Roarke stepped into the house wanting nothing more than a glass of wine and a quiet hour. Getting a late start had crowded the rest of his day, and a quick, unplanned trip to one of his plants in Trenton had stolen more time.
Not that he minded. If he wanted less to do he could sell holdings instead of acquiring more.
“Where’s your feline companion?” he asked Summerset.
“I believe he’s upstairs with the lieutenant.”
Roarke lifted an eyebrow as he took off his coat. “Eve’s home?”
“And has been for nearly an hour now. Uninjured,” Summerset added before Roarke could ask. “Concerned, apparently, about my routine outside the house, and – as I mentioned before – about those who may come into it.”
“You saw the media conference?”
“I did.” Taking Roarke’s coat, Summerset hung it in the closet hidden in the foyer wall – where he’d already hung Eve’s. “Adding her concern to that, I assume she’s pursuing someone who’s drawn her in on a more personal level.”
“He – or she – leaves messages, to Eve, at the crime scenes. She had a loose connection to both victims.” Roarke glanced upstairs as he spoke. “The killer claims to be her friend, and bringing true justice to those who’ve shown her disrespect.”
“Ah well, that clarifies things. I’d make a prime candidate. Both you and the lieutenant,” Summerset continued when Roarke’s eyes heated, “should know I’m capable.”
“You’ve been hurt before. I’d prefer you weren’t hurt again. Vary your routine,” Roarke began.
“The lieutenant has already… suggested the same. Don’t worry, boy. I’ll be careful and trust you to do the same.”
Knowing he had to be satisfied with that, Roarke went upstairs. It surprised him not to find her in her office, but then again, he thought, it wouldn’t surprise him to find her facedown on the bed.
There, he found only the cat, stretched out as if on the rack, eyes fixed on the elevator. Galahad rolled over as Roarke approached, exposed his belly. Obliging, Roarke gave it a brisk rub.
“Went that way, did she?” Roarke nodded toward the elevator. “But to where?”
He crossed to the in-house intercom.
“Where is Eve?”
Eve is in the fitness room.
“On screen,” Roarke ordered, and angled to the screen.
According to Summerset, she hadn’t come home injured, he thought, but she sported a bruise on her cheekbone now, and a bloody lip. The droid – still so new he’d yet to do more than a test round with it himself – staggered back when Eve spun into a vicious back kick, rammed her foot into its midsection.
Crusher – he’d thought she’d find the name amusing – looked considerably worse for wear. Simulated blood ran into its swollen left eye, dripped from the corner of its mouth.
Roarke winced when the droid caught Eve on the shoulder, but she turned her body into the blow, used the momentum and flipped the droid onto its back.
Now Roarke hissed through his teeth as she stomped, enthusiastically, on the droid’s face.
“Ah well,” he murmured, and loosening his tie, began to change out of his suit.
By the time he pulled on a fresh shirt, she came, dripping sweat, out of the elevator.
“Hey,” she said. “You’re home.”
“As you are. Got in a workout, I see.”
“Yeah.” She swiped at her puffy lip. “Needed it. You got a new sparring droid.”
“I did. Do we still have it?”
“Yeah. Well, it said it needed to do an internal diagnostic.” She rubbed and rolled her shoulder.
“And you?”
“It’s got a hell of a punch. And it bleeds, blooms bruises, too. I have to give you the frosty on that. It threw me off some, and he got by my guard a couple times.”
“It’s a prototype. Or was.”
“I probably shouldn’t have stomped on its face, but maybe you shouldn’t bring really expensive toys around for me to break.”
“What fun would that be?” He opened the first-aid kit he had ready, took out a healing wand. “Over here.”
“I need a shower.”
“You do, yes, but this first.” He cupped her chin, ran the wand over her swollen lip. “Feel better now that you’ve kicked droid ass?”
She grinned, hissed at the sting. “Yeah, some. Mostly the day blew wide.”
He broke open an ice patch, laid it against her cheek. “Hold that there,” he told her, and did a second pass with the wand. “You know, you could’ve taken an hour with Master Wu, holographically, if you couldn’t manage a personal session.”
She thought of the martial arts master – and her Christmas present from Roarke. “Wrong mood. I just needed a fight, down and dirty. Needed to punch something, and since Summerset’s all bone and would likely crack in half with a couple good shots —”
“Don’t be so sure of that.”
She shrugged, regretted the movement as her shoulder sang a little tune. “Maybe. And you weren’t around to punch.”
“From the look of the droid, I can be grateful for that.”
She winced, but not from physical pain. “You saw?”
“A glimpse. There, that’s better.”
“It’s not so bad.” She tapped her lip. “Droid’s outfitted with gel gloves, so they cushion it some. Listen, I know they’re supposed to start work on the new dojo in a few days, but —”
“You’re concerned,” he interrupted, “with having anyone who’s not us, or ours, in the house. You needn’t be on this. I know everyone who’ll be on the crew, and have already contacted the job boss, told him no substitutes unless I clear them, personally.”
“Still…”
“The men and women who’ll start after the first of the year depend on the job and the pay. Why don’t I give you their names and data, a list of them? You can run them all, satisfy yourself.”
“Which you already have. All screened.”
“I have, yes. But you’d feel better about it doing the same yourself.”
“I would, yeah. On that same note, I’m hoping to use your comp lab later.”
“You?”
She deserved that, Eve thought, considering her comp skills. “Potentially we, but I can handle what I’ve got in mind. But I want that shower first.” She started toward the bathroom, glanced over her shoulder. “You should come wash my back.”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“I call it finishing off some physical therapy – and you getting lucky.”
In the bath she peeled out of her tank, wriggled out of her shorts, then stepped into the enormous open shower. She ordered jets on full – and the temperature at 102.
She’d boil his balls, Roarke thought, resigned. Then again, his hot, wet, willing wife would be worth it.
He studied the long, lean length of her back as he undressed. She had a faint bruise at the right kidney, a moderately darker one on her left hip. The way she rolled her shoulder before she lifted her arms to slick back her wet hair told him it gave her some trouble.
Bruised and bloodied, he thought, not in the line, but snug at home and voluntarily.
“Couldn’t find some handy street thief to pummel?” he asked when he stepped in behind her.
“On the holo tread, I did. Two of them. I like the new program.”
“I thought you would.” And as he was nothing if not a considerate husband, he tapped the dispenser, took a palmful of silky liquid soap. “You should try the rural one.”
“Why would I?”
He stroked the soap over her back. “It might break through your baffling fear of cows.”
“I don’t need a breakthrough. They stay where they are, I stay where I am.”
“A psychopath’s taken a family hostage. You have to reach the farmhouse, take him out before he blows it up, and the family with it.”
She angled her head around, intrigued. “Where are the cows?”
“In the fields you have to cross to get to the house.”
“Sneaky.”
“We’re finding the games and challenges, group competition on the fitness machines increase their use in health clubs, and in homes. We launch the entire line of them January second – when people tend to actually believe they’ll keep their New Year’s resolutions.”
“Sneaky,” she said again, and turned to twine her arms around his neck. “What’s your resolution?”
“To take more showers with my wife.” Mindful of the injury, he touched his lips gently to hers.
“No, you don’t.” She got a good grip on his hair, yanked him back to her, ravaged his mouth. “I just crushed Crusher. I can handle you.”
“You think so?”
If she needed the physical, the punch and the power, he’d oblige her. He’d had a bit of his own in his craw since he’d read the message on the wall that morning.
So he hiked her up, slapped her back against the wet wall, and plunged into her.