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“Earnest, is that any way to treat our guest?” Buzard chuckled, still not looking up from his tablet. Certain that there was no way Jax would come in and disturb them. Maybe he simply believed Earnest would take care of the “problem” if that occurred. “Hmm, interesting.”
She wanted to roll her eyes, but Earnest distracted her by tying off a strip of rubber just above her elbow and sticking a needle in her arm. He had a crescent moon scar at the base of his thumb, on his right hand, so she focused on that and not the burning pain on the inside of her elbow.
“Ow.” She said it loudly, in Earnest’s masked face. He didn’t seem to care, though. “Don’t quit your day job, Earnest.” If only she could tear that stupid mask from his face and see the man hiding underneath.
“Very interesting.”
Kenna gritted her teeth as Earnest filled the third vial of her blood. “Care to share, Doc?”
“Your bone density tests.”
“It would be good to know if I’m in danger of shattering.”
“Your red cell count is down, which is to be expected given that bone marrow is what produces blood cells.”
“That’s gonna cause me other problems, right?” She needed to get online and search what happened when a person had solid bones with no marrow. That couldn’t be a good thing, but it explained the heaviness and fatigue she’d been feeling.
“Not if you continue your treatments,” he said. “I’m thinking synthetic bone marrow might do the trick. At least while our stem cell research is still ongoing.”
“Great. Sounds great.” She didn’t bother to keep the sarcasm from her tone. “Let’s schedule out some appointments so I know where to be and when.”
He smiled at his tablet.
Earnest finished what he was doing and pulled the needle roughly from her arm. He untied the strip of rubber from above her elbow. Kenna focused on her other arm, the left one. Could she…?
Her arm swung over toward him, and she managed to bat his face, catching him enough by surprise that she got purchase on his mask and ripped it down. The face that stared back at her seared in her mind. It was familiar. She wasn’t going to forget that pasty complexion, those dark eyes that were almost black, and those meaty cheeks.
She also wasn’t going to forget the surprise on his face.
Or the fact this was one of the police officers who had responded to the callout at the medical center. Which meant the doctordidhave a connection to Nicola Santorini, at least to her practice. There was something odd about his ears, but she couldn’t tell what from straight on.
Kenna stared at him. “Gotcha.”
He spun away, dropping the vials of blood on the carpet and scrambling to put the mask back on his face.
She glared at the doctor. “Where is Nicola Santorini?”
Resorting to threats wasn’t likely to get her anywhere. He obviously had a cop in his pocket, so he wasn’t afraid of being discovered by the police. He probably had some other officials somewhere in his pocket, too. OrDominatustook care of those pesky annoyances for him, leaving the doc to do his research undisturbed.
“Where did you take her?”
The doctor lifted his face. He didn’t even look at Earnest, who had resituated his mask over his face and retrieved the vials from the floor. The doctor said, “I believe you’re missing something important in all this. Two somethings, actually.”
“Like what?”
“Instead of firing off questions, you should be thanking me. I’ve given you a gift.”
She stared at him. He couldnotbe serious. “You expect me to be grateful? You’re insane.”
He laughed, pushing his chair back and standing. “I consider that a compliment.”
“If you’ve done something to Jax, I will kill you.”
He continued laughing as he headed for the side door.
She felt hot breath by her ear, then the prick of something against the side of her neck.
At last, Earnest said, “This isn’t over.”