Page 57 of Devil's Due

“Yeah, you two should talk. You make Navy SEALs look boring.”

The upholstery of McCarthy’s old car felt luxurious, soft as down to her tired body; Lucia struggled for a while to stay awake, but minutes disappeared, and she had no memory at all of the drive. Just the warm sensation of McCarthy’s fingers stroking her cheek, and his voice in her ear saying, “Let’s get you upstairs.”

Her knees gave out as she was leaning against the wall in the elevator. McCarthy caught her without a word and picked her up. She wasn’t heavy, but she knew she wasn’t that light either; she murmured a protest, but there was something so seductive about being cradled against his body, her arms around his neck, her head on his shoulder. He carried her the short distance to her door and let her slide back to her feet.

Close together. Breathing the same air.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips gently to her forehead. A kiss of peace, not passion, although there was that, too, in the tense set of his, body, in the fight in his eyes. “Get inside,” he murmured against her skin. “Take care of yourself. I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

He started to pull away. She grabbed his collar to hold him in place. “Promise me something first. Promise me that—if something happens to me—you’ll look after things. After Jazz. After—even after that bitch who got Omar killed.”

Something Susannah had said nagged at Lucia, but she was too tired to make the connections. She was running on instinct, not thought.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“Anthrax,” she said flatly. “Something’s already happened to me. The stuff can be deadly. I could be dead—”

His fingers touched her lips. Light, but unmistakably a hush. “Don’t say that.”

“Just promise, okay?”

“I promise.”

She thought he’d kiss her. She could see he wanted to, couldfeelit, but he stepped back as she opened the door, and let her go inside.

“Rest,” he said. “That’s what you need right now.”

When she looked back, he was already walking away, elegant in his tawny coat, hands in the pockets. She wanted to call him back. Wanted to sleep in his arms, stretched against his warmth. Wanted the sheer animal comfort to keep the fears and the memories at bay.

Instead, she shut the door, locked it and set the intrusion alarms for instant alert.

She managed to strip off her guns before she fell on the bed and sank into a sleep so deep it seemed eternal.

She couldn’t wake up. Couldn’t. She tried, because she knew she should; she felt the danger, but her whole body was sluggish and unresponsive. Inert, heavy flesh, weighing her down.

Dreams. Terrible dreams, full of twisted, screaming bodies, and blood, and friends—old friends dying. She wanted to cry out, wanted to scream, wanted tostop this, but there was nothing she could do, nothing but witness and grieve. Endless dark mazes and corridors and cells andrun for your lifeand the shots ringing out over her head …Gregory Ivanovich, please, help me … I’ll make it worth your while.

Flashes of light.

Smeared voices, nightmarishly slow. She didn’t understand them. Was this the past? Was it Prague? Had she never really run, her bare feet sliding over cold concrete blocks and leaving footprints of sweat and blood … ohDios, was she still there? Were they asking…?

She felt the white-hot burn of drugs in her veins. Slow fire, screaming through her body.

Nothing. Sleep. Dreams.

A feeling of cold on her skin. Her body being lifted, moved. More nightmares, hands on her, moving her legs up and out. A sense of cold invasion that made her flinch and want to weep.

More drugs.

Darkness.

Chapter 12

She woke up in the hospital, with an IV in her arm and an oxygen mask on her face, and for a panicked moment she thought,I’m dying.

Didn’t feel that way, though. In fact, she felt a lot better. Sore and weak, but better. Her mouth was dry as old paper. She cleared her throat and tried to sit up.

“Whoa!”

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