“Interesting is beautiful.” He smiled. “And I can see you well enough to see your strength and the way you hold your head and the set of your lips. I think I was dreaming about you before I came around, and you defied every expectation. You always defy expectations.”
“Bullshit.” But even recovering from surgery, Joe was behaving oddly. “What is this all about, Joe?”
He chuckled. “How suspicious. Every word is true.”
“And?”
“Maybe I wanted to distract you a little from agonizing over this wound that’s causing me a few problems. When I opened my eyes, I could see all the strain and the edginess.”
“A few problems?” she said harshly. “You were out of control. You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t, thanks to your very nice shooting that put Walsh on the run.” He tilted his head. “Of course, I was being exceptionally skillful myself, but I have to admit you saved the day.”
“I don’t care about saving the day.” Her hand tightened on his, her voice uneven. “I only care about you. I could hit you. Don’t you ever do that again. I told you that we weren’t going to take any chances. Yet you strode off like some kind of Gary Cooper wannabe gunning for your own personal High Noon.”
“Not entirely personal. You wanted the skull.”
“It was personal,” she said fiercely. “You’ve told me that everything between us is personal. I know that, but I can’t stand the thought of your risking—” She broke off and drew an uneven breath. “And you can’t tell me that you didn’t want to try to take Walsh down. You didn’t care about the risk.”
“Wrong,” he said quietly. “I wouldn’t have risked leaving you alone with Walsh out there. I would have pulled back if I hadn’t thought I could do it.” He lifted her palm to his lips. “And I did do it, didn’t I? Or rather, we did it. Was there any damage to the reconstruction?”
“A little. But it won’t take me more than a few hours to repair it.” She leaned closer. “But I don’t want to talk about the skull. I want to talk about promises. I can’t stand the thought of this happening again. I want your word that you won’t—” She stopped. He was shaking his head. “Joe, dammit.”
“You won’t get it. Why are you even trying? This is who I am. Every bit of me belongs to you, but I can’t change who that person is.” His hand tightened on her own. “Hey, do you think that I don’t want to run your life so that you’ll be safe forever? Sometimes I try to do it. But I’m never going to ask you to be someone else because sometimes I get scared. I’ll just work around it.”
As he’d done when he’d tried to convince her not to go to Tahoe. He’d accepted, then applied every ounce of his intelligence and strength to make the decision work for him. She was silent, gazing at him. “Like you did tonight.”
“Yep. But that’s not so bad. We’ve done pretty well so far.”
All the years, all the love. “So far … But tonight it almost crashed and burned.” She stood up and leaned forward to kiss him. “I’ll be back soon. I’ll go and tell the head nurse that you’re awake.”
“Fine. When am I being released?”
He wasn’t going to like this. “The doctor will be in later, but he’s going to err on the side of caution. He said the earliest will be four or five days.”
“Bullshit,” he said flatly.
“Talk to him. The surgery wasn’t all that easy. He said if you rip those stitches before they’re healed, you could bleed to death.” She heard him mutter a curse before she hurried from the room. “I’ll see you later.”
* * *
“How is he doing?”
Eve turned away from the nurses’ station to see Nalchek walking down the hall toward her. “Not bad. Could be a lot better. But I’ll take it. Unfortunately, Joe isn’t likely to agree. They’re going to have to fight to keep him here for more than a day or two. He’s stubborn as hell.”
“I got that impression.” He glanced down the hall at Joe’s room. “And damn tough. The Nevada PD said he pulled off an amazing stunt out there.”
“He’s always amazing.” And strong, and smart, and more complex than anyone would dream. “And I’ve got to figure a way to keep him from bolting out of here.”
“I could ask the PD to find a minor crime with which to charge him.” He made a face. “But I don’t want Quinn for an enemy. I don’t believe he’s one to forgive and forget.”
“No way. My problem.” She turned to look at him. “Any news about Walsh?”
“Nothing good. They found an abandoned rental car on the shore a few miles away, and forensics is going over it. He probably had a speedboat waiting.”
“I’m grateful for your responding to my SOS and getting us out of those mountains. Thank you, Nalchek.”
“I’d say you’re welcome, but I’m still pissed off that you didn’t involve me in the beginning,” he said grimly. “It might have turned out differently if I’d been there for backup.”
“We were playing it by ear.”
“And leaving me out.”
“Yes. We didn’t know what to expect.”
“That’s not going to happen again,” he said grimly. “You owe me. I want to know everything you know about Walsh.”
He was right, they did owe him. “I didn’t mean to exclude you. It just … happened.” She quickly filled him in on everything they’d learned or suspected about Walsh. “I agree that we have to share information. It’s only sensible.”
His lips twisted. “But you and Quinn are so close that you practically finish each other’s sentences. I can see it. I’ll have to watch you like a hawk to keep you from doing it to me again.” He met her gaze. “You need me. I should have been there for you. You’ll notice you didn’t seem to do too well if that—”
“Maybe not,” she interrupted. “We lost Walsh. But we got the reconstruction.”
“So you told me when you phoned. Where is it?”
“In a canvas bag at the administration office. I left it there when they checked Joe into ER.”
“I want it. Let’s go down and get it.”
“Not yet. I have to make a few minor repairs. Then I’ll hand it over.” She rubbed her temple. “Then I have to call Margaret. She has a right to know what’s happening.”
“I already called her.”
She glanced at him in surprise. “You did?”
“After we knew Quinn wasn’t going to die. I thought you’d want her to know.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“She said she’d be at the hospital as soon as you let her know you need her.” His lips twisted. “She’s probably planning on hitchhiking. I’ll see that she has a ride.”
“You’re being very cooperative.”
“Haven’t you heard? Margaret says I’m one of the good guys. Not with sterling qualifications, and I could fall from grace at any moment.” He shrugged. “So I have to work on keeping on her good side. She might set her coyote on me.”
“I doubt it.”
“I don’t doubt anything about what she might do. She’s one of a kind, and I’m not certain what kind.” He changed the subject. “How quick can you manage to repair that skull?”
“I should have her finished by this afternoon.” She paused. “But I want to know what news sources you’re going to go to with the reconstruction.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I didn’t say that. But I lost her once. I don’t want that to happen again. I want to be able to control the distribution of her photo.”
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised if you’re being proprietary, but might I remind you that I’m the one who sent Jenny to you.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “You didn’t by any chance get a call from Margaret since you’ve been here at the hospital?”
“What?” She gazed at him in bewilderment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re the one who told Margaret about Joe.”
He nodded curtly. “Just a thought. Margaret and I haven’t been on the best of terms since we met. You were prepared to trust me before.”
“Trust has nothing to do with it. I’d just feel better to be involved all the way through the process.”