In Death 11 - Judgment in Death

what's mine again, and I'll follow you to hell and peel the skin from your bones. I'll feed you your own eyes. I take an oath on it. Remember what I was, and you'll know I'll do it. And worse."
    He straightened again, his body rigid. "Get someone to drag him out of here. This is my place."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    She didn't sleep long, but she slept deeply, knowing Ricker was in a cage. He'd screamed for his lawyer, quite literally, once the effects of the stun had worn off.
    Since she'd whipped right around and dumped Canarde in a cage as well, Ricker's lawyer was going to be a very busy boy for awhile.
    She'd made two copies of every record disc of the operation in Purgatory. She sealed all of them, and secured one copy in her home office.
    There would be no lost evidence, no missing data, no damaged files this time around.
    And they had him cold.
    She told herself it was enough, would have to be enough, then had tumbled into bed. She switched off like a frayed circuit, then came awake with a jolt when Roarke put a hand on her shoulder and said her name.
    "What." Instinctively, she reached down where her weapon would have been had she not been naked.
    "Easy, Lieutenant. I'm unarmed. And so are you."
    "I was... whoa." She shook her head to clear it. "Out."
    "I noticed. I'm sorry to wake you."
    "Why are you up? Why are you dressed? What time is it?"
    "A bit past seven. I had some early calls to take. And while I was at it, one came in. From the hospital."
    "Webster," she whispered. She hadn't checked on him the night before after the operation was complete. And now... too late, she thought.
    "He's awake," Roarke continued, "and it seems he'd like to see you."
    "Awake? Alive and awake?"
    "Apparently both. He improved last night. He's still in serious condition, but stable. They're cautiously hopeful. I'll take you."
    "You don't need to do that."
    "I'd like to. Besides, if he thinks I'm guarding my territory..." He lifted her hand, nipped the knuckle. "It might cheer him up."
    "Territory, my ass."
    "Your ass is, I'll point out, my exclusive territory."
    She tossed the cover aside, and gave him a good view of that territory as she dashed toward the shower. "I'll be ready in ten minutes."
    "Take your time. I don't believe he's going anywhere."
    She took twenty, because he bribed her with coffee. And she indulged in a second cup as he got behind the wheel. "Do we take him flowers or something?"
    "I think not. If you did that, the shock would likely put him back in a coma."
    "You're such a funny guy, and so early in the morning, too." She sipped her coffee, bided her time. "That, urn, phrase -- feed you your own eyes? Is that some kind of Irish curse?"
    "Not that I'm aware of."
    "So you just made it up on the spot last night? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: You're scary."
    "I'd have killed him for striking you if you hadn't been in the way."
    "I know it." So she'd made certain she'd stayed in the way. "You had no business bringing that handgun. Carrying a banned weapon into a public place. You know how much dancing I'm going to have to do on that one?"
    "Who says it was loaded?"
    "Was it?"
    "Of course, but who's to say? Relax, Lieutenant. You brought him down."
    "No, I didn't. You did."
    "Compromise," he decided. "Which we've neglected to do just lately. We brought him down."
    "I'll take that. One more thing. All that business about a man having this right and that right, and wanting your woman when you want her. That was just show, right?"
    "Are you going to share that coffee?"
    She moved it just a little farther out of reach. "No. It was just show. Right?"
    "Well, now, let me think. It might be nice to have the little woman puttering about the house and meeting me at the door of an evening, after a hard day's business, with a smile and a drink. That's a lovely image, isn't it?"
    He turned to see her snarling at him and laughed. "How long before we'd be bored brainless with it, do you figure?"
    "It's a good thing you said that before I wasted this very nice coffee by pouring it into your lap. But I'm still not sharing it."
    When they turned into hospital parking, she shifted on her seat to face him. "It's going to take several days to close this Ricker business and hand it over to the PA. His psych evaluation is going to be one big mess, seeing as he's loon crazy."
    "He'll end up in a mental defective prison unit."
    "Oh yeah, and believe me, they're no picnic. Anyway, we've got a lot of people to interview, and