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“You’re mistaken.” She shrugged. “I’m infertile.”
“Clearly not.” Gus’s eyes lowered to his hands and he cracked his knuckles one by one. “Needless to say, this changes everything.”
“No, it doesn’t. I’m not pregnant.”
“As part of your work-up at MD Anderson, they tested your urine for a variety of things.”
“The test is wrong.”
“It’s not.”
“It is.”
As they went back and forth, the volley of their syllables rose in both speed and volume—and meanwhile, in the back of her head, a low-level scream started rising in pitch.
“Gus, someone messed up.”
“I seriously doubt it.” Now his eyes locked on hers. “And you have some very critical thinking to do.”
She put both her palms straight out, like she was stopping a speeding car. “After all the chemo I have had, over the course of my life, there is absolutelynoway I’m pregnant.” When he just stared at her, she threw her hands up. “What. I’m not. So I don’t know what to… tell you.”
At that moment, she made a connection that chilled her to the bone. And as if Gus had been waiting for that one-plus-one to get to its equal sign, he once again looked away.
Her guard, Rob. Who had been killed last night.
“I’m not pregnant,” she said firmly. “Let’s run the test again.”
There was a sizable pause before Gus got to his feet. “Fine. But while I’m dipping the stick, I suggest you start thinking about what you’re going to do.”
“What do you mean, what-I’m-going-to-do. The test is going to be negative and then we’re going tofinish whatever else you need to do so we can get moving.”
“Just so you and I are perfectly clear, I am not administering Vita-12b to a pregnant woman.” His dark eyes were grave. “I am alsonotadvising you to get an abortion. That is none of my business.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. Because I’m—”
“Not pregnant.” He went over to the door. “We’ll see about that.”
TWENTY-NINE
AFTER DANIEL HEADEDdown to the lab, Lydia went to their bedroom—and lasted about fifteen minutes before she got so antsy, she was ready to pull her own hair out. As she paced around, she kept looking into the bathroom, and every time she saw the shower and their two damp towels hanging together on the rods on the wall, she felt a fresh wave of sorrow come over her.
There was one, and only one, remedy for her agitation.
But she was going to be a little more careful if she was going out. In light of what happened the night before, she didn’t feel right about just slipping out the sliding door. Instead, she went back through the house and then down into the basement, to the tunnel that ran under the parking area to the garage. At the far end, she ascended a short stack of steps and entered the heated interior thanks to a passcode—and promptly decided against taking one of the SUVs to some remote location beforeshe shifted. She’d just get herself followed, right? After all, humans expected people to take vehicles places, and assuming the estate was being watched on its periphery, it would be more dangerous for her to try to leave that way.
Besides, she was going to go out with four-wheel drive of sorts, wasn’t she.
Striding down the lineup of grilles and taillights, she went to the side pedestrian door, entered a code, and propped the weight open about an inch with a rock. After quickly shedding her clothing, she folded the pullover, the jeans, even the socks and underwear, into a neat pile, and set the lot on top of a bag of salt that had been brought in for the coming snowfalls.
Then she closed her eyes.
Her transformation was fast, like her body was a well-oiled machine, and in fewer than a dozen heartbeats, she was down on her paws and whispering out into the grass. As she stared out of different eyes, the landscape of the house and grounds was shaded in a new way, everything dimmer yet sharper, too, like an oil painting’s depiction had been re-rendered with a fine-nibbed, black and white ink pen.
Staying in the lee of the garage, she sent her senses out into the darkness, and when she came up with nothing, she started off, her tail down, her head lowered as well. She wasn’t worried about theguard dogs. The pair of Dobermans knew her in both her incarnations now.
They were no danger to her.
Tonight, the moon was early to rise, and the clouds that drifted over its crescent provided her with a little camouflage as she skulked for the tree line. Once she penetrated the pines and oaks, she started to move with greater alacrity, cantering now, making good time over the distance. As she went along, forest animals got out of her way, even though she presented no threat to the deer or raccoons. She hadn’t been hungry in her human form; she wasn’t hungry in this one, either.
