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After a knock at the door, another man poked his head in. “Vladimir Zolotarev is on the phone, and he doesn’t want to wait.”
“Thanks, Winston,” Lucas said, looking a little relieved. “I need to take this. You guys carry on without me.” A second later, he was gone.
I looked back at Duke and Constance. Even I wasn’t sure where things stood now. This day could not get any worse.Are you sure, Serena? Maybe you’re being paranoid.
Duke
The bossman leftto take Zolotarev’s call. Ariana had probably called Daddy to complain about how I hadn’t given her enough freedom to interact with her fans, but thank God she was no longer my problem.
“Duke,” Serena prodded, pulling me back to my current assignment.
The defeat in her eyes made me want to hold her and tell her it would be all right. Because of the deer question, she thought Lucas had written her off. But I knew better. My brother hadn’t gotten where he was by jumping to conclusions with zero hard information.
Serena sighed. “What now?”
I held out my hand. “Let me see your phone. I’d like to review your messages.” Prior communications often held clues in a case like this.
“The car rolled, and I couldn’t find it after the accident.”
Constance wrote a note. “I’d like to take you to the med center to get you looked at. It’s a good idea after an?—”
“I’ve been there. CAT scan was negative,” Serena said, looking down.
“Why didn’t they clean your cuts?” Constance asked before I could.
Emergency care had gone to shit if they let her out looking like this.
Her leg started trembling again. “I checked myself out early.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I think I saw him.”
“The guy with the lighter?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“It’s certainly too late now,” Constance commented, anticipating my train of thought. Hospitals didn’t do security cameras inside—patient privacy.
Winston opened the door. “The boss needs you both.”
Must be time to listen to Ariana’s father rant about how rude I’d been to his daughter. I forced a nod. “Winston, would you mind cleaning up Serena’s wounds?” We’d circle back to what she saw at the hospital.
Serena’s eyes widened. She was a skittish one.
I patted her hand since that had seemed to settle her earlier. The zing of contact with her was a warning that, after all this time, I hadn’t forgotten the suggestion of her note. I pulled my hand back. That memory lane was best not traveled. “Excuse us while we go talk to our boss,” I told her. “Winston will take good care of you, and we’ll be right back.”
She blinked before nodding acceptance. What she’d been through had clearly terrified her.
Constance handed her a pen. “If he gets out of line, stab him with this. That’s what I do.”
That pulled a giggle and a warm smile from her.
I wished I could see more of that smile.
CHAPTER 6
Serena
