Silencing Eve

know.” She paused. “I thought you’d want to be here. If you knew three days ago, why didn’t you come to the service?”
    “At first, I was trying to be diplomatic and kind to Quinn and Jane MacGuire. I was Eve’s past, and she had my child, Bonnie, when she was only a teenager. But Quinn was her present and future. I had no part in building that life, and I had no right to intrude.”
    “At first? What followed?”
    “I talked to Joe Quinn. We had an interesting discussion.”
    “He told you.”
    “He thought I was qualified to be helpful, and he didn’t mind using me or anyone else if it meant saving Eve. He’s desperate.”
    Qualified? Yes, John Gallo was qualified in any enterprise that had to do with violence and mayhem. He had been a prisoner of war in a North Korean concentration camp, then had become an Army Special Forces agent whose specialty was infiltration and assassination. He was smart, experienced, and completely lethal. He had also had a few mental problems, fits of rage, due to torture while he was incarcerated in that hellhole of a prison. Catherine had met him when she had suspected he might have killed Eve’s daughter, Bonnie, during one of those fits of rage. Their relationship from that moment had been as turbulent and volatile as a perfect storm that neither of them could fight.
    No, that wasn’t true. She was drawn sexually to Gallo, but there had definitely been a struggle to resist that magnetism. She had made her life what she wanted it to be. She was a CIA agent who was expert in her job. After she had found and rescued her son, Luke, he was tentatively coming to accept her. She did not need Gallo to disturb her and cause ripples in her life.
    “You don’t agree Quinn’s desperate?” Gallo asked, when she didn’t answer. “Those were the vibes I got, but you’re on the scene.”
    “Oh, he’s desperate.” She tried to concentrate on the problem at hand. Gallo always managed to distract her. “He loves her. They’ve been through a lot together.” She paused. “How are you feeling, Gallo?”
    “Do you expect me to say I love her, too?” Gallo asked. He was silent a moment. “I do, you know. She was a big part of my life when we were young. We didn’t know about love then. It was all about sex. But years later, when I came back, we had our memory of Bonnie and the realization that she would have wanted us to have some kind of bond. Neither one of us could walk away from that bond. Although God knows we wanted to be free from each other and go about our lives.” He was silent again. “That bond still exists, will always exist, because of Bonnie. There are all kinds of love out there. She’s my friend and the mother of my child. I will never be her lover in the conventional sense, that’s Joe Quinn, but I’ll be there for her if she needs me. Is that honest enough for you?”
    “You don’t have to answer to me, Gallo.”
    “Yes, I do. In spite of the fact that you’re pushing me away.”
    “Why? I have nothing to do with your relationship with Eve.”
    “You know why. Though you’re having trouble admitting it.” He suddenly chuckled. “I’m in a fever to have sex with you. It’s all I can think about. Well, almost. And I won’t allow you to put any barriers between us because everything isn’t clear to you about my relationship with our mutual friend, Eve.”
    She felt a surge of feeling that was hot and sweet and bewildering. She quickly changed the subject. “You never told me why you didn’t come here for the service.”
    “I decided I’d get a head start. No one expected me to go to her memorial. I flew to Vancouver instead to try to track down Zander when I heard that he was the key to trapping Doane. That’s where I am now.”
    “And did you find him?”
    “No, I’ve been to Zander’s place here, but it’s deserted. I even did a little housebreaking to make sure. I’m going through some of his papers to see if I can find a clue to where he might have gone.” He paused. “Zero in on Venable. If anyone knows anything about Zander, then he should.”
    “I’ll do that. I’ll let you know.”
    “I phoned Hu Chang in Hong Kong after I got your call and told him to tell Luke you’d been delayed.”
    “I called Luke myself the minute I got into Miami. He was down in Hu Chang’s lab and was so excited he could only talk about their latest experiment. Luke trails behind Hu Chang night and day.” She could hardly blame her