Pain.

“Really, Eve, I don’t need you to defend me.” Zander’s eyes were open, and his gaze was on her face. His own face was without expression. “I wish you’d stop. I’m finding it a little humiliating. This situation is difficult enough for me.” His stare shifted to Doane. “I never dreamed I’d be in this position. You’re not good enough, Doane.”

“Oh, but I am. I got you, didn’t I?” He tilted his head. “And I don’t think you liked it when I hurt our Eve.” He drew back his hand and slapped her. “Perhaps I may entertain myself until it’s time for our grand finale.” He slapped her again. “There are so many ways … Kevin knew them all.”

“By all means, if it amuses you.” Zander’s tone was bored. “But don’t expect me to respond in the way you’d like. I don’t know this woman. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter to me what you did to her. You keep thinking that because she’s my daughter, it should make a difference. She’s only the product of a one-night stand. I care nothing for her.”

“It will make a difference,” Doane said harshly. “I know the power of kinship. My love for Kevin ruled my life from the moment he was born. You may not think that it will make a difference, but when you see her die, you’ll feel the loss, the emptiness. You killed my son, you bastard. I’ve waited five years, and tonight I’ll kill your daughter.”

“I don’t know her,” Zander repeated. “How can she mean anything to me? There’s nothing you can do to her that would make me suffer.”

Eve could see the mixture of torment and anger in Doane’s expression. “It will matter when I—” He broke off in frustration. He wasn’t sure, Eve realized; his grand revenge was disappearing before his eyes. “I think you’re lying.” He forced a smile. “But I’ll assume there’s some truth to what you’re saying. You’re such a cold bastard that maybe that part of you is frozen, too.” He shrugged. “So let’s let you get to know her. Everyone around her appears besotted by the bitch. Perhaps a few hours alone in her company will rouse all your fatherly feelings.” He turned and headed for the door. “I have a few calls to make. One of them to my dear ex-wife to tell her that she’s to come running if she wants to see you die, Zander.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Don’t think that I won’t come back and check on you occasionally. You won’t get away.”

“How are we supposed to get away?” Eve asked sarcastically. “You have us both hog-tied, dammit.”

“That’s right. But one can’t be too sure.” He smiled. “However, I’ll enjoy sitting out on the porch and looking out over Kevin’s graveyard of driftwood. By the time I come back, I may have chosen the place to bury you. Side by side as is fitting for a father and daughter.”

The door closed behind him.

“Did he hurt you?” Zander asked quietly.

“Of course he hurt me,” Eve said. “What do you think? It’s what Doane does.”

“I know you can handle pain. I meant anything you can’t get over quickly. Bleeding, broken teeth, concussion. Anything we’ll have to deal with?”

She shook her head. “Bruises. One tooth feels a little loose.” She blinked her left eye. “And I’ll probably have a black eye.” She looked at him. “Your lip is bleeding.”

“I expected worse. You distracted him and took the brunt.”

“Not intentionally,” she said curtly. “I just couldn’t believe you’d been stupid enough to let him catch you. You’re supposed to be so fantastic, and here you are trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey.”

“You’re angry.” He was suddenly smiling. “You mustn’t let Doane hear you castigating me. He’ll give up all hope of my coming to love you like a daughter.”

“An impossibility. Love grows and builds with time and experiences. We don’t have the time, and you never wanted the experiences.”

He was silent, staring at her. “That’s the first time that you actually sounded as if you believe I am your father. You always denied it before.”

“I don’t know what to believe.” She added reluctantly, “But I think perhaps it might be possible. Doane says that I am. He’s crazy and could be mistaken. But you say it, too, and you’re not crazy. At least not in that way.”

“I’m glad you qualified that.” He tilted his head. “But since you don’t trust either one of us, I believe that there may be another reason. Now who do you trust who has had access to you?” He studied her for a long moment. “Your Bonnie?”

She didn’t answer.

He nodded. “Yes, I think Bonnie must have vouched for me.”

“Don’t joke.”

“I know better. Did she say I was her grandfather?”

“No.”

“Then what did she say?”

“She said … if I died, you would feel … loss.”

“Oh, then she agreed with Doane. Angel and devil both coming to the same conclusion.”

“Yes.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“No, she knew I didn’t want to talk about you.”

“Why?”

She looked him in the eye. In this moment, when she didn’t know how many moments were left, she would neither evade nor lie. “It hurt me. I shouldn’t care, but I do. There were times when I was a little girl, that I’d see some other child with their father, and I’d feel … lonely. I wondered why I wasn’t good enough, why I wasn’t wanted. That was before I realized that the fault didn’t lie with me but with the man who had walked away. My mother, Sandra, didn’t really want me either, but she stayed with me, and we made it work.” Her voice was suddenly fierce. “And I would have made it work with you, too, if you’d given me the chance. Family is important. You should have given me a chance.”

“And you would have fought the world and the devil for my soul?”

“Don’t laugh. Yes, I would have fought, and I would have won.”

“I’m not laughing,” he said gently. “And I believe every word you’re saying. You know, I saw you once when you were about ten years old. You were tough and full of passion, and I could tell that either Sandra or life had created a very special person.” He grimaced. “I couldn’t claim to have anything to do with it.”

Her eyes widened. “You saw me?”

“Only once. Then I turned my back and walked away.” He smiled. “Like the selfish son of a bitch that I am.”

“You were selfish.” Her eyes were blazing. “You should have given me my chance.”

“In my twisted psyche, I believe that I thought I might be doing that. Of course, it might have been ego and self-love raising its head.”

“You walked away. Why?”

“By that time, I had risen very high in my present profession, and anyone near me could be a target of revenge from crime figures or foreign governments or any number of other individuals. You wouldn’t have been safe.”

“Bullshit. We could have worked it out.”

“You keep saying that, but perhaps I didn’t want to make the effort. Perhaps you would have been an inconvenience.”

“Is that the way you felt?”

“Yes.”

She studied him. “You’re lying.”

“I don’t know how I felt all those years ago,” he said wearily. “I was softer and not as honest with myself as I am now. Every year, I could feel myself getting harder and harder, and sometimes I thought that soon I’d feel completely numb.”

“I don’t care about your walking away from that ten-year-old girl. I never knew about it, and I’m not that little girl any longer. I want to know about now. I can see that hardness. Everyone can see the hardness. I want to see something else. You look me in the eye and tell me. Was Bonnie right? Do you feel anything for me? Loss. Would you feel loss?”

He didn’t speak.

“You answer me, Zander.”

“Difficult, Eve.”

“I don’t give a damn. You look deep and tell me the truth.”

“I feel…” He stopped and when he spoke again his voice was uneven. “What do want me to say? Let’s see, if Doane blew your brains out, would I feel a sense of loss?” He stared intently into her eyes, holding them. “I would feel such a sense of loss that he had robbed this ugly world of such a unique person that I would kill him in the most painful way possible.”