“She calls herself P.” Gideon looked up, a pool of his own sweat glimmering on the table in his retreat, gasping the moment the words left his lips as if he couldn’t believe he’d just said them.
Linc’s heartbeat picked up. “P? Stands for what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does P have a last name? Phone number?”
“She uses an unknown number. I’ve never even met her in person.”
“Oh, no? How did you end up working for her, then?”
“A friend of mine told me how to make some extra money. Said he’d give her my number.”
“That friend’s name?”
“Maurice. But he’s dead. Shootout at the bottom of the hill, few months back.”
“Of course,” Linc grumbled, pushing away from the table again, turning his back with a hand over his mouth.
Gideon swallowed thickly, speaking to Linc’s back. “P, she calls and gives me the names, addresses, and physical descriptions. I pick up the girls where she wants them picked up. Drop them off where she wants them dropped off. I get 2 g’s each time.”
Linc swung on his feet to face him, licking his bottom teeth, making his lip protrude. “And by “picking the girls up”… you mean throwing them down staircases? Shoving their bodies into trunks? Putting them in intensive care?”
“I didn’t push that girl. I followed her into the trash room and, when I tried to grab her, she panicked and tripped over her own feet. That’s why she fell down those stairs. I didn’t push her!”
“I see, so it’s her fault, right? It’s her fault she fell, suffered massive internal bleeding, and went into fetal distress? It’s her fault she lost her unborn child? A child she lost as a direct result of your attack?” When silence prevailed, and Gideon dropped his chin into his chest, Linc’s blood boiled. The urge to take him around the neck nearly ate him alive, so he shoved away from the table once more, turning his back. “Where do you take the girls P orders you to pick up?” Linc asked, swinging on his heel once he’d collected himself. “A house? An apartment? I want addresses.”
“I don’t have addresses.” Gideon began to stumble over his words, appearing to realize that, at that point, he was screwed no matter what. “I’m always instructed to drop the girls off in… in public locations. Trains. Airports. Bus stations.”
“Where were you going with the two girls this time?”
Gideon hesitated. “P wanted them dropped off at the docks. That’s all I know.”
Clenching his teeth, Linc moved for the door.
Gideon jolted, calling after him. “Hey, we got a deal right?”
Teeth still bared, Linc snatched open the door and disappeared around the corner.
Gideon’s cries followed him out. “15 years—not life, right?” Gideon screamed. “We had a deal!”
The door slammed closed behind Linc, drowning out Gideon’s pleas.
22
Days after they’d made love, the words Veda had said to Gage still rang true in her heart. No matter how long he’d held her. No matter how many times he’d whispered his vehement disagreement. No matter how desperately he’d begged her to stop beating herself up. She’d meant it.
It should’ve been her.
If she’d returned to Shadow Rock a normal woman, an emotionally sound woman, she’d be married by now. Living in Gage’s mansion. Spending his millions on daily shopping sprees. Having weekly brunch with the other wealthy moms in the neighborhood. Her biggest problem in life would be what color to paint the new nursery as she prepared for her and her loving husband’s upcoming bundle of joy.
But no.
Thanks to her debilitating anger, the blinding rage, and the overwhelming thirst for vengeance, her baby was gone.
She was catching. Poisonous. Anyone who dared come too close doomed to join her in the deep, dark grave she’d dug for herself. Gage was already in there, lying next to her, six feet under, encased in the cold shadows, staring up into the starry sky above, praying for rescue.
But there was no rescue from her darkness.
There was no rescue from her.
There were a million ways into that grave, but zero ways out—none that she knew of anyway. The only thing she’d mastered was the art of adding more bodies to the ditch.
Who else was set to join them? Jake, Hope, Coco?
Linc?
Her stomach turned at the thought. It was bad enough that Linc was putting his job on the line by harboring her in his apartment against company policy. But if the police ever found out she was The Chopper—who Linc was turning the town upside down to find—it wouldn’t look good that she was a friend of his. He might even look like an accomplice. It could cost him his job.
On the flip side, even if she never got caught, Linc was still screwed. In order to be granted the promotion to sergeant he so desperately craved, closing on The Chopper was a must.
There was no way around it. Veda’s success—her freedom—would always have to mean Linc’s downfall. So really, she’d dragged three people along with her into that cold, dark ditch. Gage, Linc, and her baby.
Who was next?
She blinked away the tears that tried to come to her eyes when the Asian forensics investigator sitting across from her began flipping through a chart, pulling her away from her thoughts. She sniffled softly, her eyes searching the empty exam room that had been designated for the cheek swabs Shadow Rock PD had set up for all hospital employees.
Veda couldn’t help but smirk because Linc really was doing a hell of a job. He wanted that promotion bad—that much was evident. Perhaps it was he who was actually on the verge of finishing her off. She could dodge him everywhere else, but she couldn’t dodge her own DNA. She, Jake, and Hope had spent hours trying to find a way around the cheek swabs that would wrongly indict Veda for Jax Murphy’s murder, but they’d come up short every time. Veda couldn’t even refuse to take the test altogether. That would only make her look ten times more suspicious.
Was she on the verge of being caught before she even had a chance to finish what she’d started? Would her quest for revenge be brought to a grinding halt by one of her best friends on the island? Ironically, the friend that was giving her safe harbor in his own home?
Was it better this way? She was contagious, after all. Was the world safer with her, and her demons, behind bars? Free only to destroy the lives of other criminals? The equally fucked up people she’d surely be surrounded by in prison?
She tried to wash the maddening thoughts away. To calm herself, she swung slowly back and forth on the rolly stool she sat on. She smoothed her clammy hands over her pink scrub bottoms while studying the Asian forensics technician before her. He wore jeans and a blue Shadow Rock Police Department pullover. A line of her fellow employees waited behind the closed door of the room, all with last names ranging from V-Z. They’d been the lucky employees who’d had a full week to put this crap off while the police hammered through A-U.
But there was no more putting it off.
The tech looked exhausted—over it—as he scribbled on his chart from his rolly stool across from her. Veda couldn’t blame him. He’d been swabbing cheeks all week, and since a smart mouth seemed like an unwritten job requirement in that hospital, she knew he’d been on the receiving end of a lot of quick tongues the whole time. Never sleeping was another unwritten job requirement at Shadow Rock Hospital, so the coffee breath he must’ve been getting assaulted with was simply unimaginable.
Still, he managed to smile warmly at her, setting his chart on the tray table. “You’re Veda.”
She nodded, pressing her lips together.
“I’m Martin Zhang.” He pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves. “I work with Linc.”
Veda’s eyebrows shot up. When she’d first moved in with Linc, he’d told her he was breaking company protocol by having her in his apartment. That his colleagues couldn’t know. So she found herself surprised that one of them seemed to recognize her name.
“He, uh…”
Martin paused, his brows pinching again as if he were wondering if he should continue. “He talks about you.”
Veda’s eyebrows jumped higher.
“He doesn’t really talk about anyone.” He chuckled.
Veda had no idea what this man was trying to say, and she couldn’t even find the presence of mind to try and figure it out because she was too busy watching him seize a long clear tube from a small cardboard box on the tray table. Popping the plastic tube open, he fingered out a sterile buccal swab, which looked like a long Q-Tip.
Martin motioned to her with the tip of the swab, and Veda opened her mouth wide, eyes falling closed as he immediately pressed it against her cheek and began twisting and turning it.
“Just have to do this for about thirty seconds to get an accurate sample,” Martin explained, his voice a pleasant whisper.
But there was nothing pleasant about the experience for Veda. With every twist of that swab, her mind flashed with a new way her life was about to be completely fucked. With every twist of that swab, she wondered if she’d be lucky enough to find some butch woman in prison to protect her. She nearly gagged on the swab as she thought of the “favors” she’d surely be expected to deliver in return for that protection.
The twisting and turning only meant to go on for thirty seconds began to feel like hours. Her jaw ached and felt moments from locking. Eyes flying to the ceiling, her mind went a mile a minute.
She still had no idea how the police had found out that Jax Murphy had fallen from the cliffs. She and Hope had relocated his dead body more than seven miles away. They’d tossed him into a raging river! With a current powerful enough to wash every inch of evidence from his body.
Her eyes fell to Martin, and she frowned. Had this smart son of a bitch been the one to figure it out? Had he taken one look at Jax’s dead body and immediately detected some clue that he’d been moved? Had he shared a good laugh with his co-workers over the amateur who’d tried to fool him? Would he be the one testifying at the trial that would put her away? Banishing her to a life in prison where she’d be licking pussy forever?
If, by some miracle, she found a way out of this mess, could Veda outwit this smart son of a bitch five more times?
She wasn’t sure she could.
By the time Martin pulled the swab from her mouth, her chest was heaving.
He plopped the swab with her DNA into the skinny clear tube he’d picked up a minute earlier and clicked the red cap closed.
Veda watched him scribble her name and employee id onto the label wrapped around the tube. Her eyes followed his gloved hand as he inserted the tube into the plastic holder where hundreds of other sample tubes stood upright in tiny holes that had been built into the casing.
Her tube landed in its slot and tried to roll in a circle, but the tight fit didn’t give it much room to move, and soon it was standing upright, motionless.
Veda memorized that spot.
Martin clapped his hands together with a smile. “You’re all done.”
She thanked him and stood from her stool, leaving the room and informing the next person in line that Martin was ready for them. As she made her way down the bustling halls, she couldn’t help but realize Martin’s last words to her were completely right.
She was all done!
Terminated.
Finished.
Like a Mortal Combat character who’d been brought to her knees.
She could almost see Linc, dressed in a ninja costume, hoisting his sword high in the air, moments from bringing it down on her neck—her tattered body—crumpled in a heap at his feet.
She could see the words flashing across the screen in her mind, in bright red letters: FINISH HER!
To her horror, she realized Lincoln Hill was on the verge of doing just that.
Minus the ninja costume.
——
“It’s a wrap, guys. I’m going to prison. Forced to eat the hairy box of my overweight cellmate just to stay alive. Nice knowing you.” Veda gave a wave. “It’s been real.”
Jake and Hope shared a look from where they sat across from each other on Linc’s balcony later that evening. Even though Linc had put their names on the list of people cleared to enter the building, it hadn’t stopped Jerome from escorting them up to Linc’s door to make sure Veda was okay with their presence. Veda couldn’t lie. Linc had been right. His place was the safest building in all of Shadow Rock. The security guards at the door were bordering on paranoid.
“Will you fuckin’ stop already?” Hope asked from where she was sitting a little too far back on the balcony’s edge, swinging her feet. “Nobody’s going to prison. Nobody’s eating hairy boxes.”
“Um…” Veda’s eyes narrowed. “Did you not hear the story I just told you? About the forensics investigator who just got finished swabbing my cheek at work this afternoon? Did you not hear that?”
Hope rolled her eyes.
Jake sighed and hopped down from where he was sitting on the edge opposite Hope. He moved to the glass doors of Linc’s apartment and peeked in.
“He’s not here, Jake,” Veda said. “Calm down.”
“Are you sure he hasn’t had any cameras or recording devices installed?”
“Even if he has, who cares? Apparently, I’m still the only person on this balcony who realizes he has my fucking DNA,” Veda cried. “It’s a wrap for me.”
“If I offer to take the fall, will you calm the hell down?” Hope begged, squinting one heavily lined hazel eye while curling her lip at Veda.
“No,” Veda mumbled. “They can prove I was at the cliffs that night, but they can’t prove you were. Plus, I’m the reason you accidentally killed that piece of shit in the first place. You protected me. So now I’m protecting you. No reason for us both to go down.”
Hope’s eyes widened at Veda, and a moment later she moved her eyes to Jake, looking horrified.
Understanding the look, Veda motioned to Jake, who was now leaning on the balcony glass. “Hope, he knows.”
“What the fuck?” If it was possible, Hope’s eyes exploded even wider, clapping her hands on the balcony edge and leaning forward. “How could you tell him?”
“It slipped out when we got the email about the DNA testing.” Veda shrugged at the poisonous look Hope gave her. “I was emotional. My life as I knew it was flashing before my eyes. Pretty sure I was in a state of shock!”
“Oh, give it a rest,” Hope grumbled.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Veda said.
“You’re sorry? Maybe I’ll let a few of your secrets slip out to someone you barely know in a moment of shock and emotion. Will ‘I’m sorry’ be enough for you then?” Hope asked.
Veda motioned to her, voice rising. “Honestly, you’ve known that Jake’s been smuggling drugs for me from the pharmacy this whole time. It was only fair he knew a little of your dirt too. Now everyone is on an even keel. He knows a secret that could put you in jail, you know a secret that could put him in jail—everyone knows secrets that could put me in jail. We all have enough shit on each other to ensure we never turn on each other. It’s better this way.”
Hope and Jake shared a look, and she was the first to break the gaze with a scoff, staring off into Linc’s beautiful view.
Taking her scoff as surrender, Veda continued. “Besides, I’m the one going down for all this so what the hell does it matter anyway? Once I’m in jail, there’ll be no one left to screw up either of your lives. Your worlds can go back to normal.” Veda crossed her arms.
A long silence fell with the three of them sharing looks, but unable to find the words.
Then, Jake’s voice floated in. “I’ll give you mine.”
Veda snapped her head toward him, catching his blue eyes, slightly squinted since he was facing the setting sun. “Excuse me?”
Jake crossed his arms as well. “I stole a fresh buccal swab tube from the Asian guy when he went on a bathroom break this morning. We’ll use it to swab my cheek and find some way to switch o
ut the samples.”
Veda’s hand flew out, slapping Jake’s arm before she could stop herself.
“Ow!” Jake winced at the blow, leaning away from her with his brows pinched. “Wow, um… you’re welcome?” he asked sarcastically, waving his hand through the air.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said to me,” Veda whispered. “I won’t risk your DNA coming up twice in their records. It’ll make you look like a suspect. I’m not letting you put your job or your life on the line for me. I’m not letting anyone put their lives on the line for me. Not anymore.”
“Did you not read the email they sent out? DNA testing is expensive as fuck, so the police are only swabbing the women, remember?” Jake reminded. “My DNA won’t come up twice in their records because they never took it to begin with. They won’t have it on file. We’ll swab my cheek, find some way to switch out the samples, they won’t have a match for the nails they found on the cliffs, and they’ll finally give up on investigating the hospital altogether.”
“Yeah…” Hope pointed to Jake, nodding with a soft frown on her face.
Veda huffed at her. “Please don’t encourage this.”
“But he’s right, V.”
“No,” Veda beamed.
Jake leaned back with his arms held out, cocking a leg before letting them clap back down at his sides. “So you’ll just get caught, bitch? You’ll just go to jail and eat hairy boxes for the rest of your life?”
Veda’s lips curled at the thought, but she quickly blinked back to the present. “I think it’s become abundantly clear that Linc refuses to give up on the hospital. He knows what his gut is telling him and he trusts it one hundred percent. Even if we did manage to switch the samples and kill this arm of the investigation, he’d just build another one. He’ll continue listening to his gut, and his gut will eventually lead him right back to the hospital where he’ll turn it upside down with a new lead, or a new test, or a new investigation. And there’s no guarantee that, when he does, he won’t figure out what you’re suggesting we do. So, no!” Veda beamed. “Thank you, Jake. You’re an incredible friend for even offering. I can’t even begin to explain how incredible, but…” Veda held her hands out in front of her. “No, okay?”
Pulse (Revenge Book 5) Page 20
