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“Sorry. My patients are usually dead.” I resisted the urge to poke at the swelling. “It looks bad, but I don’t think it’s broken.” Not that I had a clue, but I didn’t want her even more worried. “I think the boot saved you from fucking it up more,” I added. Felt weird not to say, Chug some brains, and you’ll be right as rain!
“Can’t walk on it either way,” she said with a black scowl. “God! This is stupid.”
“Yeah, I’m usually the one to do stupid shit like this,” I said and gave her a crooked smile. “Why the hell are you stealing my thunder?”
She tried to smile back, but her face twisted instead. I knew it wasn’t because of pain.
I lowered my voice. “We’ll get Kyle back. I promise.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “He’s tough. He’ll . . . be okay until we get there.”
“Of course he will.” Neither of us wanted to speak the truth. He was a former operative for Saberton, and even though he hadn’t sold them out, it was doubtful they’d see it that way. It was tough to kill a zombie, but it was easy to torture one.
“We need to call Brian so we can get out of this mess,” I told her.
She nodded, pulled her phone out of a pocket and hit the speed dial for Brian’s number. A few seconds later she frowned and shook her head. “Straight to voicemail. He must have it off.”
“Try my number,” I suggested.
She gave me a puzzled look, then grimaced and nodded. “Right. I forgot he had yours and you have Kyle’s.” She made an annoyed noise as she hit the speed dial for my phone. “Damn, I’m really off my game.”
“Gimme a break,” I replied, a little sharply. “No one who’s off their game could’ve managed that awesome bootlegger turn and remembered all the twists in these tunnels.”
A corner of her mouth twitched up as she held the phone to her ear. “Yeah, that was all right.” But a few seconds later she lowered the phone and shook her head. “Straight to voicemail.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Maybe it ran out of charge.”
“Both of them?” Naomi said, brows puckered.
“Who the hell knows,” I replied. “Doesn’t matter. I still know where and when to meet him. It’s possible he turned the phones off for security.”
Andrew shifted and made a low noise in the back of his throat.
I shot him a glare. “You got a fucking problem?”
He glared right back. “I need to take a piss,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Oh.” I blinked, then looked over at Philip. “Um, can you take care of that?”
Philip’s lips twitched, and I knew he was resisting the urge to suggest I “handle” it, and only because it was probably poor form to joke and tease around a hostage. But just knowing he wanted to joke helped lighten my own mood a tiny bit.
Philip helped Andrew to his feet and walked him down the tunnel until they were lost in the gloom. Naomi let out a shuddering breath, gaze following the pair.
“He doesn’t know me,” she murmured, an odd combination of grief and amazement playing over her face. “This close, and he doesn’t know me.”
“You don’t look or sound like his sister,” I reminded her. “Not to mention, he thinks his sister is dead. He’s not expecting to run into her.” I punched her lightly in the arm. “Especially not in a sewer.”
“It’s a steam tunnel, not a sewer.”
“Whatever. It has bugs and rats, and it smells funny.”
She let out a choked laugh, but tears welled up in her eyes. “I was holding it together right up until now.” She dashed away the tears and looked up at me. “I don’t know if I can keep hiding myself from him.”
I grimaced. “Babe, you have to. At least until we’re safe.”
She blew out her breath and visibly composed herself. “Right. And it would be a shame to waste all this plastic surgery.”
“Absolutely.” I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “We can’t risk your mother finding out you’re still alive.”
