Yearn (Revenge Book 4)

by Burns, Trevion

  “Veda broke him,” he informed.

  Coco shot a sympathetic look at Veda. “Sorry…”

  “I should be apologizing to you, my love,” Veda said. “From what I gathered at that awful meeting, the student nurse’s heads will be the first to roll.”

  “That’s cool…” Coco shrugged, tugging at the long sleeved shirt she wore under her scrubs. “I have all AP classes this semester, anyway. I could totally use the free weekends. Last big push for Stanford, and all.”

  Coco’s eyes lit up as she spoke of Stanford, the school where Veda had finished her MD.

  Veda couldn’t help a sigh at what a fool this wide-eyed angel was to be so excited about emulating her. Her. A baby mama to a monster. An intruder. An accomplice to murder. A castrator…

  Veda’s mind ran down the list that truly went on and on—unable to deny the fact that she was a terrible influence.

  But Coco’s eyes gleamed with admiration never the less. “My parents would never let me quit. Gage firing me due to downsizing would be the perfect excuse. I’d love the extra hours.”

  “Well, I’m glad one of us is happy to be losing our jobs,” a voice rang in.

  “No one’s lost their job, yet,” Veda said.

  “Can we keep the talk of how screwed up our lives are about to become to a minimum—just for, like, five more minutes?” Jake begged. “It’s Veda’s special day.”

  “It’s really not that big a deal,” Veda said.

  Her co-workers had a right to be afraid, and they had a right to blame her. They didn’t know the whole story. They didn’t know that Gage had actually been the one to break her. That he’d done it mere seconds before the buzzer—nothing but net—just in time to get her good and knocked up. Veda could never tell her colleagues that. She could never tell them the real truth. So she understood their frustration.

  “Complain away, guys,” she said. “Really.”

  “So, should we sing? I’ve got an appendectomy in ten.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a hysterectomy.”

  “Hernia.”

  “Anal fissures.”

  Jake faced Veda. “None of us could agree on whether you were the type of person who’d want to be sang to…”

  “Sing away,” Veda said.

  And the happy birthday song commenced. Its melody filled the on-call room, making it impossible for her not to smile, and for a moment, Veda was okay.

  “Happy biiirthday, dear Veeedaaa! Happy biiirthday to—”

  The song came to an abrupt halt when the door to the on-call room flew open, slamming against the wall.

  Veda gasped, swiveling on her heel. Her eyes hit the door, and her smile vanished.

  “What’s going on?” Gage demanded from the doorway, the tips of his fingers splayed against the door. The jacket of his burgundy suit hung open, revealing a grey striped tie and white button-down shirt underneath. His chest rose and fell rapidly. When the silence went on too long, his voice rose. “What the hell is going on in here?”

  Gasps. Muffled answers. Unintelligible sputters. Then, every corner of the room went deathly still. A few of the student nurses raced across the room, squeezed past Gage, and bolted out into the hallway. A tight silence fell as Gage’s dark brown eyes flew all over the room as if he were taking a mental picture of every person inside it.

  Veda held her hands out. “They were just taking a quick minute to wish me happy birthday. They were getting straight back to work.”

  Gage didn’t even look at her, his voice rising. “We’ve got a lobby full of patients who are waiting to be seen, and beds full of patients who are counting on your attention and care. I don’t pay you to stand around singing songs while you’re on the clock. You can all expect a write-up before the day is out.”

  Groans rang in from every corner of the room.

  “Gage, it was one minute,” Veda cried, cringing at him while motioning inside the room, the guilt nearly eating her alive. “Jesus, please don’t punish them for doing something nice for me.”

  Gage stepped forward, causing Veda to step back.

  The rest of the employees in the room took advantage of the new space Gage had cleared in the doorway, slipping out quietly until just Gage, Veda, Jake, and Coco remained.

  Gage pointed a finger down at Veda, his shadow looming deep.

  Veda stumbled over her feet, her eyes growing wide.

  “You can expect a write-up as well, Dr. Vandyke,” Gage said. “I explicitly instructed you to see me in my office this morning, to discuss the unacceptable care you gave Mr. Nailer in the burn ward yesterday, and you explicitly ignored my instructions.”

  “I had a rough morning.” Veda sputtered softly. “I forgot.”

  “Do I forget to put your name on the weekly schedule? Do I forget to sign your bi-weekly paychecks?” Gage’s voice rose. “Forget again, and I’ll consider it insubordination, and you’ll no longer be an employee at this hospital.”

  Coco stepped forward, tugging sleeves of her long sleeved shirt so low a hint of her lime green bra strap peeked out. “Gage…” she whispered, her horse voice one decibel from pleading as she shrugged one shoulder. “There were only a few people in the waiting room when I came in. And most of them were probably just friends and family—”

  The fury on Gage’s face stole the rest of her sentence as he shot her a look. “Would you like to see me in my office as well, Coco?”

  Coco’s mouth fell open, not used to this kind of treatment from Gage. She shook her head.

  “Would you like a write-up this morning?” Gage countered.

  Unable to tell Gage what she’d just told Veda—that getting fired would be more of a blessing than anything—all Coco could do was shake her head rapidly, eyes wide.

  “I’d hate to be forced to call your father and tell him that you’re not only doing a subpar job, but you’re also putting your most important letter of recommendation at risk. A letter of recommendation that could make or break your application to the pre-medical program at Stanford.” Gage squinted. “Is that a risk you’re willing to take this morning, Coco?”

  Coco shook her head so hard it was a wonder it didn’t come unhinged from her neck.

  Gage’s voice hardened. “Then I’d highly suggest you get to work. Now.”

  With one last look at Veda, eyes still saucer wide, Coco raced out of the room at top speed, blazing around the corner.

  Gage’s eyes moved to Jake.

  Jake held his hands up high as if surrendering to an officer with a gun primed at his head. The flaps of his leather jacket spread, revealing his white t-shirt and jeans.

  “I’m off today,” Jake said, almost daring Gage to figure out how to punish him.

  Gage held Jake’s eyes over Veda’s head. “You might be off today, but please understand that I’ll be carefully monitoring the patient load of every employee that was in this on-call room, singing happy birthday, and not with their patients where they belong. If I find out a single one of those patients has received a subpar level of care or, god forbid, has dropped dead because my employees were too busy attending a party—a party that you orchestrated…” Gage jabbed a finger at Jake. “I’ll be holding you personally responsible.”

  Veda jumped in. “There isn’t a single employee in this hospital that would’ve been in this on-call room if it came at the expense of a patient, and you know it. They’re good employees, Gage. Good people. You’re just looking for any excuse to punish them. What is your problem?”

  Gage’s chest heaved, nostrils flared as his deep voice lowered. “Do you think that just because you’ve cleared the probationary period you can speak to me however you’d like? Do you think being unionized gives you free reign to do and say what you please? I highly suggest you think twice, Dr. Vandyke.”

  Veda clenched her fists, struggling to maintain control.

  “Just give me a reason.” Gage turned, sucking in a breath through his bared teeth, pausing long enough to hold up his pointer finger.
It trembled. “Just give me one reason.”

  “So you’re threatening me now?” Veda held her arms out at her sides. “I’m sure the union would love to hear about that.”

  Tugging at the lapels of his jacket and loosening his tie, the frown on Gage’s face moved to a scowl. “See me in my office after your shift.”

  He turned and left the room before Veda could say another word, slamming the door behind him.

  It shook the walls.

  For a moment, Veda was frozen, watching the door with her mouth agape.

  “Yep,” Jake said, causing her to turn on her heel to face him. “You definitely broke him. You didn’t just break him—you demolished him. Shattered him to pieces until he became utterly unrecognizable.” Jake motioned to the door. “Who the hell is that guy? Who is that fucking asshole?”

  Veda clenched her fists, her glimmering eyes moving to the cake where the flame was still lapping at the pink candle. Wax dripped down the sides of the melting stick, threatening to drizzle onto the cake if she didn’t blow it out soon.

  Her voice came, low and soft, still trembling with the residual emotion of being so close to Gage.

  “That asshole is ten. He’s a monster, and he’s not making it a secret anymore. For the first time…” Her eyes rose to Jake’s. “He’s showing us exactly who he is.”

  9

  After the infuriating exchange in the on-call room, Veda operated in a zombie-like state for the rest of the morning. No longer was she moved by Javier Lopez—the ten-year-old coma patient who’d recently woken up and was now taking solid foods. No longer was she entertained by the soap opera level drama that filled the halls daily. She couldn’t even crack a smile at the senile old man who’d been running through the halls all morning, screaming at the top of his lungs for no good reason. Not even his wrinkled ass, fully visible and jiggling in the back of his gown, was enough to lift her spirits.

  Nothing could free her from the hurt. The pain. The anger.

  She trudged through the hallway with her heart at her feet.

  Then she heard an ear-splitting wail. The unmistakable sound of bones cracking. Two men, twice her size, barreled out of a hospital room, nearly knocking her off her feet as they flew into the hallway.

  Veda yelped and jumped out of the way in the nick of time, just as Detective Lincoln Hill forced a man in an orange jumpsuit across the hall. Linc had locked the man’s arm behind his back with one hand, fingers tangled in his long red hair with the other. They both grunted as Linc took control and slammed the man’s cheek into the wall—mere inches from Veda, so hard one of his teeth came flying out.

  Veda stumbled backward and yelped again; sure she heard the sound of the man’s tooth shattering under her sneaker.

  Even with one hand locked behind his back, being manhandled by the cop with the shortest fuse in Shadow Rock, the prisoner fought like a champion. Every doctor and nurse stopped to watch as he kicked, spit and snapped the few teeth he had left at Linc, doing everything he could to regain a control that was so far out of his reach it was laughable.

  In what felt like an instant, Linc had him face down on the floor, pressing his knee into the back of his neck as he produced a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket.

  “Nice job,” Linc growled down at him—voice strained and his chest heaving from exertion, proving this man had put up a hell of a fight. “You just earned yourself another ten years. Was it worth it?”

  “Fuck you. This is abuse. I got witnesses!” The prisoner craned his head to shout his woes to every hospital employee that passed, all of whom ignored him completely while stepping around him and Linc. “This is prisoner abuse!” he squirmed, even as Linc cuffed both his ankles and wrists.

  Linc met Veda’s eyes as he pulled the prisoner to his feet, and for the first time, his green orbs softened.

  “Ay,” he said.

  Veda raised her eyebrows. “Hey?”

  Was he really making casual conversation right now?

  Linc broke their gaze when the newly cuffed prisoner tried to wiggle out of his hold, taking the back of his neck and forcing him towards the hospital room. Since his ankles were also cuffed, the prisoner was forced to bounce.

  A nurse lingered in the doorway of the prisoner’s room with a hand over her heart, smiling at Linc with shining eyes. “Thank you so much, Detective Hill. You’re so strong. My goodness. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been there. Are you seeing anyone…?” The nurse made room to allow Linc to shove the prisoner back inside—her non-stop praise slowly petering away as she followed Linc back into the room.

  Veda couldn’t help a smirk as she began back down the hall. Like that nurse, she was also thankful to Linc. For the first time that morning, watching him roll around on the floor with that prisoner, the painful exchange with Gage had been but a distant memory in her mind.

  Of course, it came raging back the moment she continued down the hall.

  “Ay…”

  Veda slowed and looked over her shoulder, smiling when she caught sight of Linc approaching. She faced him and leaned her shoulder on the wall. He hadn’t pulled his long brown hair into his signature bun that morning. Or perhaps that erratic prisoner had pulled out his hair tie during their scuffle. His wavy strands fell well past his collarbones, tumbling down both sides of his face from a jagged part in the middle of his head, shadowing his face.

  But it didn’t shadow the scar through his left eyebrow.

  The scar she’d put there ten years earlier.

  Veda drank in that bald, diagonal slash through his thick eyebrow, then his green eyes, his straight nose, those slightly flared nostrils, his shadowed jaw, and his full lips. She sank her hands into her scrub pockets and searched for the bronze chip she always kept inside. Once she found it, she clutched it tight.

  Linc licked his lips as he grew closer, holding his big arms out.

  “Getting a little tired of you running away from me.” His eyes smiled at her, even as his biceps pulsed under his white t-shirt, his legs wide and strong in his dark jeans. He approached her as she leaned her head against the wall and peeked up at him. He leaned his shoulder on the wall too, facing her.

  “I would never run away from you.” She shook her head against the wall, kicking the linoleum with her toe.

  “And that night on the pier?” His voice fell, deep and buttery. “After I gave you the prototype names? The names you’d been begging me for, for weeks?”

  Veda held her breath as her mind blasted back to the night she’d give anything to forget. The night when Linc had given her the full names of the six men who’d purchased the sneaker prototype her number ten had been wearing the night she’d been attacked. A list of names that had included Gage Blackwater. Gage Blackwater—the only man on Shadow Rock who’d purchased those shoes.

  “What was that about?” he asked.

  Veda knew she couldn’t tell Linc why she’d had such a strong reaction to those names. She couldn’t tell him that Gage’s name being on that list had proved that he was her number ten. That the sight of his name on that list had broken her to pieces. That she hadn’t wanted Linc to see her in pieces. So she’d done the only thing she could think to do.

  She’d run. And she hadn’t spoken to Linc since. Mostly out of sheer embarrassment.

  “It was nothing,” she said softly.

  “Didn’t look like nothing.”

  “Since when are you so inquisitive?”

  “I’m always inquisitive…” He paused. “When I care.”

  Veda straightened. “Hey, whatever happened with the information we lifted from the cruise ship? Did it give you any leads on your wife? You never told me.”

  His jaw clenched. “None of your business.”

  “I’m the reason you were able to get on that ship in the first place. I’d say it’s very much my business.”

  “And you’d be wrong.”

  She pouted.

  His eyes fell to her puckered lips. H
e nodded at her. “Heard about your surprise party this morning.”

  Veda gave up, letting him pivot away from the topic of his wife. “I wouldn’t call it a party. More like a disaster.”

  His smiling eyes still studied her lips. “Why was it a disaster?”

  “Let’s just say I might be taking you up on that police job application you’re always teasing me about.” She squinted at him. “How did you know about my surprise party?”

  “Jake told me yesterday, but I got tied up. Sorry I missed it.”

  “The idea of you singing the happy birthday song is actually a little terrifying, so I’d say it’s a win on all fronts.” Veda’s eyes fell to his lips, entranced by the sound of his deep chuckle. As soon as it warmed her stomach, however, the warmth swirled into a tornado, making her feel like her insides were being ripped to shreds. “Besides, I understand you being tied up. It’s been a crazy week, huh?” She paused to ensure her voice didn’t hitch too high or plummet too low. “Heard about that poor man you guys found in the river yesterday. Any idea what happened?”

  “None of your business.”

  “I think I deserve to know what could’ve possibly been so important that you missed singing me my birthday song.”

  “A minute ago, me singing the birthday song was terrifying. Now it was too important to miss? Now that you wanna be nosey?” He smirked when she pouted. “I would’ve loved to sing you your birthday song, alright? But I was in class.”

  Her eyebrows jumped. “You’re in school? How did I not know that about you?”

  “Never asked.” He shrugged. His eyes moved away, watching the female employees shooting them ice-cold looks all through the halls. “Had to stay behind to go head-to-head with my professor.”

  “About what?”

  He met her eyes. Some part of him seemed in the midst of changing the subject, but words spilled from his lips before he could stop them. “I was trying to prove to him that I always write my lowercase b’s and r’s in capital letters. Just a habit. I even brought in some old homework papers, from years ago, to prove it. Asshole still wouldn’t change my grade.”