Maybe she should really, really…
Really stop.
That is, if Jake hadn’t already stopped it for her.
10
Veda hurried through the hospital halls with one hand steadying her on the wall and the other over her heart. It amazed her how hard it was pounding. As she raced toward the pharmacy, wild thoughts stealing her sanity, trembling fingers held tightly to her chest—as if trying to keep her beating heart inside—she considered her future.
She approached the expansive pharmacy window and met eyes with Jake through the thick glass.
Jake shook his shaggy blond hair out of his blue eyes and lifted his eyebrows at Veda. The accusation on his face nearly set her aflame. He cocked his head towards the door of the pharmacy, and Veda leaped for it.
She entered and closed it behind her. Then, it was just her, Jake, the stacks of medications that surrounded him, and her haggard breathing in the thick silence. She leaned back on the door.
Jake lifted a piece of paper that had been clutched in his hand. “Detective Hill asked me for an itemized list of every employee in this hospital who’s checked out sodium thiopental in the last two months. I was sure it was a waste of time, but since that man is so goddamn delicious, I decided to humor him. Even if only to have an excuse to see him again tomorrow morning.”
Veda dug her fingers into the wood door. Her eyes went wider every second, the tremble to her every bone more violent. A million words flew through her mind, but she couldn’t make herself speak.
Jake shook the papers. “Tell me I’m wrong, Veda.” He forced his eyes shut. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”
Veda’s slamming heart gave her ribcage a break. She saw a light at the end of the tunnel. A light she’d been sure had been forever extinguished.
He wasn’t sure.
He wasn’t sure it was her.
This didn’t have to be over, but she’d have to play this very close to the chest. The next words that left her mouth were paramount. She licked her lips before opening them to speak. Then she clapped them closed.
Sometimes silence was the best answer. Sometimes it was the only answer.
And, right that second, Veda knew it was the only answer.
As she suspected he would, Jake filled it. “Veda…” His voice hitched. “Please tell me it’s a total coincidence that you…” He made finger quotes, bending the paper under his trembling fingers. “‘Accidentally’ dropped, and ‘accidentally’ smashed a syringe full of sodium thiopental the night Todd Lockwood was castrated.”
He paused to give her a chance to respond.
Every bone in Veda’s body burned for her to speak out against his words. Her lips trembled to do it. But she pressed them together, keeping them closed tight.
“Please tell me it’s a total coincidence, Veda,” Jake went on. “That you ‘accidentally’ dropped and smashed another syringe full of sodium thiopental the night Eugene Masterson was attacked.”
Her chest began to rise and fall rapidly. She tried to push back against the door, but every tense muscle in her body was already pasted to it.
“I was going to wait until I had the entire list compiled, but if you don’t say something, right now…” Jake waited for a response, and when none came, he approached the door and took Veda’s arm, pulling her deeper into the room. “If you don’t say something, right fucking now…”
Veda snatched her arm away, feeling the emotion in her eyes as she moved to the middle of the room. She clenched her clammy fists and searched his eyes. Her silence was no longer a conscious choice, but a direct result of the terror in her heart.
Jake moved sideways towards the door, shooting warning looks to Veda over his shoulder as he went. He set his hand on the door handle. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t take this list to Shadow Rock PD right now.”
“Jake…” Veda wheezed, feeling the tears she hadn’t even realized had built up in her eyes tumbling over her cheeks. She bent at the waist and slapped her hands together in a prayer “Please…”
“Holy shit,” he whispered, apparently taking the desperate picture before him as confirmation. “It was you. It really was you.”
Veda’s gleaming eyes pled, and she shook her head, opening her mouth to deny it.
But he twisted the handle before she could. “I’m calling Lincoln Hill, right now.”
Veda crumbled to her knees, palms still clapped together. “Jake, please don’t. You don’t understand.”
Jake froze, watching the half open door. His head fell. He took several careful breaths before he shot a look at her over his shoulder.
The hardness in his eyes told Veda she was out of options.
“They raped me,” she breathed, the tremble in her voice strong. Tears tumbled from her sopping eyelashes and splashed onto the gleaming floor. She dug her nails in the linoleum; teeth clenched as she said it again, barely hearing the words leave her lips. “They raped me.”
Jake glared over his shoulder, brows drawing close. The tiny opening in the pharmacy door let wisps of air sneak in from the hallway, making his white lab coat flutter, blowing his hair into his narrowed blue eyes.
Veda sniffled, her nails clawing so hard into the floor she was waiting for one to pop off. Her parted lips quivered, and a soft sob escaped.
Jake looked back at the open door.
He looked down at his list.
He looked back over his shoulder at Veda.
His lips pressed together.
And he slammed the door shut.
—
Gage glowered at the two champagne glasses before him, chin in his chest. The amber liquid filling each glass glimmered under the crystal chandelier. The white tablecloth glowed from where his elbows were planted on top of it—etiquette be damned. His fingers played together relentlessly, itching to rear back and sweep everything off that table, the glasses, the bread basket, and all the place settings, letting them go shattering to the ground so they would resemble the state of his heart.
His heated brown eyes flew to the front door of the restaurant. The hostess snapped her gaze away so he wouldn’t catch her staring. Too late. Every employee his eyes landed on moved their gazes away as Gage surveyed the restaurant, some more subtle than others. He could almost hear the pity fueling their whispers. It was apparent by their narrowed eyes. He was sure he caught an exchange of money between two busboys lingering in the corner and had no doubt he was going to be someone’s prize horse that night.
The bet?
How long he would stay. How long the sucker who’d been sitting across from an empty seat at the most romantic restaurant in town would hold out. It had been over an hour. Gage wondered how many employees had already lost the bet, wishing they’d calculated the sheer magnitude of his desperation a little more carefully.
His heartbeat picked up, and the whirlwind in his stomach made him feel like his organs were shutting down. A heat rushed up his chest, and he felt it reddening his cheeks and ears, making him break into a sweat under a suit jacket that suddenly felt way too heavy.
Grimacing, he leaned forward, snatching up his champagne glass. He finished it off in one swallow. He didn’t even give the bubbles a chance to tickle his throat before he’d seized the other full glass as well.
But he didn’t drink the champagne in that glass.
Instead, he sank his fingers into it. The sparkling liquid bubbled over the edge to make room for his thick fingers, splashing down onto the tablecloth.
He wasn’t blind to the curious stares of his fellow restaurant goers moving from casually curious to utterly entranced as he forced his fingers to the bottom of the glass, sending more and more liquid overflowing and running down the arm of his tuxedo. They’d all been waiting for his breakdown, and now they had a front row seat.
Gage gave them what they came for, because when his fingers re-emerged from the glass, wet with the stickiness of the alcohol, a platinum engagement ring stood tall between his fingers.
<
br /> He could almost hear the hushed gasps and the whispered conversation. He could feel the moment when the passive pity exploded into intense second-hand embarrassment. As the ring glimmered under the twinkling chandelier, Gage’s eyes searched the restaurant once more.
He stopped looking when his eyes landed on the hostess, who’d been in the midst of bopping up and down in celebration.
When Gage’s eyes landed on her, she stopped hopping, wiped the smile clear from her face and turned her back to him, clapping a hand over her mouth.
But it was too late.
He’d already seen the truth.
Apparently, she’d won the bet.
He couldn’t even be angry with her.
At least there’d be one winner tonight.
—
Veda sniffled, twisting the bronze coin between her cow-print nails slowly. “It was my eighteenth birthday.”
From where he sat on the floor across from her, knees pulled up and elbows resting on them, Jake nodded. The line between his brows stuck since the moment she’d blasted him with the three words she hadn’t said out loud in ten years.
“They raped me,” she whispered. “And they said I deserved it.” A lazy smile spread her lips, and a breathy, bitter laugh came right on its heel. “Because I was a girl from the hill with the audacity to crash their party. Because my dress was too short. They took my virginity, broke my collarbone, bruised my spine…” She slammed her eyes closed and drew in a breath, letting them flutter open as she buried her hands in her hair. She made a part in her thick curls with her fingers. She didn’t even need a mirror because she could feel it with the beds of her fingers, the smooth patch in the middle of her head. She lifted her hair and turned her head towards Jake, seeing the frown on his face the moment he caught sight of her bald spot. “They ripped out a chunk of hair that will never, ever grow back…” Her voice hitched. “After I passed out, they carried me down to the beach and threw me in the ocean, face down. Left me to die. Linc, he…” The first genuine smile split her lips. “He was still a police cadet. I don’t know why he was on the beach that night, but he saw me. Fished me out. Gave me mouth to mouth…” Her words petered off as she thought of Linc, all those years ago, in his soaked police uniform, looking about as shaken as she felt. “It’s crazy. The guy who saved me back then is the same guy hunting me now. I can’t even see him as my enemy. Not even if he cuffs me. Charges me. Not even if he puts me in a cage and throws away the key. I’ll never see him that way.” Her eyes fell, and she went to another place before whispering, “Ever.”
Jake brushed his fingers under his eyelashes like he had many times in the hours they’d been holed into that quiet pharmacy closet. His co-worker had shown up to relieve Jake from his shift in the nick of time, just minutes after Veda’s admission, giving Jake ample time to talk to her. Though Jake’s co-worker had noticed the black, mascara-laden tears running down Veda’s cheeks, he hadn’t batted a lash at her breakdown. Unparalleled levels of stress were inevitable in a medical setting, and Shadow Rock Hospital was no exception. Dramatics among the staff ran at a constant high, and teary-eyed residents were as common as cupcake day in the pediatric ward, so Jake’s co-worker had remained unmoved even as Jake pulled Veda into the closet to help calm her down.
Jake shook his head. “And you saw all of them but one? You don’t remember anything about the tenth guy?”
Veda sniffled, hugging her arms around her body while pulling her knees closer to her chest. She let her eyes run over the stacks of pill bottles in the closet before letting them fall to Jake. When their eyes met, she hugged herself tighter.
She cringed. “He was wearing white sneakers.”
Jake nodded.
“They had a really weird design. Almost like…” She lifted her eyes to think. “Like a jigsaw puzzle, or something. That’s all I can remember. I spent years trying to find out what brand of shoe it was, but…” She shrugged in defeat.
“You looked Eugene Masterson right in the face today. How did he not recognize you?”
She chuckled halfheartedly. “I guess I look a lot different when I’m not screaming for mercy, bent over a balcony railing with my hands locked behind my back.” Her voice went dry. “Plus, I do my hair different now.”
Jake smirked softly.
Veda sobered. “I really do… I look different. At the party, my hair was relaxed straight. Died fire red.” She tugged at her collarbone-length natural curls. “The hair alone completely transforms me. Also, I drowned my face in make-up back then. To this day it makes me sick to my stomach that I actually wanted to look cute for those assholes.”
Jake brought his fisted hands up to his mouth, and they muffled the whispered curses that left his lips, one after the other.
“After that night… I crumbled. My grades fell at school. I started talking back to my parents. Rebelling. It was only a matter of time before I completely exploded. They saw it coming… so they sent me to live with my grandma in Colorado. I hated them for it at first, but they did the right thing.” Veda lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “I swear to God, that woman saved my life. She’s my everything.”
Jake lowered his hands. “And you came back here to make them all pay?”
Veda wanted to nod yes, to say yes, but the weight of the situation had stopped her heart and stolen her words. A long silence fell, and once she’d found the strength to speak, she heard her tears staining the words.
“I won’t blame you if you turn me in…” She slapped the tears off her face. “Maybe Luke Greer was right earlier. Maybe I’m everything I claim to hate. Maybe I’m the real predator.”
Jake frowned across the space at her. He licked his lips and opened his mouth, but it seemed now it was he who was lost for words.
He looked down at the list he’d compiled for Lincoln Hill. The list that had been sitting on the floor next to him since he’d brought Veda into that closet.
He picked it up, held it in the air between them, and then ripped it in half.
Veda’s mouth fell. Her eyes widened.
“What?” she whispered, but the sound of the word didn’t even leave her stunned mouth.
To silently drive his point home, Jake ripped the list again. And again.
Veda shook her head. “I can’t let you…” She couldn’t bring an innocent person into her insane, out of control spiral. She couldn’t let Jake do what she thought he was going to do. “This is my fight, Jake. Not yours.”
Jake dropped the paper, now torn to shreds, into the waste bin nestled in the corner before reclaiming Veda’s eyes.
He took a moment, licking his lips. “You haven’t been working here long, so you probably don’t know this about me…” He swallowed and took a moment. “But this isn’t my only job. Working in the pharmacy is what I do to make money, but my heart… my passion… is with the Terrance Gloss Foundation.”
Veda nodded, slapping the tears from her cheeks as they continued coming by the bucket load.
“It’s a non-profit for missing and exploited kids.” Jake pressed his thumb and forefinger together. “I discovered the foundation when my brother went missing, seven years ago…” Jake had to take a moment. “He was never found.”
Veda’s lips curled. “Jake, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay…” Jake nodded. “That’s not why I’m telling you this. I’m telling you… because the night he went missing? He was out with a bunch of rich kids from school. He was a really smart kid, Veda, crazy smart. After middle school, he was awarded a full scholarship to Blackwater Prep. They only give out three of those a year. Only to the smartest kids from the hill. It was a blessing and a curse. He was surrounded by people who would never understand him, and never accept him. But because he was so immersed in it, he was desperate for it. Desperate to be in their circle. He couldn’t hear my parents and me when we warned him that they’d never accept a hill kid. That, at best, they’d use him in whatever way they could before tossing him like refuge. Sp
itting him out like trash. Not even we knew how on the money our words actually were. How true they’d become.”
Veda frowned, nodding.
“We never found him…” Jake’s voice hitched. “But I have no doubt in my… in my goddamn mind, Veda… that they did something to him. That he’s out there, somewhere, alive… And not just him, but every other kid that goes missing from that hill. Most of them minorities, girls, orphans… the more helpless they are, the higher their numbers. A kid from the hill goes missing every day—every single day, and nothing is done? No one is talking about it. No one cares. But Eugene Masterson takes a scratch to the balls, and it’s headline news?”
Veda’s tears had dried. She felt her teeth baring.
“Whoever that guy was who charged into Eugene’s hospital room this morning? Calling him a predator? I believe everything he said. I know it’s bothering you that he used that word in reference to what you did, but we both know he wasn’t talking about you, Veda. Eugene is the real predator. He didn’t use that word by accident, and I believe him.”
Veda nodded rapidly. “I do too.”
Jake shook his head. “A lot of people would take what you just told me and go straight to the police. Straight to Linc—with his fine ass.”
Veda couldn’t help a sputter a laugh.
Jake sucked in a wallop of air through his nostrils, eyes determined. “Straight to anyone who would listen. They’d hear your story and assume you were just as big a monster as those…” He jammed a finger toward the door. “Those fucking people.” He took a moment, jabbing his finger into his chest. “But I grew up on that hill, right next to you. So did my parents. So did my brother. And I promise you, Veda, right here, today… that I’ll take your secret to the death. I’ll protect it. I’ll protect you. I couldn’t protect him…” His lips quivered as he seemed to think back to his brother. “But I’ll protect you.”
Tingle (Revenge Book 2) Page 10