Yearn (Revenge Book 4)

by Burns, Trevion

  Veda ventured a guess. “Periodic table?”

  He nodded.

  “Been there. Some professors are real sticklers about it. And they’re not wrong. Correct capitalization of the chemical elements is extremely vital.”

  “Whose side are you on?”

  Veda sputtered, fighting a smile.

  “Making a C by the skin of my teeth.” Linc scoffed, head falling. He shoved his hair away from his face with both hands when it tumbled down to shadow his eyes. “And I need this class to finish my AA. I needed those extra points badly.”

  “I can help you.” Veda bopped on her toes, giving his big shoulder a shove. “I’m great at chemistry. It was my favorite subject in school. It’s so much fun!”

  Linc nearly incinerated her with his eyes.

  She tried to wipe the excited smile from her face, covering her mouth when it proved too difficult. Leaning back on the wall, she cleared her throat. “Maybe not so much fun for you.”

  “Not so much.”

  She clapped the back of her hand on his arm. “Come by my apartment on Sunday. Bring your work. I’ll teach you.”

  “What about Gage?”

  “Who cares?”

  “Considering the night you barricaded me in your bathroom so he wouldn’t see me in your apartment, I’d say… You. You care. A lot.”

  Veda looked down and away, shrugging one shoulder. “We’re not together anymore, so…”

  She snuck a look at him just in time to see his eyebrows shoot up.

  A silence fell and lingered, filled only by his breathing. It grew deeper by the second, his chest rising higher with each inhalation. His nostrils flared softly as his eyes searched hers. They fell to her lips.

  Veda licked them, and then bit the bottom one under her teeth.

  His own lips parted to speak, but nothing came. He let a moment pass and then tried to speak once more. Still nothing. A chuckle escaped, and he muffled it, covering his mouth while looking away.

  Silence.

  He sucked in a breath, and his eyes shot back to her. “You guys broke up—?”

  “Hey, asshole.”

  Veda and Linc jolted at the new voice, standing tall as their eyes flew to Detective Samantha Gellar, Linc’s partner, stomping out of the prisoner’s room across the hall. Her long brown hair floated behind her as she approached, showcasing her slim features.

  Sam jabbed her thumb toward the room, coming to a stop a few feet away from them while glaring at Linc. “That inmate says you just slammed his skull into the wall?”

  “He got outta his cuffs. Went after the nurse.”

  “Fuck me sideways. There are better ways to defuse the situation, Linc. He lost a tooth. Nurse says his arm’s dislocated. Fucking paperwork’s gonna take forever. Great way to make sergeant there, pal. Really great. Awesome.” Sam gave him a sarcastic thumbs up. She went to walk away and then doubled back, pointing at him. “If you want a real shot at that promotion… you know that kind of violence won’t fly. Stop. Manhandling. People.” She spoke slowly as if talking to a toddler.

  He and Sam shared a sharp look.

  “I’ll be in the fuckin’ car,” Sam spat, her face softening exponentially as she waved goodbye to Veda. “Good to see you again, Veda.”

  Veda waved back, waiting until Sam was at the elevators to turn back to Linc. “Your partner’s so funny.”

  “Hilarious.”

  “She’s protective. Wants the best for you. And she’s right. You do need to stop manhandling people,” Veda teased, crossing her arms. She nodded at him. “You’re up for sergeant, huh?”

  Linc moved his eyes away, running a hand down the back of his neck. “Not if I don’t pass this class, I’m not. I won’t have the minimum credits I need to sit for the exam without it.”

  “All the more reason to let me tutor you.”

  “You got enough on your plate.”

  Castrator, murderer, and carrying a secret baby. “You have no idea. But my life won’t stop being a mess anytime soon.” Odds were good that her life was going to get a lot worse long before it got better. Ironically, if it did get worse, it would more than likely be at his hand. “And as my life slowly and inevitably falls to pieces before my eyes, I might as well do something good for someone else in the meantime, right?”

  He held her eyes.

  She slapped his arm with the back of her hand again. “What do you say? This Sunday? My place? Seven-ish?”

  He hesitated before he licked his lips slowly. “I’ll be there.”

  “Great.” Veda brought both fists in the air in a silent cheer before motioning down the hall. “Hey, I gotta go. Patient in five minutes.”

  Linc stood tall. “Yeah, no, me too. Gotta go question someone.” He opened his mouth to say more, but nothing came. Turning away, he peered over his shoulder. “See you later.”

  Veda gave another wave before turning and making her way down the hallway.

  “Veda, wait.”

  She turned on her heel.

  They shared a quiet look as he re-approached, coming in close enough for her the see the gold shards in his green eyes. Eyes that always smiled at her long before his lips.

  “Almost forgot…” He reached into his back pocket.

  Veda’s mouth fell open when he came back up holding a small box wrapped in baby pink paper and tied off with a delicate white satin bow.

  She tried to gasp, but no sound came out.

  His voice softened. “Happy birthday.”

  She playfully snatched the gift from his hands, her mouth still gaping.

  “Don’t open it until I’m gone,” he turned away before she could form words.

  Veda followed his orders. She waited until he was at the elevator. Until he’d given her one more look before stepping inside it. Only when the doors slid closed behind him did she look down at the small pink box in her trembling hands. She could tell he’d wrapped it himself. The folds were uneven and bunchy at the corners. The scotch tape was visible since he’d sealed it on the sides, not underneath, and one of the loops on the white satin bow was a little bigger than the other.

  But it was perfect to her.

  A gentle smile spread on her face.

  But her smile vanished when the gift was snatched out of her hands from behind.

  She turned on her heel with a gasp, her stunned eyes zooming up.

  Her heart ground to a stop at the sight that awaited her, teeth clenching. “Give it back.”

  Gage held the gift in the air next to his face, cradled between his pointer and middle fingers. “I don’t pay you to fraternize while you’re on the clock. You’re five minutes late for your next patient because you’ve allowed yourself to become distracted. People’s lives are on the line, Dr. Vandyke.”

  She glowered up at him. “Give. It. Back.”

  Keeping the gift held high and just out of her reach, Gage lifted his chin in the air, holding her eyes. “You can pick this up when your shift is over.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  Gage sank the gift into the pocket of his slacks and leaned in close, the corner of his upper lip curling as he began away. “I think I just did.”

  Veda watched him as he brushed past her and breezed away, hands in his pockets as he strutted down the hall, disappearing around the corner without looking back.

  Her hands pulled into fists at her sides. Her nails dug into her palms. When tears prickled her eyes, they dug harder, making her worry she might draw blood.

  Oh, yes.

  She’d have to fast track her plans.

  Not just because she was pregnant. Not just because she was desperate to get the hell out of Shadow Rock forever.

  But because she was ready to cut that monster’s rocks clear out.

  Maybe then, he’d feel even an iota of the pain that was ripping her heart to shreds right then.

  10

  Jasmine Murphy rolled her eyes, the irises so pale blue that they almost disappeared into the whites. She
shook her jet-black hair away from her portly face. “Look, I’ve told you a million times. My brother didn’t jump. He’s not a jumper.”

  Linc held his hands out, a pen and paper in each. “Between you and me? I don’t think so either. But I have a boss who wants answers from every angle so if you could work with me…?”

  Jasmine sighed, crossing her arms tight, clearly irritated that going down to the morgue to identify Jax’s body—she’d known it was him from his gnawed fingernails alone—had led to the police paying her a visit at home.

  Linc’s eyes dashed across Jasmine’s studio apartment, at the peak of the hill, Shadow Rock’s most poverty stricken area. The lime-green wallpaper was peeling from every corner, the appliances were decades old, and judging from the clothes and trash that covered every inch of the stained carpet, Linc could only guess Jasmine Murphy was a hoarder.

  He looked down, lifting his boot in the air when he was sure he felt something crawling on him, then reclaimed Jasmine’s eyes. “Did Jax have any emotional problems you were aware of?”

  “Besides being a fucking asshole? No, not really.” She jutted her leg out. Her cutoff jean shorts showed a hint of her ass, her floral crop top letting her jiggly belly hang out. “Nothing he couldn’t self-medicate anyway.”

  “Self-medicate?” Linc raised his eyebrows, moving his gaze to Sam, who’d been quietly circling the apartment, making notes and observations. He reclaimed Jasmine’s eyes. “Was he a drug user?”

  “He had a problem with pills,” Jasmine said.

  “Any pill in particular?” Sam asked, coming up next to Linc.

  Jasmine’s eyes moved to Sam, gleaming with boredom as she smacked her gum. “Narcs.”

  “Can you be more specific?” Linc asked. “Codeine? Methadone?”

  “Blue, yellow, purple. Jax wasn’t picky. Last time I spoke to him, he was working through it in therapy.”

  “Any enemies you know of?” Sam asked. “Anyone who might’ve wanted to hurt him? Did he owe anybody money? Old friends who could’ve turned against him?”

  “Friends?” Jasmine chortled. “Please. Jax wouldn’t have known a true friend if it sat on his face. Always trying to get in with the rich crowd. He was crazy smart but wasted his brains working security for the Blackwaters. Did he have “friends” that would turn on him? Hell yeah. Those fucking people weren’t his friends, but Jax wasn’t going to hear that. Always following them around like a sick puppy. Always doing things he didn’t want to, just to impress them.”

  “Like what?” Linc asked.

  Jasmine’s eyes crawled back to him. She hesitated. “He raped a girl once.”

  Sam and Linc leaned in.

  “In high school,” Jasmine said. “Came home crying like a little bitch. Talking about how guilty he felt. You think those rich assholes accepted him after that? Fuck no. And Jax had to carry that shit with him for the rest of his life.”

  “Did he give you a name?” Linc asked.

  “Some random girl at a party.”

  “When did he tell you this?” Linc noticed Sam give him a side eye, probably wondering why he was going down this line of questioning.

  Jasmine smacked her gum again. “About raping that girl? On November 1st. I remember because it was my birthday. He ditched me to hang out with his “friends.” That was back when I still gave a shit what he thought. Broke my fucking heart. Cried through my whole birthday party…”

  “How long ago?” Linc pressed.

  Jasmine shrugged, her eyes shooting to the top of her head, appearing to be counting off the numbers in her head. “Nine years ago? Maybe ten…?” She ventured a guess.

  “November 1st…” Linc muttered, speaking more to himself than either of them, his eyes moving to a distant place.

  “Anything else you can tell us?” Sam asked.

  Jasmine sighed. “Jax wasn’t perfect… but he had his good parts too. I think, deep down, he knew those people weren’t shit.”

  Sam nodded, a frown between her eyebrows.

  “I wasn’t gonna say nothing, but…” Jasmine peered at them from the corner of her eyes. She let a long silence pass and then scoffed, sauntering across the apartment to the TV stand littered with old take-out containers and cigarette butts. The cellulite on her ass cheeks rumpled as she rifled through a drawer. A minute later, she turned back to them, holding a key in the air. Re-approaching them, she shook the key. “Jax told me that if anything ever happened to him… to open his safety deposit box.”

  “Any idea what’s in it?” Sam asked.

  “A bunch of his cameras and shit. I don’t know what’s on them, or why they were important to him but—”

  “But they were important enough to keep in a safety deposit box,” Linc said.

  “Can you take us there now?” Sam asked.

  “I got work in twenty. But I’ll be off tomorrow. I can take you then.”

  “We’ll need a way to keep in contact,” Linc said. “Standard procedure.”

  After getting Jasmine’s contact information, as well as the most recent photograph she had of Jax Murphy, Linc and Sam climbed back into their unmarked police car, parked on top the steep hill.

  Linc started the car before letting his hands collapse in his lap, studying the photo in his hand.

  Sam peered from the passenger’s seat as the engine rumbled beneath them. She leaned across the console to take a look at the photo before falling back into her seat.

  “Weird looking son of a bitch, huh?” She chuckled.

  Linc frowned at the picture, clutching it tighter, making creases in the sides. Yes, with the same deathly pale skin and demonic eyes as his sister, Jax Murphy had been a weird looking son of a bitch. But his strange face wasn’t what gave Linc pause.

  He shook the photo, appearing more frustrated by the moment.

  “How do I know this guy?” Linc grumbled, leaning his elbow outside the open window of the car and covering his lips with the tips of his fingers. A long silence passed, and then his voice rose. “God damn, why do I know this guy?”

  “Put the picture away for now and sleep on it.” She sniggered. “It’ll hit you in the middle of the night. You’ll wake up in a cold sweat with the answer, and his freaky ass face, burned into your brain.”

  Linc took another moment and then listened to Sam, putting the photo in his pocket before moving the gearshift into drive and pulling away from the curb.

  ——

  Veda stared at the door to Gage’s office at the end of her shift that evening, her heart pounding so hard she felt like African drums had relocated to her ears. She reached for the door handle. The steel felt slick under her sweaty palms.

  Holding her breath, she opened the door and stepped into the office.

  Gage lifted his eyes from behind his desk. Through the window in the corner of the room, the setting sun spilled in, along with the orange cast it painted across the horizon.

  Veda tried to lock onto that beautiful sunset and let it center her. It didn’t work. She felt seconds from passing out from the lack of oxygen alone.

  “Close the door,” Gage said, his deep voice crawling across the room and stealing her first breath.

  She met his eyes. Her lungs tried to gasp, but she swallowed it back and heeded his order, closing the door. She leaned on it.

  They held each other’s gazes across the office, and Veda dug her nails into the door, giving it all her weight when her knees began to shake.

  The product had come undone from his hair, leaving it soft and feathery, the way he used to wear it. His brown eyes were devoid of feeling, full lips drawn. He twirled a pen between his fingers, leaning back in his tall office chair.

  “Sit down,” he said.

  Veda drew in a sharp breath. She heard it trembling. After giving it one last good dig of her nails, she pushed off the door and crossed the room, taking one of the two chairs across from his desk. She lowered her eyes, crossing her legs and arms.

  “I want my gift back,�
�� she said to her lap.

  Silence.

  Her eyes rose to his when it went on for ages.

  His eyes went ablaze and then cooled. In seconds, they were ice-cold. He smirked at her.

  Veda smirked back, feeling her own gaze moving to sub-zero temperatures.

  Her chest grew tight. Like a rope that someone had tied in a million knots. Knots that had been tethered so many times it seemed impossible to fit another one in. Somehow, her body managed, until she felt seconds from splitting under the pressure. The baby growing in her belly begged to throw up, but Veda refused to give him the satisfaction of even her vomit, her stomach heaving as she fought it back.

  She clenched her crossed fists.

  Gage clenched his too, so tight he appeared seconds from cracking the pen in his hand. Heat crept up his cheeks as he sat forward, yanked open his desk drawer and produced a piece of paper.

  He laid the paper on top of the desk, at the farthest left corner, setting the pads of all five fingers on top of it. “This is a write-up for ignoring our meeting this morning, which is insubordination.” Holding her eyes, he produced another piece of paper and sat it next to the first one, touching it with all five fingers as well. “This is a write-up for being late for your eleven o’clock patient.” Another paper, on the farthest right corner of the desk. “And this is a write-up for the obscene amount of work hours you’ve wasted fraternizing with Jake Jones in the hospital pharmacy.” He took a deep, trembling breath. “I never want to see you at that pharmacy again unless you’re being administered a drug for one of your patients. And I’ll be keeping a close eye.”

  Veda swallowed the lump, and the bile, in her throat. “You have no way of proving…” The fury in her heart stole her words, burned her eyes, and sent her skin aflame. “You can’t tell me who I can or can’t talk to. And even if you could, you have no proof how much time I spend in the pharmacy.”

  “I have hours upon hours of video footage, Dr. Vandyke, that justifies every last one of these write-ups. Your extensive talks with Jake in the pharmacy closet on company time. Your perpetual lateness, even when you’ve got patients in dire need of your care. God forbid we ever find ourselves up against litigation for losing a patient because you were dragging your feet. I’d be forced to turn over our surveillance tapes, and we won’t have a legal leg to stand on. Crippled under litigation that could’ve been avoided if not for your pathological need to socialize. Particularly with Coco, Jake Jones, and Detective Hill. ”