by Naomi West
Chapter Ten
Abby
Abby paced in the bathroom, waiting for the shower to heat up. Zed had let her come in alone to get cleaned up. Now, she worried about her future and her safety. No matter what had just happened, she still had to be careful about him. She had to convince him, somehow, that she was wholly and totally committed to helping him with his brother.
Her thoughts turned to her phone call with Jackie. Her assistant had said she had cut her vacation short to come in and deal with complaints about Abby missing work because of the car accident. Apparently, people were whispering about how inopportune it was.
Abby had a good idea where those complaints were manifesting from, too. In fact, it was one malcontent in particular who could probably accept the brunt of the blame—Mark Letterman. He had to be the one stirring the pot and making up rumors about her.
She went and checked the shower. Satisfied it was hot enough, she stepped within the stall and stood beneath the pulsing streams, luxuriating under the heat. She soaped herself up and went over the problem in front of her.
She'd already been gone for four days. A whole week, at this point, wouldn't make any difference. Whatever small amount of damage had already been done was going to remain done, even if she rushed into work today. Waiting any longer, though, was out of the question. She'd begin to look like she couldn't manage her private life and keep it from interfering with her position at Pharma-Vitae.
As she shampooed and conditioned her hair, she continued with making her plans. If she wanted to get out of this in one piece, and do it quickly, she needed to play Zed's game. She needed to go along with him in whatever he planned on doing to her, or because of her. The cameras had been a screw up on her part; she'd honestly forgotten most of them were even there. But, going forward, she couldn't have anything else like that happen. Any more screw ups, and she would undo all the advances she'd already made in getting him to trust her.
And, sure, she thought Zed was hot. Crazy, but still fucking hot. He did things to her no man had ever dared to try, and those were things that her body apparently loved and lusted after.
She couldn't let that get in her way, though. She could do the all dirty, filthy, kinky acts he wanted, and she might enjoy them, but that didn't mean she needed to fall entirely into his line of thinking. Illnesses like his brothers sometimes ran in families. Clearly.
After finishing in the shower, she dressed in a fresh set of clothes and met Zed back in the bedroom, a small smile on her lips.
Zed was standing in the middle of the bedroom, his back to her, when she walked out of the bathroom. “All showered?” he asked.
She nodded to his back, instinctively going through the motions that he expected. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”
But that's all they were—motions. At least, that's what she hoped they were.
# # #
Zed
Zed turned around to face Abby. She looked beautiful with her wet hair, glowing skin, loose fitting clothes, and a corona of steam surrounding her angelic face. He bit his thumb, agitated, as he looked her over.
He'd been wasting precious time on this little mission of breaking Abby Winters, and he knew it. Sure, it had been amazing, and he couldn't stop thinking about how wonderful her lips and tongue had felt as they encircled his cock, but he needed to be focused on getting Kai out.
That was the mission, here. The mission he'd lost sight of in his lust for her body, and in his need to subjugate her to his demands. Eventually, the little ruse they'd been able to pull on Phara-Vitae was going to expire. It had a time limit, after all, and each tick of the clock brought them closer. If he didn't manage to find some kind of evidence of Kai's innocence, and do it quickly, he'd end up losing his best asset in this fight. Abby Winters wouldn't be CEO anymore.
“What, sir?” Abby asked, after a moment.
“We need to go through any kind of files you have on Dimalerax that you can access from here. Can you do that for me?”
She nodded. “I can try, sir. But no guarantees. They may not have what you're looking for, or the files might not say what you want them to say.”
She was right, of course. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they hadn't seen the results that Kai had experienced. He put his hand on her shoulder and watched as she started to go through file after file that had been emailed to her. He kept his thoughts to himself as she looked through the files, not wanting to disrupt her concentration.
“These look good,” she said, after a little while of searching.
Zed leaned in close over her shoulder as she began scrolling through a bunch of notations, emails, and PDF documents. She was far and away faster and more competent with a computer than he was, that much was for sure. “What are we looking at?” he asked.
She made a low, grumbling noise in her throat, an uncertain sound if he'd ever heard one. “I'm not exactly sure, but I think . . .”
“You think?” he asked after a moment, trying to get her to continue her thoughts.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head as she opened up another set of documents. “No, that can't be true.”
“What?” Zed asked, getting excited and troubled at the same time. Had he been right? Had he been wrong? Were they hiding something? “Tell me, Abby.”
She sighed and looked at him. “Study after study,” she said, then seemed to pause and swallow as she searched for the right word, “show that it doesn't work—not as effectively as they claim it does.”
“Study after study?” Zed hissed. “You mean they have been lying?” he demanded. “This whole fucking time?”
She just kept shaking her head. “How did I not fucking know this?” she mused, her eyes shimmering with angry tears. “How could I have been so stupid?” she asked aloud, her voice trembling.
Zed watched her face as it ran through the gamut of emotions. Anger, betrayal, anger again, and, finally, fear. He believed her. At least, he thought he did. He slapped a hand down on the edge of the desktop. “That's it,” he announced. “This is what I need. This is definitely it, isn't it? I can get those pieces of shit and hold them accountable, can't I?”
Abby turned to him, her almond-shaped eyes full of shock.
“I have to hold Pharma-Vitae accountable,” he said. “You know that. It's the only way my brother will ever get free, Abby. It's the only way.”
Chapter Eleven
Zed
“Can you print these up for me?” Zed asked, as he gestured to the computer screen with a curt nod. “So I can read through them?”
“Print them up for you?” Abby asked, shaking her head. “No, Zed, I can't let you have them. That's a huge breach of protocol. These are all industry secrets.”
Zed barked a short, harsh burst of laughter as he straightened to his full height. “You're telling me that the evidence that they lied and manipulated the truth is an industry secret?”
“Besides,” she continued, swinging around in the chair to face him, “this would destroy the company. I'd lose my job, Zed. My assistant would lose her job. I mean, those people have families, just like your brother did. This is like Enron level of corruption, maybe. The fines from the government, the lawsuits we'd open ourselves to, are off the charts. I already took Dimalrax off the market provisionally, Zed. What more do you want from me?”
“I want you people to admit that you ruined lives, that's what!” Zed shouted. “Here,” he said, pushing past her to the computer. He pulled up YouTube on her web browser and searched for a video he wanted to show. “Look at this.”
“What is it?” she asked, a note of distrust in her voice.
“Just watch,” he said, as he pressed play.
It was an advertisement that had just been quietly released at the beginning of the month. He eyed her face, monitoring for any changes as she watched it.
“The jobs of our first responders put them into tough situations,” the commercial began. “Dimalerax is here to help them be as tough as they need to be to ke
ep us safe.”
A montage of policemen, firemen, first responders, soldiers, and doctors, all talking about how rough their jobs could get and how the stress and emotional demands of what they lived through made them vulnerable to anxiety and the symptoms of PTSD, filled the screen. At, the end of it, all the first responders shown in the video were standing in a line, holding prescription pill bottles with the Dimalerax brand name on the side. They held them up together. “I keep working, because it keeps working,” they said, in unison.
Abby sat back in her chair, a look of shock mixed with utter disgust on her face. “I . . . I just . . .”
He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “Thousands have been destroyed by this drug, Abby,” he said. “And maybe thousands more will be. They deserve answers and relief from Pharma-Vitae. They were targets in all this—just innocent marks your company went after. But you have a chance to make things right, now. Print up the files, and we'll go to my reporter contact. I promise.”
# # #
Abby
Abby was furious. Blood-curdling, fire-breathing, mad-woman furious.
Mark had done this. She just knew it had to have been him. How he had gotten it greenlighted without her knowledge, though, she had no idea. The worst part of it all was that she hadn't been part of any of this. She'd done her due diligence and had thought she'd known what she was getting herself into.
Now she was blindsided by this video, this goddamned pill, all the lies, and the cover-ups that must be involved. She wanted to kick her computer monitor over and flip her desk, then go find Mark and kick his teeth in, just for getting her wrapped up in this whole mess. Letterman was to blame for everything. She just knew it.
Zed's plan wouldn't work, though. She knew it wouldn't work. The media would just focus on her, as CEO, just like they had in every other big scandal. Then the board would end up serving her up on a silver platter. Hell, they might even leave Mark completely alone when the allegations and investigations began. And, boy howdy, were there going to be investigations if this all got out.
No, what she needed to do was bringing this all to the board of directors on her own. The only way she'd manage to keep the success she'd already worked so hard to attain would be do this quietly and internally, without any outside interference whatsoever. When things were handled and Mark was out of the way, she could help Zed with Kai. But not before then.
She leaned forward, switched back to the files on her screen, and typed out a series of commands, acting like she was going to print it.
“What are you…?” Zed asked, confused, trailing off.
“I'm . . . wait . . . there!” she said, deleting her copies of the files from her computer.
“What the fuck?” Zed yelled. “What did you just do? Bring them back!”
“I'm trying!” Abby lied, as she fervently looked through where the files had just been on her computer. “There's nothing there, Zed!”
“No!” he groaned loudly, one hand running back through his hair, the other rubbing down the front of his face. “They can't be! I was so close fucking close! Why did you do this to me?”
As she looked at the hurt on his face and saw the obvious failure he must have felt, she wanted to tell him how close he still was. The files were still on the servers at Pharma-Vitae. They just weren't here anymore, accessible from her home office.
Abby followed her first impulse and reached out to him, but quickly withdrew her hand. She had nothing to say and no way to comfort him. He was right. This had been his only chance. But she needed those files, regardless of what he wanted them for. She had a responsibility to her employees, and to her own ambitions. She'd come this far in life, and she still had to prove she had what it took to stay on top.
“No,” Zed growled, shaking his head. “This was it. This was my chance. And it's gone now.” He turned to her, his eyes hard, firm, and red-rimmed around the edges. His knuckles cracked as his fists balled at his sides. “It's all fucked. And it's your fault!”
Chapter Twelve
Abby
Abby braced herself for his wrath. What would it be this time? A spanking? The time out chair? Would she have to service him again? Or would he actually take the belt to her? Or worse? She cringed away from him as she tried to remind herself why she was doing this. She needed the material on Mark. She needed to make sure she could protect herself and her employees from the fallout from that bastard's treachery.
Zed's cold eyes stayed on her. But, as she watched, they began to tremble and fill with ears. He dropped to his knees, his body wracked by a single, heartfelt sob. “I failed him,” he whispered, his words coming out as a ragged, shaken moan. “I failed him, Abby.”
She was crushed and confused. She hadn't expected him to do that. That wasn't what was supposed to happen.
“Kai's stuck there now,” he groaned, as he sat back on the floor, his body against the wall. He continued to speak, his voice softer than the wind rustling the leaves in the garden. “My brother's stuck there. He's getting proper treatment now, and he knows what he did. He just wants to die, Abby. His life is hell, just sitting on death row by himself, in an empty cell, hoping his appeals will hurry up and run out.” He stopped and looked up at her, tears wetting his cheeks.
Abby tried to look away in order to preserve some sort of hardness in herself that might help her live with the decision she'd just made, but she couldn't. She stayed focused on Zed as he poured his heart out to her. It was like a knife in the gut, or a slap across the face. What had she been thinking? Yes, Zed was probably crazy, and, yeah, what he'd done to her was pretty fucked up. But he was still a human being, and she was torturing him just as much now as he had tortured her.
“I just wanted to prove to the judges, lawyers, and press that it was the medication that made him lose his shit. That was all. And it was right there. Right in front of me. There was proof that Demialerax was responsible for him killing his family. But now it's gone—slipped through my hands.” He waved dismissively. “Sand through my fucking hands, Abby!”
She never would have thought Zed capable of tears, let alone this emotion. Clearly, Kai was the most important person in his life. If she hadn't known that before, she certainly saw it now. She finally managed to look away, biting her lip hard to keep her emotions down as she turned.
Abby had broken him. She’d broken the strongest, toughest, and craziest man she'd ever met. She felt her anger at herself stirring, immediately feeling the regret over her actions building.
She heard him sob hard, as he slammed a meaty fist into the wall.
Not knowing what else to do, she spun the chair back and got down on her knees beside him. She slipped her arms around his neck and pressed her body comfortingly into him. “I'm sorry, Zed,” she whispered. “Don't cry, okay?”
# # #
Zed
He didn't bother to fight the hug by the woman who'd just completely fucked him over. Why would he? What would have been the point? All of this had been for nothing, anyway.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered again, her voice sincere and full of regret. “I'm so sorry I hurt you,” she said, as she leaned back a little and wiped a tear from his cheek. “I'd get the files back for you if I could.”
Maybe he had finally gotten through to her? Maybe it hadn't been just the firmness that was needed, but the softness and vulnerability, as well? But it didn't matter if he'd finally chipped through that cold Ice Queen facade, or not. It was all ruined. His hopes had evaporated and disappeared into the ether. He had nothing to show any court and no evidence of any of the systemic corruption and lies by Pharma-Vitae.
“I'm sorry I did it,” Abby whispered, her eyes soft and wet with burgeoning tears as she leaned her head against his chest. “I just couldn't let you go to the press, Zed. I just—I need those files in my hands, not being leaked to someone.”
“Why?” he groaned, his arm coming up and wrapped around her body. Yeah, she might have fucked him over, but ther
e was something about the sudden genuineness of her concern that made his body respond to her comforting touch. “Why couldn't you just help me?”
“Why?” she repeated back his question, sighing deeply into his chest. “Because I have to think of myself. The world chews up little goody two-shoes, you know that? If you want to get ahead in this world, you can only be focused on yourself and on your own wants and needs. My mother taught me that, and my ex-fiancé proved she was right. No one cares about any of us. The universe doesn't give two shits about you or me. We need to do whatever we can to survive.”
Zed leaned his head back against the wall, the tears still wet on his cheeks. He took a deep breath and let it out through his nose, still frustrated that he'd been so close. “So, you fucked me over to help yourself?”
“I fucked you over to prove that I have what it takes.”