Quinn

“Maybe. I don’t think so.” His hand tightened. “But if it did, I wouldn’t mind if you were there with me. That was my only regret when I was in that darkness. I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted you to live, but I wanted to be there to make sure you were happy.”

“Joe, you’ve spent most of our years together trying to make me happy.”

“And that was my privilege.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I don’t think that a love like this happens every day. I couldn’t believe that it happened to me. And then I realized there had to be a reason that I had to nurture that love and the gifts it was bringing me.”

“Yeah, some gifts.” She stroked his cheek. “Dealing with my obsession for finding Bonnie, being put on the back burner whenever I was doing a reconstruction.”

“And the gift of your honesty… and your love.”

“Oh, I do love you, Joe,” she said softly. “It’s a wonder you were patient enough to put up with me until I saw it. Talk about gifts.” She could feel the tears welling, but she had to get the words out. “When Bonnie was taken from me, I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Everything was dark. But then you were there, and I knew something was… different. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt as if I might be able to make it through.” She drew a deep shaky breath. “And then later, when I knew how much I loved you, I’m not even sure that you knew it, too. I said the words, I tried to show you, but my love for Bonnie was always there between us.”

“I knew it.” He smiled. “And how could I blame Bonnie? I wouldn’t have known you if it hadn’t been for her. As I’ve been lying here all these hours since I came around, I’ve been wondering if maybe it was Bonnie who purposely brought us together. You were alone. Did she know you needed someone to love you as much as I do?” He made a face. “Though I’m glad that she didn’t make a ghostly appearance on that first day I met you. I was having enough trouble coping with the way I was feeling.”

And Joe had begun seeing Bonnie only recently, and it had still shaken him, Eve thought. He had been on edge and uncertain and questioning his own sanity. It had taken him a long time to accept that the spirit Bonnie was no hallucination, and he had never been comfortable with the idea.

But there had been no hint of disturbance in his demeanor now when he was talking about Bonnie bringing him back to Eve. His expression was calm, thoughtful, and yet there was determination and strength in the set of his mouth and chin.

“It’s possible, I suppose,” she said. “I believe in the power of love, and Bonnie loved me. And she loves you, too, Joe.”

He nodded. “I know she does. She told me.” He was silent again, thinking. “I got to know her very well while we were traveling in that darkness. All through our years together, Eve, I could never love her because I never knew her. She was gone before I came to you. But I know her now. She touched me. She took my hand, and I experienced everything about her. She’s… beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.” The tears were falling now. “Like you, Joe.”

“Don’t say that too loud. It will destroy my macho image,” he said. “But I can love her now. It’s so easy…”

It had been a long time coming, but the joy Eve knew at those words would have been worth a much longer wait. It formed a bridge that spanned the emotional abyss that had been the only rift between them. “I’m glad that you got to know her,” she said unsteadily. “I tried to tell you, but there weren’t any words.”

“There still aren’t.” He reached out and touched the tears on her cheeks. “Don’t do this. It hurts me.”

“It shouldn’t. I’m happy.” She wiped her eyes. “But next time you talk with Bonnie, tell her that she should bring me into the conversation. I can never count on when she’s going to show up, and it’s disconcerting when she tells you to disobey doctor’s orders.”

“She didn’t exactly tell me that. I just knew.”

“Knew what? That she wanted you to bail out of this hospital?”

“No, that she was going to help me to heal. It should be a cinch for her to offer a little mojo in that direction. After all, she managed to pull me back from the pearly gates.” He chuckled. “If that was where I was heading. It felt pretty good, so maybe I might have gotten lucky.”

“No, I was the one who got lucky.”

“Keep thinking that way.” His gaze went to the door, where a nurse and two orderlies were coming into the ICU. “And here’s my escort to my new room. It’s the first step, Eve. Tell Catherine I’m on my way.”

One Week Later

SHE HAD found him!

Catherine wriggled snakelike down the incline that led to the cliff that fell off steeply to the lake below.

She had caught a glimpse of Gallo as he moved through the forest a half mile back. At first she hadn’t been certain it was Gallo, but then he had come out of the shadows of the trees, and she had caught a glimpse of his face. Slight indentation at the chin, dark hair…

Yes.

She had been concentrating on this area of the property for the last three days, and she’d had a hunch she was getting near.

She propped herself against a boulder, and her gaze narrowed on the thicket of trees on the slope. He should be coming out of those trees any minute, and she’d have him.

Eve wanted him alive. Catherine silently took her dart gun from her backpack and inserted one of Hu Chang’s special darts. Not as special as some others her old teacher had made for her. But the mamba venom and a few other lethal poisons weren’t applicable in this case. This sedative would put Gallo out for a solid five minutes and give him another fifteen of lethargy.

“Come on, Gallo,” she whispered. “Let me give you a little nap.”

One minute.

Two.

He didn’t come out of the trees.

Five minutes.

Dammit, where was he?

And then she felt the hair rise on the back of her neck in the most primitive of signals.

Someone was watching her.

He was watching her.

She instinctively dove behind the boulder and waited.

Where are you, Gallo?

Her heart was pounding.

She could feel him out there in the darkness.

Or was he behind her?

She wasn’t sure. She listened.

She couldn’t hear him. God, he was good.

But she couldn’t stay there when he knew her location, and she didn’t know his. Since she was trying to get him without a lethal commitment, she was at a disadvantage.

Fade away. Disappear. If she caught a glimpse of him, then try to line up the shot.

If not, give up the opportunity and come back another time.

She dove into the bushes that bordered the scraggly line of pines beside the boulders.

No sound.

Move swiftly.

She no longer felt his eyes on her.

But that might only mean he was close but could not see her.

And she couldn’t see him, dammit.

Put distance between them.

Damn, she hated to run from Gallo.