Chavez studied him from the corner of her eyes, her voice coming lower and softer. “Fine. Detective Gellar will finish questioning Zena…”
Linc exhaled at the sound of his partner, Detective Sam Gellar’s, name. His eyes flew across the precinct where she was currently attempting to make a dent in the mountain of paperwork at her desk.
Chavez continued. “Meanwhile, you pay a visit to the Blackwater estate. Speak to the family about their whereabouts during Veda’s push. Clear every alibi. Also, speak to the management at her apartment complex about seizing the surveillance tapes in the trash rooms. And as far as The Chopper…” she sighed. “Try to find an amenable judge to see if we can get a warrant for the DNA screenings at the hospital. Make sure everything’s by the book. No cut corners. I don’t want a judge to have any reason to screw us over down the line.”
Linc exhaled, his shoulders easing. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Keep me posted,” she said, looking over her shoulder as she moved away.
Linc watched her go, seeing the gleam of apprehension that was still present in her eyes, and unable to ignore the very same apprehension rolling itself into a ball in his belly.
His boss was losing patience, and Linc knew if he didn’t close both of these cases—fast—they might very well be his last.
8
“28-year-old Liam O’Dair, heir to the billion-dollar O’Dair family fortune, has been charged with inflicting serious bodily harm and terminating a pregnancy without the mother’s consent.” The brunette newscaster’s frown was so strong it nearly shattered the glass of the television screen. “Prosecution is requesting a ten-year sentence…”
“Infringing upon a woman’s body without her knowledge or permission. Guess some things never change, huh, Liam?” Every breath Veda took burned, like boiling water was bubbling out of her lungs, as video footage of Liam O’Dair in the courtroom played with the newscaster’s voiceover in the background. With dull blonde hair, elfish features, and soulless blue eyes that hung so low he constantly appeared on the verge of passing out, Liam hadn’t changed a bit.
The newscast cut to video footage of Liam in the courtroom during his arraignment. His arm was raised as he was sworn in, making the sleeve of his jacket fall and reveal the number 17 tattooed on his inner wrist.
At the sight of that 17, Veda closed her eyes, and the darkness was right there, greeting her behind her closed eyelids.
Her eyes fell to the number 17 as he locked his fingers around her neck, squeezing hard enough to cut off her air supply. She prayed for him to squeeze tighter. To end it all. But his grip loosened as the sound of his zipper coming down rang into the night air. The laughter of his friends, his teammates, ensured Veda that she was still alive and well, and the tears never seemed to stop coming as he pushed into her with a grunt.
Veda’s eyes flew open with a gasp. The remote trembled in her hand as she clutched it so tightly she nearly shattered the plastic. Her unblinking eyes drank in the TV screen, even as the door to her hospital room clicked open.
She didn’t break her stare from the television when two voices greeted her from the doorway. She didn’t break it when those voices eased closer to her hospital bed. She didn’t even break it when a large black duffle bag was plopped onto the bed next to her.
“Liam O’Dair,” Veda grumbled, not even having to look to know that her two closest friends, Hope Dickerson and Jake Jones, were the people who’d just entered the room and approached her bedside.
From where she’d taken a seat at the foot of the bed, Hope covered Veda’s calf with her tattooed hand, nails painted black, her heavily lined hazel eyes searching her face before following her gaze to the TV.
“Is that five?” Jake asked from the side of the bed, fingering the strap of the duffle bag he’d just set down.
Veda dropped the remote between her sheet and blanket covered legs but didn’t look at Jake. She kept her eyes on the TV. “Son of a bitch just got denied bail.”
“Thank God,” Hope said, throwing her eyes to Veda. “Spiking his girlfriend’s drink with the abortion pill? How fuckin’ sick can you get? I hope they bury him.”
“I wanted his sorry ass released,” Veda said. “Now I have to wait until his trial to tear his fucking rocks out.”
“I don’t know, Veda. He’s probably going to prison.” Jake cringed at the TV. “Not even Daddy O’Dair has enough money to make this level of batshit crazy go away.”
“Daddy O’Dair won’t let me down. He’ll find a way, and Liam will walk.”
“You’ll still have to wait until a jury affirms it,” Jake said.
Veda scoffed. “The one time the judicial system on this godforsaken island decides to do the right thing, it has to be with number five…”
Hope swung her leg from where it hung over the edge of the bed, running her fingers through her dark brown hair, showcasing her heavily tattooed arm. The black and white art raced up and down both her arms and across her chest as well. She wore all black, as usual, and wrestled the mountainous wad of gum that stayed trapped between her perfect teeth.
“So skip to the next one, then,” Hope said. “Number six. Gotta take every last one of them out anyway. What’s the difference?”
“No,” Veda said, cutting her eyes back to the TV. “Liam is next.”
Hope and Jake shared a look.
“Yo, she was just like this in high school,” Hope complained. “Everything had to be mapped out to the fucking letter. God forbid someone wanted to play it by ear, fly by the seat of their fuckin’ pants a little. Not if Veda had anything to do with it. I’m convinced she might have a mild case of Asperger’s.” Hope widened her eyes at Veda. “Shit, you’re already admitted. You should get tested for it. You need to be on some medication if you’re really ready to delay this whole thing for a month.”
“She’s a doctor,” Jake grumbled, his blue eyes searching Veda’s face. He tried to reach out and push one of Veda’s runaway curls away from her face, but she reared away before he could. He curled his lip. “Well, fuck you too.” Turning to Hope, Jake sighed. “Every doctor in this place is Type A and flirting with the edge of the autistic spectrum. It’s the only way you make it out of medical school alive while the rest of us sane people are perfectly content with our shitty liberal arts degrees.”
Veda’s nostrils flared. “Liam had better enjoy his time in prison because once he’s out… I’m going to make him wish he’d never left.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “Finally ready to give these animals what they really deserve?”
Veda’s chest heaved as she met Hope’s eyes, knowing what she meant by ‘give them what they really deserve.’ Hope wanted to see the men who’d raped Veda dead, just like Jax Murphy, her number three. Jax Murphy, the man who Hope had accidentally killed when he’d been in the midst of taking Veda over the edge of a cliff. The man whose murder was still an open investigation at Shadow Rock PD. An investigation led by the very detective who’d insisted Veda come and stay with him once she was discharged. She clenched the bronze one-year-sober coin she’d had locked in a tight fist all morning, the one that very same detective had given her, ten years earlier, when he’d fished her out of the ocean. She found herself amazed that the person who had the power to destroy her life was the same one that helped keep her centered.
“Like I said…” Veda paused to give Jake a look. He still didn’t know that Hope had killed Jax, so Veda spoke carefully, reclaiming Hope’s eyes. “I’m gonna make Liam wish he never got released.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Hope said, bopping Veda’s leg, popping her gum with a sideways grin like a proud mom whose child had just learned their ABC’s. “Go hard or go home, motherfucker. If there’s no blood on your hands, then there’s no fuckin’ point.”
“I’ve got plenty of blood on my hands…” Veda’s voice broke, and she looked toward the window. A moment of heavy silence fell in, and then she pushed her eyes closed, blowing ai
r out from between her lips.
“Oh, Veda,” Jake whispered. “You can’t possibly be blaming yourself for this—”
Veda shot her eyes to Jake with a look so venomous it stole the rest of his sentence. “Don’t do that. Don’t coddle me like some idiot patient who doesn’t know any better. It’s bad enough I’ve been dealing with it from Penny all morning. Didn’t you say you were going to hassle the nurses to put a rush on my discharge paperwork? What the hell’s taking so long?”
“Paperwork’s all done,” Jake said. “But Detective Hill gave me explicit orders not to let you leave. And you know I’m defenseless to that delicious man whenever he’s giving me explicit orders. Says he wants to take you out of here himself.” Jake waggled his eyebrows.
Veda pretended not to notice, fingering the strap of her duffle bag. “Thanks for going to my apartment and packing some stuff for me.”
Jake winked. “Yep. Nothing but lacy bras, panties, handcuffs, and lube. Something tells me you’ll be putting them all to very good use.”
Veda groaned. “I want you to be joking, but I know you aren’t. I’m going to open this bag and find nothing but crotchless panties and anal beads looking back at me. How many times do I have to say that Linc and I are just friends?”
“Sure,” Jake said, snappily, widening his eyes as they narrowed away, refusing to dignify Veda’s faux bewilderment with a real response.
“I still don’t know why you can’t just skip to the rest of these pricks until five is out of jail,” Hope said.
“Because I can’t. I came back here with a plan, and I intend to stick to it. I know what I’m doing.” Veda swallowed. “Besides… God only knows how long it’s going to take Linc to find my attacker. Until he does, I’m under his roof. He’s already come close to sniffing me out, on more than one occasion, when we lived in different places. If I try to finish this thing while living under his roof—he’ll catch me.”
“Or… you could use it to your advantage. Know thy enemy, right?” Hope asked. “What better way to stay under Linc’s radar than to be living with him? You’ll know every move he makes, which will make it ten times easier to get around him.”
Veda thought on it, then shook her head. “Too risky. All I can do is hope that, by the time Liam O’Dair is released—if he’s released—Linc will have found out who attacked me and I can go back to staying at my place. Then I can pick up right where I left off.”
“Maybe you need this time off.” Jake made another attempt to push Veda’s curls behind her ear. He grumbled when she swatted his hand away again. “You went through a pretty serious fall, bub. You’re lucky to be alive right now. You need some time to recover—”
A knock on the door caused every eye in the room to fly towards it, and Veda was sure she could hear both Hope and Jake gasp softly at the sight of Gage.
More casual than usual, wearing a steel gray button-down cardigan over a white t-shirt and camel slacks, Gage still somehow managed to look like he belonged on the cover of a magazine. Freshly showered, his black hair was damp and pushed back on his head, showcasing his chiseled features. A bouquet of a dozen roses rested in his hand.
Hope curled her lip at him.
Jake shifted, in the way only an employee who was eye to eye with his boss could. “Oh hey, Mr. Blackwater.”
Gage didn’t give Hope or Jake so much as a passing glance, too entranced by Veda. “The nurses said you still wanted to be alone, but—”
“I do still want to be alone,” Veda said. “I’d like you to leave.”
Gage finally looked at Hope and Jake, motioning to them with the flowers in his hand. “But Hope and Jake—?”
“Are my friends who I actually want here,” Veda finished, her voice tight.
Hope and Jake shared a look, both sets of their teeth clenched, their eyes screaming with their desperation for escape.
Gage stepped into the room.
“I thought I said leave,” Veda snapped.
“You know what?” Gage froze in mid-approach, pointing at the bed. “I’m sick of this, Veda. I’m sick and tired of every person in this hospital disrespecting me, and interrogating me, and treating me like a suspect when I lost that baby too.”
Veda pressed her lips together, pushing her chin into her chest.
Gage dragged a hand down his face, pulling so tightly it made his skin stretch before shoving his hands in his pockets, speaking to the other two people in the room without breaking his eyes from Veda. “Leave us, please.”
“No,” Veda said the moment Jake and Hope went to move. “You don’t tell my friends when to leave a room. If they don’t want to leave, then they’re not leaving.”
Hope made a face. “I’m cool with leaving—”
“I’m good too—”
“No,” Veda spoke over Hope and Jake as they spoke over each other. “You’re staying.” She spoke through clenched teeth, moving her eyes between the two of them, waiting until they were settled once more before moving her eyes back to Gage. “Leave.”
Gage’s jaw set. “No.”
“Gage. Get out!”
“No, Veda,” he spat, pointing to the duffle bag on the bed next to her. “I see your friends have been kind enough to pack a bag for you since you’ll be staying at my place for the duration of your recovery.”
“I’m staying with Linc,” Veda said.
Gage winced as if she’d shot him.
Jake’s eyes widened as he moved his uncomfortable gaze back and forth from Veda to Gage, as if priming himself for the explosion he knew was on the horizon, but had no idea which direction it would come from.
Veda drew in a deep breath at the wounded look in Gage’s eyes. “I’m sure your new girlfriend, Stephanie, will be thrilled to know she won’t have to worry about sharing the mansion with her boyfriend’s side chick.”
“Stephanie and I are over, Veda. I left her the moment…” Gage paused and looked at Jake, appearing to realize he was spilling his personal business, and the business of two of his doctors, in front of his most gossipy employee. “Can we please have the room?”
“No,” Veda cried.
Gage’s eyes snapped to her. First, they were ripe with anger, but that vanished in an instant, replaced with white-hot desperation. “Baby, the moment I got your voicemail message I ended it with Stephanie, all right? I dropped everything and raced over to your apartment but by the time I got there you were already gone.” He faltered, studying her like a science book, then it was his turn to speak to her accusingly, shifting his stance with a soft glare. “Has Lincoln Hill gotten into your head and convinced you that I did this?” His voice grew pained, pants stretching as he spread his hands inside his pockets. “I would never do this to you, Veda. Out of anyone else in the world—I believed you’d know that.”
Veda’s eyes narrowed.
Silence.
Hope and Jake’s eyes were now down, as if they were both praying they could somehow melt the linoleum with their uncomfortable gazes and sink out of the room.
When the silence went on too long, something in Gage shattered. “Veda, I would never hurt you. I would never hurt my child.”
“Your child?” Veda spat.
Gage faltered. “Yes. My child. Our child.” He appeared to be grappling for the right words to say, whatever words would erase the pain he saw in her eyes.
Veda smashed her lips together when she felt her teeth beginning to chatter. There were so many venomous words she wanted to spew at him right then, but none of them seemed quite as deadly as she needed them to be at that moment. So, instead of speaking, she reached over onto her bedside table and snatched up her cell phone. She tapped at the screen with trembling fingers, well aware that every eye in the room was on her.
“My phone was in evidence all day yesterday.” Her voice grew high-pitched and shaky. “But Linc managed to get it back to me this morning, and I finally got a chance to hear all the voicemails you left…”
Gage’s face fell. He
sputtered, clearly in the midst of explaining himself for the actions she hadn’t yet made plain, but his voice was cut off when she found what she was looking for on her phone and put it on speaker. The voicemail he’d left the night before played, and he pushed his eyes shut with a cringe as his voice—furious from the very first word—fluttered through the phone.
“Veda. I’m here. You’re not…”
“Veda,” Gage begged, speaking over the sound of his own angered voice. “I thought you’d stood me up. I thought you were trying to play me for a fool—”
Veda turned the volume up, cutting off the rest of his sentence.
“Clearly you enjoy knowing that you can play me like a fiddle. Clearly, nothing brings you more pleasure than fucking with my heart. Goddamn it—you’re psychotic. God help that child. God help any child that ends up with you for a mother…”
Both Jake and Hope cringed at the phone, their agonized expressions ebbing deeper with each new word.
“I abhor you. I loathe you, Veda. Until that baby comes… if there even is a baby…”
Jake hissed.
Gage dropped his face into his hand.
“…if it’s even mine…”
Hope’s top lip curled higher as she side-eyed Gage.
“…stay the hell away from me. Just… Stay the fuck away from me, Veda.”
Veda’s phone beeped, indicating the message had come to an end. The phone shook under her hold, betraying her emotion, before she let it fall to the bed next to her.
“You abhor me?” she repeated the words of his message, pain lacing each one. “You loathe me? God help that child—if it’s even yours?”
Gage placed both hands on his hips and jammed his eyes closed, his chest heaving ten times faster.
Pulse (Revenge Book 5) Page 7
