Linc’s mouth fell open. He jerked his head back. Then, his face collapsed into a chuckle. His amusement, however, was short-lived.
Lieutenant Chavez appeared, almost out of thin air, the way she often did, wearing her signature black pantsuit. Her hands were placed squarely on her hips as she looked between the four of them, Kent’s outburst clearly having gotten her attention.
“What in the world is going on here?” she asked.
Kent jammed a finger at Linc, his other hand still squeezing Zena’s shoulder. “This animal has been stalking my underage daughter for weeks. Last night he came to my house! When I tried to defend her, he attacked me!”
Chavez’s cringed, but not at Linc. Her squinted eyes remained on Kent as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked one leg, smiling condescendingly. “Now if you’re going to come into my precinct and make false accusations against my detectives—”
Kent’s poisonous blue orbs widened at Chavez, growling through clenched teeth. “Zena.”
Zena lifted her blue eyes for the first time. Her gaze naturally went to Linc, but when she saw the look of disbelief on his face, it immediately dashed over to Chavez.
Her voice came, low and feeble. “Detective Hill gave me his phone number and told me to use it whenever I want. He waits for me in the schoolyard. Every morning. He hides behind a big tree until my dad drops me off and drives away.”
Linc’s mouth fell, eyes wide, struggling to find words. When he realized he was, literally, speechless, he bent forward in an attempt to catch Zena’s eyes, but when she wouldn’t look at him, he cursed under his breath and turned his back, sinking his hands into his hair.
Zena’s voice wobbled along with the tears filling her eyes. “One morning, he took me to the morgue to show me the dead girls on the tables. Girls who had the same tattoo as me. While we were there… he touched me and told me how badly he wanted me. How hard I make him. That even if he had to wait until I was on one of those tables, he’d eventually get what he wanted.”
Linc swiveled on his heel, covering his mouth with shaking fingers, wide eyes locked to Zena. When the urge to explode nearly melted his skin, he turned on his heel again, giving everyone his back once more and taking a few healthy steps away.
After doing a full 180, Linc faced Zena once more, dropping his hand from his lips, eyebrows raised as his deep voice implored, “Really?”
Zena snuck a look at Linc, saw his expression, and instantly dropped her eyes, words caught in her throat.
Kent shook her. “Tell ‘em, baby. It’s okay. I’m here to protect you.”
Zena looked up at her father, and then back at Chavez, swallowing thickly. “Detective Hill… snuck into my bedroom last night—”
“Oh, you’ve gotta be fuckin’ with me.” Linc faced Chavez, his arms spread wide, voice roaring so high it caught the attention of even more co-workers as he motioned to Zena and Kent. “He’s telling her to say this, Lieutenant. Look at her. She’s terrified. Look at the hold he has on her shoulder.”
Chavez cut her eyes at Linc, arms crossed tighter than before.
“So you didn’t give my daughter your phone number?” Kent asked.
Linc shot him a glare, then faltered.
Kent swept down on Linc’s silence like a vulture. “You didn’t stalk my daughter at school? You didn’t remove her from school grounds to take her to a morgue without my knowledge or consent?”
Both Chavez and Sam looked at Linc, both visibly desperate for him to jump in and refute everything.
Silence.
“Keep going, Zena,” Kent pressed, releasing his death grip on her shoulder and replacing it with a gentle hand that caressed her back, craning his neck to catch her eyes. “Don’t let him scare you. Tell the truth.”
Zena’s teeth began to chatter, a lump moving down her throat as a tear raced along her cheek. She avoided everyone’s gaze as her eyes moved to a faraway place, almost as lifeless as her voice. “He snuck into my bedroom window. He climbed into my bed. He told me to be quiet. He promised that I’d like it. But I screamed. My father ran into the room, but he wouldn’t get off me. Detective Hill punched him, and they started fighting. I was so… so scared…”
Linc faced Sam and Chavez, arms spread, shoulders slumped, Adam’s apple bobbing. “A’ight… yes,” he admitted. “Yes, I gave her my card to use if she ever felt like she was in danger.” He had to pause, knowing he’d already broken protocol with that one admission alone, barely able to continue because he knew that was just the tip of the iceberg, voice slightly uneven. “And… yes. I saw her at school. Yes, I took her to the morgue to show her what could happen to her if she kept quiet. But everything else… everything else is a lie, and she knows it. Zena,” he pled, eyes flying back to Zena. Well past the point of breaking, he begged her with his frantic gaze to stop this. Begged her not to do this.
Zena lowered her head once more, blue eyes falling, a tear jetting from her sopping wet lashes as they did.
“Detective Hill.” Chavez held her hands out towards him. “I’d like you to wait for me in my office, please.”
Linc’s finger trembled as he pointed at Kent. “This son of a bitch molested her and then sold her to the highest bidder. Now he’s convinced her to throw me under the bus to cover his own ass—”
“Detective Hill!” Chavez boomed, with enough gumption to bring the entire precinct to a standstill. “My office.”
Linc straightened, a shot of horror zooming down his spine.
Chavez clenched her teeth. “Now.”
Chavez and Linc shared a long, lingering look, and Linc saw it in her eyes. He saw that, even if most of Zena’s accusations were lies, what little truth still lingered in the cracks could very easily mean his job.
Licking his teeth, making his top lip protrude, he turned away from all of them, numb, stunned silent, biting his tongue so hard he nearly split it in two.
He made his way through the precinct in silence, refusing to acknowledge the nosey stares of his co-workers. Even as his body quietly came apart at the seams, removing him from himself, making him feel like he was floating overhead, watching this entire nightmare unfold from another dimension, he still made it to Lieutenant Chavez’s office without lifting his stunned eyes from the floor.
It wasn’t his first walk of shame to that office. In fact, it was one of many.
But somehow, he knew, this one would be the last.
——
Gage had never approached the front door of his parents’ home in quite the manner he found himself approaching it that night. There’d once been a time when he regarded the white stone mansion before him as one of the most beautiful homes ever built. That had been before the rose-colored glasses had been snatched from his eyes, revealing the real truth about his family.
That had been before Veda.
Before she’d broken down in his arms at the hospital, blaming herself for the loss of the child they’d never meet. The child that would breathe its first breath only in their imaginations. Taking on different looks, different identities, and different mannerisms with each day that passed. Gage was sure, over the years, the son he’d never know would manifest himself as a brand new man every day. Each better and stronger than the last. But he’d never be able to confirm or deny his hopes, his dreams, by witnessing the real thing in action.
And someone was going to pay for that devastating loss.
As he made his way up the driveway, his stomach a little sicker and his heart a little heavier with every step that took him closer to the large double doors, he reminded himself that composure was of the essence. That every facet of his manner had to be perfected down to the wire, never giving anyone any indication that he was mere moments from emptying his stomach.
So when he made it to the door and went to unlock it, he made sure to keep a steady hand, even though every part of his body yearned to shake out of control. He entered the mansion with a smile, but not one so big that it would ring false.
>
He crossed the foyer and passed the living room, wondering how he’d gone twenty-six years without noticing how cold it all was. How sterile. How little heart it had.
The dining room was just as pristine and lifeless as the rest of the mansion, but nowhere near as pristine and lifeless as the five faces that greeted him from around the table. His parents, Scarlett’s parents, and Scarlett herself looked like they were doing a shoot for the cover of a mortuary magazine. A far cry from a warm, happy family gathering for a celebratory engagement dinner.
Scarlett herself looked the most post mortem. Her ghost white skin only grew paler when she and Gage locked eyes across the room. Her blue orbs expanded, and if the long red bang sweeping across her forehead weren’t shadowing her eyes, Gage would swear he saw tears.
Anger.
Utter disbelief.
Why? Her blue eyes screamed at him. Why, Gage? We were home free.
The look Gage and Scarlett shared remained intense as he took his seat. To their parents, it may have even bordered on passionate, which was exactly the aura they both needed to pull off at that moment. But Gage and Scarlett both knew there was nothing passionate about the lock of their eyes—or their complete inability to break the prolonged stare.
They’d just been plunged, yet again, into a bottomless pit of shit. A bottomless pit that they’d been convinced they’d broken free of. Convinced they’d found their way to the surface to take their first real breaths since their parents had forced their union the first time around.
As Gage apologized to Scarlett with his eyes, showing his remorse in the best way he knew how, he could already see them, in the back of his wild mind, sinking to the very bottom of that shitty pit once more.
And, this time, it would be ten times harder to make it back to the surface.
27
A sheen of sweat gleamed on Linc’s forehead as he packed the cardboard box in front of him the next evening, realizing he should’ve chosen a larger box. The one he’d brought was already full, and he hadn’t even finished packing half of his desk. Head lowered, he looked up from under his eyelids and let his gaze flit over the room. The co-workers who’d been openly staring at him quickly moved their eyes away, but Linc wasn’t blind. He’d felt their guilt-laden eyes on him from the moment he’d stepped into the precinct with that box under his arm. News about the altercation with Zena and her father had spread fast. News of his termination, even faster. The precinct was busier that morning, and he knew it was no coincidence.
They were all there for him. To see the final spear being shoved through the heart of the officer who’d been fucking up for far too long. The officer that couldn’t keep his emotions in check. The officer than never looked before he leaped. They’d all known this day would come, eventually, but Linc hadn’t realized just how many of his co-workers had been waiting with baited breath for it until that moment.
His gaze danced across the room, mildly amused at all of the eyes falling like a tidal wave before he returned his attention to the box before him. As fury filled his chest, making it rise faster every second, he tried to think of Veda. Even if he’d be walking through his apartment door with a box full of his entire career under his arm, at least he’d be coming home to someone. That thought alone calmed his heaving chest. As soon as the calm was there, however, the thought of Veda alone in his apartment entered his mind. Alone, with only his building’s security guards to protect her. Alone, with her attacker still at large. An attacker that Linc himself was no longer responsible for finding. He drew in a sharp breath and was suddenly navigating more items into the box with Tetris-like skill.
“Challenge this shit.” Sam, the only officer in the room who wasn’t watching him with sadistic fascination, but instead genuine remorse, leaned on the edge of his desk with her legs and arms crossed. “Zena’s father isn’t pressing charges because he knows his bullshit lies won’t stand up against a full investigation. Lieutenant knows that motherfucker is a lying sack of shit too. If you took it to a higher up, she wouldn’t fight it.”
Linc shook his head. “She’s been salivating for the Captain position since word got out that Fox is considering retirement. Everything by the book from here on out. In fact, she’s going to start bringing the hammer down ten times harder to prove she’s right for the promotion. I’m just the first scapegoat of many to come. Besides…” Linc sighed. “I did give Zena my number. I did take her out of school. I’m a goddamn idiot for doing it, but I did it. That alone is enough to terminate me. Add in the million and one other suspensions on my record, and it was a no brainer for her.”
“So you don’t even try to fight?” Sam begged. “What about Zena? What about “P”? We haven’t even had a chance to look into Penny Nailer.”
“Guess that’s on you and your new partner.”
“Fuck me in the ass,” Sam huffed. “I don’t want a new partner, motherfucker.” She reached out and shoved him. “I want you.”
“You got me.” He gave her a sideways smile. “Just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean our friendship ends.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Friendship? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word leave your mouth.” A beaming smile lit up her face. “I’m fuckin’ honored.”
“Calm down,” Linc smirked. The small smile Sam had managed to put on his lips wavered when his desk phone rang. Though it technically wasn’t his phone anymore, he picked it up out of pure habit, still trying to shove a few more items in his box.
“Hill,” he answered, cradling the receiver between his shoulder and ear, the small smirk on his face still vaguely present. As he listened to the voice on the other end of the line, however, his smile petered away and then vanished completely as his spine snapped straight, eyes wide. “Zena.”
Sam’s eyes widened as well, and she stood from where she’d been leaning on the desk, facing Linc with her arms crossed.
Zena’s voice came through the receiver in a whisper, as if she’d just woken from a long nap, so low and grainy Linc barely heard it, her tone broken with tears. “You swore you’d protect me.”
“Zena, I did everything I could to protect you, and you threw me under the bus.”
“You swore,” she cried, breathing heavily between each word, careful to ensure her voice remained a low whisper, even as a new pain laced her words.
The tone of her voice made Linc’s heart stop in mid-beat. “Why are you whispering?” In the next second, realization washed over his face. “Where are you?”
Silence.
“Zena,” he roared, grabbing the attention of a few people around him. “Tell me where you are.”
Sam reached out and clutched Linc’s arm, astonishment crossing her face as she appeared to realize what was happening.
Another long silence elapsed, and then Zena’s hushed voice floated in once more, almost carried away by the wind he could hear blazing by in the background. The tears that he couldn’t see in her eyes became blatantly present in her voice as she whispered, “I don’t know. I don’t know where I am.”
Linc’s eyes shot up. Lieutenant Chavez was walking by his desk, pretending to be casually perusing the room and not making sure he was getting his shit packed in a timely fashion. Aware of her games but too shaken to address them, he reached out and snapped his fingers at her.
Chavez froze in mid-stride and looked at him like he was crazy.
“I have Zena on the phone, and she has no idea where she is,” Linc said. “Breathing hard like she’s been running. Whispering like she’s hiding from someone.”
Chavez’s mouth fell open, and her muscles twitched before she snapped herself out of her stupor and pointed at a random officer walking passed.
“Drop everything you’re doing and triangulate the cell phone signal for the call that just came through Detective Hill’s phone. Line 2.” The officer she’d just spat orders at gave a sharp nod and hurried away. Racing over to Linc’s desk, heels clicking on the linoleum the whole way, Chavez jammed her
manicured nail into the button that triggered the speakerphone.
Zena spoke again just as the speaker was activated, her strangled voice filling the precinct. “I’m sorry I lied, okay? My dad found your card in my overalls when he was doing laundry. I didn’t tell him, I swear. I’m really sorry I lied, but they made me. They took me to South America, and then they brought me back because some politician wanted me for a sex party. He found me on the website. He only likes pregnant girls. I was leaving his house the night you found me and that girl in the trunk. I swear that’s everything I know. Please—” She gasped in a breath. “Please help me. Please help me.”
Chavez and Linc’s heads shot up, and they shared a wide-eyed look. They both knew the truth was only spilling out of Zena’s mouth like a waterfall because she feared her life was in danger. They both itched to ask her to elaborate on the gems she’d just dropped. Politician? Website? Pregnant women? But no matter how bad the itch, they couldn’t bring themselves to focus on anything but finding Zena.
Linc didn’t have to hear Chavez say the words on the tip of her tongue because they were clear as day in her eyes. The remorse.
“Sweetie?” Chavez leaned on the desk, keeping her voice calm and clear. The precinct had gone dead silent as word spread that Zena was on the line. “Can you describe your surroundings? Give us an idea of where you are?”
Silence.
“Who is that? Who are you?” Zena demanded, alarmed at the new voice, her murmurs floating into the newly quiet air of the precinct.
Several more officers gathered around the desk as Chavez answered. “Zena, it’s Lieutenant Chavez, remember? We met yesterday? Can you describe where you are?” Chavez asked again, trying to keep Zena on track.
More silence, then Zena’s voice petered in. “I only want to talk to Detective Hill.”
Chavez pressed her lips together with a soft shake of her head. “Okay, sweetheart. Detective Hill is right here. He’s not going anywhere, okay?”
Chavez looked up at Linc and, once again, spoke to him without having to say a word. Without a word, her frantic brown eyes told Linc that his job would be re-instated before the night was out if he found out where this girl was.
Pulse (Revenge Book 5) Page 24