“Actually, I only paid a limited amount of attention to her. Before I go to bed, I just want to–“
“No, no, no,” Grant said with a shake of his head. “You’re not going to just do anything. You’re going straight to bed.”
“For once, I agree with him,” Alicia said. “And we don’t agree often, so…”
Grant nodded. “She’s right. You’re outvoted. Upstairs and straight to bed. Alicia, if she gives you any trouble, handcuff her.”
Julia offered him an unimpressed glance. “You’re not coming up?”
“I just have a few calls to make, then I’ll be up,” he promised before he gave her a light peck.
“Don’t work too hard.”
“Upstairs, sis,” Alicia said. “And yes, I will use the handcuffs if I have to.”
“I’m going, I’m going,” Julia answered with her hands held in the air.
They reached the upstairs and Julia veered toward a back hall.
“Whoa, whoa, that’s not the way to your room,” Alicia said as she tugged her sister toward another hall.
“But I–“
“But nothing. You’re going to bed.”
With her hands firmly clamped on her sister’s shoulders, she guided her to the bedroom and tucked her under the covers before plopping in an armchair. Julia fidgeted, poking at the pillows as she scanned the night table.
“Need something, Juju?” Alicia asked.
“My phone.”
“And what do you need that for?”
Julia’s shoulders slumped as her unease grew. “I want to check my messages.”
“Waiting for a certain call?” Alicia asked as she rose and crossed to her sister’s purse. She dug through it before she waved the phone in the air and delivered it to her sister.
“Thank you,” Julia said. A press of the display button showed her a red battery. “Ugh, it’s dead. Damn it.”
“What’s wrong? What is so important on that phone?”
Julia grabbed the cord poking from behind the nightstand and plugged it in, powering it on. “I haven’t heard from Kyle since last night.”
“The crazy doctor?That’swho you’re going nuts over?”
She drummed her fingers against the phone’s side as she waited for her messages to load. “He’s not crazy. And yes, I think it’s very strange that he wasn’t at the hospital this morning.”
“So, he’s off and didn’t want to come in. What’s the big deal?”
“Ally, if I have so much as a paper cut, Kyle monitors it like it’s a gunshot wound. I had arsenic poisoning, and he didn’t come by?”
“Maybe he had something to do.” Alicia eased onto the edge of the bed as Julia scrolled through her notifications, her heart dropping.
“No, he had a fight with Grant last night, and he took off. I’m a little worried. No messages from him.”
She pressed the call icon next to his name and waited as the line trilled until it reached his voicemail. She cursed under her breath again as she ended the call without leaving a message.
The absence of any communication from Kyle twisted into a knot of worry that sat heavy in Julia’s stomach.