Page 111 of Passions in Death
“I’m okay. It’s okay. It was just so real.”
Galahad stopped butting his head against her and leaned heavy against her back.
“You were choking. You didn’t seem to breathe.” He drew her back as he called for lights at ten percent. “Ah God, you’re so pale.”
“Shook me up a little.”
More than a little, she thought as she struggled to even her breathing. She’d felt the pain, she’d felt the panic.
“Thanks for pulling me out.” She reached around, stroked a hand over the cat. “You, too. I was back at the D&D, then I went into the room, fought with Casto—that prick. Had him down, had him cuffed. Then behind me, somebody, the garrote around my neck. I was dizzy and I was losing. I was dying.”
Eve wrapped around him in turn. “But there you were, pulling me back.”
“I don’t know how long you were struggling to breathe. I’d just walked in from a meeting. You’re still shaking a bit.”
“That might be you.”
“I might be at that. Sit a minute more. I’ll get you coffee.”
She sat, watching him in the dim light. The sleek suit, the flow of his hair, the grace in his movements despite the shock.
He programmed coffee for both of them, walked back, and handed her a mug.
“It’s nice being married,” she said. “I didn’t know if it could work with us, didn’t see how it could. But here we are, and it’s nice being married.”
“You’re well stuck with me.”
“Both ways.” She gulped down some coffee, felt alive again. “Really sorry for the scare. I don’t know what the hell that was about. Going back there doesn’t do any good.”
“You lived; she didn’t. You relate to her because of the circumstances.”
“I guess I do. We’re nothing alike, except for the circumstances. But dwelling on those parallels is stupid and unproductive.”
“I disagree.” He smoothed her hair, then laid a hand on her cheek as color came back into it. “It helps you see her, and you need to see the victim.”
“It’s screwing with my objectivity. It puts a shadow over it.”
“If you didn’t use those shadows, Lieutenant, you wouldn’t be the cop you are. But Christ knows there are times I wish it didn’t get inside you as it does.”
Then he sighed. “And yet that’s what makes you who you are. So I’m well stuck as well, aren’t I?”
“Looks that way to me. What the hell time is it?”
“It was half-five when I finished the meeting, so just shy of six.”
“Okay, all right. Boy, am I awake, so I’m going to grab a workout, smooth myself out some.”
“You should try this new program, an urban obstacle course. Program New York Challenge. It earned the title.”
He cupped her cheek. “We’ll see if you’re up to it.”
She decided it sounded perfect.
The program proved it earned the title, and she proved she was up to it. Inside of three minutes she broke a sweat as she ran, climbed, belayed, tunnel crawled, dodged, jumped, and swung her way through Midtown.
She capped that off with ten laps in the pool, and felt normal again as she rode back upstairs.
In the bedroom, Roarke and the cat sat on the sofa. The screen scrolled with stock reports. And all was right in her personal world.
