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“He’s here with me,” Brian said, and then my heart leaped as I heard the lilting accent of Dr. Nikas in the background.
“Let me talk to him,” I demanded.
“Hold on.” I heard muffled voices, and then Dr. Nikas came on the line.
“Angel, I’m so sorry.”
It was him. It was definitely him. “Oh god, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said, though he sounded tired. “What about you and Philip? I didn’t finish the procedure.”
“Yeah, something weird’s going on with that,” I said, then gave him a quick recap of Philip’s overprotective fits and the weird rot patches. “Look, I need to know if I can trust Brian.” It suddenly occurred to me that Brian could be right there listening in on the conversation and holding a gun to his head or something like that. “If I can, um, tell me why Jacques needed the duct tape.” No way would anyone who wasn’t there for the procedure know that.
“I trust him with my life,” Dr. Nikas said, a smile in his voice. “And the duct tape was to keep you from rolling your stool around.”
Heaving a sigh of relief, I gave Kyle a thumbs up. “Awesome. So, can you fix this thing with Philip and me?”
He muttered to himself for a few seconds. “Perhaps. I have very limited supplies. I need some time to consider the problem. For now, take two tablespoons of blue-green algae along with three thousand milligrams of vitamin C twice daily with plenty of water. That should even things out for now, especially for Philip.”
Algae? Ugh. I listened carefully as he gave some more instructions, including specific brand names. Fortunately, Kyle could hear everything, and he gave me a nod to let me know he’d help me remember. “Okay, got it. Thanks,” I said. “Can I talk to Brian again?”
“Certainly. Take care, Angel.”
Brian came back on the line. “What did you tell Dr. Pennington? Does she know Mr. Ivanov is missing?”
“I told her as little as possible,” I said. “Only that he was in some trouble and that she needed to get the hell out of that place.” I quickly explained about finding the invitation at Andrew’s apartment, and why I’d figured she was in danger.
“She’s going to be worried,” he replied. “Which means she might make waves.”
Make waves? Didn’t he think it was important to make sure she was safe? “Well, it’s tough to tell her too much without giving it away.”
“One of us is going to have to contact her. She can’t tell anyone.”
“Yeah, I know that,” I said, annoyance rising. Did he think I was an idiot? “I’ll get in touch with her.”
“Call me back when you do,” he ordered, “and better to do it sooner rather than later.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” I said sharply. “And it’ll be oh-so easy to call you back since you have my phone.”
“You have a fucking phone in your hand,” he snapped. “I’m sure it will work just fine. Let me talk to Kyle.”
Throat tight, I shoved the phone at Kyle. When he took it I crossed my arms over my chest and stared out the window. The dress was ruined, the shoes were lost, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I saw Kyle’s reflection in the window as he looked over at me. I knew he could see my reflection as well, and that I was crying, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
“Kyle here,” he said into the phone.
“Angel’s going to connect with Dr. Pennington to keep her from doing something dangerous,” I heard Brian tell Kyle, because apparently I couldn’t be trusted to pass that information along. “Once that’s done, we need to coordinate.”
“Understood.”
“I have to go. More later.”
Kyle lowered the phone after Brian hung up and gave me blessed silence for several minutes as we made our way north.
“You can let us out at the corner,” Kyle said, leaning forward to pass the driver money. I knew we weren’t anywhere near the address he’d given, but I didn’t argue. He seemed to know what he was doing. He bundled me out of the cab, slipped an arm through mine, and walked me half a block down a side street before hailing another cab.
“He can be a dick,” Kyle said after we were in the second cab and on our way to yet another address I’d never heard of.
“He was right,” I said with a sigh. “I’m being stupid. Anyway, as soon as we get back, I guess I need to call Jane.”
