Iris Johansen - Quinn

All brief, cool, and cut-and-dried. Yet Catherine was sure that there was nothing cool or unemotional about that period between Gallo and Eve. Even as a sixteen-year-old, Eve would have been strong and in control, and for her to be careless and become pregnant would be unlikely. Eve had told her there had been no emotional bond between her and Gallo, and that it had been a purely sexual relationship. But that sexual affair had been enough for Eve to take a chance that would change her life forever.

And Gallo had been the catalyst.

She took out the picture of Gallo taken when he had gone into the Army.

Olive skin, dark eyes, a full sensual mouth, a faint indentation in his chin. Yes, stunning good looks. Mature for his nineteen years. Anyone could see why a woman would be drawn to him.

And the brief glimpse she’d had of the older John Gallo had been even more impressive. A streak of silver in that dark hair, wariness, confidence born of experience… and yet still that hint of recklessness. And a personality so strong that he had managed to persuade Eve that he was innocent when she’d found out he was still alive and a suspect in her daughter’s murder.

Innocent and able to point the way to a suitable substitute, Paul Black.

“You’re quite a spellbinder, John Gallo,” she murmured. “Now what can I do to break that spell and bring you down?”

She switched to the intelligence reports on Gallo. He had been a Ranger who had been sent with two other soldiers into North Korea by Army Intelligence officers Nate Queen and Thomas Jacobs on a supposed mission to retrieve a ledger with information regarding North Korea’s attempts to acquire nuclear materials. The mission had gone south and he had hidden the ledger before he was captured. He had been thrown into a prison and undergone deprivation and torture for seven years before he escaped. In the hospital in Tokyo he had been diagnosed as mentally unstable, a schizophrenic with frequent blackouts. Yet Queen and Jacobs had taken him out of the hospital and continued to use him in their intelligence missions abroad. Catherine had thought it bizarre the first time she’d learned about it. The action stank of a suicide mission. But Gallo had survived and learned that Queen was dirty, involved in drugs and smuggling. He had retrieved the ledger from Korea.

The ledger.

Catherine flipped back to the statement Eve had given her about the story Gallo had told her about the ledger. It had proved to be evidence of Queen’s and Jacobs’s involvement in the drug trade and had been held by a North Korean officer who had been their partner. Gallo had used it to blackmail Queen to make them release him from those missions that were becoming increasingly deadly in nature. He had demanded money for his years of incarceration as a prisoner of war and built the fund into a fortune by his ability at card counting, a skill he had taught himself in prison.

Her telephone rang.

Eve.

“How is he?” Catherine asked when she picked up the phone.

“Better. I wanted to let you know Joe asked for you. He wants to see you.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“Yes, he said to wait for him.”

Catherine chuckled. “Tell him to tend to his job of getting well, and I’ll tend to mine. He’s afraid he’s going to be left out of the action.”

“Is he? What are you doing?”

“Not much. I’m at Gallo’s cabin.” She glanced around the living room and kitchen. “It’s nice. Rough, but all the basic comforts. I like it much better than those A-frame luxury cabins I’ve seen. That’s not even like being in the woods. You were here when you were setting a trap for Black, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” Eve paused. “I can’t imagine you lolling around doing nothing.”

“I didn’t say I’m doing nothing. I’m thinking and trying to get a mental fix on Gallo,” she said. “But it’s hard without having the most important piece to the puzzle.” She paused. “I know that for years Queen had Black in his employ as an assassin who removed everyone who got in Queen’s way. I know that Gallo supposedly thought that Paul Black had killed Bonnie as revenge against him and went after him. He searched for him for years.”

“So what’s the missing piece?”

“Bonnie. John Gallo never had any contact with Bonnie. He couldn’t have even known about her until after he got out of that prison. Why did he care enough about her death that he would devote all that time to finding her murderer?”

Eve was silent.

She obviously didn’t want to answer, but Catherine couldn’t drop it. She had to know. “You told me once that he’d told you that he loved Bonnie, and I said that he couldn’t. He never knew her. But he had to have told you something that convinced you. What was it?”

“What difference does it make? I was gullible. He spun me a tale, and I wanted to believe him.”

“What tale?”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to know that to be able to find him.”

“You’re wrong. I have to know him. ”

“Then heaven help you. He’ll probably dazzle you as he did me.”

Dazzle. Yes, it was a good word for the way Gallo was manipulating everyone around him. “You’re not going to tell me.”

Eve was silent again. “You wouldn’t believe me.”

“We’re friends. I know you.”

“You wouldn’t believe me. If you catch up with John Gallo, ask him.”

“I will. But by that time, the question may be moot.”

“I’m going to hang up now and go back to Joe. I’ll keep you informed of his progress. He’s already making great strides.”

“Then I’d better stop thinking and start moving.” She chuckled. “I don’t want you to have to keep that promise to tie Joe to the bed. How is Jane?”

“Protective, loving. She’s with Joe now. Good-bye, Catherine. Take care.” She hung up.

Catherine slowly put the phone back in her jacket. Eve had been of little help. Catherine wouldn’t believe Eve? They were close friends. Eve should know that she’d trust anything she told her.

But the bond that was between Eve and Gallo was complicated, and Catherine had been aware of the emotion that still lay between them. No longer sex. Not love. Eve loved Joe with her entire being. But that clearly didn’t stop her from feeling something for Gallo.

What? If Catherine was forced to kill him, would Eve feel a hidden sense of resentment? She said she’d kill him herself because of Bonnie’s murder, and Catherine had believed her.

Eve was not going to talk to her about it, so she might just as well block it out and work it through on her own. That was her usual procedure anyway. Why was this any different?

Because Eve was her friend, and that was a treasure beyond price, and Catherine was trying to bend over backward to keep from hurting her.

Stop fretting about it. She got up from the table and went to the tiny bedroom and lay down. Four hours’ sleep. Then she’d be up and leave the cabin.

She pulled up the coverlet and closed her eyes. She was lying in Gallo’s bed. It felt… strange to have this strong sense of awareness of him. If anything, she should be aware of those deputies who had recently used this bed. Before they left, they had changed the linens and made up the bed in case she wanted to use it, but it wasn’t of them that she was thinking.

Gallo.

He was dominating her thoughts, and it was natural she would imagine him lying in this bed in the cabin that belonged to him.

But it was closer to feeling. She could almost smell the scent of him. The mattress was hard against her body, and she wondered if that was the way he liked it.

She had promised herself that she was going to be as close to Gallo as a lover.