Chapter 46: Chapter 46

James hustled away from the hospital as quickly as he could. At this hour there weren't many pedestrians, but there weren't many cabs, either. The few he tried to hail accelerated past him, exercising one of the few tacitly acceptable excuses for discrimination by refusing to pick up a lone, large black man, late at night.

He bent his head against the cold wind blowing off the East River and tried not to panic. But there was panic in Isobel's text. And he knew she must really be in danger if she'd forgotten her anger and reached out to him. One thing was clear: she was depending on his presence and nobody else's.

As another available cab left him in the dust, he wondered briefly if she needed him only for his muscle. That skinny British twerp wouldn't be much help in a fight. But if she were in that kind of trouble, wouldn't she call 911? Then again, maybe she had.