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“I have no instructions to admit anyone except approved medical staff and Mr. Dailey’s immediate family.”

Before Ella could get up in the man’s face, Vadim stepped in front of her and smiled pleasantly. “I think you’ll find that you are mistaken and that both Ms. Walsh and I are on that list. Please feel free to confirm that information with Ms. Phelps, the administrator dealing with this case.”

“Morosov, get out of the way. I can get in his head. I can make him let us in.”

“That’s our next step. Let’s try and do it the official way first.”

Sometimes he agreed with her that it would be easier to blast his way through the obstacle, but since leaving Otherworld, he’d been attempting to cultivate more reasonable habits.

“Why?”

He smiled again at Delia. “Hi, how are you, today? How’s Brad doing?”

After a swift glance at the security agent who appeared to be whispering into his mike, Delia turned to Vadim.

“Brad’s grandfather is in there with him, but he’s still sedated and unable to respond to them.”

“Poor guy.” Vadim shook his head. “Perhaps we’d better not disturb him, then.” He turned to Ella, who wasn’t looking very pleased. “Shall we go and find Ms. Phelps and get her up to speed?”

“I’d rather see Brad.”

He took hold of her elbow and propelled her along the corridor. “We’ll do that in a moment. Do you particularly want to go in there and face his grandfather? We can’t answer a single damn question for them yet.” She went to speak, and he kept talking. “It’s not likely that Adam will get in there either, with Delia and that thug on the door.”

“I suppose you’re right. Maybe we should come back later.”

“Let’s do that. We can ask Ms. Phelps to call us when the ex-senator leaves.”

She grimaced. “Okay, but I just have a bad feeling about this.”

So did he, but he didn’t want her to know that. “How about we catch an early dinner at my hotel and return this evening?”

“I suppose that would work. Look, there’s Ms. Phelps.” She walked over to the nurse’s station. “Hey, we just got barred from Brad Dailey’s room by some secret-service guy.”

“You did?” Ms. Phelps took them back into her office and shut the door. She patted ineffectively at her blond bun. “I’m not surprised. That man was demanding I show him full security checks for every single member of staff and patient on this ward! If the ex-senator wants his grandson to have more privacy, he’ll have to pay for a private room on a secure corridor.” She lowered her voice a fraction. “It’s not as if Brad is a VIP.”

“How long is he staying?”

“The former senator is leaving in about two hours. He’ll hopefully be taking his security detail with him. Brad’s parents are due in tonight at around eleven. They are flying in from Florida. They were on their yacht.”

“Nice.” Ella said. “So will you call us just before the senator leaves? We need to talk to Brad.”

“He hasn’t been very responsive today at all.” Ms. Phelps shook her head. “His doctor fears he might be going into a coma of some kind, his body signs are so minimal.”

“Well, thanks for the heads-up. We’ll do our best to get him to talk to us, but we’ll understand if he can’t.”

Vadim held the door open for Ella and then followed her toward the stairs and the elevator bank. She looked back at him over her shoulder.

“How much time do we have?”

“To get something to eat and get back here? Just under two hours.”

She groaned. “At this time of day it’s going to take us that long to get to your hotel in the commuter traffic.”

“Not if we don’t use the car.”

“I keep forgetting about that.” Her smile made his body come to life. “Can you take us right into your room?”

He could.