Eve’s Wedding Knight

Chapter 15

From their command post, Jake and Birdie followed Summer’s progress through the beautifully decorated house. They watched her enter the bedroom where her sister Mirabella was wrapping packages, listened, with the volume turned low, to the faint background murmur of their voices.

It was quiet in the attic room, and a little too warm even though outside the dusty dormer window the long and early dusk brought on by the approaching storm had finally given way to full darkness. The volume on all the mikes had been turned off, with the exception of the rooms occupied by Sonny and his thugs, and there was very little sound even from those. One of the bodyguards-Ricky-sat hunched on the foot of a twin bed staring intently at a NASCAR recap on television. The other, the Russian, Sergei, was sprawled on his back on his own bed with headphones on. His eyes were closed; whether asleep or absorbed in what he was listening to was impossible to tell. The room next door-Cis-neros’s room-was empty; Sonny, at the moment, was in the library enjoying a brandy with his host.

Eve was in her host and hostess’s bedroom, doing something mysterious with a dual-deck VCR. Everyone else, Jake noted after a cursory check of the monitors, appeared to be engaged in last-minute preparations for the holiday-wrapping presents, tiptoeing in and out of rooms like characters in a French farce.

He pushed back his chair, reaching for the thermos Summer had thoughtfully left for them that morning. He poured the last few teaspoons of coffee into his cup, screwed the cap on the bottle and sighed. “Helluva way to spend Christmas.”

“Yeah…” Birdie rocked back his chair for a bone-cracking stretch. “‘Course, Margie being Jewish, our really big celebration was a while ago.”

Jake grunted a reply. He was wondering how he could have been partners-and friends-with a man for almost five years and not know his wife was Jewish. He wondered how many other things he didn’t know about Birdie-or Don Coffee, or Agent Franco, or any of the other people he worked with, for that matter. That made him think again about what Eve had said to him that day in the hospital in Augusta, about this case being like a cancer in his life. He’d thought about that a lot during the last couple of weeks. That, and a whole lot more.

He drained the last of the coffee and gave his head a brief shake. “Partner, I’ve got to tell you, I am impressed.”

Birdie looked at him in surprise. “What for?”

“You and Margie. I mean, you’ve got a great marriage. That’s hard enough to manage in this line of work, you’ve got to know that. Okay, so on top of that, you’ve got the problem of two different religions to deal with?”

Birdie twisted uncomfortably in his chair. “Well,” he mumbled, “I guess we don’t really see it as a problem. It’s just…you know, part of who we are. No big deal.”

Jake didn’t say anything for a minute; personal conversations didn’t come easy for him, and he already knew this one was probably going to give away more about himself than he wanted it to. Then he decided there were questions he wanted the answers to badly enough to risk it, so he laced his fingers together behind his head and hauled in a breath. “It really isn’t difficult for you, is it? Marriage, I mean. You and Margie-you make it look so easy.”

“Oh, Lord, I wouldn’t say that.” Birdie’s bark of laughter brought his chair upright with a thump. “It’s never easy, partner. Don’t kid yourself. You’ve always got to work at it.”

“Okay, so how do you make it work?”

“Aw, hell.” Birdie was squirming again. “I don’t know. Why’re you asking me? I’m no expert.”

“When it comes to marriage you are. Especially in this business. Cops have a lousy record when it comes to marnage-it’s a known fact. You guys are known far and wide as the exception that proves the rule.”

Birdie looked pained. “What the hell does that mean? ‘The exception that proves the rule…’ There is no rule.”

“Then,” Jake persisted, “tell me how you do it.”

His partner leveled a long, thoughtful look at him. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” said Jake, returning the look, “I really am.”

“Yeah… okay, well.” Birdie cleared his throat; obviously, personal conversations weren’t all that easy for him, either. He leaned back and folded his arms above his expanding middle. “It helps if you marry the right person. For the right reasons.”

“The right reasons… love, you mean.”

Again Birdie grimaced as. if he’d felt a sharp pain. “Well…see, now, the trouble with love is, everybody’s got a different idea what that means. Who even knóws what it means? And some people are always gonna mistake it for something else.”

“Sex, you mean.”

Birdie gave a grunt of laughter. “Trust me, one thing you do not want to do is marry somebody because the sex is great.”

Well, hell, even Jake knew that. He nodded wisely. “Yeah, I guess that never lasts.”

Birdie smiled and looked away, kind of a smug and secretive look. “Well…let’s just say…it changes.”

After a vibrant pause, Jake cleared his throat and said impatiently, “Okay, so if not love, what do you consider the right reason to marry somebody?”

Birdie shifted around to face him and leaned forward, like someone about to impart a great truth. “Turn it around. Say you marry somebody who’s married you because she wants-or needs-something she thinks you can give her. Money, say. Security. Kids. Whatever. At the same time, she’s got no idea in the world about what you need, or giving anything back to you. Think you’d be happy?”

Jake gave a distracted snort. He was thinking that the scenario had all too familiar a ring.

“Not that you shouldn’t do for your partner-try to make her happy. I don’t mean that. I just mean, there’s got to be a give and take. You’ve got to take care of each other.” Birdie chuckled. “Margie, now-she’s always worrying about me…harping at me to take my vitamins, wear my vest, keep my feet warm, eat breakfast…yada yada yada. Drives me crazy. But I’ll tell you this-not a day goes by I don’t know she loves me. Not a day goes by I don’t think about how glad I am to be married to her. She’s my mate, my partner, my best friend, and I can’t even imagine not having her around, having her there when I wake up in the morning, crawling into bed beside her at night.” He stopped, gave his nose a quick back-and-forth swipe with his hand and finished gruffly, “As far as I’m concerned, that’s the only reason for marrying somebody. The only good reason, anyway.”

Jake didn’t say anything; he was experiencing some emotions he knew were going to embarrass him and Birdie both if they got out. In need of distraction, he turned back to the monitors.

A moment later he was reaching for the volume control and muttering, “What’s she doing? What the hell’s she got?”

“What is that?” Mirabella asked. “What did you find?”

Summer, on her knees beside the bed, didn’t answer. She stared at the objects in her hands-three smallish shrink-wrapped boxes in a nest of brightly colored wrapping paper.

“You put ‘em away and forgot, I’ll bet,” said Mirabella, coming to her own conclusions. “I’ve done that. Who’s it for?”

Summer rose slowly and sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring paper and scissors and tape dispensers. Discarding the gift wrappings, she held up one of the shrink-wrapped boxes, turned it over so she could read the back. “I did forget,” she said in a shaking voice. “I must have put them under here last summer-this was my room then. Hal brought it just before he…died. It was a present for the children. Computer games, see? I put them away because I didn’t think they were appropriate for kids their age. Damn Hal-he never did have any sense. Way too violent…I don’t know what he was thinking!”

“Let me see that.” Mirabella snatched the box out of her hands, quickly examined it, then reached for another. “Don’t you know what this is?” she whispered excitedly. “It’s what they’ve been looking for. Whatever Hal had, he probably hid it in one of these!”

Summer wiped her eyes with her hands. “I know that’s what Jake thought, at first. But I don’t see how they could be. They obviously haven’t been opened. They’re all shrink-wrapped…”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” said Mirabella impatiently, “anybody can shrink-wrap. You can do it in your kitchen. Here, take one…” She tossed one of the boxes into Summer’s lap and attacked the other with her teeth.

“Shouldn’t we take them to Jake?” Summer was reaching for the scissors.

“What if we’re wrong? Let’s see if there’s anything in here, first.” Mirabella tore away the transparent wrappings.

They both froze as the door suddenly opened.

“Hi, guys, am I missing anything?” Eve chirped, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Her sisters both slumped with relief. “Shh…get in here,” Mirabella hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her into the room. She checked abruptly to gape at Eve’s wrist. “Nice watch.”

Eve shook herself free and said with a grimace, “It’s my Christmas present from Sonny.”

Summer and Mirabella exchanged droll looks. Summer murmured, “A diamond Rolex-must be tough…”

“Look, he insisted I wear it. What was I supposed to do, refuse?” She shook off the whole subject impatiently and put the smile back on. The traditions of Christmas were among Eve’s favorites in all the world, and she was determined not to let Sonny and his thugs, hidden evidence, a houseful of video cameras and listening devices and federal agents, not to mention the unnerving presence of Jake up in the attic watching and listening to everything that was said, spoil it for her. “What’re you two up to in here? Can I play?”

“You’re just in time actually.” Summer picked up the third computer game that had been lying in her lap and tossed it to her. “Here-open it.”

Eve arched her eyebrows. “At this point, aren’t we supposed to be wrapping?”

“Not in here,” said Mirabella, sounding disappointed and at the same time breathless with excitement. She tossed the gaudy box onto the bed. “Sumz?”

Summer passed the scissors to Eve. Her hands trembled as she tore the box open and dumped its contents into her lap. “Here, either.” She looked at Mirabella. “It wouldn’t be a CD, would it?”

“More likely a floppy. Evie, get a move on-open yours.”

“Okay, guys…what’s going on?”

“Maybe nothing,” said Mirabella briskly. “We’ll know in a minute. Will…you…hurry…up?”

“This is the present Hal brought for the kids,” Summer explained. “Last summer, you know, just before he died? If he did have that evidence-whatever it is Sonny was after him for-when he came, it almost has to be in one of these.”

“Oh…my God.” Eve’s heart was suddenly pounding, her hands shaking. She stabbed at the box’s wrappings with the scissors, then tossed them on the bed and tore at it with her hands. A moment later, she and her sisters stood with their heads together, staring at the flat, black, three-and-a-half-inch square of plastic in her hands. “Oh, God,” she whispered.

Just above their heads, in the attic command post, Jake and Birdie were standing, too, their eyes riveted on the monitor.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Birdie softly.

“Mmm-hmm…looks like it.” Jake’s calm was all on the surface; inside he was a typhoon.

“Show’s over,” Birdie exhaled through his nose. “That’s all we needed…right?”

Jake looked over at him. “We don’t know what’s on that disk. Suppose it’s a dud? I still think it’d be better if we let Cisneros find it-that way, if nothing else, at least we’ve got a shot at getting some kind of admission on tape.”

“Yeah…guess you’re right.” But Birdie was shaking his head. “You’re not actually thinking of letting Cisneros get his hands on that disk, are you? What if he-” A flurry of movement drew their eyes back to the monitor screen.

Jake felt a shock go through his body, almost as if he’d been hit by a bullet. Through the roaring in his ears he heard his partner mutter, in a voice heavy with foreboding, “Houston, I think we’ve got a problem…”

“Sonny…” The name burst from Eve on a gust of breath, as if she’d been punched in the stomach. She turned to face him, her body a shield between him and her sisters, and the small black disk they held in their hands.

“Hey, babe.” He moved into the room with confidence, smiling his charming, Vegas-strip smile. “Whatcha up to?”

“What? Me? Nothing…” But her voice was breathless and afraid-a dead giveaway.

Sonny jerked in mock surprise. “Keeping secrets from me?”

Behind her, Mirabella said with a brave attempt at scorn, “Duh, it’s Christmas-what do you think?”

“Is that what you got there?” Sonny threw back his head and laughed; a stone in one of his rings caught the light and winked at them as he placed his hand on his chest. “My Christmas present. No kiddin‘.” He came a few steps closer, still smiling. “Maybe I’d like to have my present early. Why don’t you give it to me right now?”

Eve edged backward, shaking her head. His hand snaked out and caught her wrist, the one wearing the diamond Rolex. “Come on, baby-it’s only fair.” And though the voice was soft, the smile was no longer even remotely charming. “I gave you yours early, didn’t I? Now…it’s only fair you do the same for me.” He barely seemed to move, but Eve gave a gasp of pain. “Come on-hand it over.”

Jake was heading for the door when Birdie caught at his sleeve. “Hey-where do you think you’re going? You can‘t-”

“The hell I-” Birdie’s hiss of warning cut him off as he jerked him back to the monitor.

“Don’t…give it to him,” Eve gasped. Above the collar, her face was bone-white.

Summer took a step back; Mirabella moved with her, for once in her life with nothing to say. “It’s mine,” Summer said in a shaking voice. “It belonged to my husband. You can’t…have it.”

But her gaze had slid past Eve, past Sonny, and was riveted now on the two men who had just stepped into the room. Both of them held guns, pointed straight at her and at Mirabella. Their faces wore no expression at all.

“Oh, I think you’re going to give it to me,” Sonny drawled. He reached out a hand and plucked the disk from her nerveless fingers. “There now… see how easy that was?” He tucked it into his shirt pocket, laughing softly.

“How did you know?” Eve whispered.

“How’d I know?” Pleased with himself, he held up her captive wrist. “Your Christmas present, baby. Had it custom-made, just for you-with a little something extra. You’ve been wearin’ a wire-that’s a little idea I borrowed from the feds.” He gazed fondly at the Rolex. “A little flashy, I admit, but then…nothin’s too good for my Evie-girl. Right?”

“It was you.” Summer was still staring at the men with the guns. “Last summer. It was you…” The two men silently returned her gaze, one stone-faced, the other baring his teeth in a chilling smile. “Oh, God…this is all my fault,” she whispered. “If I hadn’t been such a… If I’d just let David have the stupid games, none of this would have happened. Evie, I’m so sorry…”

“For Pete’s sake,” Mirabella snapped, “don’t be an idiot.”

Sonny chuckled. “She’s right, Mrs. Robey. You want to blame somebody, blame your ex-husband. Hal doesn’t stick his nose where it doesn’t belong, nobody gets hurt. Hey-nobody has to get hurt anyway, right? Your sister and me, we’re gonna take a little trip, is all. Sorry we won’t be staying around for the festivities. It’s a shame, too. Everything looks so pretty and nice, all dolled up for Christmas…”

“We have to take ‘em,” Jake muttered through wire-tense jaws. “We have to take ’em now.” His eyes burned; the image on the monitor screen seared on his retinas. Eve’s eyes, like black holes, staring into the camera’s lens…into his soul. He heard Birdie’s words… “I can’t even imagine not having her around…”

His partner’s voice came as a distant rumble. “We can’t Not until he’s cleared the premises. Not with the children-”

“He’s going to kill her.”

“He won’t hurt her until he’s sure he’s home-free. By that time…”

“What about those two?” Ricky’s heavy voice boomed through the mike. “You ain’t gonna just leave ‘em here, are you? You want me to…” He waved his gun hopefully.

The look Sonny gave him was one of extreme pain. “Idiot. What’re you gonna do, off somebody with the whole FBI as eyewitnesses? Place is probably crawlin’ with feds. They’re probably listening to us right now.” He put his arm around Eve’s shoulders and snugged her to his side as he snarled disgustedly, “Let’s get outa here.”

“They’re witnesses.” Ricky was disappointed.

“What difference does it make? Once we’re out of the country, who the hell cares? Come on, come on-let’s go.” He pushed past the two thugs and headed for the doorway, yanking Eve with him. He paused there to murmur something in her ear, and the sensitive microphone picked up the words. “About time you and me had our honeymoon, don’t you think so, baby?”

They were in the doorway, then gone from the screen; an instant later the hallway monitor picked them up, making for the stairs. From the room they’d just left came the sounds of muted sobbing.

Jake let out a breath like a pressure valve exploding and bolted for the attic stairs. Behind him Birdie was speaking into his wire. “All units…subjects are leaving the house. We have a hostage situation. Do not attempt to apprehend. Repeat-do not apprehend!”

They met Summer and Mirabella in the hallway, stunned and clinging to each other. Jimmy Joe was emerging from another room where he’d been supervising the children’s Christmas preparations. Riley, drawn from his study by the commotion, fortunately just late enough to avoid a confrontation with the fleeing suspects, was charging up the stairs two at a time.

“Stay here,” Jake said tersely as he brushed past them all, “we’ve got it under control.”

Behind him Birdie muttered, “Look after them,” as the arriving menfolk prepared to gather their respective spouses into their arms and head off the curious children.

From outside the house came the muted roar of a powerful engine, followed by the shriek of abused tires. Jake burst through the mudroom and out the back door just in time to see the rear end of the white limousine disappearing down the curving drive, its taillights a red glow in the freezing mist.

Right behind him came Birdie, breathing hard. Jake dashed out onto the wet walk. The next thing he knew, he was gyrating wildly, flapping his arms and grabbing at air, anything to stay upright. He figured it had to be only the grace of God that kept him from going down hard, flat on his butt.

Behind him, he could hear Birdie cussing and muttering. Jake’s heart and his hopes both plummeted, as he groaned from the depths of his despair, “Ice.”

Eve huddled in the limo with Sonny’s arm like a steel band around her shoulders, while a dark world flashed by outside the windows. She felt nothing. No-she felt cold. Colder than she’d ever been in her life. Cold to the very depths of her being.

It was strangely quiet. What sounds there were came from a great distance: the squeal of tires…Sonny yelling at someone to “Be careful, you’ll get us all killed”…the wail of sirens.

Even her mind was silent. She didn’t think about being afraid, or about the fact that she was going to die. She didn’t think about Jake and the life they weren’t going to have together after all, or the sisters she’d just found again after so many years, or the parents she loved, or her children that now would never be born. But though silent, her mind was not still. It flashed random images and impressions from her life-thousands of them, each one there for an instant and then gone, too quickly to think about at all. Her life, over it seemed, in the blink of an eye.

From a vast distance she heard shouts. And suddenly forces were being exerted on her body that wrenched it from her control. The burden of Sonny’s arm disappeared from her shoulders, and for one strange and magical moment she felt buoyant… weightless… free.

Then she was flying through the air, arms and legs all going in different directions, like a rag doll, and her head was filled with sounds… a cacophony of sounds, hideous sounds. Sounds from the depths of hell itself. Ear-splitting cra-acks and sickening crunches, screams and groans-not of human agony, but of tearing metal and twisting steel.

And then there was silence…

“Ah, Jeez,” said Birdie. “Ah…Jeez.”

“Sonuvabitch.” Jake went on saying it, over and over as he braked carefully and pulled onto the grassy verge.

They were in Riley’s Mercedes. Riley had offered it, since the keys were handy, it was equipped with all-weather tires, and Jake’s vehicle had been parked too far away to be accessible. He pulled it to a stop just short of where the turf had been torn and slashed by the tires of the careening limousine, wrenched open the door and dove into the fine, spitting sleet. He left Birdie talking to his wire, calling for an ambulance, while he plunged heedlessly over the side of the embankment.

In the faint light of the Mercedes’ headlights reflected in the freezing drizzle, he could just make out the wreckage of the limo, upside down among the trees. Slipping and sliding, he made his way to it, his heart cold and hard as iron in his chest. He could not-would not-allow himself to think about what he might find when he got there.

She would not be dead. She couldn’t be dead. Please God, he prayed, don’t let her be dead. Anything you want me to do, I’ll do, just…don’t let her be dead.

He was down on his knees in the ice and brambles and broken glass trying to get his head and shoulders through a window opening when Birdie came crashing down the slope to join him. He’d found a flashlight somewhere. “Driver’s DOA,” Jake told him tersely. “Eve’s in here. I’ve got a pulse.”

“Thank God…” Birdie was picking his way around to the other side of the wreckage.

Up on the icy road, backup was arriving. Sirens bleeped and went silent, brakes chirped, doors slammed. Jake heard the muffled thump of at least one fender-bender.

“This guy’s breathing,” Birdie called from the front passenger side. The flashlight stabbed through the windows of the wreck, randomly searching. “Where the hell’s Cisneros? Hey-we got a door punched out over here. You don’t suppose that rat-bastard got away?”

“To hell with Cisneros,” Jake grated through Jaws rigid with fear and hope and steadfast resolve. His hand was clasped firmly around Eve’s wrist, and her pulse was slow and steady against his fingers. That was all that mattered.

“Anyway,” said Mirabella, “the doctors say it was probably the neck collar that saved her life. Isn’t that incredible?”

She was sitting on the edge of Charly’s hospital bed, with Summer beside her. On the other side of the bed, Troy sat with his arms around his wife. Riley and Jimmy Joe had been there earlier, but just moments ago had gone off on some mysterious errand, leaving the children in the competent hands of Troy’s mama, Betty, who had driven down from northeast Georgia as soon as the roads were clear that morning to see her new granddaughter. Mary Christine, seven pounds, two ounces and all of twelve hours old, slept soundly in her mother’s arms, swaddled in a red Christmas stocking.

Mirabella said, “Isn’t it weird, the way things turn out?”

Too exhausted for speech, Charly could only smile as she gazed in bemusement at her daughter’s head. It was Troy who murmured softly, “Yeah, it sure is. Looks like we’ve all got a lot to be thankful for, this Christmas.”

Mirabella, suddenly beyond words herself, reached over to touch with a wondering finger a wisp of the silky black hair just showing beneath the edges of the baby’s stocking cap. She was thinking about another baby girl, another Christmas…

“Poor little thing,” she said, laughing shakily. “Another Christmas birthday. For the rest of her life she’s going to have to share her big day with the Baby Jesus.”

Charly looked up at her. “And her cousin Amy Jo.”

“Yeah,” said Troy, “let’s don’t forget who started this whole thing.”

They all laughed. Then Summer, who had been strangely quiet up to now, frowned and said, “Where are the guys, anyway? I thought they’d be back by now.”

Mirabella opened her mouth, then looked at Troy. He shrugged and said, “Aw, hell, I don’t think it’s any big secret.”

“Right,” said Mirabella firmly. “No more secrets in this family. Right Sumz?”

“They’re playin’ Santa Claus,” Troy said, grinning. “They went to get the presents. They’re bringing everything back here so we can all have Christmas together, right here. I think the nurses are going to make an exception and let the little ones in, as long as the baby’s in the nursery.”

But Mirabella wasn’t listening. She was gazing at Summer, who was glowing a bright rosy pink, and for some reason looking guilty as sin. “Sumz…?” she said on a rising note of accusation. “You do-you have a secret, I can tell. Come on-what are you keeping from us now?”

Her flush deepening, Summer threw up her hands. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, I was just going to wait for Riley. We were going to tell everybody today anyway…”

“Summer!” cried Mirabella, her hand going to her own burgeoning belly. “Are you going to tell us you’re pregnant?”

“Oh, Lordy,” said Troy, “here we go again.”

In the midst of the laughter and hugs and congratulations, a nurse came in and had to knock on the door to get their attention. “I thought you’d want to know,” she said with a smile. “I just got a call from upstairs. Your sister’s awake. You can go see her now, if you want to.”

Mirabella was heading for the door before the nurse had even finished, but Summer stopped her with a firm but gentle hand on her arm. “Jake’s been waiting all night-he wouldn’t even leave her to go get something to eat. I think we should let him have some time with her first. Don’t you?”

“Yeah, okay, you’re right.” Mirabella sighed. But it was a happy sigh, and after a moment she turned and put her arms around her tall, slender sister, and hugged her.

Eve opened her eyes in the hospital’s perpetual twilight and knew at once that she wasn’t alone…

“We have to stop meeting like this,” she said in a slurred voice to the man who sat beside her on the bed, with her hand gently sandwiched in his. His answering chuckle was like music, the sweetest she’d ever heard.

“How are you feeling?” His voice was cracked and guttural, and in a way, that was sweet music, too.

She drew a careful breath. “I don’t know. How am I feeling? Glad to be alive, I guess. Glad you’re here. Otherwise I feel bloody awful, if you wanna know the truth.” She licked her lips. “This was a whole lot more fun when it was make-believe.”

Jake leaned over to pick up a plastic water cup from the bedside stand. “That make-believe probably saved your life,” he said gruffly as he guided the straw-and it was the bendy kind-to her lips. “I guess if you’re going to be in a car wreck, it doesn’t hurt to be wearing a cervical collar.”

She started to laugh, then winced. “Ooh! Is that ironic, or what?”

“Ironic…” said Jake. “Yeah.” He shifted his gaze to the heavy blue contraption that encased her right leg from her hip to her toes. “Broken legs mend.”

“Broken leg…is that what I have?”

“Uh-huh…and some bruised ribs, a few scrapes. Oh-and a concussion-a real one, this time. But not too bad.”

“What about…?” Her voice was soft, and not too steady.

And it was Jake’s turn to draw a careful breath. “Rick’s dead. Sergei wasn’t hurt too badly. They patched him up, and he’s in jail where he belongs.”

“And… Sonny? Did you get him?”

His laugh was the old kind, a breathy snort. “Talk about irony-the guy crawled out of the wreck and walked away without a scratch. They found him this morning, about a mile from the crash. He’d ditched the disk…”

“Oh, no!”

He reached for her hand and gathered it once more into both of his. Above them his eyes were obsidian, bright and hard. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it. And even if we don’t, Sergei’s decided he’d like to avoid his friends in the Russian Mafia, if at all possible. He’s singing like a bird. Probably end up in Witness Protection. Cisneros will die in prison-guaranteed.”

“So,” Eve whispered after a moment, “it really is…over?”

“Yeah, it’s really over.”

“I mean, is it over…for you?”

He leaned over and gently, carefully kissed her lips. His breath warmed them as he said in a shaken growl, “I’m on my way to being whole and healthy… if you still want me.”

“I want you.” She sounded fragile, almost childlike. “Any way.”

“Are you sure? God knows, I’m no saint.”

“Who in the world wants a saint?” And the rasp of his whiskers on her cheek was the sweetest caress she’d ever known.

After a few minutes, though, she drew back from him, wiping her eyes. “It’s Christmas, isn’t it? Is everyone-”

“They’re all here. Oh, Lord-” and he snapped his fingers and closed his eyes in chagrin “-I forgot to tell you. Charly had her baby-a little girl. Your sisters are probably with her right now, but they’ll be in here as soon as they know you’re awake. Your family’s bringing Christmas here, to you and Charly. Riley and Jimmy Joe were heading back to get all the presents.”

Eve closed her eyes and gave a prolonged sniff. “Your present…” she whispered after a pause. “I guess I’m not going to get to give it to you. I was working on it when…everything happened. I didn’t get a chance to finish it.”

“Oh, hell…”

“No, it was kind of special, actually. I’d had my boss send copies of the master tapes to Summer-you know, of that piece on blues musicians? I was making a special cut for you…”

“You can give it to me later,” he whispered, both touched and stricken. Because he had nothing at all to give her.

He’d thought about it-what to give Eve for Christmas. Thought about it so hard, it had kept him awake nights. First, he’d think about that pearl choker Cisneros had given her, and then he’d think about what Birdie had told him about the gift not being important as long as it came from the right person. Then he’d wonder what in the world made him think he was the right person…for her?

The truth was, they were day and night-she was brightness, sunshine, warmth, laughter, gaiety, fresh air; he was dark and moody a lot of the time. Often he worked in an atmosphere of secrecy and danger. He didn’t smile nearly enough-all his friends said so. What made him think someone as rare and beautiful as Eve Waskowitz could ever be happy…with him? He’d tried and tried to think of just the right gift to give her, just to prove he could make her happy. But each idea he’d come up with, he’d discarded.

Now here it was, Christmas morning. Heartsick, he opened his mouth to tell her the truth-that he had nothing whatsoever to give her. But before he could say a word, she gasped, “Jake-”

Thinking she was in pain, he bent over her, heart pounding. Her face was turned toward the window, where the sun, breaking through clouds, had just touched the frozen land with gold.

“Oh, Jake…look.” There, outside the window, a spider’s web left from summer sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight… a web woven of diamonds. “Did you ever see anything so beautiful?”

But his throat had closed. How could he answer her? He needed just one more miracle.

And he got it He laughed out loud, and in a voice vibrant with unheralded joy and sudden understanding, said, “Hey, Waskowitz, what do you think? I ordered it just for you. Merry Christmas…”

She stared at him, eyes bright with tears and dawning wonder. And then she smiled with such radiance, it all but stopped his breath, as she murmured, “Oh Jake, it’s perfect, the most wonderful gift you could possibly have given me.”

He kissed her tear-wet and trembling lips, and with infinite care, stretched himself alongside her in her hospital bed. They lay together, holding hands and watching the jeweled spider’s web dance and sparkle in the morning breeze, until Mirabella and Summer and the rest of the family came to join them.