They crawled into bed, his arm came around her, snuggled her back against him. “That's a date.”

He didn't wake before her-another surprise. The low beep from the monitor across the room woke her, and a check of her wrist unit confirmed it was six hundred hours.

The room was still dark, but she could see him, the shape of him. The line of cheek and jaw, the sweep of hair. She'd turned to face him sometime during that short rest. Seeking… what, she wondered. Connection, solace, warmth.

For a moment she wished she could simply close her eyes again, curl closer, escape everything but him in the silence of sleep. Her body, her brain, felt so heavy with fatigue. She'd have to dig in, dig deep to find the energy and purpose she'd need to face the day.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see more of him. The plane of his nose, his cheek, the curve of his mouth. Beautiful. And every plane, every line, every inch was hers.

It made her feel lighter, body and mind, just to look at him.

“I can feel you staring.” His voice was a sleepy murmur, but the thumb and finger of the hand resting on her butt gave her a sharp pinch.

“How come you're not up making another million and generally laying waste to the business world?”

“Because I'm sleeping. I'll make another million later, and let someone else start the day laying waste.”

Yes, she thought, lighter and lighter.

“Why are you tired?”

“Because someone won't shut up and let me sleep.”

“Batteries run down, huh? Maybe you need a recharge.” She wrapped her fingers around him, squeezed, and grinned when he hardened. “Apparently, not running too low.”

“Reserves. You know what happens to sexual predators?”

“You bet. I'm a cop.” She rolled on top of him. “My bats are on low, too. Need a jolt. You know how sex can rev you up?”

“I've heard rumors.” His hand stroked over her hair as she worked her way down-and his body flashed fully awake when her mouth replaced her fingers. “I don't think that's playing quite fair, but keep it up.”

She laughed, bit his thigh. “Keeping it up's never been your problem.”

“You've got a smart mouth.” His breath caught when she used it again. “Make that brilliant.”

She worked her way up, shifted to straddle him. And from across the room a child's voice demanded, “Where isDallas?”

“Shit! Shit a brick!” Eve sprang around, instinctively reaching for her weapon and slapping her own naked side. On the monitor she saw Nixie standing in the guest room by the house scanner. “Jesus, does she ever sleep?”

“Summerset will go settle her down.” But he sat in the warm bed with his naked wife and watched the child.

“We can't have juicy sex with a kid right there. It's… perverted.”

“I don't mind perverted. What it is, is intimidating. It's not like she can see or hear or… it's just that there she is. And now there's Summerset.” He sighed, pushed back his hair as he watched his majordomo go into Nixie's room. “Bugger it. Let's try the shower. It could work in the shower, you know, with the door closed, the water running.”

“It's weirded me out now, him as much as her. I've got to slap it together and get to work. Go back to sleep.”

He dropped back on the pillows when she jumped out of bed and dashed toward the bath. “Right. That'll happen.”

She was smart enough to get in and out of the shower in a blink, knowing he might try to talk them both into a quick water game. She was shutting the door on the drying tube when he came in.

“She wants pictures,” he said. “Pictures of her family. Can you get some for her?”

“I'll take care of it. Gotta check some things in my office,” she added. “See if anything came in while we slept. Then I've got to get back downtown.”

“I'll check the search results for you before you go-on the condition you have some breakfast.”

She watched him-the man had the best ass on the planet-step into the shower. “Get something in the office.” She stepped out of the tube, combed her fingers through her hair as she reached for a robe. “Update you in there if you want.”

“I'll come up as soon as I'm dressed. We'll have some breakfast while you do.”

“Deal.” She went into the bedroom, pulled out some underwear, grabbed some trousers, reached for a shirt. She was pulling it on when the in-house 'link beeped.

“Video off. What?”

“As you're up, Nixie would like a word with you,” Summerset said.

“I'm heading to my office in a minute.”

“As none of you has had breakfast, perhaps she could join you.”

Put me right in that corner, Eve thought with a snarl for the 'link. “I'm still-”

“I can program coffee.” Nixie's voice piped through. “I know how.”

“Okay, fine, sure. Do that. I'll be there in a minute.”

She buttoned the shirt, pulled on her boots, and muttered to herself about having to have conversations with witnesses before she'd had her coffee. Sex might've given her a charge, cleared the cobwebs, but no. Kid's got to start nagging at her before she's out of the damn bed.

She strapped on her weapon harness, strode to the closet for a jacket. She had work to do, damn it. Serious, concentrated work, and what was going to happen? The kid was going to start out the day with one of those long, soulful looks. And she'd have to tell her for the umpteenth time that no, she hadn't caught the murdering bastards who'd slaughtered her family.

“Oh fucking shit!”

The murder board, Eve thought, standing in plain sight in her office. She streaked out of the room, swung into the one Nixie was using. When she found it empty, she charged toward her office.

Still in her pink pajamas, the child stood, staring at the stark images of murder and death. Cursing herself, cursing Summerset, Eve strode across the room, put herself directly between Nixie and the board.

“This isn't for you.”

“I saw them before. I saw them for real. My mom and dad. I saw them before. You said I could see them again.”

“Not like this.” Her eyes were huge, Eve thought. So big in her face it seemed they'd swallow it whole.

“It's my mom and dad. They're not yours.” She tried to push pass Eve.

Going with instinct, Eve hauled Nixie up, turned around. “It doesn't help to see them like that. It doesn't help them or you.”

“Why do you then?” Nixie pushed, shoved. Kicked. “Why do you have pictures of them? Why do you get to look at them?”

“Because it's my job. That's it. You have to deal with that. Stop it. I said stop! Look at me.” When Nixie went limp, Eve tightened her grip. She wished desperately for Roarke, forPeabody, even-God- for Summerset. Then she fell back on training. She knew how to handle the survivor of violent death.

“Look at me, Nixie.” She waited until the child lifted her head, until those drenched eyes met hers. “You want to be mad, be mad. They stole your family from you. Be pissed off. Be sad and sorry and outraged. They had no right. The bastards had no right to do this.”

Nixie trembled a little. “But they did.”

“But they did. And last night, they killed two men I knew, men who worked for me. So I'm pissed off, too.”

“Will you kill them now? When you find them, will you kill the bastards because they killed your friends?”

“I'll want to. Part of me will want to, but that's not the job. Unless my life or someone else's life is in danger, if I kill them because I'm just pissed off and sad and sorry, it puts me in the same place as them. You have to leave this to me.”

“If they try to kill me, will you kill them first?”

“Yes.”

Nixie looked into Eve's eyes, nodded gravely. “I can do the coffee. I know how.”

“That'd be good. I take mine black.”

When Nixie went into the kitchen, Eve grabbed the blanket off her sleep chair, tossed it over the board. Then she pressed her hands to her face.

The day, she thought, was already sucking large.