9
“That man is in love with you!”
Veda rolled her eyes from where she sat on top of the pharmacy desk, clutching the edge under her sweaty hands as her eyes flitted from one shelf of medication to the other, legs swinging. Behind her, beyond the glass wall that separated the pharmacy from the rest of the hospital, doctors, nurses, and patients scurried through the hallway.
Through the glass, Veda heard the war cries of Mr. Miller, the senile old man who loved to run through the halls, screaming for no good reason, his wrinkly ass fully visible and jiggling through the back of his hospital gown. His screams—she could never decide whether they were jovial or tortured—floated into the microphone bolted to the pharmacy’s glass window, along with the clap of his bare feet on the linoleum.
“He’s not in love with me,” Veda said, turning her head to watch Mr. Miller race past, unable to fight a small smile.
Jake cocked one eye. “Um… not only did he spill his heart out to you, only for you to thrust a hot dagger straight through it—”
Veda groaned at the memory of her and Linc’s moment on the marina pier, when he’d confessed his feelings, and she’d been forced to turn him down.
“Not only that…” Jake’s blue eyes narrowed from his rolling chair as he checked emails on his computer. “But he needed that bust. He needed to nail The Chopper to land his promotion to sergeant. He had The Chopper in the palm of his hand. He let The Chopper go. You are The Chopper…” Jake waved his hands through the air, speaking slowly as if that would help Veda understand. “He sacrificed everything. He’s in love with you.”
“Hey, cool story. One problem, though. He doesn’t know it’s me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“I know Linc. If he knew I was The Chopper, he wouldn’t be able to hide it. It would be all over his face. When that dead girl turned up at the trashcans the other night, he invited me to wait in his car. He drove me home. He checked my apartment to make sure it was clear because he knows I’m still a little shaky about being home alone. He still thinks I’m a delicate flower who needs protecting, not some savage madwoman carving out balls. He doesn’t know.” She breathed deeply. “Besides, the results from the DNA samples the police took here have almost certainly come back. No match on the broken nails they found at the cliffs. So even if Linc did suspect I was The Chopper at some point, he doesn’t anymore. My DNA doesn’t lie.”
“You mean Hope’s DNA doesn’t lie,” Jake said, reminding Veda that the only reason she’d escaped getting nailed for Jax Murphy’s murder was because Veda had switched out her DNA with Hope’s after the police had done a hospital-wide screening.
Veda exhaled. “Thank God for Hope. Not only did she save me from years of eating hairy box in prison, but she drove the getaway car the night Linc let me go.”
Jake nibbled his bottom lip, shaking his shaggy blonde hair from his eyes. “I guess this is it then, huh? I guess you have to stop now.”
Veda’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? Um. No.”
“Bitch, are you crazy?” When she didn’t answer, Jake ventured another question. “Do you have a death wish?” And another. “The fuck is wrong with you?”
“The only reason Linc was able to track me down at the O’Dair estate was because he figured out I was going in alphabetical order.”
“Which is such an obvious pattern it makes my damn teeth itch. I can’t believe I never noticed it on my own—because if I had, I’d have told you to switch it up long before you got caught. But now, you have been caught, Linc is onto you, and you need to cease and desist.”
“Again, he’s onto The Chopper. Not me. He has no idea it’s me.”
“You don’t know that.”
Veda carried on as if she hadn’t heard him. “He figured out the pattern, so I’ll change the pattern. Mix it up. Instead of going after six, I’ll go after seven instead. That way Linc will continue believing six is next, and he’ll give all of his attention to figuring out how The Chopper plans to take him. Meanwhile…” She popped the collar of her pink scrubs. “She’ll be busy taking number seven, instead, motherfucker.”
Jake shook his head with his lip curled high. “You need to know when to stop, Veda. And I really, really think you should stop now.”
“And I really, really didn’t ask your opinion.”
They shared a heated look, and Jake broke his eyes away only when a loud knock on the glass sounded, making it shake.
“Can I get my drugs, please?” a female doctor cried, holding her arms out at her sides. “Or do you get paid to socialize with Veda all day?”
Jake rolled his eyes while snatching up a bag, the medications inside clattering in their bottles and filling the quiet air as he opened a slot in the glass and threw it at her.
“You can take that stick out of your ass anytime, Dr. Wong.”
Dr. Wong, the bags under her eyes a little darker than usual and her hair a rats nest on top of her head, looked seconds from punching a hole through that glass just to get to Jake, her teeth bared as she leaned in.
“Your hair is fucking stupid,” she spat before giving a sharp nod and disappearing down the hall, huffing the whole way.
“Harsh,” Veda whispered, chuckling at Dr. Wong’s uninspired—but surprisingly cutting—comeback.
“That bitch needs a quadruple espresso and a dick in her pussy—stat,” Jake said, laughing softly with Veda as he pushed his blond bang, cut into an asymmetrical fringe, away from his eyes. “She thinks my hair is stupid now, she should’ve seen the lime green Mohawk I rocked when I was a kid.”
“Please come in tomorrow with a lime green Mohawk, just to piss her off,” Veda said. “The breakdown would be legendary.”
“Definitely something to consider,” he nodded.
Veda paused, still swinging her legs from where she sat on the edge of the desk, her voice softening. “I want to take out number seven tonight—Matthew Russo.” She thought about that prick, Russo, who loved snapping his fingers at her whenever she was working behind the bar at Dante’s whenever she wasn’t moving quickly enough for his liking. She couldn’t wait to show that piece of human excrement just how fast she was really capable of moving when it came time to rip his balls out.
“Russo?” Jake’s chin fell into his chest even as his mouth popped open. “The Mayor, Veda? The fucking Mayor?”
“No, not the fucking Mayor. The fucking asshole who raped me ten years ago.”
Jake sobered, leaning back in his seat with his head tilted. “I want you to stop.”
“And again, this isn’t a democracy. I never asked you what you wanted.”
“Considering I’m the guy who supplies the drug you need to incapacitate these bastards, I’d say I should get a vote.”
“I want you to help me follow Russo home when he leaves the bar tonight.”
“No.” Jake’s eyes softened when she huffed. “I heard what you did to Liam.” His chest began to heave. “Shit is getting dark, Veda. Brutal. Even for you. He almost bled to death. Can’t even have fake testicles implanted cause you took everything, bitch. You took it all.”
“He’s lucky I didn’t kill him. Those animals are the reason I lost my baby. I lost my baby, and Liam paid with his balls and his dick. He deserved a lot worse. He should be thanking me for my compassion.”
“You still think they had something to do with your abduction? I thought it was just Penny Nailer?”
“Penny Nailer is married to Brock Nailer, one of Blackwater Cruises most generous investors. Eugene Masterson works security for Blackwater Cruises. Todd Lockwood is Vice President at Blackwater Cruises.” Her blood boiled as she named the men who’d already tasted her wrath, knowing that their connection to the cruise line was no coincidence. “My boyfriend, who I can’t even see or speak to right now, has weaseled his way into a position at Blackwater Cruises to find out what the fuck is going on. Something horrible is happening on this island, Jake, and a lot of my attackers are inv
olved. However indirectly, they tried to pimp me out, which led to the loss of my child, and every last one of them is going to pay for it.”
“Penny fucking Nailer. I hope that bitch is rotting.”
“Last I heard, she’s in solitary on suicide watch.”
“Let’s hope they aren’t watching too closely.”
Veda punched his arm. “There’s the savage spirit I love! So tonight? Dante’s? Number seven?”
Jake sighed, his fight withering. “I just feel like you’re playing with fire, and I don’t want to see you get burned. I want you around, Vandyke—”
Jake clapped his mouth shut when the door to the pharmacy swung open and Coco Lockwood poked her head in. Both Veda and Jake were unable to fight a smile at the seventeen-year-old student nurse’s big brown eyes, flawless ebony skin, and the beaming smile that was always on her face as her long ponytail swung through the air.
“Morning!” Coco cried.
“Morning, bub—”
“Good morning, my love—”
Coco spoke over Veda and Jake as they greeted her at the same time, her eyes locked to Veda. “So I signed you up to chaperone my senior prom at the end of the month.”
Veda’s face fell. She went to speak.
Coco jumped in. “And, no, there’s no way out of it. Thanks, Veda, I knew you’d come through!”
Veda sputtered with a choppy shake of her head, unable to find the right words to deny the wide-eyed angel in front of her as Coco disappeared from the doorway and slammed the door closed behind her. Stupefied, Veda’s eyes followed Coco as she bopped down the hallway through the glass window, avoiding Veda’s gaze completely, ponytail dancing the whole way.
“She does realize that, on your watch, someone is likely to end up dead, pregnant, or leaving with two fewer balls than they walked in with, right?” Jake asked.
Having already surrendered, Veda struggled with a roll of her eyes. “If she doesn’t realize it now, she will soon. It’s high time she learned that I’m not the angel she thinks I am anyway…”
Veda’s words fell away as she caught sight of Linc on the other side of the glass, moving down the hall. Her hand instinctively went into the pocket of her scrubs, and she clutched the bronze coin inside.
Linc wore his usual jeans and white t-shirt, his biceps pulsating under the fabric, gold police badge swinging from the chain around his neck as he moved. His hair was in a sloppy bun low on his head, green eyes trained forward even as every adoring nurse begged for a passing glance.
“I gotta go,” Veda said, snatching up two thick piles of papers that she’d laid on the desk next to her before hopping down and hurrying toward the door.
“Stop leading that poor man on and send him over to me! I’ll show you what to do with his fine ass—” Jake cried, his words cut off when Veda raced out of the door and slammed it shut behind her. His voice lowered to a grumble, running the beds of his fingers across his chest, which heaved at the sight of Linc. “Never send a girl to do a woman’s job.”
10
“Oh, hey, long hair don’t care!”
Linc rolled his eyes at the nickname he hated and the voice that had invented it. He picked up his pace, gnawing a piece of gum, sidestepping smiling nurses left and right. He knew, however, that she wouldn’t give up so easily.
She didn’t, taking up a jog and coming up next to him, her chest heaving from that small “workout” alone.
“Hey…” Veda took his bicep and squeezed her hello.
Linc drew in a breath at the softness of her fingers, and the warmth of them on his skin, feeling his bicep flexing at her touch. He cut his heated green eyes at her, never breaking his pace.
“I’m busy,” he said, raising his eyebrows. He noticed how her gaze shot to the left eyebrow, where his scar was. She was one of the few people who’d never asked him about it, even though she always went out of her way to stare.
He squinted at her.
Her lips grew pinched. “So we’re back to this now?”
He sighed and stopped walking, facing her, knowing it was better to amuse her than ignore her because she was always determined to get her way. Still assaulting the mint-flavored gum between his teeth, he tilted his head back slightly, watching her from under his eyelids.
Her big brown eyes reached up to him, and those lips that owned her face kicked up a small smile. “Am I going to have to find a dead girl behind a trashcan every day, just to get you to talk to me? Because this is Shadow Rock and that can be arranged.”
Linc looked away when a smile tried to bloom. “Not sure you could handle another dead body. Seemed pretty shook last night. Which is strange, considering you’re a doctor.”
She must’ve seen the smile he tried to fight because her voice came lighter as if she was smiling back. “Hey, I only treat people who are still alive, okay? And that’s only after the paramedics and nurses have done the dirty work cleaning them up. A dead body next to a trashcan is… somewhat different.”
He groaned his agreement, licking his lips as he peeked at her.
She wrung her hands together when their eyes met once more. “How’s your chest feeling?”
As if the bullet graze on his chest—the one she’d stitched together—heard her inquiry, it ebbed with the tiniest shot of pain, alerting Linc that he still had a little way to go before it was completely healed.
“It’s fine,” he said.
“Still keeping it clean and dry?”
“Yes, Veda.”
“No bleeding or signs of infection?”
“No, Veda.”
She sighed. “Well, as it turns out, I didn’t chase you down to make small talk. And since the attitude you’re giving me right now is leaving much to be desired, I hope you understand the humility it’s going to take for me to do you this favor.”
Linc’s eyes fell to a stack of papers he hadn’t even noticed was in her hand, then he raised one eyebrow at her as she offered it to him.
He took it. “What’s this?”
Veda nodded at the papers. “Thought you’d be interested to know that a woman named Lisa Hill was once a patient of Penny Nailer’s, too. I didn’t know if it was your Lisa Hill, but the dates seemed too close to be a coincidence.”
Linc’s heart came to a grinding halt, eyes expanding. Then, his wide green orbs were on the papers, dashing across them, flipping through them frantically with wildly trembling fingers.
Veda’s voice came in. “After I found out Penny was behind my attack, that she was targeting pregnant women, I started to do some digging in the hospital database. Turns out Penny saw a patient named Lisa Hill a little over five years ago.”
A chill raced down Linc’s spine, making his breathing move to gasping as he read over the files. One look at the middle name and birthdate confirmed that the Lisa Hill who’d been a patient of Penny’s five years earlier was, in fact, his Lisa Hill. His missing wife had been a patient of the woman he’d proven had played a hand in trafficking missing girls and women.
Pregnant missing girls and women.
“Jesus Christ, Veda,” he whispered, voice raw.
Veda nodded. “Penny only married Brock Nailer two years ago, so when she treated Lisa, she was working under her maiden name. That’s why you didn’t catch it the first time around. So there’s a whole other list of patients you’ve yet to look at. A whole other list of potential victims to add to Penny’s roster.”
Linc swallowed thickly, still recovering, the hairs on the back of his neck still standing on end. “I need that list.”
Veda made a face as if sick of being underestimated, before lifting up another stack of papers he hadn’t noticed was in her hands.
He took it with a tilt of his head, his eyes softening.
“No need to thank me.” Veda crossed her arms. “Just stop treating me like I need to go searching for dead girls next to trash cans just to get you to talk to me. That’ll be thanks enough.”
Linc went to respond, but his
phone rang, sending a musical tune through the air, and cutting him off.
He took the phone from his back pocket and answered, “Hill.”
“Damn, Linc.” He recognized the voice of the department’s lead forensics tech, Martin Zhang, immediately. “Can a brother get a return phone call? Can a brother get a text? I’m starting to feel like those adoring nurses you avoid like the plague at the hospital.”
“I was on my way down,” Linc said. “Just finished questioning Liam O’Dair.”
Martin hissed. “Heard The Chopper took it all man. Whole kit-and-caboodle.”
“You heard right. Just finished up with him…” Linc eyed Veda. “Got sidetracked on the way out.”
Veda cocked her head back at being labeled a “sidetrack”, crossing her arms tighter with a roll of her eyes.
Linc forced his eyes away from her. They didn’t stay gone for long, however, meeting hers once more as she kicked the toe of his boot with her sneaker.
“I got the results back on that grape blow pop,” Martin said.
“I know. I got your messages.”
“And yet you still haven’t comprehended that you really, really, really need to get down here and hear about these results man.”
“Tell me now.”
“Not over the phone,” Martin said. “Get down here.”
“I said I was on my way didn’t I?” Linc spat, a frown crossing his face. “Ten minutes.”
He hung up without another word and went to say goodbye to Veda, but his partner, Samantha Gellar, approached before he could. She ignored Veda, not purposely, but because she’d just gotten a big hit. Linc could tell because her brown eyes were so wide they seemed moments from rolling out of her skinny head, the way they always did when a lead came in.
“Lieutenant just called about the blackbird tattoos that keep popping up on all these girls,” Sam spoke hurriedly to Linc. “Turns out they’re not blackbirds at all, but Hispanic Aztec symbols. Told her we’d hit up Little Mexico to see if we can find any leads.”
Linc nodded as he thought of Little Mexico, a neighborhood at the very top of the hill where the majority of the residents were of Mexican descent. A neighborhood that was impossible to walk through without running into Latin music blasting from all around, bustling bodegas that sold the most authentic Mexican spices, and barefoot kids dancing salsa in the tattered streets.
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