"Call Soldono again."

"Nag." He took his cell phone out and dialed the number. "Still voice mail." He put the phone on the nightstand. "It could be that Montalvo gave Soldono orders not to talk to us before he did."

"Maybe." She didn't know what to think. Her nerves and expectations had been screwed up to face Montalvo and then there had been nothing. She felt flat and anxious at the same time.

And tired. Very, very tired.

She nestled closer to Joe. "This isn't what I was anticipating for tonight." She had a sudden thought. "Or were you trying to distract me?"

"You think I was trying to lure you with my manly body."

"You would have succeeded."

"Past tense."

"If you-"

"Hush." He pressed his lips to her temple. "Neither one of us is going anywhere. It can wait. I can wait. Love isn't only sex." He chuckled. "Though it's a damn entertaining part of it, isn't it?"

"Yes." She cuddled her cheek into the hollow of his shoulder. "I can't be a child for you. That part of me isn't alive any longer if it ever existed, but I still like the red balloons and the firecrackers. There are celebrations and then there are celebrations. Sex is a celebration. So is lying here close to you."

His arm tightened around her. "God, you're easy to please. Go to sleep, Eve. The celebration will still be going on when you wake up…"

2

Don't go, Mama." Eve opened her eyes to see Bonnie sitting in the rocking chair across the room. She was dressed in jeans and the Bugs Bunny shirt Eve had last seen her wearing that day she was taken. "I'm not going anywhere, baby. I just have to see if I can help that man."