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her rescue? Slindak had obviously had that same response to her.
    No, it hadn’t been the same for him. No one but Joe could have had this crazy, wild reaction when he’d seen Eve Duncan. It was too bizarre. He remembered what Slindak had said about him.
    Cold as ice?
    Never in this world. Not where Eve Duncan was concerned.
    Two Weeks Later
    “YOU SAID YOU’D HELP me,” Eve said, when Joe picked up the phone. “All those fine words, and you’re not doing a damn thing. Why haven’t I heard from you?”
    Because he’d been trying to forget that first interview, divorce himself from his reaction to Eve herself, and concentrate on the case. He wasn’t about to tell her that concentration had been centered on going through all the files of known child molesters in the Southeast. “I haven’t had anything to report to you.”
    “Well, I have something to report to you. Come and see me.”
    He stared at the phone after she’d hung up. He could send Slindak.
    But he knew he wasn’t going to do it.
    He pushed back from the desk and stood up. He was feeling alive, eagerness mixed with a low, simmering excitement. This was what he had been waiting for no matter what he had been telling himself.
    It was starting …
    *   *   *
    EVE THREW OPEN THE DOOR before he could ring the bell. “You took your time. Come in.” She turned her back and strode toward the kitchen. “I have something to show you.”
    She was the same and yet not the same, he thought as he followed her. She was dressed in khaki slacks and a loose white shirt. The fragile restraint that was so difficult to watch was still there, but she was more forceful. The vitality that had so drawn him was burning high. She was not even quite as pale.
    “What are you looking at?” She had turned at the kitchen table.
    “You,” he said quietly. “You look better. You’re still too thin, but you appear to have been eating. That’s good.”
    “I told you that I wouldn’t neglect myself. And I’m always thin.” She raised her brows. “You probably don’t like skinny women. Most men don’t. They like boobs and ass.”
    He was surprised at her bluntness. “I find that thin women usually have a grace and elegance that’s appealing.”
    “Very tactful. Very polite. But I understand that your tastes are definitely on the voluptuous side. So don’t be tactful. All I want is the truth from you.”
    “About boobs and ass?” His brows rose. “And just how do you understand anything that intimate about me?”
    “I called your office at Quantico. I told them I wanted to know everything there was to know about you. They tried to put me off and sidetrack me, but I kept at them. I called five times and got different agents. I finally found one who gave me what I wanted.”
    “And why did you do that?”
    “Because you made me believe you.” She stared him in the eye. “And I had to be sure there was something to believe in.”
    “I see. And what did they tell you?”
    “More than I thought they would. The person I talked to didn’t give me much of an argument. He seemed to be taking a kind of malicious enjoyment from telling me about you. I don’t think he was your friend.”
    “That doesn’t surprise me. Who was it?”
    “An Agent Rick Donald.” She saw his expression. “He doesn’t like you?”
    “We’ve been in competition a few times.” And Donald had not come out on top. “No one can please everyone. What did he tell you?”
    “Part of it was okay. That you’ve only been with the Bureau for a few years and have already solved three difficult cases. That you were a SEAL and decorated twice. Harvard graduate. Rich boy. Parents dead. You inherited a potload of money and don’t need to work.” She paused. “I didn’t like that. I have no use for a dabbler. But they said when you were on a case that you were totally dedicated. So I guess that’s all right.”
    “I’m glad I don’t have to divest myself of all worldly goods,” he