“Inconvenience?” He walked toward her until the doors snicked shut at his back. “Is that what you call this? An inconvenience?”
He was, she told herself entitled to his anger, to his bitterness. She was obliged to do her job. “Three women are dead. Every possibility has to be explored.”
“And I’m just one of your possibilities?” He reached out, the sudden violent movement of his hands closing over her shirt, surprising her. “Is that what it comes down to between us?”
“I’m a cop. I can’t afford to overlook anything, to assume anything.”
“To trust,” he interrupted. “Anything. Or anyone. If it had leaned a little the other way, would you have locked me up? Would you have put me in a cage, Eve?”
“Back off.” Eyes blazing, Feeney strode down the corridor. “Back fucking off.”
“Leave us alone, Feeney.”
“Hell I will.” Ignoring Eve, he shoved against Roarke. “Don’t you come down on her, big shot. She went to bat for you. And the way things stand, it could have cost her the job. Simpson’s already prepping her as sacrificial lamb because she was dumb enough to sleep with you.”
“Shut up, Feeney.”
“Goddamn it, Dallas.”
“I said shut up.” Calm again, detached, she looked at Roarke. “The department appreciates your cooperation,” she said to Roarke and, prying his hand from her shirt, turned and hurried off.
“What the hell did you mean by that?” Roarke demanded.
Feeney only snorted. “I got better things to do than waste my time on you.”
Roarke backed him into a wall. “You’re going to be free to book me for assaulting an officer in about two breaths, Feeney. Tell me what you meant about Simpson?”
“You want to know, big shot?” Feeney looked around for a place of comparative privacy, jerked a head toward the door of a men’s room. “Come into my office, and I’ll tell you.”
She had the cat for company. Eve was already regretting the fact that she’d have to turn the useless, overweight feline over to Georgie’s family. She should have done so already, but found solace in even a pitiful furball’s worth of companionship.
Nonetheless, she was nothing but irritated by the beep of her intercom. Human company was not welcomed. Particularly, as she checked her viewing screen, Roarke.
She was raw enough to take the coward’s way. Leaving the summons unanswered, she walked back to the couch, curled up with the cat. If she’d had a blanket handy, she’d have pulled it over her head.
The sound of her locks disengaging moments later had her springing to her feet. “You son of a bitch,” she said when Roarke walked in. “You cross too many lines.”
He simply tucked his master code back in his pocket. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t want to see you.” She hated that her voice sounded desperate rather than angry. “Take a hint.”
“I don’t like being used to hurt you.”
“You do fine on your own.”
“You expect me to have no reaction when you accuse me of murder? When you believe it?”
“I never believed it.” It came out in a hiss, a passionate whisper. “I never believed it,” she repeated. “But I put my personal feelings aside and did my job. Now get o
ut.”
She headed for the door. When he grabbed her, she swung out, fast and hard. He didn’t even attempt to block the blow. Calmly he wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand while she stood rigid, her breathing fast and audible.
“Go ahead,” he invited. “Take another shot. You needn’t worry. I don’t hit women—or murder them.”
“Just leave me alone.” She turned away, gripped the back of the sofa where the cat sat eyeing her coolly. The emotions were welling up, threatening to fill her chest to bursting. “You’re not going to make me feel guilty for doing what I had to do.”
“You sliced me in two, Eve.” It infuriated him anew to admit it, to know she could so easily devastate him. “Couldn’t you have told me you believe in me?”