by Naomi West
# # #
Zed
He realized a long time ago that the easiest way to get where you were going was to just look like you belonged there already. With that in mind, he'd shaven, brushed his teeth, and pulled on his best suit—the same suit he'd worn to Marilyn's funeral, and to all of Kai's court dates.
He strode through the front area of the building, hit the elevator, and rode it all the way to the top floor. Because where else would the CEO be, but at the top of the steel and glass spire? It was only natural that someone vaulted to the figurative top of a corporation would also sit at the literal one.
“Excuse me,” he said to the first office drone he saw as he stepped off the elevator, “I'm looking for Abby Winter's office. I have a one o'clock meeting with her.”
“Really?” the young woman asked, cocking her head to the side. “At one o'clock?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding emphatically. “One o'clock.”
“Well, I'm her assistant, Jacquelyn. Jacquelyn Robertson. I don't recall making an appointment for today. Are you sure? Did we speak on the phone already?”
“Well,” Zed said, smiling the broadest and most genuine smile he could muster with a pistol tucked against his shoulder, “I remember making the appointment. Do you not?”
Abby's assistant laughed, the sound a little uneasy and confused. “Well, maybe I didn't remember exactly. There's just been so much going on with this conference coming up and my own vacation time. Come on over to her office, and let's see if we can't figure out what the problem is.”
Zed raised his eyes to the heavens and silently thanked whatever was out there as he fell in line behind Jacquelyn and headed down the office corridor. A minute later she was circling around her desk and taking a seat as she pulled out her day planner.
“What was the name on the appointment, again?” she asked, as she flipped through the book.
“Zed. Zed Hesse.”
She twisted her lips to the side and bit them, concerned and confused that the appointment wasn't in the book. “Well,” she said, flipping back and forth between the pages, apparently trying to see if she'd written the time in on the wrong date, “I'm not finding you at all in here, Mr. Hesse.”
“Zed, please,” he said, smiling again. “You said she had a conference to leave for?”
She nodded. “Yep, she has a flight to catch in just a few hours, and will be out of pocket for most of next week. Would you like to reschedule your appointment?”
“Would it be possible for me to just pop in?” Zed asked, trying that smile of his again. It had worked to get him this far, hadn't it? “Our matter should just take a few minutes to discuss.”
Jacquelyn looked up at him from the daily planner, and the look in her eyes was uncertain. “Well, let me see if she's available, since you came all the way up here. Worse she can do is say no, right?”
Zed laughed. “Right.”
Abby Winter's assistant grabbed the phone and dialed her extension. “Ms. Winters? I have a gentlemen named Zed Hesse here to see to you. He says he had an appoint-” She paused like Abby had cut her off mid-word. “Oh? Yes, ma'am. Should I just send him in, then?” She placed the phone back in its cradle and shrugged. “She said to go right in.”
“Thank you,” Zed said, grinning so wide his cheeks were starting to hurt.
He hadn't realized how stressful this would all be, especially after having confined himself to his apartment for the last few weeks. Of course, this was all spur of the moment, too. He was used to having plans—some sort of operational guideline when it came to life.
This was all off the cuff, and he was playing fast and loose with what he could get away with.
He just hoped he wasn't going to have to move to Plan B.
“Mr. Hesse,” Abby said, as he opened her door and stepped inside her giant corner office. She was busy packing up her leather briefcase behind her desk, probably getting ready for her out-of-state conference, “I've heard a lot about you already. Honestly, didn't expect to see you here today.”
Zed was stunned by her looks. The TV screen hadn't done justice to just what kind of presence she'd have in real life. Her eyes were large and striking, even from across the large office. As she glanced his way, he just felt his own eyes drawn to them. And, damn, that business dress hugged every curve on her petite body. Sure, she was small, but he could tell that she had a spirit ten times her size and a kind of strength you didn't find in every woman on the street.
“Yes,” Zed said, holding his folder down in front of him. She'd heard about him? Already? What was that supposed to mean? “Um, I was wondering if-”
“Mr. Hesse,” Abby said as she came around from behind her desk and brushed past him as she went for the office door. “I can't wait to hear what you have to say, but I'm on a timetable here. As a vet, I'm sure you understand. If you want to talk, we'll have to move at the same time.”
“Oh,” Zed said, nodding. “Yes, absolutely, Ms. Winters.”
“Abby, please,” she said offhandedly as her eyes gave him a once over. “Now, come on. Walk and talk, Mr. Hesse.”
“Zed,” he said as they walked out to her assistant's office, “Please.”
Abby smiled and flicked her hair behind her ear as she turned to her assistant. “Jackie, I'll be gone for the rest of the day. Everyone knows you'll be gone, too, while I'm out of town, so don't worry.”
Jacquelyn, or Jackie, stood, and the two women hugged. “Thanks again, Abbs,” she whispered.
“Don't mention it,” the CEO whispered back as they parted, “To anyone. They need to think I'm the Ice Queen, remember?”
Her assistant laughed. “It's just between you, me, and Mr. Hesse, here.”
Abby turned back to Zed, and he smiled again.
Her interaction with her assistant told him one thing, at least. She might have seemed tough as nails on the surface, but she still had a heart. He understood that. Part of being an officer was having to act like an officer, even if you didn't feel like one. She was a new CEO, and female to boot, so she had to project that persona as much as she could.
He'd had to do the same thing for the first couple years in the military. There were expectations from your commanding officers, your fellow officers, and from the men below you, that you had to meet and exceed. The moment you stopped being the best at your job and let your guard down in public, was the moment you stopped going anywhere.
“All right, Mr. Hesse, are you ready?” Abby asked as she started to move through the office at a quickened pace. “I walk fast,” she said as she glanced back over her shoulder, “So you've got to keep up.”
And keep up, he did.
Chapter Three
Zed
The words formed and flowed from his mouth as quickly as Zed could manage. “Kai and I are twin brothers. I went Air Force as a fighter pilot, and he went Army as infantry. Between the two of us, he faced a lot more combat.”
They stopped in front of the elevator. As they waited, Abby nodded attentively to his words. “Keep going,” she said.
“When I came back a few years ago, after my discharge, Kai seemed off. My contract had been a little longer than his, by about a year. By the time I'd come home, he was already settling back into life with his wife, Marilyn, and trying to make a go of it.”
The elevator bell rang, and the two of them entered. Abby shot a look at the two employees who tried to slip on as well , giving them a quick shake of her head. Clearly, she wanted to keep this discussion private.
Zed, for his part, didn't seem to notice. He was too wrapped up in having to tell Kai's story in such a short amount of time. He knew this was important, and that it could be the missing piece in all the efforts he'd already made. If he could convince her between now and the time she got in her car to leave, maybe he could do something to help Kai.
“He had all the symptoms of PTSD, though,” Zed continued, after the elevator door closed behind them, sealing them in. “I could see it, his wife
could see it, and even he could see it. He couldn't get to sleep and had night terrors when he could. He was removing himself from life, and he had anxiety in crowds and around loud noises. He still couldn't get the proper treatment through the VA system. Everyone was trying to get appointments back then, and he had to wait nearly a year. So, he went into a private care practitioner, under his wife's insurance, and managed to see someone in order to get a diagnosis.”
The elevator stopped again, just a few floors down, and Zed stumbled to a stop. When the doors opened, Abby shook her head at her employees and hit the “close doors” button again. “Continue, Mr. Hesse. Please,” she said, as the elevator hummed along on its downward trajectory.
Zed searched for the words that would affect her the most. He needed her, after all, to publicly admit the harm her company had caused.
In the end, though, he decided to just tell the whole story. Everything.
“Around that time, he had severe suicidal ideation. Are you familiar with that term?”
Abby nodded. “It's when someone is not just thinking about suicide, but is also planning it out. They consider the best way to do it, how to leave the least mess, and how to avoid putting anyone through torment due to finding the body. I'm familiar.”
Zed nodded, licking his dry lips. “Right. Exactly. You understand, then, why we were happy for him to be seeing the private care physician. Finally, we weren't as worried about Kai just becoming a statistic. But the doctor prescribed your medication, Dimalerax, and things got worse.”
The elevator for the parking garage dinged open, and Abby gave him a glancing look, as if to say, Not much time left, Zed. Hurry things the fuck up. They left the elevator, and Abby unlocked her SUV.
Zed rushed along, his words spilling from his mouth even faster as they walked along through the parking garage to her car. “They told him Pharma-Vitae had said he needed to take it for fourteen days, to see if it would work, before they'd switch him to a different medicine.” He paused and pulled out the pictures of his niece and nephew, brother, and sister-in-law as they got to Abby Winter's big SUV. “On the tenth day, he killed his wife and two children,” he said, as he shoved the photos at her.
She glanced down at the photos, but didn't take them.
“He called 911 after it happened, Ms. Winters, and waited for the cops to get there. He had the gun to his head, but they talked him down, convincing him that the courts would work out everything in the end.”
Abby took a moment to respond. Her face was neutral, as frigid as her last name. “Mr. Hesse …Zed,” Abby said very carefully, her voice cold and unfeeling, “I understand you and your family have undergone a traumatic event, and that it's very common in these situations to attribute the ultimate responsibility to an outside actor. But, the fact of the matter is, these claims are completely unfounded. I can't just take your word on all this, can I?”
Zed's shoulders slumped. She'd seemed so caring and understanding on the TV and when she was dealing with her assistant, before. But this reaction right in front of him—this was just too cold. Could this even be the same woman?
“He's on death row now, Abby. Do you know what it's like to know your identical twin is about to be executed? That a man who walked almost the same path as you through life took a medication that fucked his brain up so badly that he shot his family? That he shot his kids?”
“I can't imagine your turmoil,” she said. “But I just don't feel that Pharma-Vitae was responsible.”
He knew it. Her media persona was a lie.
Zed hadn't wanted to use Plan B, but if she was going to refuse to help him, Plan B was what it was going to have to be.
# # #
Abby
The look on Zed's face, as she had to tell him the truth, was just heart-breaking. She'd never had a bond with anyone in her life, like he’d clearly had with his brother, Kai. It was sad to think that he had been on the outside this whole time, struggling to make sense of what his brother did and to somehow exonerate him. It took all she had to hold that emotion in check, and to keep her cold bitch of a mask in place.
But, as much as it tore at her, she had a responsibility to her shareholders and employees. There was a reason why she'd been selected as CEO, and that was to return value on their investment. It was her job to make sure her employees stayed employed.
The two ideas warred in her mind and in her gut. She knew that, if she didn't get out of there soon, her facade might crack.
“But, even if Pharma-Vitae was partially responsible for your brother's actions,” Abby explained, as politely as she could, without letting her emotions come through, “We'd have to go through proper channels before we could attest to that. While I can appreciate why you would bring this to me, Zed, it won't solve anything. We have policies and procedures in place for this kind of complaint.”
Zed's face went from saddened to neutral. “I just need you to admit there's a problem with the medication when used by PTSD victims—that there's something going on there.”
Abby sighed internally. Externally, she just shook her head. “I'm sorry, Zed, but I can't do that without more proof, and without some sort of instruction from my internal legal team and our researchers. And, if you continue to press the point, I'll have to call security-”
Her words were cut off mid-sentence, though, as the vet's hand shot out and grabbed her by the throat. Apparently, she'd given him the wrong answer.
Her mind screamed alarm bells as her breath was cut off. She desperately tried to suck in a breath, but nothing would come. She reached out, grabbed his wrist and tried to pull his hand from her, but he was too strong.
“I'm sorry,” Zed said. “But I need you to get in the car now.”
She swung the keys in her hand, trying to strike at his face, but he just snatched her wrist in mid-air and twisted it off to the side as he pushed her back and around to the passenger side, her feet nearly lifting off the ground.
He reached around behind her and opened the driver side door before releasing her. Before Abby realized what was happening, he had reached inside his suit coat and pulled a pistol—a big, matte-black handgun. “Get in the car,” he said, as he put the gun to her forehead.
Her heart thudded in her chest like a bass drum, and her palms were clammy and covered in cold sweat. “I-I-I-”
“Get in the fucking car!” Zed yelled.
Meekly, Abby got into the driver’s seat and, on reflex, buckled up.
As she looked up at him, she realized how shitty and sad her life had been. Sure, she'd gone to college and gotten her master's degree. She was one of the few female pharma CEO's in the world. But what else did she have? No love life to speak of, no one to share her bed, besides the vibrator she kept in her nightstand. She'd never traveled, unless it was on business. All she did was work talk to people she thought might be able to help her with her career or in her business.
What kind of fucking life was that, anyway?
She'd wanted to be loved by someone—to be held, to be told things were going to be all right, to have someone support her, even if they weren't going to get something out of it at the end of the day, and to be loved by a man who wasn't threatened by her position, or by her strength.
Instead, she didn't even have a dog or a cat. Shit, she could barely even manage to keep her pathetic excuse for a garden alive.
Zed Hesse could murder her, or cut her body into a hundred parts, and the only people who'd notice she was missing were colleagues from work. Could he do that? Could he cut her up into a hundred parts?
Of course he could. Look at what his identical brother had already done. And to his own family!
Still, even as the despair began to take over, she didn't cry. Her nose sniffled a little, and she felt the tears of panic and fear begin to well up in her eyes, but she didn't let them loose. Her mother never would have forgiven her if she had. No. Instead, she looked straight ahead, out the windshield, and awaited whatever fate faced her.
&
nbsp; It was because of her staring straight ahead, that she didn't even see the pistol butt coming down on her temple.
Pain just exploded behind her eyes, and the whole world faded to black.
Chapter Four
Abby
She awoke sometime later, disoriented, her head throbbing like her brain was trying to crawl out and go for a manic run around the block. She looked around, her brain trying to comprehend what had just happened , and where she was.
She was in her garage, she realized. It was her garage, at her house. She glanced over at the GPS in the center console and realized Zed just used the HOME button to send him back here.
