“Mom, can I call you back? My next patient—”
“Donathan Maurice James! I don’t give a hoot about your patients. Have you seen the paper this morning? What in the world is going on over there?”
“Mom, I know I should have told you, but I didn’t want to ruin your vacation.”
“I don’t care where I am in the world. If something is happening to my child, I want to know about it immediately. I wake up to you all over the news, and now you’re splashed across the newspaper. I knew nothing good would come from that ‘Sex Doctor’ foolishness. If you had gone to medical school like your father, none of this would be happening. How am I going to explain this to my friends?”
Donathan blew out a heavy breath, drowning out his mother’s words as she continued to ramble. Everything was always about status with Sylver Monet James. No matter where the conversation started, it always ended up there. He tried to remain calm, but that was the main reason he’d been avoiding calling her.
“Mom, why does everything always have to be about medical school?”
“Doctors lead nice, respectable lives, Donathan. They don’t end up on the front page of the newspaper.”
He groaned and spun around in his high-back leather chair. He pictured his mother perched behind her full-glass desk at her Sotheby’s real estate office. Flawlessly styled salt-and-pepper hair with an impeccably tailored St. John suit. He was sure she looked stunning, as she always did. But what rock had she crawled under? Austyn Greene was a doctor, and she led the headline.
“I would like to discuss this with you in person before your father’s recognition celebration. When can you and Sydney come for dinner?”
“About Dad’s party—I don’t think this is a good time for me to be out in any public settings. The press is harassing me for a story, and I don’t want to rain on Dad’s parade—”
“That’s pure nonsense. Your father would be utterly devastated if you missed his recognition dinner. He’s worked so hard for this. And you shouldn’t hide if you haven’t done anything wrong. Besides, the dinner is not open to the public. We’ve bought out Pican’s for a private invitation–only affair.”
Donathan cringed. He didn’t know if it was worse to be surrounded by strangers speculating and gawking at him, or his mother’s bourgeois fake-ass friends.
“I’ll check Sydney’s schedule and get back to you.”
“Boy, don’t play with me. You have twenty-four hours to call me back, or I’ll come to you.”
CHAPTER 8
Clutching her Louis Vuitton tote bag, Sydney entered Children’s Hospital a little apprehensive about what to expect from her colleagues. She had practically begged the hand surgeon to allow her to come back to work, but she didn’t expect Human Resources to place her on the work schedule immediately, and after her run-in with Julia Stevens yesterday, she wasn’t so sure if she was ready to do this after all.
What happened to her and Donathan was unthinkable—almost being killed by a madwoman. Austyn Greene had exhibited no mercy, and she was determined to harm them both. If Sydney had not alerted the authorities to their whereabouts before she entered the apartment they both would be dead. The knot in her gut loosened a bit. Helping children was what she’d been put on this earth to do, and she wasn’t going to let gossip and whispers get in the way of that. She had done nothing wrong. She was the victim.
At this point, anything was better than being cooped up in the house with Donathan. The man drove her crazy, or maybe it was the guilt closing in on her. She wished she could rewind the situation back to that afternoon when she’d stumbled across the compromising photos of Donathan and Austyn Greene on the internet. Instead of packing her bags and taking up residence at the Waterfront Hotel, she should have stayed, talked to Donathan, not accused him and run away. It took him more than a week to come after her, but by the time she found out the truth about Austyn, it was too late. The invisible line that married women should steer clear of had already been crossed.
Naïvely, she moved back home, expecting her life to revert to the way she and Donathan were before Miles. In love, lounging in bed all day, or cooking and feeding one another, followed by the most exquisite lovemaking that made her toes curl. She longed for his demanding directives and the way he looked at her when she modeled the sexy lingerie and designer shoes he purchased for his very own private shows. Now he was obsessed with everything else except her. She didn’t know where the old Donathan was, but she wanted him back.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The paparazzi who were camped outside their front gates harassing them as they traveled about didn’t help matters any, but ultimately it was her refusal to give him a definitive answer to whether she slept with Miles or not that had taken ahold of him and wouldn’t let go. Every time he asked, she’d say things like, “I can’t believe you keep asking me that,” or “You need to quit obsessing about that and get it together.” But that clearly wasn’t good enough. Payton was actually right for once. Nothing good would come from him knowing that Miles Day had licked “his” kitty, except that she would lose her pedestal status permanently, and he would never look at her the same way ever again. But she couldn’t keep this secret from him for the rest of their lives, could she? Sydney glanced at the palm of her hand. To the naked eye, the physical wound had healed, but the emotional scars needed more time.
Sydney took a seat at the nurses’ station and logged into the intranet. After clocking in, she clicked on the tab labeled Physicians’ Schedules. Then she scrolled down the names until she saw Miles Day. The schedules were listed for two months out, and according to the calendar, his shift would be ending now. Sydney sighed heavily. She didn’t know why she even bothered checking. His name wasn’t on the call board, and she was no closer to knowing where Miles was and when he was coming back. She contemplated calling Miles again. She just needed to hear his voice—to know if he was okay.
“Good morning, everyone,” Dr. Julia Stevens said brightly. “Isn’t it a lovely day?”
The nurses were in a shift meeting, so there was no “everyone” at the nurses’ station... just Sydney. Sydney spun around to face the tall, thin woman with attractive features and expressive green eyes. She rolled her eyes upward as Julia tossed her shiny red hair over her shoulder.
“I can’t believe you’re here. You are such a brave soul. I mean, I would never be able to show my face around here again if my husband and lover got into a brawl and tore up the local breakfast spot.”
“Excuse me?”
She leaned in close and whispered, “Oh, now, come on, Sydney. Everybody knew there was something going on with you two, and the mere fact that he’s disappeared into thin air confirms my suspicions. You’re the reason he’s not here today.”
“What do you mean, I’m the reason he’s not here today?” Sydney asked, feeling her sense of confidence slip from her shoulders. “Since when did you become the expert on Miles?”
“For the record, Miles and I are quite chummy. As a matter of fact, I spoke with him yesterday.”
“And said what?” Sydney asked, a little too defensively and now looking around to see if anyone could overhear their conversation.
“What we talked about is really none of your business, but he asked me to cover this shift for him. And I told him outright what a fool he was for getting involved with a married woman,” Julia replied with a superior smirk. “And when we talk later tonight, I’m going to tell him that again.”
Sydney stared at Julia in disbelief. There was not much love lost between the two women. She and Julia had always tolerated one another, but the redhead’s cattiness and jealousy had gotten much worse since they’d all come back from the medical conference in Chicago.
“Look, Julia, I’m not sure how anything related to me, Miles, or my husband has become any of your business, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stop spreading rumors about things you know nothing about. And just in case I’m not being perfectly clear: What I’m saying to yo
u is, mind your own damn business.”
Sydney retreated toward the doctors’ lounge, her mind firing questions. Where was Miles? Had he started a relationship with Julia? If that were true, she had no right to have feelings about it since, as Julia had pointed out, she was a married woman.
“Dr. James, is that you?” the head neonatal intensive care unit nurse called from the other end of the corridor. “I have a few babies who would love some of your tender love and care,” she sang as she paused to enter a set of automatic double doors.
All Sydney wanted to do was get back to work and put this fiasco behind her, but Julia Stevens was determined to make her life a living hell. Maybe rocking a few babies would get her out of this funk.
“I’d love to cuddle with a few of your munchkins,” Sydney called back to the woman. “Once the shift stabilizes, I’ll be right down.”
Sydney stepped into the doctors’ lounge and studied her reflection in the mirror. She hated that evil jealous bitch. But right now she was the only connection to Miles, and if she kept Julia talking she would uncover all the information she needed to find out his whereabouts. Sydney blew out a ragged breath. She had to stop letting Julia ruffle her feathers like this.
CHAPTER 9
Austyn Greene turned off the television. How much longer could she stay holed up in this hellhole watching reruns of The Maury Povich Show. She couldn’t believe how fucking gullible these people were. How many times did the asshole have to say, “You are not the father!” If a chick brought her man on the show to reveal a “secret,” she’d cheated.
“Damn, it’s not fucking rocket science,” she hissed.
She couldn’t watch another minute of this bullshit. A few nights ago, she’d left the motel and ended up at a place called Shaboom in San Ramon for a drastic, much-needed change in scenery. She needed to escape from this dump so she could think. She’d been extra careful and kept her head down, avoiding the eyes of everyone she saw as if people were taking a mental inventory of her face.
On the outside, she was sporting nude lips, a long blond wig that brushed the middle of her back, big earrings, a pair of green-colored contacts, skinny jeans, and form-fitting, revealing tops—a far cry from her usual designer attire.
However, on the inside, her mind was spinning in a hundred different directions, anxious to teach Donathan James a lesson about trying to stick his dick where it didn’t belong. Yet what she longed for most was to witness the life seep out of Lois Greene’s body. It was time for her to pay, and Lois was here in Pittsburg—she could feel it.
Austyn picked up the specimen jar off the bedside table and stared at the floating contents while fingering the scalpel in her pocket. Unfortunately, for him, during her little excursion to Sha-boom’s, the obnoxious prick just wouldn’t leave her alone. He’d kept touching her and whispering all the disgusting things he wanted to do to her. He’d given her no choice except to make sure he wouldn’t be bothering anyone else—ever. She shook the cylinder. These would do for now, but she wouldn’t rest until she added Donathan’s jewels to her collection.
Austyn made her way over to the closet, a nervous habit she’d developed, to check her duffel bag again. Money, drugs, and syringes—everything was right where she’d left them.
She picked up a stack of cash and found herself daydreaming about what her life would have been like if she had grown up with a normal mother and father—the two-parent American dream. But growing up in the Los Angeles foster care system, the repeated sexual abuse, multiple foster families, and group homes had been anything but normal. When she was fifteen, she decided she didn’t want to end up like her mother, and with the help of a social worker, she learned the secret that most kids in the foster care system didn’t take full advantage of. There were thousands of scholarships and other financial resources available to wards of the state.
When Austyn was thirteen, she was placed with a couple who were doctors for an emergency foster care placement. And even though she was whisked away at the end of thirty days, it was the safest she had ever felt in her life. That experience left a lasting impression on Austyn, so when the social worker asked what she wanted to study in college, she set her sights on becoming a doctor.
She clawed her way through undergraduate school, then stumbled into UCLA Medical School, and her hard work paid off. At twenty-five, she had the rest of her life to live. To shed all the bad things that happened to her. But then those bastards raped her, and her mind wouldn’t shut up.
The voices in her head told her to do things, and it felt so good when she did. She stalked those bastards who violated her for weeks, and they had no idea she was even there. When the time was just right, she took their money, their drugs, and their lives, and she wouldn’t rest until she did the same thing to Lois Greene.
The sudden shriek of a police siren startled her. Panicked, Austyn jumped up, placed the stack of cash back inside the duffel bag, and stuffed it into the hole she had cut in the closet floor. Was that the police? Were they here for her? She paced back and forth, retracing her steps from last night. After leaving that hotel in Pleasanton, she drove around for at least an hour before making her way back to Pittsburg. She was sure no one had followed her. Or had they? She couldn’t go to jail. She had to finish what she came here to do.
You can’t do nothing right, the voice spat inside her head. I knew we couldn’t trust you to pull this off.
Austyn continued pacing, ignoring the conversation going on inside of her head. The voice spoke again.
The only thing you were supposed to do was make her pay for what you did to us. You’re weak and pathetic.
“Shut the hell up!” Austyn yelled as the voices grew louder, and Austyn covered her ears with both hands to drown it all out. And then it came to her like a flash of light. The voices coming from the outside parking lot were that of a man and woman arguing. Why were the police arguing? She made her way over to the window so she could get a better view.
Holding her breath, Austyn peeped out the window and was surprised to see a man and a woman standing next to a midnight-blue Lexus. They weren’t the cops as she’d first thought. The man was tall and lean, his cheeks sunk in due to his drug use. His eyes were glassy and he seemed irritable, but the woman was not from these parts. Austyn could only see the woman’s profile, but everything about her was first class, from the expensive sunglasses that framed her flawless caramel face to the multiple gold bracelets that jangled loosely on her wrist. Austyn cracked open the window to better hear the exchange.
“Goddammit, Payton, give me my money. It wasn’t your house, and it ain’t your fucking money!” the crackhead said, his arms flailing around with noticeable sweat stains under both arms of his faded T-shirt.
“Uncle Sheldon, you need to calm down before they refuse to give you a room—”
“I don’t give a damn! If you give me what’s mine, we can end this shit right now!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not giving you the money. I can’t sit back and watch you smoke it all away. I’m putting your money into a trust account. We can find you a permanent place to live—”
“It’s your damn fault I don’t have a place to live in the first place.”
“Maybe you’re right, but erratic actions cause desperate measures. You gave me no choice. I couldn’t allow you to trash the place like that. It’s time for you to do something with your life.”
“I am doing exactly what I want with MY life!”
“Look, here’s the deal. We can search for a more suitable living arrangement and I’ll give you a monthly allowance, but if you decide to go to rehab, upon completion of being clean for six months, then I will relinquish all control of your money over to you—”
“There you go with that rehab shit again. If you want me to go to rehab so bad, maybe I can see if they have an open bed next to yo mama!”
Austyn perked up. The woman removed her sunglasses, revealing a tightness across her face.
“Yeah, th
at’s right. I said yo mama!” the man repeated with a smirk. “Lois Greene is right around the fucking corner, and if you want to mother somebody, maybe you should start with her.”
Austyn stepped back from the window, her mind trying to make sense of what she had just heard. These people actually had ties to the bitch she was looking for. She quickly took a seat on the floor and situated her body closer to the curtains. She peeked out again.
The woman was quiet for what seemed like an eternity, as if evaluating how she should react. Not the kind like she was thinking, but the kind like she wanted to choke the shit out of him. Finally, she spoke.
“I’m beginning to think that this is a game to you,” she said. “The last few times I’ve seen or talked to you, you snuck in a jab about that bitch. Did she put you up to this? Do you know where Lois Greene is?”
The man didn’t respond. A haughty grin slowly spread across his bony face. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he spat, mocking her. “Let’s make a deal, niecy. If you give me my money, then I’ll tell you where Lois is. Other than that, you can kiss my black ass,” he said and stormed off with his bicycle in tow.
“I’ll rent you the room for thirty days!” she screamed after him.
Austyn waited until the woman disappeared into the motel rental office before she hurried to the nightstand to grab a pad and pencil, then hurried back to the window to take down the license plate number of the dark-blue Lexus. She also scribbled down the names Sheldon and then Payton. Her luck couldn’t get any better than this. Lois Greene was right around the corner. All she had to do was devise a plan for good ol’ Uncle Sheldon to lead her right to her.
CHAPTER 10
“What the hell?” Donathan mumbled as he haphazardly pulled his car into the S-curved driveway. He cut the engine off and jumped out of the car. He had to stop her; heaven only knew what Barbara Brown was saying to those reporters.
Surviving the Chase Page 5