Yearn (Revenge Book 4)

by Burns, Trevion

  The anesthesia department was next, and since Veda was a lowly resident and the CEO’s bitter ex, she had no doubt she’d be the first to go.

  Which meant she had to work fast.

  Veda sped up in her rush to the pharmacy. She’d informed Jake that the removal of Brock Nailer’s yam bags was set for that weekend, and he’d promised to have the sodium thiopental ready for her that morning.

  But as Veda turned the corner of the hallway that led to the pharmacy, her pace slowed. Through the pharmacy’s long glass window, she could already see that something was terribly wrong.

  The floor to ceiling shelves that had once housed the medications were gone and Jake wasn’t there to wave good morning from behind the glass. Dozens of employees littered the pharmacy instead, arms crossed and faces grim, clutching glossy pocket manuals to their chests.

  By the time she made it to the pharmacy door, Veda’s heart was at her feet, hanging down by its axillary vein and dragging behind her on the linoleum. It was a wonder she didn’t trip over her own shattered heart as she paused in the doorway, wide eyes drinking in the sight.

  All the medications had been placed inside a large glass dispenser that reminded Veda of a vending machine. Five shiny new machines lined the walls. Veda squinted at the company name painted on the top of them.

  Ez-Meds.

  Veda stepped inside. Some of the doctors and nurses scattered in the pharmacy looked as shattered as she felt. Others looked downright homicidal. Every arm in the room was crossed, and every eye threw fire at the Asian man speaking at the head of the room.

  “Every employee has been assigned a pin number,” the man said, making eye contact with every person, maintaining a smile even as he was gifted with nothing but poisonous scowls. “This will be your pin number for the duration of your employment at Shadow Rock Hospital, and every pill you take from these machines will be logged under that pin number for the duration of your employment as well…”

  “And just a reminder,” Gage chimed in from the other end of the room. He leaned on the edge of a desk in a black suit and baby blue tie, arms and ankles crossed, cold eyes dashing across the room. “Shadow Rock Hospital has a zero tolerance policy for shortages, and any shortages logged under your pin name will result in an automatic termination.”

  Some employees turned their heads so he wouldn’t see them roll their eyes. Some had the courage to scoff under their breath. Some appeared so emotionally paralyzed they couldn’t even complete a heartfelt frown, let alone express their displeasure with eye rolls and muttered curses.

  Veda spotted Coco across the room and softly nudged her way through the grumbling crowd to get to her.

  When Coco caught sight of her, she took a deep breath and exhaled with a shake of her head, her big brown eyes even wider than normal.

  “It’s so bad,” Coco mouthed, looking like a baby deer who’d lost her mother in the forest.

  “Where’s Jake?” Veda asked.

  Coco’s lips began to tremble, and she nodded over her shoulder, toward the small office that was connected to the pharmacy.

  Veda followed her eyes, catching sight of Jake inside the office. A cardboard box sat on his desk. A box he was currently packing his things into.

  “Goddamn it, Gage,” Veda muttered, moving past Coco and toward that office, every limb on her body shaking.

  Jake didn’t notice her lingering in the doorway at first. Still filling the box, he threw a cursory glance toward the door, caught her eyes, and his shoulders collapsed.

  Veda pressed her fingers to her temples, shaking her head in dismay.

  Jake stopped packing, holding his hands out at his sides with a heavy shrug and a sideways smile. His lips wobbled, even as he tried to grin, silently saying ‘thems the breaks.’

  But no. Thems wasn’t the breaks.

  This was complete and utter bullshit, and as her fury threatened to bubble over, Veda turned back into the pharmacy—where the Ez-Meds rep was still explaining the process—and tried to think up the most professional way to vocalize what bullshit this was.

  Before she could think of something professional and eloquent to say, “This is bullshit!” flew from her lips.

  Every eye in the room flew to her. Some were wide as saucers, silently screaming ‘you done did it now, girl.’ A few doctors smiled at her while the nurses clenched their teeth and hissed softly, including Coco, who shook her head at Veda with a horrified look that begged, ‘why?!’

  The Ez-Meds rep had no reaction, clearly used to this kind of negative response, clasping his hands in front of his body with an understanding nod.

  Gage shot up from the desk and jetted across the room, almost taking a few employees off their feet in his haste to get to Veda. His nostrils flared, eyes alight, the fury on his face ebbing deeper every second until he made it to her and seized her arm.

  Every bone in her body jerked like her veins had exploded, and she snatched her arm from his grip.

  “Don’t touch me,” she spat, glaring up at him, teeth bared, feeling the first hot tear jetting down her cheek.

  Gage stilled. His lips fell open, and his eyes shifted. In the next instant, however, he rebounded, squaring his feet and sinking his hands into his pockets.

  “Imagine how much more time you’ll have to spend with your patients,” he said. “Now that you won’t be wasting it in the pharmacy talking to Jake.”

  “You son of a—”

  Jake took her arms from behind before she could finish that career-ending sentence. “Veda, don’t do this.”

  “I’m doing this,” she breathed. “Because this isn’t right.”

  “Dr. Vandyke…” Gage’s voice remained utterly calm in a room that had gone deathly silent. “Your behavior at the moment is completely unacceptable. If you’d like to discuss this further, and avoid yet another write-up, perhaps we should step out into the hallway.”

  “Discuss what further?” Veda roared, feeling Jake’s hold on her arms tighten. “How you’re taking a machete to the staff that works their fingers bloody for you every day, writing people up left and right, all because you’re desperate to hurt me?”

  If it was possible, the mood in the room grew even tighter and more uncomfortable, because Veda had officially addressed the elephant that had been roaming the halls of that hospital since the moment he’d returned as CEO.

  Even Gage shifted. Every bone in his body, his tightened lips, his eyes, and his jaw, moved at her words. His voice lowered. “As CEO of this hospital, I’m out to keep our revenues up and our costs down. I’m out to eliminate redundancy. Regardless what you’ve convinced yourself of in the dream world you’ve invented in your head, the Ez-Meds machines have been on order since the previous chief of staff was caught smuggling drugs from the pharmacy. The problems with shortages haven’t stopped since he’s been let go, and as I just said five minutes ago, this hospital has a zero tolerance policy for drug theft. So, no, Veda, I’m not doing this to hurt you or any other employee here. I’m simply doing what I have to do to keep my hospital running smoothly.” He lifted an arm and motioned to the door. “Now if you’d like to step out into the hallway—”

  “You sound like a robot.” Veda slapped away the next tear that fell as best she could with Jake still holding her arms. Regardless of the automated explanation Gage had just given her, Veda was not swayed. She knew what was real. “Please don’t punish Jake,” she begged, her words barely audible through her teeth, ground so tight they felt moments from shattering. “Please don’t punish the people who work hard for you… just because you’re angry at me. It’s not their fault that we broke up. It’s not their fault that, once again, you went running back to Mommy and Daddy. It’s not their fault that you’re such a mental infant that you still need your parents to remind you how to blow your nose and wipe your behind. It’s not their fault that you can’t function unless you’re trapped under their thumbs.”

  Cheeks flushing so red he appeared on the verge of explos
ion, Gage lifted his chin high and spoke under his trembling breath. “This is your final warning, Dr. Vandyke.”

  Veda’s blood moved to a boil, making her limbs feel like they were melting, finding strength only in Jake’s hold. “Don’t punish them because you’ve volunteered to be your parent’s puppet once more. Because you can’t stand that they’re pulling your strings again.” She took a beat. “If you want to punish someone, then let it be me.” She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, huffing out each breath through pursed lips.

  Gage lifted his chin higher, shooting fire from under the lids of his hooded eyes.

  Silence.

  Then, he wet his bottom lip with his tongue and hissed. “In that case, let’s everyone thank Dr. Vandyke for being the first anesthesiologist resident to volunteer to cut her hours to make room for the Nurse Anesthetists. Thank you, Dr. Vandyke.”

  All around the room, eyes fell, heads shook, and entire beings visibly collapsed as Gage called Veda’s bluff.

  They held each other’s widened eyes, chests now heaving in time.

  “Effective Monday morning,” Gage started. “Your hours will be reduced from 80 a week to 40.”

  Veda jammed her eyes shut.

  “That’s not right,” a voice chimed in, but silence prevailed when Gage turned his head to see who’d said it.

  “I’ll tell you what isn’t right.” He moved his eyes back to Veda. “What isn’t right is that most of the residents in this hospital are working 16 hour days. After 12 hours, doctors are four times as likely to make mistakes. After 16, that number triples. So, in the interest of our patient’s lives, I’m ending it here and now. Cutting resident hours and introducing nurse practitioners to fill in the gaps will free the hospital up from potential litigation and reduce the number of patient fatalities dramatically.” His voice rose. “Dr. Vandyke, I hope you enjoy your new 40 hour work week.”

  Veda’s eyes fluttered open, and she slowly lifted them to his.

  Gage raised his eyebrows. “If you like to pick up extra hours, you’ll need my express written consent.”

  She swallowed thickly, teeth chattering.

  “Mr. Blackwater, all due respect.” Jake’s voice shook, even though he’d already lost all he had to lose. “Most of the medical residents are barely scraping by as it is. If you cut their hours, if you eliminate overtime… they won’t be able to keep a roof over their heads or put food in their mouths.”

  “That’s not my problem.” Gage didn’t even look at Jake—his eyes riveted to Veda. A moment later, his gaze zoomed over his shoulder. Eyes and heads fell like a wave as he surveyed the room. Everyone but the Ez-Meds rep avoided his stare. “I’m not running a charity, ladies, and gentleman. I’m running a hospital.”

  Gage let that final sentence linger before he looked back to Veda, giving her a long, poisonous glare before turning away.

  “See me in my office at the end of your shift, Dr. Vandyke, so you can sign your fourth write-up.” He moved to the door without looking back. “Mr. Wong, carry on,” he said before turning a corner and leaving the room.

  As soon as Gage was gone, the Ez-Meds rep tried to get back to his presentation, but his words were cut short when everyone flanked Veda, making a small circle around her. Some clapped hands of pity on her shoulder, some embraced her, and others still had sideways remarks for her. She couldn’t even blame them for their sharp words because it was undeniable.

  This was all her fault. Gage was punishing everyone in that hospital in his desperation to punish her. He knew her well enough to know that seeing everyone else’s lives falling apart would hurt her ten times more than seeing her own ripped to pieces. Which was why he hadn’t fired her after the show she’d just put on.

  In a way, she realized, she and Gage were exactly the same.

  He didn’t want to kill her. He wanted to slice her balls out and watch her suffer through the aftermath. He wanted to see the heartbreak fill her eyes. He wanted to destroy her, piece by agonizing piece, and he wanted that destruction to linger for days, months, years.

  Just as he wished, the guilt was there, eating her alive. Just as he wished, it was lingering, destroying her, piece by agonizing piece.

  She’d managed to swallow back the guilt of stealing Penny Nailer's only chance at motherhood. But the guilt of Jake losing his job was going to be much harder for Veda to shake.

  She almost had to give Gage credit for his patient, succinct, mind-numbingly subtle plan of attack. Not only did her goal of exacting revenge seem farther away than ever, but her hours had also been cut, ensuring she might not be able to keep herself afloat in Shadow Rock long enough to see it through to the end

  Jake’s voice came in from behind, warming her ear. “I really think it was the birthday song that did me in.”

  13

  “I woke up in the dead of night with a theory on The Shadow Rock Chopper. Now rock with me for a minute, a’ight?” Linc held out one hand, his eyes dashing across the chairs in the precinct’s briefing room the following morning. Uniformed and un-uniformed officers filled the seats, most with coffees clutched in their hands, watching him with hooded, sleepy eyes. Linc pointed to the white board behind him where he’d arranged all the evidence that supported his theory. His deep voice rang out. “I think The Shadow Rock Chopper killed Jax Murphy.”

  He’d expected soft titters and whispers of disagreement, but when a full on chortle sounded, followed quickly by a few more, his heartbeat sped up.

  “Are you this thirsty for sergeant, Hill? Just pulling shit out of your ass now?” a voice chimed in from the back.

  “I said rock with me, didn’t I?” Linc curled his top lip. “Now I’ve been working on this profile for months. I know it inside out. I’ve had a feeling The Chopper was gonna escalate, and I think Jax Murphy is proof that she has.”

  “How so?” Lieutenant Chavez asked, standing in the corner of the room with her own coffee cup in hand.

  Linc met her eyes while licking his lips. “Jax’s sister took me to his safety deposit box. He instructed her to open it only in the event of his demise. It was filled with old cameras and video footage. He’s been a voracious photographer since he was elected student body historian his freshman year at Blackwater Prep. Thousands of photos. Photos that chronicle his entire life. Photos of family, friends…” Linc motioned to a corner of the board where he’d posted several photos he’d lifted from Jax’s camera. “When Jax was twelve, he received a scholarship to Blackwater Prep. He attended the school from grades 7-12. Who were his friends?” Linc pointed to a photo. “Judging from his photos over the years, most of his friends were players on the basketball team, even though he wasn’t a member of the team himself. Todd Lockwood and Eugene Masterson are in all of these photos. Games. Parties. Vacations. Trips to the beach. This wasn’t a fair-weather friendship. They spent the bulk of their time together.”

  “So Jax hung out with Todd and Eugene in high school. How is that proof he was killed by The Chopper?” a dubious voice asked.

  “I think it’s proof…” Linc pressed a button on the remote he’d had hidden in his hand, prompting the overhead projector to start playing a grainy black and white video. “That Todd, Eugene, and Jax are just three names on an extensive list of men who raped this woman…” Linc paused the video and used a red laser pointer to circle the image of a man and woman in the video. “At a party ten years ago.”

  More chortles. More sighs. More accusations about his desperation for sergeant moving into comical territory.

  But Linc wasn’t swayed, licking his lips. “When I spoke to Jax Murphy’s sister, she told us that Jax confessed to raping a woman at a party on November 1.”

  “Because everyone remembers the exact dates of random conversations we had ten years ago?” an officer spoke up from the corner of the room. “Come on, Linc.”

  Linc shot a lazy look toward the voice. “She remembered because it happened on her birthday. And this video footage, found in Jax’s
safe deposit box, taken at the Blackwater mansion ten years ago, proves that a young girl at this party was taken into an upstairs bedroom and followed into that bedroom by ten men. She was clearly inebriated. Stumbling. Unable to hold her drink. Unable to fight back against Todd Lockwood who dragged her into the room against her will…” Linc circled Todd, whose face was clearly visible, with his laser pointer.

  He waited for more smart-ass jabs. When nothing came, he pressed play, resuming the video.

  He paused the footage to highlight each new face that appeared in the video, each new face that followed Todd and the woman into the bedroom.

  “Eugene Masterson,” Linc said, circling Eugene’s grainy face in the video. He pressed play, fast-forwarded, and then paused when another man appeared on the video, entering the room. He circled that face as well. “Jax Murphy… following Todd Lockwood, Eugene Masterson, and a highly inebriated woman into the master bedroom of the Blackwater estate on the very night his sister claims he admitted to raping a woman. The broken nails forensics found at the Blackwater Cliffs proves there was a struggle before Jax fell over the edge. I think The Chopper murdered him in the midst of a scuffle, especially since we couldn’t match the fingernails we found to anyone in the DNA database. She doesn’t have a criminal record. Probably a model citizen. She’s not out to break the law. She’s out for vengeance.”

  Linc felt high from the silence that filled the room. He’d been sober for over a year, and there wasn’t a drink in existence that could make him feel as euphoric as he felt right then.

  “Seven more men entered the bedroom after Jax.” He rewound the video, freezing the frame where Todd was pulling the woman into the room. Linc pointed the laser at her high-heeled feet, the only part of her body that was visible. “I think all ten men who entered the bedroom raped this inebriated woman, I think the woman in this video is The Shadow Rock Chopper, and I think these seven men…” He fast-forwarded the video, stopping at each new face that was captured on video entering the room, calling out all seven names. “Are next on her list.”