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He reached over her shoulder and accepted something from Earnest. Another sting, burning in the outside of her arm, and he used his thumb to massage deep circles on the outside of her shoulder. “Give it a second. I don’t need you dying and costing me all that valuable work.”

“…kill you.”

He chuckled. “I see you can breathe more easily. You may be able to move a little as well, so I’ll take my seat back behind the desk. I don’t need you scratching my eyes out.”

She tried to respond to that, but the words got trapped on her tongue. Earnest laid heavy hands on her shoulders, holding her in her seat. As if she could stand.

He settled back in the chair across the desk. “Each month, you will require additional treatments. You will also need to adjust your diet to accommodate your body’s need for additional calcium and some other key nutrients. Your meal delivery service will continue.”

She frowned. The service that sent them boxed meals and recipes every week? She’d figured Jax set that up when she wasn’t feeling well, and maybe he had, but it turned out to be this guy’s doing? She wanted to throw it all out.

“If you don’t comply, which is for your own good, failure to follow the instructions will be considerably…uncomfortable.”

“It’ll hurt.”

He nodded. “If you don’t comply, we’ll be forced to retrieve you. Admit you for observation.”

“You mean kidnap me. The way you kidnapped Nicola Santorini, Rebecca Hardy, and Melissa Graham.”

Buzard actually looked impressed. “Interesting conclusions.”

“Are they wrong?”

“What I do is no one else’s business.”

“Except Dominatus .”

The hands holding her in the chair flexed, squeezing her shoulders hard enough she winced. Someone else who didn’t like hearing that name out loud? Too bad.

“You work for them.”

The doctor wiped his damp forehead with the back of his hand.

“I provide a unique service. In return, they ensure I’m not disturbed and don’t run into anything that might interrupt my research.

” He swiped the screen of his tablet. “Earnest, we should draw more blood while Ms. Banbury is here. I don’t believe we have time to take spinal fluid. That can wait until next time.”

“Why?” She needed to know why he’d targeted her. Why she’d been singled out. Just as she needed to know if anyone else in her family were targets. Jax was outside—had they captured him with the intent to experiment on him?

The idea of it made her want to rage. To make sure all the focus remained on her.

Doctor Buzard didn’t look up from his tablet. “We don’t need your husband interrupting a delicate procedure. I’d hate to have to kill him. I doubt I’d secure your cooperation after that.”

“I mean, why are you doing this?” She wanted to kill him , but would she be signing her own death warrant at the same time, and that of those men at the retirement home? The consequences could be disastrous.

She tried to move her fingers and could twitch them, but only barely. It took far more effort than she had.

The doctor sighed. “Earnest? Take the samples.”

His hands eased off her shoulders.

She wanted to run but couldn’t move. “Jax!” she yelled his name as loudly as she could.

A split second later, a heavy hand cuffed her across the back of the head.

“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 doctor did have 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.

Or Dominatus took 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 could not be 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.”

Kenna said, “I’m counting on it.”

She knew who he was, but there was no way he could kill her here. That would only cause problems between him and the doctor. But oh, he wanted to.

The feeling was mutual.

“Jax!” she screamed his name again, but Earnest punched her in the head.

Everything went black.