“And I woke up.”
“They could make an excellent vid if they could record your subconscious.”
“They had shawarma—the Avengers—after the whole battle of New York. I did an interview yesterday in an apartment over a shawarma place. It’s just weird. I need coffee.”
She rolled out of bed, walked over to get her first cup, looked out the window. “It’s going to take a couple days to dig out from under this.”
“Better snow than avaricious gods and aliens.”
“Yeah.”
She grabbed a shower, came back to find breakfast. Not oatmeal but scrambled eggs, some bacon, toast with jam, and the berries she thought nearly as good as candy.
“I’d figured on stopping by to see Daphne, but I’m going straight into Central,” she told him as they ate. “Not only to see who I can pull in for these interviews, but some people consider a blizzard a fine time to bludgeon, knife, or strangle somebody. Add in your accidentals and unattendeds, we could be busy.”
“There’ll be an A-T out front when you’re ready.”
“Thanks. Pretty quick actually.” She shoved in the last of the eggs, stood to walk into the closet.
She wasn’t the comp, or Roarke, but she could damn well dress herself. Especially since she was going for black—straight black—and warm.
She grabbed trousers, a sweater, a jacket, and because she’d likely be trudging through snow, black boots that rose to her knees.
When she stepped out, Roarke arched an eyebrow. “Black Widow couldn’t look more dangerous or alluring.”
“She could handle herself.”
“See that you handle any bad guys who come at my cop.”
“Dallas smash.”
Pleased she’d made him laugh, she bent down to kiss him. “It was good, coming home together, and everything after. Makes it hard to be annoyed with the snow.”
He tugged her down for another. “Mind the roads. They’re bound to be an unholy mess.”
“You, too. See you later.”
She jogged downstairs, swung on her coat, wound a scarf around her neck for warmth, pulled on the snowflake hat, stuffed the gloves in her pockets.
And pulled them out and put them on when she stepped outside into the bitter.
The burly A-T in sober gray waited, already warm inside. She decided if she couldn’t get downtown—or anywhere else—in this machine, she’d need a damn tank.
She drove down the perfectly cleared drive, through the gates, and onto the god-awful mess of the street.
She didn’t blame the road crews—or not much—as the snow had still been coming down when the Avengers beat the snot out of Loki and his team. The good part was the streets were nearly deserted. She spotted the road crews, a couple of emergency vehicles. Considering that, she tagged Peabody on her wrist unit.
“Can you get into Central?”
“Yeah. The subway should be running. Man, it’s so pretty out there.”
“Get in as soon as you can. If you need transpo, I’ve got an all-terrain.”
“I’ll check with Transport before we leave, make sure the trains are running. If not, I’ll tag you. Only official and emergency vehicles allowed on the streets until oh-nine-hundred, so no cabs or buses.”
“Yeah, and that’s what I call pretty.”
Eve clicked off and made her way downtown, easily breezing through blinking lights and empty intersections. Maybe, possibly … probably, she’d get bored with this kind of quiet, but for one morning’s commute, she’d take it. Halfway downtown, she realized not a single ad blimp had drifted across the sky to blast its hyperactive news about sales on something, somewhere.
She’d definitely take it.
She noted when she reached the garage that her level held only a scatter of vehicles. And the elevator carried no more than a handful of cops, several with snow melting off their boots, all the way to Homicide.
Maybe it was just a little spooky.
When she walked into her bullpen, she saw Baxter at his desk—kicked back in his chair, feet up, eyes closed. He wore one of his slick suits with an unknotted tie draped around his neck. She walked over, punched him in the shoulder.
He shot straight up, one hand slapping his weapon.
“Nap on your own time.”
“Jesus. What time is it?” He looked blearily around the empty bullpen. “Where is everybody?”
“They’d better be en route.”
“Right. Right.” He scrubbed his face with both hands. “Trueheart and I caught one last night. Couple of guys decided it would be lots of fun to have lots and lots of drinks, smoke lots of illegals, and blast music loud enough people in apartments two floors down were complaining. Across-the-hall neighbor, who’d also done some copious drinking, decided, after several attempts to get them to knock it off, to bust in there and smash their player with a baseball bat. This action was cheered by many other occupants of the building, condemned by others.