by J. D. Robb
“I’ll surprise you,” Eve promised. “And Roarke. You can’t manufacture without him, and he’ll find out. Do you expect to control him as well?”
“That will be a particular pleasure. I did have to adjust the time schedule. I’d hoped to enjoy him first. A little trip, you might say, down memory lane. Roarke’s so creative in bed. We haven’t taken time to compare those notes, but I’m sure you’ll agree.”
It put Eve’s teeth on edge, but she spoke coolly. “Using your toy for sexual gratification, Dr. Ott? How unscientific.”
“And what fun. I’m not the master William is, but I do enjoy a good, creative game.”
“And that’s how you met all your victims.”
“So far. Through the loops and the underground. Games can be relaxing and entertaining. And both William and I agreed that processing input from players would help us develop more creative options for the new VR.” She fluffed at her hair. “Not that anyone had in mind what I was creating.”
Her gaze shifted to the monitor, frowned over the data being transmitted from Roarke’s office. He was processing the VR specs now, she noted. “But you’ve already got Roarke digging. Not just on young Drew, but on the unit itself. I wasn’t happy about that, but there are always ways around inconveniences.” Her smile tilted up at the corners. “Roarke isn’t as necessary as you believe. Who do you suppose will own all of this if something happened to him?”
She laughed again, pure delight, as Eve stared blankly.
“Why, you will, darling. It will all be yours, in your control, and therefore mine. Don’t worry, I won’t let you stay a widow long. We’ll find someone for you. I’ll choose him personally.”
Terror froze her blood, iced her muscles, closed frigidly around her heart. “You made a unit for him.”
“Just completed this afternoon. I wonder if he’s tested it yet? Roarke is so efficient, and so personally interested in all of his holdings.”
She shot a stream at Eve’s feet, anticipating her. “Don’t. I’ll just stun you, and this will take longer.”
“I’ll kill you with my own hands.” Eve forced air in and out of her lungs, ordered herself to think. “I swear it.”
In his office, Roarke frowned over the data he’d converted. Missing something, he thought. What am I missing?
He rubbed the strain out of his eyes, sat back. He needed a break, he decided. Clear the mind, rest the eyes. Picking up the VR unit on his desk, he turned it over in his hands.
“You won’t chance it. If you do, and I stun you, you’ll never get to him in time. There’s always the hope you can stop it, save him.” Her smile spread again, derisively. “You see, I understand you, Eve, perfectly.”
“Do you?” Eve asked, and instead of lunging forward, leaped back. “Lights out,” she shouted, snatching for her weapon as the room pitched into darkness. She felt the slight sting as Reeanna’s aim wavered, skimmed her shoulder.
Then she was down, blocked by the desk, and gritting her teeth against the pain. She’d rolled fast, but not well, and had come down hard on her bad knee.
“I’m better at this than you,” Eve said calmly. But the fingers in her right hand tingled and shook, forcing her to switch the weapon to her left. “You’re the amateur here. Ditch the weapon, and I might not kill you.”
“Kill me?” Reeanna’s voice was a hiss. “You’ve got too much cop programmed into you. Maximum force only when all other methods fail.”
Near the door, Eve told herself, holding her breath, training her ears. To the right of it. “There’s no one here but you and me. Who’s to know?”
“Too much conscience. Don’t forget, I know you. I’ve been in your head. You wouldn’t be able to live with it.”
Moving closer to the door. That’s it, keep going. Just a little more. Try to get out, you bitch, and I’ll drop you like a piece of spoiled meat.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ll just cripple you.” Weapon gripped, Eve bellied around the desk.
The door opened, but instead of Reeanna rushing out, William started in. “Reeanna, what are you doing in the dark?”
Even as Eve leaped to her feet, Reeanna’s finger twitched on the weapon, sending William’s nervous system jittering.
“Oh, William, for God’s sake.” It was disgust rather than distress. As he started to topple, Reeanna ducked under him and threw herself at Eve. Her nails scraped viciously across Eve’s breasts as both women crashed to the floor.
She knew where to aim. She’d tended every bump and bruise on Eve’s body and now battered at them, twisted, jabbed. A knee rammed against that tender hip, a balled fist slammed into the wrenched knee.
Blind with pain, Eve shot out an elbow, heard the satisfactory crunch of cartilage as it connected with Reeanna’s nose. Reeanna screamed, a high, female sound, and dug in with her teeth.
“Bitch.” Sinking to the same level, Eve grabbed a handful of hair and yanked. Then, slightly ashamed of the lapse, she jammed her weapon under Reeanna’s chin. “Breathe too hard, and I’ll put you out. Lights on.”
She was panting, bloody, her body singing with pain. She hoped there would be satisfaction later at seeing her opponent’s beautiful face bruised, smeared with blood that continued to stream out of her broken nose. But for now there was too much fear.
“I’m putting you out anyway.”
“No, you won’t.” Reeanna’s voice was steely calm, and her lips curved into a wide, brilliant smile. “I will,” she said, and twisted the wrist of the weapon hand Eve pinned until the point rested against the side of her neck. “I hate cages.” And smiling, she fired.
“Jesus, Jesus Christ.” She scrambled up while Reeanna’s body still shuddered, shoved William over, snatched out his pocket ’link. He was breathing, but she didn’t much give a damn.
She started to run.
“Answer me, you answer me!” she shouted at the ’link as she fumbled it on. “Roarke,” she ordered, “main office. Answer me, goddamn it.” Then she bit back a scream as the transmission refused to go through.
Line currently in use. Please wait or retry momentarily.
“Bypass, you son of a bitch. How do you bypass with this thing?” She increased her pace to a limping gallop, not even aware she was weeping.
Footsteps pounded toward her in the breezeway, but she didn’t even pause.
“Dallas, holy God.”
“Back there.” She raced past Feeney, barely heard his frantic questions through the roaring sea of terror in her head. “Back there. Peabody, with me. Hurry.”
She hit the elevator, pounded on the call control. “Hurry, hurry.”
“Dallas, what’s happened?” Peabody touched her shoulder, was jerked off. “You’re bleeding. Lieutenant, what’s the status?”
“Roarke, oh God, oh God, please.” Tears were streaming, scalding her, blinding her. Panic sweat flooded out of her pores, soaking her skin. “She’s killing him. She’s going to kill him.”
In reaction, Peabody pulled her weapon as they rushed through the opening doors of the elevator. “Top floor, east wing,” Eve shouted. “Now, now, now!” She all but threw the ’link at Peabody. “Get this fucker to bypass.”
“It’s damaged. It’s been dropped or something. Who’s got Roarke?”
“Reeanna. She’s dead. Dead as Moses, but she’s killing him.” She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t. Her lungs wouldn’t hold air. “We’ll stop him. Whatever she told him to do to himself, we’ll stop him.” She turned wild eyes on Peabody. “She’s not taking him.”
“We’ll stop him.” Peabody was through the doors with her before they fully opened.
Eve was still faster, even injured, she gained speed through terror. She wrenched at the door, cursed security, and slammed her hand down on the palm plate.
She all but ran over him as he stepped to the threshold.
“Roarke.” She burrowed into him, would have climbed inside him if she could. “Oh God. You’re all right. You’re alive.”
“What’s happened to you?” He tightened his grip on her as she shuddered.
But she was jerking back, grabbing his face in her hands, staring into his eyes. “Look at me. Did you use it? Did you test the VR unit?”
“No. Eve—”
“Peabody, drop if he moves wrong. Call the MTs. We’re taking him in for a brain scan.”
“The hell you are, but go ahead and call them, Peabody. She’s going to the health center this time, if I have to knock her unconscious.”
Eve stepped back, fighting for breath as she carefully measured him. She couldn’t feel her legs, wondered why she could still stand upright. “You didn’t use it.”
“I said I didn’t.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “It’s aimed at me this time, is it? I should have seen it.” He turned away, glanced over his shoulder as Eve lifted her weapon. “Oh, put that damn thing down. I’m not suicidal. I’m pissed. She slipped it right by me. It just started to click five minutes ago. Mindoc. Mind doctor,” he elaborated. “That’s the name she used in her game playing. She’s still using it, still playing. Mathias had dozens of transmissions to her in the year before he died. And I took a close look at the data report on the unit. The one they just gave me, and the stats from the files. They hadn’t buried those deeply enough.”
“She knew you’d find it. That’s why she—” Eve broke off, sucked in air that she could hear whistle eerily in her swimming head. “That’s why she personalized a unit for you.”
“I might have gotten around to testing it if I hadn’t been interrupted.” He thought of Mavis, nearly smiled. “I doubt Ree put much effort into altering data. She knew I trusted her and William.”
“It wasn’t William—not voluntarily.”
He only nodded, looked at her ruined shirt, the bright red splashes. “Did she bloody you?”
“It’s mostly hers.” She hoped. “She didn’t want to be taken in.” Eve blew out a breath. “She’s dead, Roarke. Self-terminated. I couldn’t stop her. Maybe I didn’t want to. She told me—the unit, your unit.” Her breath was wheezing again, hitching, skipping. “I thought—I didn’t think I’d be in time. I couldn’t make the ’link work, and I couldn’t get here.”
She didn’t hear Peabody close the door to give her privacy. She didn’t care about privacy. She only continued to stare, blind now, and shudder. “I couldn’t,” she said again. “I stalled her, all that time I was stalling her, building my case, and you could have been—”
“Eve.” He came to her, gathered her close. “I’m not. And you did get here. I won’t leave you.” He pressed his lips to her hair when she buried her face against his shoulder. “It’s over now.”
She knew she’d replay that endless run, the panic and the helpless grief, a thousand times in her dreams. “It’s not. There’ll be a full investigation, not just of Reeanna, but of your company, the people who worked with her on the project.”
“I can stand it.” He tipped her head back. “The company’s clean. I promise. I won’t cause you any official embarrassment, Lieutenant, by being arrested.”
She took the handkerchief he pressed into her hand, blew her nose. “Be hell for my career, being married to a con.”
“Be easy on that account. Why did she do it?”
“Because she could. That’s what she said. She enjoyed the power, the control.” Briskly, she rubbed her cheeks dry with the heels of her hands, hands that were nearly steady now. “She had big plans for me.” The shudder was hard but brief. “Kind of a pet, I imagine. Like William. Her little trained dog. And with you dead, she figured I’d inherit all your goodies. You’re not going to do that to me, are you?”
“What, die?”
“Leave me all this stuff.”
He laughed, kissed her. “Only you would be annoyed by that.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “She had a unit for you.”
“Yeah, we didn’t get around to testing it out. Feeney’s down there now. I’d better let him know what happened.”
“We’ll have to go down. She disengaged the ’link, which is why I was on my way to you when you jumped me. I was worried when I couldn’t get through.”
“It’s tough.” She touched his face. “Caring.”
“I can live with it. You’ll want to go into the station, I imagine, to clean this up tonight.”
“It’s procedure. I’ve got a corpse—and four deaths to close.”
“I’ll take you, after you’ve been to the health center.”
“I’m not going to the health center.”
“Yes, you are.”
Peabody rapped on the door, opened it. “Excuse me, the MTs are here. They need to be cleared through security.”
“I’ll take care of it. Have them meet us in Dr. Ott’s office, would you, Peabody? They can examine Eve there before I take her in for full treatment.”
“I said I’m not going in for a treatment.”
“I heard you.” He pressed a control on his desk. “Clear the medics through, please. Peabody, are you carrying restraints?”
“They’re standard issue.”
“I wonder if you might loan them to me so I can restrain your lieutenant until I deliver her to the nearest medical facility.”
“Just try it, pal, and see who needs a doctor.”
Peabody gnawed manfully on the inside of her cheek. A smirk at the moment wouldn’t please her lieutenant. “I sympathize with your problem, Roarke, but am unable to comply. I need the job.”
“Never mind, Peabody.” He scooped an arm around Eve’s waist, taking her weight as she limped toward the door. “I’m sure I can find a substitute.”
“I’ve got a report to file, work to finish. I’ve got a dead body to transport.” Eve scowled at him as he called for the elevator. “I don’t have time for an exam.”
“I heard you,” he repeated and simply picked her up bodily and carried her into the elevator. “Peabody, tell those MTs to come armed. She’s liable to make a run for it.”
“Put me down, you idiot. I’m not going.” She was laughing as the doors closed on them.
Contents
A tradition of murder…
Praise for Naked in Death:
chapter one
chapter two
chapter three
chapter four
chapter five
chapter six
chapter seven
chapter eight
chapter nine
chapter ten
chapter eleven
chapter twelve
chapter thirteen
chapter fourteen
chapter fifteen
chapter sixteen
chapter seventeen
chapter eighteen
chapter nineteen
chapter twenty
A tradition of murder…
On the north side of the house was an arbor of thin, somehow fluid iron. The vines twisting and tumbling over it were smothered with flowers wildly red. She had married him there, in an old traditional ceremony where vows were exchanged and promises made. A ceremony, she thought now. A rite that included music, flowers, witnesses, words that were repeated time after time, place after place, century through century…
So it continued. Science and logic disproved, but the rites continued, incense and chanting, offerings and the drinking of wine that symbolized blood.
And the sacrifice of the innocent.
Annoyed with herself, she rubbed her hands over her face. Philosophizing was foolish and useless. Murder had been done by human force. And it was human force that would dispense justice. That was, after all, the ultimate balance of good and evil.
Praise for Naked in Death:
“Danger, romance…a masterpiece of fine writing.”
—Rendezvous
“Superbly suspenseful and strikingly original.”
—Romantic Times
This book contains a preview of J. D. Robb’s next romantic suspense novel
&nbs
p; Vengeance in Death
Nora Roberts
Hot Ice
Sacred Sins
Brazen Virtue
Sweet Revenge
Public Secrets
Genuine Lies
Carnal Innocence
Divine Evil
Honest Illusions
Private Scandals
Hidden Riches
True Betrayals
Montana Sky
Sanctuary
Homeport
The Reef
River’s End
Carolina Moon
The Villa
Midnight Bayou
Three Fates
Birthright
Northern Lights
Blue Smoke
Angels Fall
High Noon
Tribute
Black Hills
The Search
Chasing Fire
Series
IRISH BORN TRILOGY
Born in Fire
Born in Ice
Born in Shame
DREAM TRILOGY
Daring to Dream
Holding the Dream
Finding the Dream
CHESAPEAKE BAY SAGA
Sea Swept
Rising Tides
Inner Harbor
Chesapeake Blue
GALLAGHERS OF ARDMORE TRILOGY
Jewels of the Sun
Tears of the Moon
Heart of the Sea
THREE SISTERS ISLAND TRILOGY
Dance Upon the Air
Heaven and Earth
Face the Fire
KEY TRILOGY
Key of Light
Key of Knowledge
Key of Valor
IN THE GARDEN TRILOGY
Blue Dahlia
Black Rose
Red Lily