Eve

CHAPTER 2

Peabody Housing Development

Atlanta, Georgia

“I NEED A LITTLE MONEY, EVE.” Sandra Duncan’s soft, Southern tone was coaxing. “You got paid last night, didn’t you? A ten spot will do me.” Her hand fluttered to her short red-brown hair. “I need to get my hair tinted so that I can go look for a job. I’ve got to look my best.”

Her mother was stoned again, Eve realized in despair. Eyes a little unfocused, movements slow and uncoordinated. And the ten spot she wanted might go for crack or marijuana instead of hair tint. Yet what the hell could she do? Sandra hadn’t had a job in four months, and they needed any money that her mother could bring in. The rent at their apartment was a month behind, and Eve barely made enough working part-time at Mac’s Diner to pay the utilities. “I can give you five, Mother. Can you go to that beauty college in College Park and get it any cheaper?”

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Sandra?” her mother said. “Everyone tells me I’m much too young to have a grown daughter of sixteen. Why, I’m just a little over thirty myself.” She reached over and patted Eve’s cheek. “I had you when I was only fifteen. I could have had an abortion, but I decided to keep you. It wasn’t easy for me. You owe me, don’t you, honey? Ten?”

Sandra always brought up how much Eve owed her when she needed something, Eve thought with annoyance. When she was younger, it had hurt her. But then she’d realized that her mother used it to get what she wanted, and that big sacrifice was probably because Sandra had been too far along to safely get an abortion. She reached into her wallet and brought out a ten-dollar bill. “Okay. But I want you to show me how pretty you look tomorrow after you get your hair done.”

“Do you think I’m pretty?” Sandra looked in the mirror. “You never say so.” She patted her hair again. “You’re not exactly pretty, Eve, but you have my hair. Everyone says that my hair is very unusual.” She picked up her handbag. “That’s why I have to keep it looking nice.” She headed for the door. “Do you know, I bet that manager at Mac’s Diner would give you a full-time job if you asked him nicely.”

It wasn’t the first time Sandra had made that suggestion. Her mother always conveniently forgot what she didn’t want to remember. “I’m not going to ask him. I haven’t graduated from high school yet, Sandra. And Mr. Kimble has already said he’ll keep me on and work around my hours when I go to college.”

“College?” Sandra smiled with genuine amusement. “People like us don’t go to college, honey. You’ll be much happier if you get that thought right out of your head.”

“Would I?” She tried to smother the anger, but it burst free. “And are you happy jumping from job to job, Sandra? Are you happy sniffing coke to make you think everything is what it should be?” She looked around the shabby apartment. She tried to keep it clean, but everything about it was worn, drab, and depressing. “Are you happy living here? Well, I’m not, and I’m not going to stop thinking of ways to get away from here.”

Sandra was looking at her in bewilderment. “Don’t be ugly. There’s nothing wrong with smoking a joint or sniffing a little coke now and then. It’s not as if I’m one of those drug addicts on Peachtree Street.”

“No? Have you tried to kick it lately?”

“Why should I?” She opened the door. “You’re just too intense about most everything. You seem to be mad at me every time you see me. You work or read all the time. You don’t even have a boyfriend. Sometimes I don’t understand you, Eve.” She slammed the door behind her.

Sandra had never understood her, Eve thought. Even when she’d been a child, her mother had often looked at her as if she were some strange creature from another planet.

But then Sandra had been revolving in her own solar system ever since Eve could remember. Marijuana, crack, coke, acid.

Don’t think about it. Sandra wouldn’t listen to her, and she had her own battles to fight. She couldn’t help her mother, but she could help herself. She had grown up in the streets and learned every trick in the book to fight those battles.

She glanced at the clock. It was almost six. She had to get to work, or she’d be late. She’d hoped to finish her geometry before she had to leave, but Sandra had been home, and that usually meant a delay. She closed her geometry book and stuck it in her canvas book bag. Maybe she’d get a chance to finish on her break.

She locked the door and ran down the four flights of cement stairs that led to the front entrance of the housing development. The stink was overwhelming. Someone had thrown a sack of garbage on the third landing. All they’d had to do was take it down two flights more to the garbage cans, but that was too much trouble.

Don’t look at the garbage, the iron banister rails, the scrawled graffiti on the dirty gray walls. She had control of their apartment, but all she could do was ignore everything outside their apartment door.

She threw open the worn oak door of the front entrance. Two silver-haired black ladies were slowly approaching, and she waited to hold the door for them.

Then she was quickly outside, drawing a deep breath.

Fresh air. Sunlight. The smell of garbage was less down here.

“Hello, Eve, aren’t you late?” Rosa Desprando was sitting in the sun on the green bench outside the building with her year-old little boy beside her. She spent a lot of time outside; her father was always yelling at her because the baby was too noisy.

“A little.” Rosa was her own age, sixteen, and had been in her homeroom at school before she had gotten pregnant and dropped out. Eve had always liked her. She was a little slow, but that didn’t matter. She had a good heart and was always smiling, something that wasn’t common in Eve’s world. In fact, she had too good a heart. She’d been a target for every guy in school because they could con her into anything. Including getting pregnant with adorable Manuel, who she loved more than anything in the world.

Eve stopped by the bench and stroked the baby’s dark curls. “Hey, hot stuff,” she said softly. “How you doing?”

Manuel was gurgling and batting his long eyelashes at her. She had once told Rosa that he should be doing commercials for mascara. He was a plump, rosy-cheeked child, and completely enchanting.

Eve chuckled. “I think he’s doing fine. Is he still keeping you awake teething?”

“Yes, it doesn’t matter,” Rosa said as she adjusted the baby’s Braves baseball shirt. “He’s worth it. Doesn’t he look cute in this shirt you bought for him? Say thank you, Manuel.”

“No big deal. It only cost me fifty cents at Goodwill.”

“But he’s so cute in it. Like a real baseball player. I’m trying to teach him to say thank you. He said it yesterday.”

Manuel beamed up at Eve. “Mama.”

“I don’t think so,” Eve said.

“He calls everyone mama,” Rosa said. “Even my papa.”

“He’ll get it straight soon.” She dropped a kiss on his head and opened the gate. “See you, Rosa.”

Rosa nodded. “I saw your mama a few minutes ago. She looked real pretty.”

“Sandra always looks nice,” Eve said as she started the four-block walk to the bus stop.

“Eve.”

“What?” Eve glanced back over her shoulder.

“Watch out.” Rosa’s gaze was fixed on the alley at the end of the block. “I saw Rick Larazo and Frank Martinelli and some of their gang around earlier this evening. Rick looked… wild. I think he’s on something bad.”

“I always watch out,” Eve said. “You keep away from them, Rosa.”

“They don’t do anything but call me bad names.” Rosa cuddled her baby closer. “They can’t hurt me, but I don’t like them talking like that about Manuel. He didn’t do nothin’. It was all my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” That wasn’t true. It was Rosa’s fault for trusting and believing and for being born in a world that victimized the innocent and the weak. “It was just something that happened. It can work out. You take good care of Manuel and look through that GED pamphlet I gave you. You’ll get your diploma, then you can get a good job.”

She shook her head. “I’m not smart like you, Eve.”

“You don’t have to be smart. You just have to want it enough. Look, Rosa, we don’t have to be like our parents, living hand to mouth, falling into the same traps, making the same mistakes. We can dig ourselves out of here.” She could never understand why that desire wasn’t there in the people around her. It had always been a burning passion with her. But she didn’t have time to argue with Rosa at that moment. “Study for that GED. I’ll talk to you later. See you.”

Her pace quickened as she kept a wary eye on the dark cavity of the alley as she passed it. She had been attacked more than once by scum hiding in that cluttered dimness.

This time she was lucky.

Evidently Rick Larazo and his gang had moved on and she didn’t have-

A scream.

Rosa.

Eve whirled.

Dear God.

Rick Larazo, Frank Martinelli, and two other boys were in front of the housing development.

Rick had taken the baby away from Rosa and was holding Manuel over his head. She was trying desperately to jump up and reach him. Frank Martinelli was laughing and backing away. “Throw him, Rick. He thinks he’s a baseball player, let him play.”

“No!”

Rosa screamed as the baby was thrown up in the air and across the yard.

Eve stared in horror.

It was almost like watching slow motion. Manuel’s plump little legs flailing in the air, Rosa whirling and reaching out, the boys laughing and calling out.

“Don’t worry, Rosa. I’ve got him.” Frank Martinelli stepped forward, pretended to catch the baby, then deliberately stepped back and let the baby fall to the ground.

Damn them. Damn them. Damn them.

Eve raced back toward the development.

Rosa was crying, trying to get to her baby, but Rick was holding her back.

The baby was lying still, crumpled on the ground.

“Let her go !” Eve tackled Rick Larazo, her hand grabbing for his penis and twisting.

He howled, falling, and released Rosa.

“Get Manuel inside, Rosa,” Eve yelled, and jumped on top of Rick. She wouldn’t be able to hold him long. He was big, strong, and his eyes were as wild as Rosa had said. His dirty straw-colored hair was scraggly, with pink-dyed streaks, and he looked like some weird cartoon character. Only there was nothing funny about him. She was surprised he’d even been able to feel the pain through the drugs.

Rosa snatched up the baby and ran up the stairs and into the building.

Good.

Now to try to get away herself.

Too late.

Frank Martinelli grabbed her hair from behind and jerked backward.

Rick punched her in the stomach and pushed her off him and to the ground.

“Bitch. Interfering bitch.” He was kneeling over her and his fist lashed out and connected with her cheek. “Come on, guys, it’s party time.”

Pain.

Darkness.

Don’t give in to it.

She wouldn’t be raped by these bastards.

She shook her head to clear it, then her teeth sank into Frank Martinelli’s hand, the one that was holding her hair. He screamed and released it. She butted her head as hard as she could against Larazo’s chest.

She rolled sidewise and reached for the strap of her book bag. She slung it with all her force at Larazo’s head. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the front entrance.

Her way was blocked by the two other boys, who had been watching with wide grins.

“Get her,” Larazo said. “Don’t let her inside. Frank, go watch the street. I’m gonna make her scream. I want to-” His voice suddenly cut off into a gurgle. “Shit!”

Eve glanced over her shoulder. Someone, a dark-haired man, was standing behind Larazo, his arm around the boy’s neck. As she watched, he jerked Larazo’s head sidewise, lifted the edge of his hand, and brought it down in a karate chop.

He let Larazo drop to the ground and turned to Frank Martinelli. “Come on,” he said softly. “I haven’t had enough.”

Frank Martinelli hesitated and lunged forward, reaching for his switchblade. He barely got it out when he was whirled around, his arm twisted behind his back. He shrieked as his arm was pushed up higher and higher.

Eve heard the bone snap.

The other two boys who were blocking Eve’s path parted like the Red Sea and ran, leaving Larazo and Martinelli on the ground.

Martinelli was moaning and trying to crawl toward the street, but Larazo was still slumped, silent.

“Did you kill him?” Eve whispered. “You’d better go quickly. The people who live here never come out to help, but they do call the police. The cops don’t care who’s to blame; they take everyone in and book them.”

“I know. He’s not dead. I wouldn’t let a bastard like that ruin my life. I’ve got plans. He should be coming around in a few minutes.” The dark-haired man who had taken down Larazo and Martinelli came toward her. “You okay?”

She felt dazed, and her head was still spinning. “Yes.”

He was younger than she had thought at first glance. She had thought he might be in his twenties. He was tall and powerfully built, but was probably no more than eighteen or nineteen. Olive skin, dark hair, dark eyes, full lips, and an indentation in his chin that made him look vaguely exotic. He was wearing a blue-and-white jacket, jeans, and black T-shirt. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you around the neighborhood.”

“John Gallo. My uncle just moved into the project two blocks down two days ago.” He was close to her, and his hand reached out to touch her cheek. “Bad bruise.”

She instinctively moved away, and his hand dropped.

She hadn’t wanted to move away, she realized in surprise. Why…

“I’m fine.” Then the shock left her as she remembered Rosa and the baby. Manuel had been lying so still… “But Rosa’s little boy may not be fine.” She whirled and was hurrying up the steps. “Did you see what they-”

“I saw everything.” John Gallo was behind her on the steps. “It might be okay. The kid could just have been stunned.”

“Yeah.” But babies were so fragile. It hurt her to think of how easily they could be hurt.

Bastards.

Rosa was sitting on the landing, holding Manuel, and rocking back and forth. “He’s dead.” Tears were pouring down her cheeks. “He won’t wake up, Eve.”

“Shh.” She looked down at the baby. He was pale. Those impossibly long lashes were lying on pallid cheeks. She bent her head close to his lips. “I think he’s breathing.”

“Really?” Rosa’s face was suddenly luminous. “I couldn’t tell.”

“Stop rocking him. I’ve heard if he’s hurt, you’re not supposed to move him.” But it was probably too late. The damage would have already been done. They’d had to get Manuel inside and away from those scumbags, and afterward, who could blame Rosa for holding and rocking him in her agony. “I’ll go use the public phone downstairs to call for an ambulance.”

“No, I’ll do it.” John Gallo ran down the dozen steps to the first floor, picked up the receiver of the phone on the wall, and deposited a coin in the slot. “I’ll make sure you have help coming, then I’ll take off. I don’t want to have to answer questions if I don’t have to. They’ll probably take him to Grady Hospital. Are you going with her?”

“Please, Eve,” Rosa whispered.

She should go on to work. She’d probably lose her job. Then she looked at Rosa and nodded resignedly. If Mr. Kimble fired her, she’d find another job. “I’ll go with her. What else can I do?”

John Gallo smiled. “That’s how I felt when I saw them hurting you. What else could I do? Sometimes you just have to do what you feel is right.”

And right for him had been breaking bones and coming close to killing Larazo.

And saving her from being raped and maybe murdered.

“Thanks,” she said awkwardly. She knew she should be grateful, but she wasn’t accustomed to anyone stepping in to help her. “You didn’t have to do that for me. I’d have found a way out.”

“I bet you would. You were really something. Hell, maybe you wouldn’t have needed me at all.” He started to dial the phone. “That’s what I kept telling myself while I was watching you take them all on. Don’t get caught up in this mess. It’s not your business. She might be okay. You’ll end up in jail or the hospital.” He looked over the phone at her, and his eyes held hers. “It didn’t do any good. I had to do it anyway.” He began to speak into the phone as the operator answered.

She gazed at him while he spoke, watching the play of expressions on his face. Why couldn’t she take her eyes off him? He was just a guy. Yeah, good-looking and kind of… different, but that shouldn’t matter.

Why couldn’t she stop looking at him?

Grady Hospital

Three hours later

“They say Manuel is going to be all right, Eve.” Rosa’s face was wreathed in smiles as she hurried down the corridor to the waiting room, where she’d left Eve. “They said it was a minor bump, a possible concussion or something, but he’s going to be fine.”

“Great. When can we take him home?”

“When my papa comes. They won’t let him go with me. They say they need to ask him questions.” Her expression clouded. “He’s going to be mad at me. He said I could only keep the baby if he didn’t cause trouble.” She frowned. “And those doctors were asking me all kinds of funny questions. If I ever shook Manuel or maybe threw him in his bed when I got mad at him for crying.”

“You told him about Larazo and the others?”

She nodded. “But none of them were still there when the ambulance came. The police said none of the neighbors had seen anything.”

Of course they hadn’t, Eve thought bitterly. It would make them targets of Larazo and his gang. “Well, your papa will tell them how well you treat Manuel.”

“He’s never home. He works all the time. He might tell them he doesn’t know.” She moistened her lips. “And he doesn’t really want me to keep Manuel. He doesn’t like babies. They cry too much. But I know after Manuel gets a little older, he’ll like him much more.”

Providing Rosa got to keep her son, Eve thought. DEFACS sometimes yanked a kid at the first sign of abuse. Though she’d seen them give the child back with equal speed if their budget was cut.

But Rosa didn’t deserve this kind of hassle. She was a good mother and loved that baby. “Talk to your papa as soon as he gets here. Tell him what happened.”

Rosa nodded doubtfully. “But how can I prove it? They won’t believe me. They’ll say I made it up.”

“Tell them to ask me.”

“But you’re my friend.” She paused. “And you’re the same age as me. They won’t believe you, either.”

Eve knew that was true. Not only was she sixteen, but a check would show that her mother was on drugs. She’d be tarred with the same brush. “Then we’ll find another way to convince them. I’ll go to every apartment in the development and talk to the tenants. Someone will be willing to tell the cops the truth.”

“Will you do that?” Rosa’s face lit like a sunrise. “You’ll keep them from taking my baby?”

Eve gazed at her helplessly. Simple question from a simple, loving girl. But nothing was simple in the slums where they had been born and raised. Sometimes the people who were trying to help blundered and managed to destroy every chance of happiness. “I promise, they won’t take Manuel. If they do, we’ll get him back.”

Rosa gave her a hug and whirled. “I’ve got to go back to Manuel. They won’t let me stay in the same room with him without a nurse being there, but they said I could watch him through the window.”

Eve watched her running down the corridor. What were they afraid she’d do to her baby? Smother him? Anyone could see that she adored Manuel. It was a crazy world.

“Hi.” John Gallo was coming toward her from the direction of the elevators. “How’s the kid?”

“He’ll be okay,” she said curtly. “It’s a miracle. They could have killed him.”

“You look like you’re unraveling.” He went to the coffee machine. “Coffee? Or maybe, a Coke?”

She nodded. “Coffee. Black.” She sat back down. “And I’m not unraveling. What are you doing here?”

“I got to thinking about the kid.” He handed her the coffee. Then he went to the soft-drink machine and got a Coke for himself. “I don’t know how anyone drinks black coffee. It tastes like tar to me.”

“It was all my mother kept in the house when I was a kid.”

“You’re not much more than a kid now.”

“Sixteen.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. I was hoping for a little older.” He sat down beside her. “Eve, Rosa called you. Eve what?”

“Eve Duncan.” She took a drink of the coffee. It was strong and generally foul-tasting. She didn’t care. It was hot. “And why do you care how old I am? Are you making a pass at me?”

“No, you’ll know when I do.” He lifted his cup to his lips. “Just a comment. You’re still in high school?”

“I graduate next year. You?”

“I graduated over a year ago. I’ve been moving around the country and raising a little hell with a couple of buddies for the last year. Sort of a last hurrah before I go into the service.”

“You’re joining the Army?”

He nodded. “My parents are dead, and I don’t have money for college. I thought it was my best bet to get more education and move up in the world. The Army’s not a bad deal.” His lips tightened. “And I won’t be caught in the same trap that choked my folks to death. Minimum-wage jobs and kids they never wanted. You think that housing development you live in is bad? I moved down here from Milwaukee, and the place I lived was called the Bricks. We had a killing nearly every two months, and the cops never came near it without a backup.”

“Is that where you learned to- You broke Frank Martinelli’s arm.”

He shrugged. “I learned a little self-defense from living at the Bricks. But my uncle was a Ranger in the Army, and he taught me everything he knew. Uncle Ted is the reason I’m down here. He’s got a back problem, and he moved down here because the VA Hospital has some specialists in Atlanta. I wanted to get him settled before I checked in for basic training.”

“Self-defense?” Eve’s brows rose. “It didn’t look like self-defense to me. They didn’t have a chance.”

He smiled. “If I’d let them move first, it would have been self-defense. It’s all how you look at it.” His smile faded. “And they made me mad. I didn’t like what they were doing to you.”

“Neither did I.” She leaned back in the seat. “I was scared.”

“But you went running in after them anyway.”

“They were hurting the baby.” She lifted her hand and rubbed her neck. “No one has a right to hurt the helpless. Most of us can take care of ourselves. But you have to do something about it if they go after babies or animals or-”

“Is your neck hurting?”

“Aching. That bastard was jerking me backward by my hair.”

“I can help.” He put his Coke down and stood up. “Lean forward a little.”

She looked at him warily. “What?”

“I won’t hurt you.” He stood a little behind her. “My uncle taught me this, too. It helped when I got whiplash from an accident.” His hands were on the back of her neck. “It’s all in the thumbs…” His thumbs were digging into her neck in deep massage. “Relax.”

She couldn’t relax. Her flesh felt hot beneath his touch, and that heat was spreading out in waves throughout her body. The muscles of her stomach were clenching, and her breasts…

What the hell was happening to her?

She knew what was happening. She wasn’t ignorant. It just had never happened to her.

“You’re not relaxing,” he said softly.

“No.” But she didn’t want him to stop. “You’re not… helping me.”

“I’m not helping myself much, either.” His fingers never stopped moving, digging, pressing. “But I want to keep on touching you no matter how much it hurts.” He drew a deep breath, and his hands fell away from her. “I didn’t mean it to happen this way. I didn’t mean it to happen at all. Hell yes, I wanted to get my hands on you. I’ve wanted that ever since I saw you sitting on those steps at-” He dropped down in the chair next to her. “Sorry. I didn’t know you would-”

He didn’t know that she’d respond as she had done. She hadn’t known it would happen, either. That flash of sensuality had come like a bolt of lightning. Searing, melting, overpowering. She instinctively pushed the knowledge of that response away from her. “It’s okay. I’m… it’s not as if-nothing happened.”

“The hell it didn’t.” He wasn’t looking at her. “But I’m trying to work it out in my head and decide what’s going on. Look, I’m no saint, but I don’t jump every girl I run across. The whole damn night has been crazy. I don’t usually interfere with- But I couldn’t let them hurt you. And then later on the stairs, I couldn’t keep from looking at you.”

And she hadn’t been able to stop looking at him. She still couldn’t. He was staring straight ahead, but her gaze was drawn to him like a magnet. Her gaze fell to his hand, lying on the wood arm of the chair.

His nails were short and clean, and the thumbs, which had dug into her muscles, looked long and strong.

They had been strong. She felt as if she could still feel the imprint on her flesh. Her chest was tightening, and her heartbeat was suddenly faster.

His gaze shifted to her face. “Oh, shit.” His cheeks were flushed, and his dark eyes were narrowing on her throat, then wandering to her breasts.

She had to stop this. She hunted wildly for something to break the web of sensuality that was tightening around her.

Rosa. The reason she was here. Talk about Rosa.

She jerked her eyes away from his. “Rosa’s afraid they’re going to try to take her baby away.”

“I don’t want to talk about Rosa right now.” His voice was soft and with a note in it that sent a shiver through her. She hadn’t realized that a shiver could be hot as well as cold. Then he paused. “But you need to back away from me, don’t you? Okay, I’ll try not to think about-but it won’t be easy.” He combed his fingers through his thick, dark hair. “What did you say? Oh, yeah. Why do they want to take the kid away from her?”

“They think she might be the one who hurt Manuel. It’s nuts. She loves that baby.”

He nodded. “I could tell.”

“None of the neighbors will talk to the police about what Rick Larazo and the rest of the gang did. And the guys were gone by the time the ambulance came. They’re not going to believe me, either. I’m too young.” She added in disgust, “They never believe anyone under thirty.”

“And you’re just a little over halfway there.” He grimaced. “Dammit.”

“I’ll get around it.” She finished her coffee. “I promised Rosa I’d go talk to some of the neighbors and try to persuade them to tell the truth about what they saw.”

“You really want to help her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Any way I can.”

“Then, if you can’t find someone to tell the truth because Larazo’s got them scared, get one of the potheads in the place to lie and say they saw it. It shouldn’t be hard. Just slip them a joint. There are addicts in half the apartments in the building.”

“I don’t deal drugs,” she said sharply.

“Whew.” His eyes narrowed on her face. “Did I hit a nerve?”

She ignored the question. “Do you deal?”

He shook his head. “But if it came to a choice of paying someone a few joints to help your friend keep her kid, I’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s a shitty world, and you have to pick both the weapons and the battles.”

“Not drugs.”

He nodded. “Whatever you say.” He was silent a moment. “But you have to know that I’m not like you. I won’t lie. I’m not what you’d call a good guy. I do whatever I have to do to survive and get what I want.” He paused. “It’s not always safe to trust me.”

She couldn’t look away from him. He was telling her the truth. She could see it in the intensity of his eyes, the tautness of his lips. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have to trust you.” With an effort she managed to pull her gaze away. “You’re nothing to me.”

He chuckled. “Liar. Telling the truth should go both ways, Eve.” His smiled faded. “But maybe I’m asking too much. This is hard for you, isn’t it? Sometimes I think you’re tough as nails, then you surprise me.” He reached out and touched the soft hair at her temple. “How many guys have you made out with, Eve?”

His fingers were warm against the sensitive skin of her temple and were causing her pulse to leap as if to reach out to that touch.

He muttered a curse. “Dammit to hell.”

She could feel the heat rise to her face. “I don’t want to talk about this. It makes me feel… It’s none of your business.” She moved her head so that he was no longer touching her. She jumped to her feet. “I’m going to go back to the development and ring some doorbells.”

“I’ve got wheels. I’ll take you.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to go with you. I don’t want this. It’s not a good idea.”

He rose slowly to his feet. “Maybe not. Probably not. But I’m not going to stop. I need it too much. I told you I wasn’t a good guy.” His eyes were suddenly glittering recklessly. “What the hell. If I wasn’t the first, someone else would be. I don’t know what’s happened to me, but I’m going to go on until we’re both drunk and dizzy with each other.”

Drunk and dizzy. Eve felt that way already, and it was scaring her. “You listen to me,” she said fiercely. “You’ve been telling me all the things you want to do with your life. That’s fine, go do them. I’m not going to be a play toy for anyone. You think I don’t want to get out of the slums and make something of myself? I’ve worked at all kinds of jobs since I was twelve years old, and nothing is going to keep me down.” She started down the hall toward the bank of elevators. “Not my mother, not you, not anyone.”

“I wouldn’t keep you down. I’d help you fly, Eve.” He held her gaze as he added softly as she got on the elevator, “We’d both fly. It might not be for long, but how we’d soar.”

He was the last thing she saw as the elevator doors closed.

He stood with legs slightly parted, worn, faded jeans hugging his muscular thighs. He was tall, strong, but there was nothing bulky about that strength. He looked graceful, yet… tight. Sensual and wired and completely in tune with his body. Like a powerful machine, tensed and ready to move.

Ready to perform.

And heat was tingling through her as she stared at him. She wanted the door to close and block out the sight of him.

Yet when it did, she felt as if he was still with her. She didn’t want to feel like this. It bewildered her. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t familiar with sex. Sex was everywhere. She had seen sex on street corners, on the landings of the development, heard the sounds in the next room when Sandra brought home one of her men. Sex was what had drawn all those boys to Rosa and given her a child to raise. But it had never affected Eve. She hadn’t understood it.

She understood it now. It had a name.

John Gallo.