes me.”

“Another thing your uncle taught you?”

He nodded. “He never got married. He had to do for himself. I’d like you to meet him someday.” His gaze was on the wall beside the window. “That’s a nice sketch on the wall. It’s Manuel, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I did it when I sat with him while Rosa went to the store. I’m going to give it to her when she starts her GED study. It’s sort of a bribe.”

“It’s good. Is that what you’re going to study?”

“Art? No way. I’ve heard too much about starving artists. And people who starve end up in places like this. I’m going to study engineering. That’s solid.”

“You have something there.” His gaze was still wandering. “One bedroom. Where do you sleep?”

“On the couch. It’s pretty comfortable.”

His gaze went to the paisley-covered couch across the room. “Cushy. Yeah, I can see you lying on it.” His eyes shifted back to her. “I’m glad I’ll be able to picture you there.”

Heat again. Out of nowhere. Just a few words, and that tingling tension was back.

“You’d better leave.”

“I’m going. I knew I said the wrong thing. I was making headway. We’ve gotten to know more about each other. You’re not thinking of me as a threat to you any longer. I should have let it go at that, but I couldn’t do it.” He added, “But I didn’t want to let you forget what’s going to be important to us.” He turned toward the door. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night.”

“Don’t you ever give up?”

“If I’d taken you at your word tonight and left you when you handed me my walking papers, then it would have been a hell of a lot more difficult for you.” He opened the door. “You can never tell when I might come in handy.”

“One-in-a-thousand chance.”

“When it comes, I’ll be there.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Do you know how I’m going to be thinking of you lying on that couch?” he said softly. “Naked, Eve. Naked and moving.”

He shut the door.

Damn him.

A wild kind of chemistry.

Searing hunger, mindless need. She was feeling all of those emotions that very moment.

Her hands were clenched as she stared at the door. The hell he was no longer a threat. Yes, they had gotten to know more about each other. Though he had become more knowledgeable about her than she was of him. He had caught her at a susceptible time, and she had revealed a vulnerability that she had shown no one before.

All she had learned about him was that he could be even more brutal and dangerous than he had shown her with that encounter with Larazo. That he had effortlessly made himself a necessity to Sandra and her during this hellish night. That he had read her mind and emotions with a cleverness and sensitivity that made her uneasy. That he had a patience that was almost intimidating. That his worst fear was of being trapped.

And that he was able, with one look or sentence, to make her body respond.

Naked and moving.

She knew as she lay on the couch trying to sleep tonight that she would be thinking, feeling, imagining John Gallo’s vision of her … and of him.

Damn him.

*   *   *

SHE TOOK AN HOUR OFF FROM
work the next day so that she’d be gone when he reached the restaurant.

The next night he showed up at the restaurant three hours early.

“I was worried that you weren’t here,” he said as he sat down on the chair. “Until Teresa told me that you’d left early. Is Sandra okay?”

“I guess so. She only stayed at home one day. When I got home from school today, she was gone.”

“Then it wasn’t trouble at home. You were running away from me.” He added quietly, “You shouldn’t do that, Eve. I know you can’t afford to miss any hours.”

“I wasn’t running from you. I had homework.”

He looked at her skeptically.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t Teresa entertain you?”

He shook his head. “You keep pushing her at me. If I wanted a substitute, I’d choose my own.” He studied her. “And you’re changing the subject. You must have had a reason to panic.”

“I didn’t panic.”

“Too strong a word? Maybe just a couple of really bad nights?”

She didn’t answer.

“I had them, too.” He got up from the stool, and said curtly, “And it’s time you brought this to an end. I’ll be waiting outside every night until you decide to either call the cops on me or give me my shot at convincing you that I’m not going to do anything to hurt you.”

He walked out the door.

And he would do exactly what he said, she realized. She had already gotten a taste of that patience. He was right. She would have to settle this in some other way because he wouldn’t be avoided.

And she wouldn’t run away from him again.

*   *   *

“LET’S GO.” SHE OPENED THE
passenger door and got into John’s Chevy. “I’m tired of the people I’m working with thinking I’m being stalked.”

“I guess you could say they’re right. Except stalking implies violence, and there’s no way I’d be violent with you.” As he started the car, he said, “Unless you wanted it. You don’t have the experience, and I’d shy away from it. But we could try it if you—”

“Shut up.” That heat was rising within her again. She only had to be near him, and it started. “I don’t want to try it. I don’t want to try anything.” She moistened her lips. “You said we had to put an end to this. That’s why I’m here. You helped me twice in some really bad situations, and I’m grateful. But now I want you to go away. You make me feel … I don’t like to feel like this.”

“Yes, you do. Or you would, if you’d let yourself. It’s the sport that makes the world go round. You’re feeling what I’m feeling, and there’s nothing more exciting. You’re just scared of the consequences. There wouldn’t be consequences, Eve. I’d take care of you.”

“And you think I’d trust you?”

“I think we’re going to have to trust each other. We need it too much to do anything else.”

“I don’t … need it.”

“The
hell
you don’t.” He drew a deep breath. “And I can’t talk right now, or I’ll end up wrecking this car. Give me a few minutes to get you home.”

He didn’t speak again until they were parked across the street from the housing development. His hands were clenched on the steering wheel, and he was looking straight ahead. “You may not need me, but you want me.” He turned and slid across the seat until he was touching her thigh-to-thigh. “Do you think I can’t feel it? I know damn well you can feel me. We’re both sending out signals that are basic as hell.”

She couldn’t breathe. Her hand reached out for the door handle.

“No, stay.” His hand was suddenly covering hers. “Let me show you just a little of what we’d have. I’ll stop whenever you say.” His hand moved slowly up her wrist to her upper arm. “You feel so good … Silky, and yet every muscle tense and ready.” His hand moved up to cup her throat. “And your heartbeat…”

Her heart was jumping out of her chest. The instant he’d touched her, she’d felt as if every nerve in her body had been electrified. She could feel the crispness of his shirt against her body and breathed in the scent of him. Spice or something else that was making her dizzy.

No, it was Gallo who was making her dizzy. His mouth was on hers, his tongue probing, playing.

She made a sound deep in her throat and moved closer.

“Yes.” His hands had slid down to undo the buttons of her shirt. “That’s right. Give me your tongue. I want the taste of you…”

She arched with a cry as his hands cupped her breasts. They were swelling, the nipples hardening, peaking.

Then they were free; he’d unfastened her bra, and his fingers were pressing, pinching, squeezing.

His mouth was on her breast, his tongue … his teeth …

Heat. Tingling between her thighs as his hand reached down to cup, rub. She shuddered as the tingling became a burning hunger.

“Not here. Let me take you someplace,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll make it good…”