Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(68)

Everything seemed to revolve around that damn flu vaccine. He’d dismissed it when he found out the Ukrainian was no longer working for the syndicate, but now it seemed to be back in play. Or he was grasping at straws. “The vaccine was from Kronberg? Where your sister works?”

“Yes. My father will be thrilled to know there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Kronberg is a big supporter, naturally.”

Kronberg was also very likely a company involved in The Collective. His mind whirled, putting pieces together. “Do you trust this lab?”

“Sure. It’s a highly respected lab.”

“Darlin’, was the name of the lab in your phone?”

Her eyes widened. “Yes. Why would you ask that?” The brush fell out of her hand. “She would tell me. That’s what you think, right? My sister showed up unannounced. She asked me a bunch of questions about the vaccine. Then someone steals my phone. Those things aren’t necessarily connected. We have this saying we learn in med school, Ten. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. Well, unless you’re in Africa. Then I can think zebras. The point is, the simplest solution is almost always right.”

“Theo’s house was broken into the first night we went to Sanctum, and the only thing the robber was interested in was the guest room.” He saw the opportunity. It was right there and he wasn’t even considering letting it get past him.

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t want to scare you.”

“So that’s why Jesse was really with us today. You don’t think this is over at all. How about yesterday when I went to the store?”

“I was behind you the whole time. I shadowed you. Faith, I’m sorry and I was probably wrong, but I didn’t want you to be afraid. I wouldn’t have allowed anything bad to happen to you, but I also didn’t want to ruin our time together with fear. I couldn’t be sure the two events were actually connected, but three times really is the charm.” He didn’t believe in coincidence. He believed in conspiracies because he’d seen them time and time and time again. If Faith’s sister was involved, then Kronberg was involved, and that meant he had a clear connection between The Collective and Hank McDonald.

“The lab says the vaccine is fine,” Faith insisted. “They sent me a chemical breakdown of all components. I checked it. Everything looks perfect.”

She was missing a few key facts. “Yes, they sent that a few hours after your phone and all the data on it was stolen. Did you tell your sister the name of the lab while she was here?”

Her mouth closed, lips turning stubborn.

“Faith?”

“No. All right. No and I didn’t tell her because I didn’t trust her not to bribe the lab if the results made her company look bad. My sister is all about the bottom line. If she thought her precious research was in jeopardy, she would do almost anything.”

“Even have you killed?”

The room went dangerously quiet for a moment. Faith took a deep breath before she continued. “Don’t be ridiculous. I thought you said the guy who attacked me at Neiman’s was someone who hated my father.”

He had to step delicately here. “He was, but it would only have taken a nudge to set him off, and no one knew where you were. How did the nutjob know where you were?”

“I don’t know.”

“What exactly did he say when he was trying to take you?”

She rubbed her forehead as though the entire conversation was giving her a headache. “He said he wanted information and he had something I needed to understand. He said when he was satisfied, he would let me go.”

Actually, now it was all coming into focus. What if it wasn’t the mob that was concerned about the vaccines? What if it was Kronberg? Had that first hit man been sent to kill Faith? Or get information about the lab so they could manipulate the results? What if this latest incident was simply a subtler play at getting what Hope had wanted all along? “How did your sister know where to find you?”

Her face had gone a bit ashen. “She had a tracer app on my phone. Ten, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. I’m going to call her.”

He moved to stop her from going for her phone. “Do you honestly think she’s going to tell you everything?”

Faith glared up at him. “I think she’s my sister and she better tell me what the hell is going on.”

“She’s also a politician’s daughter and she can talk her way out of anything. She’s likely very good at not incriminating herself. Faith, if you want to find out what happened to your patients, you have to let me investigate. If you let Hope have even an inkling that you think something’s up, she’ll bury all the evidence and you won’t ever know.”

She stood there, staring up at him, and he wondered if he hadn’t made a huge mistake. He put his hands on her shoulders, willing her to listen to him. Maybe if she listened about her sister, she could believe him when he told her about her father.

After a moment, she stepped back, her eyes sliding away from his. “You’re insane and I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

She walked into the bathroom they’d shared and shut the door. He heard the audible click of the lock.

It was laid out, a clear line from incident to incident. Faith was a logical woman with a brilliant mind. But she was like the rest. She chose family.