Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
The damn doorbell was ringing again. Now dressed, still pissed, and done with his current batch of phone calls and orders, Atlas bounded down the stairs.
The doorbell pealed again. “Seriously?” Atlas snarled as he reached the landing. “Who the hell is it now?”
“It’s the doctor.” Desmond waited in the foyer, arms loose at his sides. “Guards at the front gate texted to let me know he was approaching the main entrance.”
“Are the guards at the gate just letting everyone through today?” What good were the men out there if they weren’t stopping anyone?
Desmond arched one eyebrow. “Not like the guards can stop Feds.”
“And they can’t stop this guy? They just let some bozo waltz past them?” Maybe some of those guards needed to be fired.
“Not some bozo. He’s your doctor.”
“What damn doctor?” The only one he wanted in his house was Dr. Lily Gallo. Speaking of Lily… “Where is she?” Only Desmond was waiting in the foyer. No sign of his Lily.
“Lily is in the kitchen, telling Roland that he made the best omelet she’d ever had in her life. And informing him that his French toast is to die for.”
Atlas grunted. Good. She’d eaten.
“The doctor at the door is the man who checked you and Lily out at the hospital. Now, call me crazy, but I didn’t realize Dr. Phillip Owen was the type to make house calls.”
Atlas’s gaze cut to the door. “Didn’t think he was that type, either.”
“Interesting that he’s here, isn’t it?”
Interesting enough. Atlas would handle the man. He rolled back his shoulders. “What the fuck is up with the cufflinks, Desmond?” Something that had been bothering the hell out of him ever since Gage had dropped his little bombshell.
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 stop you before you got to my door?”
Phillip straightened his shoulders. “As I informed them, I am your doctor.”
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 not dare!”
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.”
“I-I want to make sure she’s safe!” A fast correction. “Why are you hiding her? What have you done to her?”
Oh, for shit’s sake. Really? I fucked her. Should he just take out a billboard to announce the news?
“I’m fine, Dr. Owen.” Lily’s calm voice.
“Your visit is unnecessary. I am healthy. I am safe. So is Atlas.” She was right behind him.
Atlas could smell her sweet vanilla scent.
Had he made a point of getting her body lotion with that exact scent when he arranged for her clothes and toiletries? Yes. He had.
He arched a brow at the red-faced doc. “You heard the lady. Healthy as can be. Thanks for the visit. Don’t come back.” He shut the door, knowing the guards would take care of their unwelcome guest.
Atlas turned, putting his back to the door. “What. The. Fuck?”
Desmond still stood nearby. He nodded. “He’s suspicious as hell.”
An absolute echo of Atlas’s own thoughts. Always good to know that he and Desmond were on the same page. Atlas swept his stare over Lily. “I’m sick of idiots getting obsessed with you.”
She took a half-step back. “I can assure you, no one is obsessed with me.”
“I am.” An easy admission. Completely. “That doc knows your whole life story.”
“That, uh, doc wanted to be filmed coming to the rescue here. It’s purely a glamour project. Doesn’t have anything to do with me.” She shifted closer to Atlas. “Did you make your calls when you went upstairs? Do you have protection in place for Hatch Davis and Westin Blanchard?”
“Working on it. Certain powerful individuals at the FBI understand the gravity of the situation. And I’ve reached out to security agencies in Oklahoma City and New Orleans. The agents will be working to contact and secure your two would-be victims.”
Some of the tension left her shoulders. “Thank you.”
His hand lifted and skimmed over her jaw. “I am a cold bastard.”
A little furrow appeared between her brows.
“But I will not be that person to you. You tell me what you want, and I’ll always give it to you.”
She raised her brows. “Ah, is that because you’re obsessed with me?” A light edge that could have been teasing. From another woman, he would have been sure it was teasing. But Lily so rarely joked.
So he didn’t joke or tease in response, either. Atlas simply gave her the stark truth. “Yes.”
She bit her lower lip. Then nodded. “Okay, let’s test that.”
She wanted to test him? Call him intrigued. He’d always been a master at acing tests.
“Take me to the crime scene,” Lily directed. “I want to get an up close look at the area. If possible, I want to see that basement. Or what’s left of it.”
Of course, that would be what she requested. He told her that he was obsessed, that he would give her anything her heart desired—okay, fine that part had been implied, he hadn’t technically told her those specific words—and she’d asked for a crime scene tour. That was his Lily, though.
He smiled at her. Because he’d already anticipated this turn of events. This is how you ace tests. “Sweets, the limo is ready and waiting.”
Desmond cursed. “Is this really wise? Did you see those reporters waiting out there? They are gonna follow the limo from the second it leaves here. And a limo just pulling up to a crime scene will be damn noticeable.”
Atlas shrugged. “Maybe I’m like Dr. Owen…”
“I have no idea what that means,” Desmond threw back.
“It means I like the attention. Or in this case, I want it.”
Lily nodded. “Me, too.”
Desmond gaped at them both. “Why?”
“Because the perp needs to know that we’re looking for him. That we aren’t stopping,” Atlas said.
Again, Lily nodded. “The killer should understand that we’re hunting him.”
“Forget being like Dr. Owen. That’s bull. You two, though…” Desmond motioned between Atlas and Lily. “You’re both just the hell alike,” Desmond accused.
Atlas reached for Lily’s hand. His fingers curled with hers. “Well, what can I say? She’s my soulmate.”
Her hand jerked in his. Hard.