Page 137 of Fury In Death

Eve just nodded as she left. Walking wasn’t pleasant, but the blocker had already gotten to work.

“You’ve got two black eyes,” Nadine began. “Your nose is swollen.”

“It’s not broken.”

“I suppose you’d know. So’s your jaw, your right cheek. Your mouth looks like you caught it in a grinder, and the bruising altogether is awesome. The way you’re walking,” Nadine continued as she called for an elevator, “I’d say you’ve got a banged-up knee, hip, ankle. You’re favoring your shoulder so that must hurt like a mother.”

“Less than it did. I’m standing. I’m breathing. All in all, a win.”

“Did you land any?”

“Maybe a couple.”

“I bet that stings. The ‘maybe a couple.’ ”

“Stings more they hurt me more than hurt him.”

They stepped on the elevator. The two women already on it gave out twin gasps. “Oh my goodness! You poor thing.”

“Featherweight boxing champ,” Nadine said easily. “You should see the other guy.”

Eve rode down to the lobby aching and amused.

“Tag Peabody. It’s important. She’ll tag me. I hope whatever he needed you to hear’s worth what it took to convince you to listen.”

“He thinks it is. So do I. Thanks for the help, sincerely.”

“Thanks for your service, sincerely.”

The doorman pulled open the door, said, “Jeez, Lieutenant.”

“You should see the other guy.” Doesn’t have a mark on him, Eve thought, and lowered herself carefully into her car.

She slid into traffic, then decided to save her energy for what was to come, switched to auto. She gave herself the gift of simply turning off her brain, letting the blocker mask the worst of the pain.

Then made the mistake of pulling down the vanity mirror to check her face.

“Oh Jesus. That’s bad. That’s really bad.” She snapped the mirror up again.

Bad, she thought again. The beating had been bad. But what she’d deal with when she walked into the house?

Worse.

The hell with turning her brain off.

She blocked video, tagged Reo.

“Banner,” she said.

“Are you naked or something?”

“Or something.”

“He’s in custody, and will remain in custody. His lawyers pushed for a bail hearing, got it. They pushed for ROR, got squashed. Tried for bail, denied. We pulled a good judge, one who takes conspiracy to blow up occupied buildings, the creation of bioweapons, and so on very seriously.”

“This is good.”

“Yes, it’s good. They’re also good, and will try to have evidence thrown out. And, I swear to you, they will fail. Data from the raid’s still coming in, and we’ll use every bit of it.”