Page 113 of Compulsion
Desmond’s body tensed.“The GPS tracker on the cufflinks was deactivated.The last signal I got from them was in that damn cabin.I thought they’d been destroyed in the explosion.”
“Apparently, not.Apparently, the cufflinks took a fun little side quest to Shreveport and wound up with a dead woman.”
The doorbell rang again.
“He’s pissing me off,” Atlas said.
“Never a good situation.”A grimace from Desmond.“Let me handle him.”
“Too late.”Atlas was on the way to the door.He put his game face on.Oh, who was he kidding?He always had that face on, and Atlas opened the door.
Dr.Phillip Owen stood there, finger still on the doorbell.
“I am so over uninvited guests.”Annoyance filled Atlas’s words.“I get why my guards allowed the Feds to rush past them.I do.They’re Feds.They flashed badges.Why the hell didn’t someone stopyoubefore you got to my door?”
Phillip straightened his shoulders.“As I informed them, I am yourdoctor.”
Atlas caught sight of the news vans that were stationed down the street.Great.A new day.A new opportunity for reporters to harass him.Not like Atlas was going to tell them shit but…
Maybe someone else is planning for a closeup with the cameras.
Curious, he slanted a stare back at the doctor.
Phillip wasn’t wearing scrubs.He had on a suit.His hair was freshly cut.His jaw clean shaven.Smile for the camera.
“Everyone wants their five minutes of fame,” Atlas muttered.
“I’m here to help you,” Phillip told him in what he probably thought was a deeply compassionate tone.It wasn’t.It was a little high.Too rushed.Too dramatic.“I need to check on your condition.To make sure that your injuries were not more severe than anticipated.”He craned to see around Atlas.“I also have grown increasingly concerned for the well-being of Dr.Gallo.She received a blow to the head, too, but in your haste to leave the hospital, I was not able to thoroughly examine her to my liking.”
To your liking, huh?How about this?I do not like you at all.“Lily and I both had imaging done on us during the course of our exams.There were no skull fractures.No brain bleeds.You weren’t the only doc on the scene.”Just the one in his face the most.The one who seemed to be calling the shots in the ER.“Additional care from you is very much unnecessary.”
Phillip cleared his throat.“I thought she’d call to update me on the health status for both of you, but she never did, and, as a doctor, it is my duty to?—”
“You’re not seeing Lily.”Time to cut through the BS.
Phillip’s freshly shaved face scrunched.“Excuse me?”
“You’re not seeing Lily.I’m really over assholes who are obsessed with her showing up on my doorstep.The routine gets old, believe me.Now, leave my fiancée alone.Go back to your hospital.Do your job, while you still have one.”
“Excuse me?”Phillip Owen hunched.
“This is a major overstep.You don’t show up at a patient’s house without an invitation.I’m not even your patient any longer.”He pointed toward the news vans.“What are you gonna do?Rush over there to them and act like you’re my personal physician?Give yourself a bit more prestige than you have?”He hadn’t liked this guy from the first moment they’d met.The man had known far too much about Lily.Phillip had been far too focused on her.
Even as his cheeks reddened, Phillip held his position in front of the door.“I have to make certain of her well-being.I am not leaving until I check in with Dr.Gallo.”
Atlas smiled at him.“We’ll see about that.”He’d been very conscious of several guards edging closer.And because Lily had recently mentioned his handy ability to snap his fingers and make people jump into action…He snapped them.
The guards hurried forward.
“This is your chance to walk away on your own,” Atlas said to Phillip.“If you don’t go willingly, they can haul you away.Tell me, doctor, which image do you believe will play better for the cameras?”
Phillip spun around and let out a little gasp when he saw the approaching guards.“You would notdare!”
Sure, he would.They would.Everyone would.
Phillip whipped back to face him.“I want Lily.”
Like that statement wasn’t suspicious?And infuriating?“Never gonna happen.”
