“Good. Because the truth is, I don’t like your wife. I never have. But she’s the mother of my niece and nephew, so I think it best that we don’t let her die. If you prefer, I’ll take her in, bribe a couple of nurses to keep this as quiet as possible, which shouldn’t be hard. We’re bankers, not celebrities. No one’s going to be calling the tabloids over this, and if Page Six had room for every socialite overdose, that column would read like a James Frey book. Nobody wants that. So let’s just take care of this.”

Travis’s eyes slide from Lander to me and then back to Lander. “Fine. It’s unnecessary, but if it will make you feel better be my guest.”

“Great.” Lander looks down at Jessica. “I take it you won’t be coming with me?”

“I don’t have time for field trips,” Travis says between gritted teeth.

“Very well.” He leans down and scoops up Jessica in his arms, wrinkling his nose slightly, put off by the smell of her. “Bell, I’m going to need your help.”

“And why is that?” Travis asks in a voice that implies that he knows the answer.

“I only have so many hands,” Lander says irritably. “I could use help, and it seems appropriate that your wife’s assistant help me deal with this.” He looks over at me. “Your employer is in a stupor; I assume you’re free?”

I nod, feeling more grateful than I can let on here.

My enemy has saved me.

chapter thirty-seven

The ride to the hospital is not pleasant. Twice Lander has to ask his driver to pull over so Jessica can throw up, which really takes the elegance out of riding in a limo. I seriously doubt I’m going to want to have sex in here again.

Of course I’m happy to be away from Travis, but the very fact that I’m taking Jessica to the hospital begins to infuriate me. I’m now fairly sure that Jessica’s not going to die and that Travis was right, she probably would have lived through the night if left to herself. But still, I’ve never seen her this bad before, and if he’s wrong and she is in mortal danger, I may have just blown the best setup I could have asked for. If she had died because her husband wouldn’t help her, all I would have had to do was make it look like Travis had tricked her into taking the meds (snuck them in her Advil bottle, or just emptied a few capsules into her flask). That combined with his refusing to take her to the emergency room when she started turning blue and presto!—instant murder charge.