I nodded. I’d made it clear beforehand that I didn’t want anyone to know where all our safe places were located. We had two places set up for emergencies like this. A hospital-like setting equipped with medical equipment, even though they looked abandoned from the outside.
“I am Dr. Dubois,” the woman said unnecessarily. “I demand to know why I am here, although I am starting to figure it out. I also demand to know what happened to the girl.”
Even though Dr. Dubois was playing it cool, her hands were tight around an electronic device in her lap. A photo with two little boys with their arms around each other’s neck was on display.
Mia made another whimpering noise.
I aimed my gun at the doctor. “You’re the doctor. Fix her. Now.”
She opened and closed her hands. “From what I can see—her feet?” She turned and took Mia’s pulse.
I explained what had happened.
“She must be in a lot of pain. We need to hurry so I can assess the damage. I cannot do it in here. It is too tight of a space. The drug? I have heard of it. It is new and we were briefed on it. The sooner we get to the hospital, the better.”
Sticking my gun between me and Brando, barrel down, I cleared my throat. “Your boys will be fine,” I said, “as long as you do as we say.”
Find who or what someone loves, and a weapon is never needed to make them comply.
“You are all in need of medical treatment, I gather,” Dr. Dubois said, her eyes skipping from one person to the next.
“Not all,” I said. “You will not leave until we are all able to, understand?”
Her eyes widened at the threat before they narrowed. “I have seen her picture.” She nodded to Mia.
Evelina sighed. “Bykov threatened the Paris medical community beforehand. If anyone aided in Mia’s recovery and he found out—” she shrugged “—family and friends would be targeted.”
“You do not have a doctor of your own?” Dr. Dubois asked.
We did. We had plenty to choose from. But this wasn’t going to be family news. The less they knew, the better. And the two doctors I trusted would already be waiting. We’d relocated them to Paris after Mia decided to dance there. They lived under aliases because we didn’t want anyone to get to them, like Bykov was starting to do to everyone else. Their sole purpose in life was waiting around until someone in the Fausti family needed them. One was an anesthesiologist working as a barista to pass the time. The other was a surgeon who worked at the motorcycle shop.
“We need more than two,” I said.
“Dr. Dubois was the doctor at the theater tonight,” Evelina said. “It took a little persuasion to get her to come with me.”
The theater always had a doctor on standby.
“My children,” Dr. Dubois said, giving Evelina a hard look, “were persuasion enough.”
“My child,” Brando said. His voice came out ice cold, and the doctor shivered. “We will make this worth your time. I’ll make sure you and your family are well taken care of after this.”
She turned around, clutching her bag to her chest.
“She’s already called her family and told them to leave,” Evelina said. “Guido, himself, is in charge of getting them out safely.”
“My partner—he is a doctor also.” Dr. Dubois looked behind her again. “I think we will need another. He is a surgeon.”
“No,” I said. “Three will do.”
“There are three ofyou,” she said. “Three that I can see are wounded.”
“I’m excellent at math, Dr. Dubois,” I said.
“Of course,” she said in a very French way. “But you are not a doctor, or else you would have no need for me!”
Evelina looked at me through the mirror and shrugged. “Both doctors have excellent histories,” she said. “Two of the best in Paris.”
I looked at Brando, but he was staring at his wife. The human lie detector.
