Eve (37 page)

“Of course I will.”

“It’s British Airlines—8
P.M.
”

“Got it.” She stood up. “And it would matter if you get so exhausted you break down. It would matter to me. It would matter to Jane. And it would damn well matter to Joe. So don’t do it. We’ll get through this.”

Eve nodded. “I know we will.” She didn’t know, but she prayed. “Call me if there’s any problem with Jane’s flight.”

She walked down the corridor toward ICU.

Soon she would be able to see Joe again. He’d be pale and drawn, his features appearing as cleanly carved and beautiful as the visage on a tomb. It would scare her to death as it always did to see him like that.

But it scared her more not to see him and to imagine him slipping away with her not by his side.

That was where she should always be. Next to Joe.

If God would let him stay with her. And if Joe still wanted her if he did come back. The memory of that last day at the lake house was suddenly before her. His eyes looking down at her as she sat in the swing.

“I can’t be easy. It’s not my nature. But it’s my nature to love you.”

And it was her nature to love Joe.

She had reached the ICU and braced herself as she walked slowly to the glass window.

Please, be better, Joe. Be awake. At least, have more color.

“Hello, Ms. Duncan.” The ICU nurse, Karen Norton, was coming out of the ICU unit. “May I get you anything?”

“Yes, permission to go sit with him.”

She shook her head. “It’s not visiting hours.” She hesitated. “But the doctor said that maybe we should ignore the visiting hours and just let you go to him. Dr. Jarlin wants to talk to you.”

She stiffened, her heart leaping. “He’s better?”

The nurse shook her head. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said quickly. “Dr. Jarlin will talk to you.”

Fear surged through Eve. “You talk to me, dammit. He’s worse?”

The nurse was looking at her with that same sympathy and kindness that struck terror into her heart. “Dr. Jarlin will talk to you. I’ll call him and tell him that you’re concerned.” She hurried back toward the nurses’ station.

Concerned? She was sick with fear.

Joe was dying, and they weren’t going to be able to save him. That was why they were going to let Eve go to him. To say good-bye.

She couldn’t say good-bye. He had to stay with her.

She leaned her head on the plate-glass window and closed her eyes. She felt the tears running down her cheeks as the agony flowed through her.

Look at him. Surely she’d be able to know, to sense some change. Maybe they were wrong. Doctors didn’t know everything.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She stiffened in shock.

Bonnie.

Bonnie standing by Joe’s bed, looking down at him.

Her expression … Love. Perfect love.

Why was she here?

The fear became terror.

To take him away, to ease the transition from this life to the next?

“No, Bonnie!”

Bonnie looked across the room at Eve standing behind the glass.

She smiled luminously, but then turned back again to gaze down at Joe with that same expression of love.

Oh God, what did that smile mean?

Could she help him to live?

Or could she only help him to die?

Eve’s palms pressed against the cold glass as tension and sorrow tore through her.

“Joe!”

Look for

QUINN

by Iris Johansen.

On sale July 12, 2011

ALSO BY IRIS JOHANSEN

Chasing the Night

Shadow Zone
(with Roy Johansen)

Eight Days to Live

Deadlock

Dark Summer

Quicksand

Silent Thunder
(with Roy Johansen)

Pandora’s Daughter

Stalemate

An Unexpected Song

Killer Dreams

On the Run

Countdown

Blind Alley

Firestorm

Fatal Tide

Dead Aim

No One to Trust

Body of Lies

Final Target

The Search

The Killing Game

The Face of Deception

And Then You Die

Long After Midnight

The Ugly Duckling

Lion’s Bride

Dark Rider

Midnight Warrior

The Beloved Scoundrel

The Magnificent Rogue

The Tiger Prince

Last Bridge Home

The Golden Barbarian

Reap the Wind

Storm Winds

Wind Dancer

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

EVE
. Copyright © 2011 by Johansen Publishing LLLP. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johansen, Iris.

Eve / Iris Johansen.—1st ed.

       p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-312-65120-6

  1.  Duncan, Eve (Fictitious character)—Fiction.   2.  Facial reconstruction (Anthropology)—Fiction.   3.  Women sculptors—Fiction.   4.  Missing children—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PS3560.O275E84 2011

813'.54—dc22

2010046789

First Edition: April 2011

eISBN 978-1-4299-2016-2

First St. Martin’s Press eBook Edition: April 2011