“Eve, I can’t believe even with the depths of the Harper Group’s pockets, they can overcome the amount of evidence you’ve compiled against him. Add what’s on your recorder during the arrest.”
“He was shocked. People broke into his house, had weapons. He snapped, he panicked. They’ll try that.”
“And you’ll counter it. I’ll place another wager then, won’t I? And it’s all on you.”
She leaned against him a moment as they walked into the bedroom.
“It’s still step-by-step. I can get a confession out of him, but I can’t get a confession out of him if the lawyers zip him up. And they will. They’ll try anyway. We’ll have to work through them to get to him. I’ll need Reo there.”
“You’ll have her, and Mira, and a bloody Mount Kilimanjaro of evidence. Add an egoist, a malignant one at that, and one you’ll skillfully goad into bragging about everything he’s done and planned to do.”
He slipped the jacket off her shoulders, laid it aside, then rubbed at the knots.
Because it helped to hear it, she nodded. “I know what buttons to push if I can get to them.”
After removing her weapon harness, she sat to pull off her boots.
“You’ll get to them.”
“They’ll delay, toss up obstacles.”
“And still.”
She rose, began to undress as he did.
“Summer’s nearly over, right?”
“You wouldn’t know it by the weather, but it’s waning, yes.”
“Let’s have a barbecue thing.”
He turned, studied her. “You’re very tired, aren’t you now? Not altogether lucid.”
“Actually, worrying’s got me… I don’t know what. But I mean it. Or right now I do. They all dived right in. Put in a full day, but dived right in. Including you. He’s off the street because they did, you did. I know in my gut I’d’ve gotten him eventually, but it might not have been tonight. Without the help, I might be going to the morgue again in the morning. I’d be briefing the feds tomorrow.”
“So we’ll have a barbecue.”
She shrugged. “You like them, they like them, summer’s almost over. And tonight, Jonathan Harper Ebersole sleeps in a cage.”
“We’ll plan for Saturday then, or Sunday if that works best. Including the Miras, the Whitneys?”
“Yeah, yeah.” She slid into bed with him. Galahad rolled over from his sprawl and curled at the small of her back.
“Nadine and Jake. And we haven’t seen much of Charles and Louise of late so we’ll see if they’re free. Mavis and family, of course.”
“See, this is what happens. You decide to do something nice, and it balloons on you. Then the balloon pops and all the gunk inside spills all over you.”
“Let me worry about all that. I’ll enjoy it.”
He would, she thought, which was part of the why she’d said it. She’d be okay with it, but he’d love it.
As the cat curled against her, she curled against Roarke.
He brushed his lips over her forehead and he stroked her back as he often did when trying to soothe her into sleep.
But her mind wouldn’t rest.
She lifted her mouth to his.
