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He glanced toward the car. “So ninety percent he’s clean,” he said softly, “and ten percent he’s a knife in the dark.”
I mulled the whole thing over for a moment, then met Philip’s eyes and lowered my voice even more. “No matter what, we can’t kill Kyle.” The mere thought twisted my gut so hard I knew there was no fucking way in hell I could let that happen. I had no idea if Philip felt the same way or simply felt my utter resistance to that option, but he gave a slight nod. “And if we lock him up somewhere until we figure out what’s going on,” I continued, “we’d have to lock up Naomi too. If this is a Saberton setup, we’d be doing their dirty work for them.”
“All right. We let him go and keep our eyes open.” He shook his head. “It’s a risk, but my gut says he didn’t do it.”
“I agree,” I said, to both parts.
Naomi and Kyle watched our approach as we returned to the car. “Okay, we believe you,” I said.
Naomi sagged in relief, and I realized she’d known what the stakes were for her as well. Something flickered in Kyle’s eyes—disappointment or grief, though neither made sense—but he gave a slight nod and smile. “You mean the odds fell in my favor.”
“Whatever you want to call it.” I said with a shrug. Damn, but I hoped we weren’t making a huge mistake. “Now, can we please figure out what the hell to do now?”
I stepped back as Philip helped Kyle out of the car and removed the cuffs. Kyle breathed a sigh of what I guessed was relief and rubbed his wrists.
“I appreciate your trust,” he said.
Philip opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. A shudder crawled over him, right before he shot a hand out to seize my arm in a hard grip. I staggered, taken by surprise and off balance as he yanked me behind him.
To my horror, Philip pulled his gun and leveled it at Kyle and Naomi. “Get out of here!” he ordered, voice strained and laced with stress. “Both of you, get the hell away from here!”
“Philip, no!” Just like the incident by my house! His finger on the trigger stopped me from grabbing his arm. Kyle could survive most bullet wounds, but Naomi was a shitload more fragile. “Philip, please, stop!” I shot Kyle a frantic look. He remained stone still, assessing everything. Behind him I saw Naomi edging toward the tranq gun I’d left in the back seat. I caught her eye and shook my head. No guarantee the tranq would work on him with his altered parasite, and every chance it could make him worse.
“Go!” he shouted, teeth bared. I shifted to stand beside him, placed a hand gently on his arm while my heart pounded like crazy.
“Philip, no, they can’t go,” I said. “We need them. Don’t hurt them.”
He blinked, and I watched him come back to himself. Horror and dismay crawled over his face as he looked down at the gun and saw where it was aimed. Swallowing hard, he lowered it and took a shaky half-step back. “Damn.”
“Philip, give me the gun please,” I said, voice quavering.
He flipped the safety on and passed it to me, butt first. “Damn,” he repeated.
“What was that all about?” Kyle asked, dark eyes on Philip.
Philip’s expression turned grim and bleak. “It’s an adverse effect of a treatment I had this morning. Dr. Nikas was abducted before he could finish it and isn’t here now to correct the problem.” Hands tight at his sides and back tense, he turned away and walked to the edge of the parking lot, misery practically rolling off him.
Aching for him, I carefully held the gun and tried not to show how much my hands were trembling. If he’d shot Naomi . . . I shoved the unwelcome thought away. “We need to find Dr. Nikas before someone gets really hurt,” I said. Sick worry rose in a choking wave. “We need to find Pietro and the others too. We need to. We don’t know if Rachel and Dan and the rest of them are going to try—especially for the two drivers and the security guard—and even if they do, we know there’s an insider. Someone gave those Saberton thugs the codes to get in.”
Kyle’s gaze remained on Philip’s back. “Without Mr. Ivanov, the Tribe will falter,” he stated. “And without Brian,” he shook his head, “the organization of the remaining security and teams is crippled.”
And what will happen to me if the Tribe falls apart? I selfishly wondered. It was more than a cool part-time job. It was security that went beyond money or brains. Once Marcus moved away, would I have anyone around who understood me? I knew I was being crazily self-centered, but fuck, sometimes it was called for, right?
I moved to Philip, not caring that the others were watching or could hear me. “We need you,” I murmured, and bumped him with my shoulder. “We’ll get through this. Don’t make me bite you again.”
A weak snort of laughter escaped him. During the mayhem that occurred at the filming of High School Zombie Apocalypse!!, Philip went berserk, and I’d followed through on a bizarre urge to sink my teeth into his shoulder. Weird as hell, but it calmed him right down.
He bumped that shoulder into mine, then turned and walked back with me to Kyle and Naomi.
“How do we find Pietro and the others?” I asked. “Do we have even the slightest clue where they might be?”
“It would most likely be Dallas or New York,” Naomi said.
Kyle gave a solemn nod in response. “They weren’t taken for ransom, and Saberton has major operations in both cities.”
“Great,” I said. “How do we know which city?”
“The R&D labs are in Dallas,” Naomi said, forehead creased in contemplation. She tapped her chin as she considered. “And the corporate offices are in New York. No lab though.”
