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Naomi finally turned to us. “You know when Kyle got that call at Top Cow? It was the alert that Mr. Ivanov, Dr. Nikas, and others were gone. Abducted.”
I stopped dead, feeling as though my whole world tilted. “What? How?”
Philip cursed softly behind me.
She took a steadying breath. “Mr. Ivanov and his driver, Simon Sirtis. Kristi Charish, along with Chris Peterson, and their driver, Ken Godwin. Plus Lawrence Hawkins, the security guard at the Retreat Lodge. All missing.”
I processed that as she spoke. I knew every one of those people except Lawrence. “Does Brian know who did this?”
Naomi’s face hardened. “Brian took Dr. Nikas in broad daylight, out front.”
Chapter 8
Cold crept through me at Naomi’s words. “Wait. You mean Brian took Dr. Nikas to a safe place?” Nothing else made sense.
“I wish.” She pulled out her phone and thumbed through a couple of screens. “It sucks. Tranqed him and threw him in the back of his car. Check it out.” She held the phone so we could see a segment of surveillance video.
I watched in numb shock as Brian spoke on the phone in the driver’s seat of his SUV outside the front door of the lab, then dropped the phone onto
the seat and waited. A moment later, Dr. Nikas came out the door, leaned into the passenger window to talk to Brian. About ten seconds later, Dr. Nikas turned back toward the building, and if Naomi hadn’t replayed the section, I’d have missed it.
Brian shifted in the front seat, a small motion. Dr. Nikas jerked, then swayed as if about to faint. Brian leapt out of the passenger door, caught Dr. Nikas as he sagged, and hustled him into the back seat. The door closed, Brian got behind the wheel again, then peeled out of the lot.
Naomi tucked the phone away. “You can see the tranq gun better from the other camera view.”
Brian? Brian? He’d have been at the very bottom of my list of People Who Would Betray Pietro.
“No one watching the security cameras noticed this?” I asked, shaken.
“You saw how quickly Brian moved,” Naomi said. “They all thought he was leaving with Brian voluntarily.” She raked her fingers through her hair, aggravated and pissed. “It was Brian. Beyond suspicion. No one knew anything was wrong until Dr. Nikas’s driver showed up to take him to dinner with Mr. Ivanov. Then suddenly they couldn’t get hold of anyone to check in, and security started digging.”
“Do you have any idea where they are?”
She shook her head, grim. “Not at this time. If any ransom demands were made, we weren’t informed. Kyle and I are here to back up Raul and Dan. For extra security.”
I flicked a glance at Kyle as he turned a page in his book. How the hell could he possibly be so calm?
“Angel,” Philip said. “Brian was on the phone in the vid. The time stamp puts it before we left here earlier today.”
I turned to him, eyes wide. “That was the call Dr. Nikas got during our treatment.” I grimaced as another realization hit. “He didn’t leave us by choice, which meant the procedure wasn’t finished properly. No wonder you’re a mess, and we’re doing synchronized rotting.” I touched the spot on my arm, certain it was uglier and squishier than before. “We need to see Jacques.”
“He’s in the treatment room with Reg,” Naomi told me. “Last I saw him he was going through Dr. Nikas’s notes from this morning.”
Philip headed off that way, jaw set. I leaned closer to Naomi. “It must be Saberton Corporation behind this.”
Distress shimmered in her eyes even as Kyle’s gaze locked onto me over his book. Anything about Saberton hit close to home with Naomi. Everything had turned upside down for her a few months back when she stumbled onto Saberton’s cruel zombie experimentation, and she ended up killing one of the researchers to protect a vivisected zombie test subject. When she informed her brother, Andrew, that she was done with the bullshit, he threatened to tell their mother about the murder if Naomi didn’t get her act together for Saberton. Instead, Naomi broke his nose, hogtied him with a sheet and fled.
As I watched, Naomi pushed the distress aside and lifted her chin, face fierce like some sort of warrior princess. “I’m certain they’re behind it,” she said with conviction. “My mother is desperate enough these days to plan a stunt like this. I only wish she’d been careless enough to screw it up.” She smacked the counter with her hand. “I can’t believe I used to think of this as a big game.”
“The Tribe screwed up Saberton’s movie zombie experiment pretty badly,” I said. “You think your mom might have grabbed Pietro for revenge?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” she said, eyes narrowing. “With the company in trouble since granddad died, she’s lost moral perspective.” Her mouth twisted in a scowl. “With family and business. Don’t get me wrong, she was never very motherly. But she wasn’t so cutthroat or vindictive, and she wouldn’t . . .” She trailed off as she ran her fingers over her cheekbone, a deep sadness in her eyes and voice. “What other daughter has to go through this to keep their mother from hunting them down and killing them . . . or worse?”
A changed appearance and a faked death. Sure, it kept Julia/Naomi safe from Nicole Saber, but it also meant isolation from her family, however crappy that family was.
“It sucks big time,” I agreed. “All we can do now is focus on getting our people back. Who’s on it? Rachel? I bet she’ll tap you to get the inside scoop on what you think Saberton’s next move is.”
“She hasn’t yet. I should probably call her.” Naomi gave me a determined, closed-lip smile. “Rachel doesn’t much like me, but I know a lot of shit about Saberton.”
