Sleep No More

CHAPTER

10

Seventeen Mile Drive

“VERY IMPRESSIVE,” EVE MURMURED AS she got out of the car and looked up at the house towering above the crashing surf.

The house was English Tudor in design and resembled the castles Eve had seen in England. It would definitely have been more at home in the English countryside than on this lush California coast. “What did you say you did for the owner?”

“I didn’t.” Newell got out of the car. “I was Mr. Dendridge’s bodyguard and personal trainer. He was a great guy. We became good friends before we parted company.”

“I don’t remember any mention of him in your personnel record.”

“My uncle furnished me with that dossier and set up background records. If I’d given the hospital an authentic history, it would have led back to him.” He was gazing up at the house. “God, I hope she’s in there.”

“And I hope she’s still alive,” Eve said grimly. “Let’s find out. You have the security code, right?”

“Yes.” He was moving toward the front door. “I gave it to Beth. It was the only way she could get into the—” He stopped and his gaze shifted to Eve’s face. “I didn’t tell you I had the code. Was that a guess?”

She ignored the question as she reached the door. “You’d better go in first. She must have heard the car drive up, but you’re the only one she’d recognize. We don’t want to scare her.” She glanced back at the car. Joe had gotten out of the car but was standing there, his head lifted as he gazed around the courtyard. “Joe?”

“Go ahead. If the alarm is still set, it’s probably safe enough inside. These mansions on the strip have state-of-the-art security. You have your gun?”

She nodded. “In my bag. Why aren’t you coming?”

“I want to take a look around the property. Even if Drogan isn’t inside, it doesn’t mean he’s not stalking out here. Call me if there’s a problem.” He started toward the steps that led to the beach. “It shouldn’t take me more than ten or fifteen minutes.”

Newell watched him until he disappeared. “Smart,” he said “And careful.”

“Always.” Eve could feel the tension grip her as she watched Newell try the door, then punch in the security code. In a few minutes, she’d be face-to-face with Beth Avery. Relax. She was just a stranger. It shouldn’t matter this much.

It did matter.

“It was locked. That’s a good sign.” Newell swung open the door and went into the foyer. “Beth!”

No answer.

Newell muttered a curse. “She might have gone on the run if she knew that Drogan was after her. He could have called and scared her. Hell, that would be the best scenario. Beth! It’s okay. It’s Billy.”

“It’s not safe to turn on the lights if there’s a security guard monitoring these houses on the beach.” Eve reached in her purse and pulled out her small flashlight. She moved forward across the foyer toward the staircase. “Keep calling her name.” She shined her beam around the cherry stairs and mullioned windows on the landing. “I’m going upstairs.”

“No, you aren’t. Stay right where you are.” The woman who had spoken was coming down the hall toward them. “Billy, that means you, too.”

She had a gun.

The beam of Eve’s flashlight fell on the Luger the woman was holding before her with both hands.

Eve froze.

“Beth?” Newell took a step toward her. “Don’t be scared. It’s me.”

“Don’t move. I don’t want to hurt you, Billy. But I will if I have to do it to save myself. You told me that over and over, didn’t you? Save yourself.”

“Your hands are shaking on that gun. You’re just as likely to shoot yourself.”

“No, I won’t. When I first saw that gun case in the library, I knew that I might have to break into it if it became necessary. I found some books in the library on gun usage and studied them.” Her voice was quivering. “Remember? You told me I had to learn, to teach myself. It didn’t take much studying to learn how to take off a safety and pull the trigger.” She took another step closer. “But I don’t want to pull the trigger, Billy. I don’t want to hurt you. Tell me why you’re here.”

“For God’s sake, I want to help you. Why else would I be here?”

“I don’t know. I do know you told me not to trust you either. You said don’t trust anyone. Not even me.” She looked at Eve. “Who is she?”

“Eve Duncan. She wants to help you. I want to help you, Beth.”

“He said you were dead.”

“Who?”

“It was that man who had the hypodermic needle. He called me, using your phone, and said he was the police and that you were dead, stabbed to death. But I recognized his voice. It was the man who tried to kill me in the hospital room. He wasn’t the police. I hung up.”

“Then why in God’s name didn’t you run like hell?” Newell asked roughly. “There are ways that you could be tracked once you answered that call. You shouldn’t have taken the chance of staying here.”

“I was hoping that he’d lied, that you were still alive. I knew if he hadn’t killed you, that you might come to help me. So I broke into the gun case and waited.”

“And then pulled the gun on me.”

“I’m afraid, Billy. I have to take care of myself. What if that murderer made you come here? How did he get your phone?”

“His name is Drogan. And he took it.”

“How?”

Eve had enough. They had to break through this wall of fear and suspicion. “Show her, Newell.” She took his arm and pulled him to stand before Beth. She jerked open his shirt and pulled it aside to reveal the bandages. “That’s how Drogan managed to take his phone. Do you want me to take off the bandages and let you see the wounds? They’re not pretty. Drogan wanted to inflict the maximum amount of pain. But Newell didn’t tell him anything about you. Drogan located you through the cell phone.”

“Billy?” Beth whispered. Her gaze was focused on the bandages, then lifted to the jagged stitches on his throat, where he’d torn off the bandages earlier. She flinched and reached out to touch the wound on the side of his neck. “He … hurt you.”

“Yeah. Now will you put down the gun?”

“I’ll take it.” Eve reached out and her hand closed on the barrel of the gun. “Now let’s talk reasonably and—”

Her head snapped back as Beth’s fist connected with her jaw.

Pain.

Darkness.

“Beth!” Newell grabbed Beth and pulled her back. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Tell her to keep her hands off me.” Beth pulled away from him, her hand tight on the gun, her voice fierce as she glared at Eve. “I don’t know her. I guess I can still trust you, but I don’t trust her. There’s no way I want her here. Why did you bring her? Who the hell is she?”

“I told you,” Newell said. “Eve Duncan. She’s not going to hurt—”

“I’m your sister,” Eve said baldly. “And I don’t want to be here any more than you want me. But I have no choice. Therefore, you have no choice.” She rubbed her jaw. “And if you ever do that again, I’ll deck you. You won’t catch me off guard again.”

“Sister,” Beth repeated blankly. “I don’t have a sister.”

“How do you know? I didn’t. It appears that our relationship wasn’t important to anyone in either of our lives.” She turned away. “Until now. Now take us someplace where it’s safe to turn on a light without its being seen from outside. I’m sure you must have checked that out since you’ve been here. Which room?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. “The library. Heavy velvet drapes on all the windows. As long as the light wasn’t too strong, it didn’t show around the edge. I went outside just to be sure and checked it when I was watching TV and reading.” She pushed past them and led the way down the hall. “I’m not doing this because you’re telling me to do it. I just want Billy to have a chance to sit down and rest. He’s paler than I’ve ever seen him.”

“I’ll accept that my wishes aren’t of importance to you,” Eve said. “And I don’t give a damn. I just want to keep my promise and have this over.” She followed Beth as she opened a tall, mahogany door and entered a large room lined with bookshelves. “Sit down, Newell. She’s right, you’re not looking so good.” She moved toward a desk in the center of the room. “You don’t want to end up back in the hospital.”

“No, I don’t.” He dropped down in a leather easy chair. “And you might not help to spring me next time. After all, you’ve got what you want from me.”

“I’m not that callous.” Eve leaned forward and turned on the desk light. The library was suddenly flooded with soft light. “And I wouldn’t want to set you up for Pierce. I’ve taken a great dislike for him.”

“Not callous, tough.” Newell turned to Beth, who was still in the shadows outside the pool of light. “Will you put that gun down now? Eve’s not going to attack you.”

“I couldn’t be sure.” She came forward to put the revolver on the desk. “She could have been fooling you.”

“And I told you not to trust anyone.” He made a face. “It was a good idea, but I’m beginning to rue the day I said it.”

“You shouldn’t,” Beth said as she came toward him. “It’s as bad out here as you told me. Look what that monster did to you.” She gently touched the stitched wound on his cheek. “I’m sorry, Billy. Why didn’t you run away when I did?”

“It wasn’t the right time. I didn’t know enough. I was trying to learn more about the bad guys.” He shrugged. “But the bad guys found me instead. Or one bad guy, Drogan.”

“And just who is Drogan?” Beth asked.

“I couldn’t trace him. But we should know soon.” He nodded at Eve. “Her significant other, Joe Quinn, is a detective and he’s checking him out.”

“Joe Quinn?” She whirled toward Eve. “If he’s a detective, will they make him take me back to the hospital? Pierce knows all the police at— What are you staring at?”

“Nothing.” Eve was staring at Beth Avery. The soft lamplight surrounded her sister, and Eve couldn’t take her eyes off her. Her slender body was dressed in gray slacks and a cream blouse that she wore with simple elegance. Her dark hair resembled the curls and textures of Eve’s Bonnie, and her face …

Beautiful? Yes, a fascinating face with large dark eyes set wide in a triangular-shaped skull with beautiful bone structure. The wonderful vitality Eve had noticed in the photograph was no longer there, and she felt a sudden anger that Beth had been robbed of that lust for life. Instead, there was a … watchfulness.

And Eve noticed something else.

Beth was two years older than Eve, but she looked much younger. Her face was perfectly smooth and glowing, as if she were a child who had only just woken from a nap. No wrinkles or lines that were the usual signs of emotional or physical stress.

Sleeping Beauty.

The words popped into Eve’s mind out of nowhere. The fairy tale of the princess who had pricked her finger and fallen asleep while the world went on without her. A garden of thorns had grown up around her castle to make sure that no one got close enough to wake her, to save her.

“You’re not telling me the truth,” Beth said curtly. “I know when people lie to me. God knows, those doctors and nurses did that enough. I can tell the difference. I’m not stupid because they had me on all those drugs.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid. You want the truth? I was thinking you look very young, like Sleeping Beauty coming out from behind the wall of thorns.”

“That’s silly.” She frowned. “I don’t belong in any fairy tale. I’m just trying to understand and survive.”

Newell gave a low whistle. “I believe you’ve hit it, Eve.” He touched the cut on his throat. “Right down to the sharp thorns.”

“You can think what you wish,” Eve told Beth. “You asked me, and I told you. Look in the mirror sometime and think about it.” She took out her phone. “Now I’m going to call Joe and tell him that you’re safe and ask if he’s noticed anything suspicious while he was reconnoitering the grounds. If you want to be useful, you can find a first-aid kit in this place and rebandage any of Newell’s cuts that need it.”

She didn’t move. “Joe Quinn? That detective Billy mentioned? He’s here?”

“Yes, and you’re lucky that he is. His presence ups your safety quotient about 70 percent.” She saw that Beth wasn’t moving, and she was suddenly impatient. “You can trust him, dammit. You can trust me. We’re all here to help you.”

“Are you?” She looked Eve directly in the eye. “Then why are you angry with me? Is it because I hit you when you tried to take my gun? I’d do it again. You don’t care anything about me. I didn’t know you even existed. I don’t like you, and I don’t want you here.”

“I’m not angry.” But she was lying, Eve realized. There had been a smoldering resentment connected with Beth since the moment Sandra had told her about her. Resentment, pity, shock, curiosity had all been there, and now there was this deep frustration that she had to bury all those feelings and just find a way to rescue Sleeping Beauty. And, added to that barrage of emotions, an instant antagonism between them had flared at their first encounter.

To hell with it, she thought recklessly. She would be honest and direct and forget about pity. It was the only way that she could deal with Beth Avery. She had an idea that Beth could take whatever she had to take. “Maybe I am angry. I don’t need a sister, and I don’t want one with all the baggage you’re bringing into my life. But I promised our mother that I’d make sure you’re safe, and I’ll do it.”

“My mother? I don’t know anything about her. I never wanted to know. They told me she gave me up when I was a baby. She didn’t care about me then. Why should I believe she does now?” She drew a deep breath. “So you can call your Joe Quinn and get him to take you out of here. I don’t need you.” She turned to Newell. “I’ll be right back, Billy. There’s a first-aid kit in the kitchen.” She turned on her heel and strode out of the library.

“She does need you,” Newell said quietly. “The cards are stacked against her. It has to be the Averys who gave the kill order. That’s a hell of a lot of power for Beth to have to go up against. She can’t even go to the police. Just the fact that she’s been in a mental hospital all these years will make it difficult for anyone to believe her. She’d end up back in the hospital, and, in a year or two, they’d find a way to kill her.”

“I’m not going to leave her.” She shrugged. “Even if she tells me to do it. It’s not totally my fault, you know. It appears that she’s taken a dislike to me.”

He smiled. “I noticed. It’s a little strange. I actually think it’s healthy. I’ve never seen her react like that toward anyone. She’s always been sweet and docile. It could be that the drugs are totally out of her system now. Or it could be spending this period alone, she’s had time to think, and her personality is beginning to assert itself.”

“Or it could be a natural antipathy.” She reached up and gingerly touched her jaw. “For any reason you choose to call it, her personality is definitely present and accounted for.” She turned away and dialed Joe. “Everything is fine here. Drogan was in contact with Beth, but he hasn’t shown up here. Anything suspicious out there?”

“No. How is Beth Avery taking all this?”

“Not tamely. Scared, but she’s no timid rabbit.”

“Do I detect an edge?”

“Probably. But I’m trying to work through it. Are you ready to come in? I’ll unlock the front door.”

“Not yet. I’ll call you. I’m going to drive back the way we came and check to make sure we weren’t followed.”

“I didn’t see anyone tailing us on the freeway.”

“Neither did I. But Newell said Drogan was a professional who knew what he was doing. He might have been good enough so that we wouldn’t have been able to notice him. It won’t hurt to take a little time to be sure.” He hung up.

“Okay?” Newell asked, as she hung up her cell.

She nodded as she turned back to face him. “He’s going to backtrack in case we were followed. He’ll call me.”

“Smart move.” He leaned wearily back in the chair. “Thorough.”

“That’s Joe.” She gazed thoughtfully at him. “You look like you’re ready to pass out.”

“I’ve been worse.” He smiled slightly. “But if I do pass out, you’ve got to promise that you’ll take care of Beth for me. I promised Uncle Hermie that she’d come out of this okay.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“No, I like her.” He chuckled. “And I’ve no ambition to be the prince who battles through the thorns to save her.”

“Yet you already have.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He tilted his head. “But I feel more like she’s my sister. I’d do it for a sister. Would you?”

She didn’t answer. “She said that she didn’t know anything about her mother. But your uncle told you about Sandra. You didn’t mention it to Beth?”

He shook his head. “You have no idea how little time we had for small talk.”

“Hardly small talk,” Eve said dryly.

“It was for me. Everything I did, everything I said, was aimed at getting her off the drugs, clearing her mind so that she didn’t stay in that damn fog they tried to keep blowing around her. It was all present and a little future, no past. You weren’t important.”

“I’m still not, but Sandra wouldn’t agree.” She thought of something else. “Beth calls you Billy. William is your middle name.”

“And no one at the hospital would recognize it if she mumbled something by mistake during the time we were hiding those pills in the mattress. It protected both of us when she was still heavy into the sedatives.”

“You thought of everything. She owes you a great deal, Newell. Does she realize that?”

“Of course I do.” Beth was standing in the doorway with a bowl of water and a first-aid kit in her hands. “Why shouldn’t I? I’m not on those drugs any longer. I can think, I can feel. Stop talking about me as if I was that woman at Seahaven—I’m not that person any longer.” She came forward and set the bowl of water on the table beside Newell’s chair. “I won’t be her.”

“Shh.” Newell smiled at her. “You protest too much. Of course, you’re not her. I was just telling Eve how much you’d changed.”

“You were?” Her expression cleared, and she suddenly smiled. “I thought that I was learning and changing in the past few days, but it’s hard to know when there’s no one around that you trust to ask if it’s true.” She dipped a cloth into the water. “Now be quiet, and I’ll clean up these stitches and rebandage you.”

“I could do it,” Eve offered.

“Why? Because you think I can’t?” Beth was carefully cleaning the blood from around the stitches. “I took a first-aid course when I was competing at a ski competition in Switzerland before … before they took me to the hospital.”

“And you still remember?” Eve asked.

“I didn’t. It was only a blur. But it’s all been coming back to me for the past few days. Just bits and pieces, but the memories are as sharp as if it were yesterday.” She dried the wound, then carefully rebandaged it. “This was nothing. I remember CPR lessons and laughing at—” She broke off and stepped back. “I remember laughing a lot. Then it stopped.”

“Do you remember a Dr. Hans Gelber?” Newell asked.

“No. Why?”

“He was one of your first specialists at the hospital. I was just wondering if that was about the time that you forgot the laughter.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. There were so many doctors. It doesn’t matter. I’ll know soon. It’s all coming back now.”

“You’re wrong. I believe it may matter very much,” Eve said slowly.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Beth glanced at her. “And you’re looking angry again.”

“I am angry. But not at you.”

I remember laughing a lot. And then it stopped.

Eve was finding those words incredibly moving. Her own life had not been filled with laughter, but her laughter had not been smothered by some doctor who had been ordered to destroy memories, and with it, a woman’s laughter. “And I think that we should hurry the process along and track down that doctor Newell mentioned.”

* * *

JOE SLOWED DOWN TO A CRAWL as he passed the long driveway of the estate next door to the Dendridge Tudor. It was dark, and there were several turns on the way up the hill. A good place to pull off and avoid possible scrutiny and yet be able to keep everything around him under surveillance.

Are you up there, Drogan?

If they’d been followed by Drogan, he could have pulled off at any of ten houses along this stretch.

And there was no proof that they had been followed.

No proof. But a nagging hunch that wouldn’t go away. Joe believed in hunches. They had saved his life too many times for him to ignore them. And he had felt that strong whisper of instinct the moment he had gotten out of the car back at the Tudor. That sense of being watched …

He had thought it might be Drogan somewhere on the grounds, but that hadn’t panned out. So he had decided to explore the road behind him.

Nothing.

Or nothing he could see.

He turned around and headed back toward the Tudor. He didn’t like the idea of not being with Eve when he knew that bastard was somewhere around. He’d come back later on foot and scour the neighborhood.

He dialed Eve. “No luck. I’m on my way.” He hung up, and his gaze once more traveled down the street of luxurious homes.

But I know you’re out there, Drogan. You can’t hide from me for long. I’ll find you.

* * *

“JOE’S ON HIS WAY BACK.” Eve hung up the phone and turned to Beth. “Newell doesn’t look too good. Do you have any coffee in this place?”

“In the kitchen.” Beth headed for the door. “I’ll get it.”

“I’ll go with you.” She said over her shoulder to Newell, “Stay where you are and rest. We’ll be right back.”

“I’m not moving.” Newell closed his eyes. “It’s been a rough night. I deserve to relax.”

“Yes, you do,” Beth said soberly. “I’m so sorry, Billy.”

“No problem.” He didn’t open his eyes. “A little caffeine, and I’ll be fine.”

“Right away,” Eve said as she followed Beth out of the room and down the hall. “I assume we can’t turn on the kitchen lights?”

“No, but I always get the coffeemaker ready so I can have it in the evening.”

Moonlight was streaming into the kitchen from a huge window over the sink, and Eve could see Beth hit the button on the coffeemaker and moved from the sink to the bronze thermal carafe sitting on the granite counter. “Caffeine is an essential for quality living for Joe and me. I suppose Newell is the same.”

“I didn’t like coffee at first. But I found it gave me a little zing and kept me awake while I was studying here. They never gave it to me at the hospital, and I only drank water and Gatorade before they took me there.”

No, Pierce had probably not wanted to mix caffeine with her drug regimen, Eve thought bitterly. “I guess you were too young to develop an addiction to coffee. I keep forgetting that you were only a teenager when you had your accident.” She paused. “What were you studying here?”

“Everything. Billy told me to catch up and learn how the world works these days.” She made a face. “I don’t like it very much. Maybe I didn’t notice all the corruption and bad stuff that was going on when I was growing up, but it seems as if it must be worse now.”

“Or maybe just more publicized. Media is all around us.”

“And computers. I was surprised how easy it was to work the one in the library.” She added, “Facebook. It’s very … intimate.”

“Only if you want it that way. Your choice. It can get in your way. It interferes with my work, so I usually ignore it.”

“What is your work?”

“I’m a forensic sculptor.”

“What’s that?”

“I reconstruct skulls. You’re not really interested in what I do, are you?”

“I suppose not.” She took the coffee and poured it back into the carafe. “Or if I am, it’s not because it has anything to do with you. I’m just curious. I’m curious about everything. At first, I was only doing what Billy told me to do, but the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. It was like being … drunk.”

“If you know how that feels, you must have been drinking more than water and Gatorade when you were a teenager.”

“I went to parties.” She frowned. “I had a friend … She laughed a lot…” She was silent, then shook her head. “I can’t remember her name.”

“I’m sure it will come back to you,” Eve said gently.

“No, you’re not sure. How could you be sure when I’m not? But I think it will. I hope it will.” She took down cups from the cabinet. “It makes me angry that I can’t remember everything. I feel cheated.” She glanced at Eve. “You believe that this Dr. Gelber was responsible for making me forget things?”

Eve nodded.

“Drugs?”

“Maybe partially, but I’m leaning toward hypnosis.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know if I believe in hypnosis. Do you?”

“I don’t know everything that it can accomplish, but I do believe that hypnosis can work. Gelber is evidently a very skilled practitioner, and he spent many sessions with you.”

“Then wouldn’t I remember him?” She shook her head. “Not if he didn’t want me to, right? But why wouldn’t he? And why would he want me to forget everything before I came to the hospital?”

“The reason on the chart was removal of psychological trauma.”

“Billy says that I was injured in a ski accident. What kind of psychological trauma would I get from that? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I agree.”

She gave Eve a disgusted look. “Is that all you’re going to say? What help are you?”

“You said you didn’t want my help.”

“I don’t. But you might as well be useful if you’re going to stick around for a while.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She added quietly, “But you have to come to terms with the fact that we’ve been thrown in this brouhaha together, and we have to cooperate. You appear to have some lingering resentment toward our mother because she abandoned you. Maybe you include me under that same umbrella. I should point out that since I had no idea you even existed, that’s totally unreasonable.”

“I don’t have to be reasonable.” Her lips tightened. “I’m mentally incompetent. Ask Pierce.”

“Don’t give me that excuse. You can’t have it both ways, Beth.”

“I can do whatever I want to do.” She didn’t speak for a moment as she screwed the top back on the carafe. “Okay, maybe you’re right. I’ve just realized since I’ve been out of the hospital and free how alone I’ve been all these years. I could have used a friend to help me. What do they call it? To watch my back? But no one was there. I was alone. You may not be to blame, but it’s hard for me to accept that there was no one there for me. Someone should have been there.” She impatiently shook her head. “Listen to me. I’m whining. I’ve always hated whiners.”

Eve smiled faintly. “I believe you have cause to complain. But suppose we strike a truce. We both have a motive to get you out of this mess. Let’s work our way through it, then I’ll go away and won’t bother you again.”

“I guess that would be okay.” She picked up the carafe and turned toward the door. Then she turned back and gazed at Eve. “But what if I don’t want you to go away then?”

Eve blinked. “What?”

“Never mind. That just came out. I don’t know why.” Her lips twisted. “It’s probably my lack of ‘reason’ again. Sometimes my mind is just a jumble, and I wonder if Pierce was right about my being crazy.”

“You’re not crazy. And we all have moments of confusion and ‘jumble.’ Don’t you remember that from the time before your accident?”

“I don’t remember much about my thought processes. I don’t remember much of anything except that I was happy most of the time. And that I always wanted to be first at everything.”

“Competitiveness isn’t bad. It can be very healthy. And, evidently, you were pretty good at everything you did.”

“You bet I was.” She started for the door. “But that’s in the past. I mustn’t think of that now.”

“Why not? Why turn your back?”

“Because it’s not healthy to—” She broke off. “It seems as if I’ve heard that before.”

“You might have heard it. Posthypnotic suggestion?”

“Maybe. Or just something else that doesn’t make sense.” She added fiercely, “But it doesn’t make sense for anyone to try to kill me either. Or to try to kill Billy. It shouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t right. And if you want to help me, I’ll let you do it.” She strode down the hall toward the library. “Why not?”

Eve heard her talking to Newell as she followed her down the hall. Beth was such a combination of passion, bewilderment, and suppressed anger that it was like being next to a lightning rod during a thunderstorm. You never knew which strike was going to hit, but you were sure that one of them would. In that short conversation, Eve had learned a great deal about Beth. She had expected her to be vulnerable and weak, and she was neither. There was a fragility that was balanced by strength and intelligence. Though a few of her impulsive remarks might have been spoken by the teenager she had been before her normal life was cut short, that was to be expected. She’d had no mature experiences to hone away the rough edges and teach her discretion and diplomacy.

Not a bad thing, Eve thought ruefully. Discretion and diplomacy were only armor, and she’d be able to get to know Beth much faster if she didn’t have them to hide behind.

And why did she want to get to know her? A truce would surely not require it.

It didn’t matter. No matter what resentments and complexities made up their fledgling relationship, Eve knew that she was going to be driven to explore the person that Beth had been before and after Pierce had gotten his hands on her.

Her phone rang.

Joe.

“I’m parking the car down the street, so it won’t be noticed. It will take me a few minutes to get to the front door.”

“I’ll be waiting there to unlock the door and turn off the alarm.” She hung up and turned to see Beth standing in the library doorway. “It’s only Joe. He’s on his way here.”

Beth followed her down the hall toward the front door. “Billy called him your significant other. That means you’re not married, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But you sleep together and have sex?”

“That’s right, too, but it’s considered rude to describe exactly the nature of an intimate relationship.”

“I didn’t describe it exactly. If I had, it would have been pornographic, wouldn’t it?” She stopped at the door and punched in the security code on the panel beside it. “And I didn’t mean to be rude, I was just curious.”

“You didn’t offend me.” She opened the front door. “I was just telling you what most people might think. You said that Billy told you that you had to catch up with what was going on in the world today.”

“For God’s sake, it’s not as if I didn’t know about sex before the accident. After all, I wasn’t in a convent. I was just unfamiliar with the term and wanted to be sure that I had gotten it right.”

Eve’s gaze narrowed on her face. “And perhaps you wanted me to be a little uncomfortable?”

“Maybe.” She met her gaze. “And maybe I was jealous.”

“What?”

“Sex. I’ve never gone to bed with anyone. I was always into sports, and I never even dated. I thought there was plenty of time. But there wasn’t, was there?”

Another important element of life the Beth had missed, Eve thought. “Not for the girl you were, but it’s not as if you can’t make it up. Sex isn’t only for the very young.” She grinned. “If it were, I’d be feeling pretty damn cheated myself.”

“You like it?”

Eve caught sight of Joe, who had entered the far courtyard and was walking toward the house. “Oh, yes, I like it very much indeed.”

“I can see that you do.” Beth’s gaze was focused on Eve’s face before it shifted to Joe. “He’s very … good-looking. No, he’s just … I don’t know, but I can see why you’d want to have sex with him.”

“I’m glad that you approve of my choice,” Eve said dryly. “Not that it matters.”

“Would you mind if I had sex with him?”

Eve’s eyes widened with shock. “I beg your pardon.”

“You would mind.” She shrugged. “I just thought that it might be okay. I think I’d like it with him, too. From what I’ve been watching on TV, people seem to be having sex with everyone these days, and no one seems too bothered about it.”

“You’ve been watching the wrong programs. There is such a thing as fidelity, Beth.”

“Forget it. It was just a thought. Sex is probably going to be awkward for me at first, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself with a man I cared about. I thought I’d get it out of the way.”

“Not with Joe,” Eve said firmly. “And I’d think you’d be thinking about how to keep alive instead of your first roll in the hay.”

“I’m going to stay alive. But I can’t close everything else away from me.” Her voice vibrated with intensity. “You don’t understand. Just staying alive isn’t enough. I want to live. I want to drain the cup. I want to feel and know.”

And who could blame her? That young Beth in the photograph, whom Eve had thought so vibrantly alive, had been imprisoned and was finally free and wanting to taste every morsel of life.

“You’re wrong, I do understand.”

“Do you?” Beth whispered. Then she smiled brilliantly. “I think you do.”

Eve chuckled. “But you still can’t have Joe.” She turned to Joe, who was now only a few yards away, and said, “Come and meet my sister, Joe. This is Beth.”