"Where are you going?"

"Back to the burial site. I don't like the idea of leaving it unattended."

Her eyes widened. "You think he'll come back to it?"

"If he's watching you, then he knows we found the grave."

"He won't try to move the body. He told me once that it would be stupid."

"Then I'll be guarding it for nothing. But it won't hurt."

"How long will you be there?"

"Until Spiro meets me there tomorrow morning. Don't expect me back until--"

"I'll go with you."

"Go to bed, you're not invited." He opened the door. "My job, Eve. You and Sarah have done yours."

"It's idiotic of you to go there tonight if you think he--"

She was talking to air. He was gone.

How dare he upset her and then terrify her by going back to Debby Jordan's grave? And how could he think that she'd be able to sleep? She'd be up all night, imagining him by himself in that field.

She would sleep. She wouldn't think of him. Let him risk Dom coming back and finding him. It would serve him right. He'd probably enjoy facing that son of a bitch. Joe'd karate-chop him as he had Lopez and walk away.

Her heart was pounding hard. Stop it. Don't think of him.

Go to bed and go to sleep.

JOE WAS SITTING several yards away from the grave site, and she could feel his gaze on her as she approached, but she couldn't see his expression in the darkness. There probably wasn't any expression. She usually had to watch for the faintest flicker of an eyelash or the movement of his mouth to know what he was feeling.

Though he'd made his feelings more than clear lately.

"I was expecting you." Joe patted the ground beside him. "Sit down."

"Well, I didn't expect to be here." She sat down and linked her arms around her knees. "I told you he wasn't coming."

"But you couldn't let me run the risk alone."

"You're my friend . . . sometimes."

"All the time. You shouldn't have come here by yourself."

"I'm never by myself. One of the security men followed me."

"Which is the only reason I feel the slightest gratitude to Logan."

"He's a good man."

"No comment."

She was silent as she gazed across the field at the red flag marking the grave. Are you there, Debby Jordan? I hope you are. God, I hope we can bring you home.

"She had two children?"

"Two little boys. According to the newspapers, she had everything. A happy marriage, a family, friends. She was a good person trying to live a good life. Then one day she left home and never came back. No warning. No reason. Dom saw her and wanted her dead." She shook her head. "That's what's most frightening. You can live your life in the best way, the most moral way possible, and it doesn't make any difference. A madman chooses you at random and takes away everything. It's not fair."

"That's why we all have to live every moment as if it were our last and not close ourselves off."

He was no longer talking about Debby Jordan. "I don't close myself off. I just choose what I want in my life."

"Then you should widen your selection. It's pretty damn miserly."

"I'm content with the way things are."

"Bullshit."

"Dammit, why do you want to change everything?"

"Because I'm too selfish. I want more."

"I can't-- I don't want--"

"Sex?"

Eve stiffened. It was the one subject she hadn't wanted to bring out in the open. God knows, she'd tried to push it away a hundred times while lying in bed last night.

"I think you do want it." He wasn't looking at her. "You've had a few sexual relationships since Bonnie died. Nothing serious. You wouldn't let them be serious. That would have interfered with your work."

Joe had never spoken to her before about those fleeting relationships. She hadn't known he'd even been aware of them. "It still would interfere."

"Then you'll have to learn to deal with it." His tone was almost offhand. "Because I'm here and I'm serious as hell. I've watched and I've waited. I learned to control jealousy and anger and desperation. I never tried to stop you from going to other men because I knew that every step would help you heal. But you needed something else from me. Well, you got it."

"Joe . . ."

"Everything I've done since I met you has been centered on you. You became my center. I don't know why. I never wanted it." He finally turned to look at her. "But if you can see beyond Bonnie and all those other lost kids, you'll find I'm pretty damn close to your center too."

"You're my friend, Joe."

"Forever. But I can be more. I can please your body." He paused. "And I can give you a child."

"No."

"That scared you. You're afraid to even think of it, but it would be the one act that might heal you. For God's sake, it wouldn't be a betrayal of Bonnie."

"No."