As if to punctuate his comment, there was a heavy one-two ba-whooom from inside, and a cloud of hot gas and burning debris belched out at them.

“Two down, for sure,” said Eve dryly. “Fucking idiots.” She gave Abel a scathing look. “Are we still in control of the scene? Will we get the package?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Abel. “We anticipated some losses, but we still have the numbers and the advantage.”

Cain said, “And we’re on schedule, Miss Eve.”

“You’d better be right,” Eve said with a venomous sweetness, “because Daddy will be really unhappy if we come back empty-handed. Really fucking unhappy.”

Those words drained the color from the faces of the two big men. Cain turned aside, touched his coms unit, and began growling orders. Abel might as well have turned to stone for all the expression he showed.

Eve turned away to hide her smile. She loved making these boys jump. All she had to say was “Boo,” and they pissed their pants. Genuine toughness, she’d been taught, was not a quality of height, gender, or muscle mass. It was all about potential. To reward and to punish.

Eve checked her watch again. “Make sure Enoch’s in position.”

All her Righteous had biblical combat call signs. She no longer recalled, or even cared, what their real names were. When she got back to the Pavilion, all she had to do was accept two new replacements into her cadre. They would become the new Ephraim and Asher. Real names offered the danger of actual emotional attachment, and Eve was done with that. Forever.

The Righteous served her and entertained her. They kept her from screaming into her pillow every night. They were also without emotional challenge. Eve felt nothing for any of them. Not even when they made her come screaming. It was sensation, not emotion.

Maybe once her network located Joe Ledger and brought him in chains to her, she’d feel something. Maybe after she skinned Joe Ledger, she’d allow herself to become alive again.

God, the things she wanted to do to Ledger before he died.

She wanted to force-feed him Viagra and then fuck him as he coughed out his last breath. She wanted to stab him with every single one of the 206 knives she’d collected.

Would that make the pain go away? Would it chase the shadows out of her mind?

She didn’t know, but she swore to herself she would find out. Who knew, maybe she’d even be able to fall in love again. Though, as far as Eve believed, there would never be anyone she loved like she’d loved Adam.

Poor Adam. He had saved her life. He’d been her life.

And then Ledger had stolen him from her in Norway last December.

“Enoch’s locked and loaded,” Abel assured her, cutting into her thoughts.