SOLD: Jagged Souls MC

by Naomi West

  He just looked on, his eyes haunted and distant as the EMT's and paramedics surrounded him, blocking him from view. Abby realized she'd been wounded, too, as she tried to stumble toward him, her leg giving out beneath her wait.

  No, this was all happening too fast, like the worst nightmare anyone could conceive of, and she was thrust into the middle of it, like Alice through the Looking Glass. They began to drag her back to the ambulance, trying to gently subdue her as her hearing resumed.

  The world of sound, previously dimmed from the gunfire, returned in with a crash. The sound of helicopter blades pounded above her, sirens whirred, and men shouted orders. “Get him in the stretcher! We need to see how bad these gunshots are!”

  “Get her back to the ambulance! I want a tourniquet on that leg! We need to stop the bleeding!”

  They dragged her back to the ambulance as she kicked and screamed, fighting against every inch they put between her and Zed. “Please,” she sobbed, her throat ragged and raw as she sobbed out her tears. “Please, let me go to him!”

  “Ma'am, we need you to settle down,” they replied, their voices one step away from tense shouts as two burly medics finally lifted her into the air and got her into the rear of the ambulance.

  “Zed!” she screamed again, the tears streaming down her face now as she fought against their hands and grappling arms. Men in uniforms strapped her to the stretcher and tightened her bonds as she thrashed violently, trying to break free to get back to her love.

  “Get a god-damn sedative in her,” growled one of the men. “She'll bleed herself out with all this kicking.”

  “Surprised she's going so strong, with all this blood gone.”

  Then there was a sharp pain in her thigh, followed by blissful, omnipresent darkness that encompassed all. She drifted like a lost soul over the inky waves of blackness, the only thought she could form a wordless blob that coalesced into the shape of Zed Hesse, his shirt bloody and ragged, his eyes hollow and haunted as he watched her torn from his protective embrace.

  She came-to a while later in a hospital bed, her clothes gone. One of those scratchy cotton gowns covered her. Her right leg ached like hell, a throbbing, hot pain that seemed to pierce all the way to the core of her body, like nothing she'd ever experienced.

  How much time had passed? She looked around groggily, trying to find a clock. She didn't see one, and just flopped back onto the flat, unfluffed pillow. She groaned, a deathly rasp coming from her dry-as-dirt throat.

  “Oh my God, you're awake!” came a familiar voice, a lilting sound that seemed to drift through the room beautifully. “Abbs, you're back!”

  Abby groaned, turning her head to the source of the voice. Jackie! “Hey,” she said, smiling as she saw her executive assistant.

  “Hey, yourself,” Jackie said, as she came to the side of the bed and put her hands on the railing. She looked as ragged as Abby felt, but wracked more with worry than physical pain. Dark rings stood out beneath her eyes, her hair looked like it could use a brush, and her makeup needed to be touched up. To Abby, it appeared Jackie hadn't left her side since she'd been admitted.

  “How you feeling?” Jackie asked, reaching down and taking Abby's hand in her own, squeezing it gently.

  “Like I got shot in the leg, then sedated.”

  “Funny you should say that,” her friend said, squeezing her hand.

  “Water?” Abby asked.

  “Yeah,” Jackie said, reaching over and grabbing a cup of ice chips. “Here, they said to give you these when you woke up.”

  Abby took the cup and shook some chips into her throat, the cold wetness like iced tea on a summer's day, refreshing and rejuvenating. She never knew frozen water could taste this good.

  “I ran into someone earlier today,” Jackie said, her words sounding carefully and deliberately chosen. “Never guess who.”

  Abby groaned. She didn't have time for this. “Who, Jackie? Just spit it out.”

  “Zed Hesse. Saw him at Pharma, in fact, just this afternoon.”

  Abby groaned again. “Oh God,” she whispered. “Is he okay?”

  Jackie shook her head, her eyes narrowing. “He put a gun to my head, Abbs.”

  Abby turned her face away. She couldn't deal with this. Not now. Not with her whole world coming down around her. She knew she owed some explanation to Jackie about Zed, but what could she say that would make everything better?

  “He used me as a hostage to get in to see Mark,” she continued. “Do you know what that's like? To be held as a fucking hostage?”

  “Kind of,” Abby whispered, her face still turned away.

  “What?” Jackie demanded.

  Abby just shook her head. “Look, I'm sorry about what you had to go through.”

  Jackie sighed. “It really wasn't that bad, Abbs,” she groaned. “I mean, I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. Zed just doesn't seem the type to do that. But, with all that, I know you're not telling me the truth about who he is, or what happened between you two.”

  “Is he okay?” Abby asked, as she turned back to him. “Have they said if he's okay?”

  Jackie crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “He's out of surgery, and doctors say he'll be fine. The cops, though . . .”

  Abby felt numb. She was too weak to cry and too emotionally exhausted to not. It was like a sick limbo that seemed to consume her, one that wouldn't let her go free no matter how much she struggled. She wanted to let herself go, to let big, fat, salty tears roll down her cheeks so they could dot the hospital blanket. But she just couldn't.

  Zed was in custody. He was safe, and would live. But, still, he was gone from her. No more would he be her guardian, or her captor. She wouldn't feel his hands on her throat, feel his fingers in her hair, or the sting of his hand on her backside. She'd never feel the same safety in his arms, or the quiet strength encircling her and keeping her upright as the world tried to tear her down.

  “You still didn't answer my question,” Jackie said.

  “I can't,” Abby whispered. “I just can't. It's as much for you as it is for me, Jackie. Believe me.”

  Finally, though, as the words left her mouth, she felt her eyes begin to fill with the tears she needed. She felt them fill up and brim over, beginning to trickle her down her face.

  Jackie sighed and, seemingly not knowing what else to do, gathered Abby up in her arms and held her. “It's okay,” she whispered to her boss, as she stroked her hair. “It's okay, Abbs. Everything'll be fine. I promise.”

  Abby tried to believe her, but she just couldn't bring herself to.

  Nothing was going to be fine with Zed gone. Nothing would ever be fine again, and she knew it.

  Chapter Thirty

  Abby

  One Year Later

  Abby felt like she had about ten pounds of pancake makeup on, and the stage-lighting beat down on her like the Sahara sun. Her chair was uncomfortable, reminding her of the ones Zed had used so well for her time-outs, and forced her into the perfect posture Natalia Winters had drilled into her from the time she could stand on her own two feet. She sat there, legs crossed, with her hands folded on her knee like a prim and proper lady.

  Across from her sat Kara Singh, newly elevated to talk show personality on cable news. It wasn't one of the major shows, but it was still a step up from her job as a news reporter.

  A long year had passed, one filled with trials, headlines, bankruptcies, recriminations, and tabloid press. Abby, though, had come out on top. Or, as much on top as one could be when it came to a media dogpile like the one after Zed took Mark Letterman hostage. But Abby had escaped all the stigma of Dimalerax when the gravy-train ended, and the FDA and the Justice Department had come in. Mark and the rest of the board had been left holding the bag, and had taken most of the heat. The board itself, of course, got off scot-free, with Pharma-Vitae only getting sued into the ground and fined into non-existence.

  But, Mark. Well, Mark was on trial and looking at some pretty serious time, especiall
y with all the files that had escaped the data purge by ending up in Abby's personal email account.

  “Tell us,” Kara said, her beautiful green eyes shining like emeralds in the light. “What's it like one year on, after everything? The scandal with Dimalerax was one of the biggest scandals to rock the world of Big Pharma in the last two decades, and it's always overshadowed your own personal experiences with the hostage hoax Zed Hesse used to bring it all to light. You've rarely spoken about the hostage situation in public since that day, but everyone is still curious.”

  “Well,” Abby said, “it's still difficult to put it all into words. To be honest, I'm still trying to process everything that happened in that week. It all seemed to happen so fast, but so slowly at the same time. But I suppose everyone is still curious about the man behind it all, Zed Hesse, and how he, or anyone, could come to the decision he did about how to make the news hit the headlines, getting law enforcement and the public to take notice about the grave crimes he and I had uncovered at Pharma-Vitae.”

  Kara nodded, encouragingly, and Abby smiled.

  She didn't want to talk about the bittersweet loss she felt every time she thought about Zed, or the intense longing in the pit of her stomach when she heard his name. She didn't want to tell them about how she still needed his touch, or that she dreamed of him at night sometimes. “It's just a testament, I feel, to the power of family, and what one brother was willing to do. As you know, Kai Hesse had been on death row due to the drug Dimalerax, and Zed saw the injustice in it all.”

  “Injustice?” Kara asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Injustice that his brother had ended up where he was because he had trusted Pharma-Vitae, and his doctors, to help. But, of course, they didn't, and he suffered. It was really that intrinsic injustice in the system that no one else saw, that made Zed Hesse snap the way he did. People at the top weren't doing their jobs, and executives at Pharma-Vitae, unbeknownst to me, were operating from a sick and twisted idea of shareholder value, so they could enrich themselves at the expense of the men and women who serve this country every day. What would you do in that situation, where your entire adult life has been dedicated to protecting the ideals of a nation, but all you were protecting was some giant corporation's ability to get rich off your brother?”

  Kara signaled a commercial break as Abby began to wind down on her little speech. “We'll be back in just a moment, after this break, and, when we return, we'll have a special guest.”

  Abby kept her perfect smile, but she felt a little twinge, despite her poise. Special guest? She hadn't been told about a special guest.

  The reporter leaned in as the cameraman signaled that they were clear. “Sorry to spring this on you,” she said. “But the next guest may cause a bit of a shock.”

  “Guess you want to keep it as a surprise, then?” Abby asked, slightly incredulous.

  “It'll make for better TV,” Kara replied, as she fiddled with her mic and adjusted it. She caught Abby's wary eyes and gave her a warm smile. “I promise.”

  Soon, the cameraman and state director were signaling that they were coming back up in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...

  “I'm Kara Singh, and we're back with my special guest, Abby Winters, former CEO of Pharma-Vitae, which some viewers may remember from the Dimalerax scandal just over a year ago. Now, we have a special guest, one whom is very happy to see our current one.”

  At that cue, a tall, ginger-haired man with brooding, dark brown eyes came onto the stage. From his powerful build and the way he stood ramrod straight and moved with purpose, the casual observer could instantly tell he was ex-military.

  Zed Hesse.

  Abby's mouth dropped open a little as she watched him cross the studio stage. Every bit of him was just as she remembered, except for how smoothly shaven he was. She rose as he came closer and hugged him tightly.

  # # #

  Zed

  Zed watched Abby on the screen hugging the man who might as well have been a stranger to her. He grinned, despite the fact that he wasn't the one there holding her. It was good to see Kai moving around and not wearing an orange jump suit.

  He could tell from the way she embraced Kai on screen that she instantly knew something was wrong. It was the way he held her, Zed knew. Not like a lover. Not like the man that was meant to be with her for the rest of her life.

  “Abby,” Kai said.

  She smiled as she realized who it really was, and, even though they were separated by guards, fences, cell walls, and many miles, Zed smiled right along with her.

  Kai was finally out after all this time, finished with his treatments, with his hard-fought freedom finally granted. The two broke apart and took their seats across from Kara, who seemed to have grown only more respectable in the intervening year.

  The money from the lawsuit against Pharma-Vitae, for knowingly releasing a harmful product and willfully misleading customers and doctors, had fueled the legal defense they'd set for Kai. With the news breaking, they'd won an appeal for brand new evidence and been able to have his sentence changed, due to the temporary insanity. Now, after his time in a treatment facility, he was free to walk the world again with his own two feet.

  Zed couldn't be happier, even as he sat in the TV room amongst the other inmates, watching the exchange on the screen.

  “Honestly, it's been painful,” Kai replied to Kara's question about what life was like with Zed being on the inside. “I feel as if my brother switched places with me, getting me out while he got himself in. But, even though I feel he's not truly guilty of any crime other than wanting to help his brother set things right, I understand that there have to be consequences.”

  “It's a surprisingly light sentence for what he did, wouldn't you agree, Abby?” Kara asked.

  Abby made a face, weighing how she should respond. “Light compared to what?” she replied, by way of a rhetorical question. “He never injured anyone, even the man who masterminded the entire deception around Dimalerax, or the men and women on the board of Pharma-Vitae. They're the ones who willingly hurt first responders and military veterans, an untold number who have been forced to take what's left of the corporation to court. Is it justice for a man who made a series of rash decisions to protect men and women all over the country should have to spend even a single day behind bars? Even the police who took him into custody told me right afterward that they appreciated what he had done for them, and that they would have let him go, if they had the choice.”

  “Simply put,” Kai added where she left off, “my brother is a hero. Abby had tried to pull the drug off the market, but as soon as they forced her out, they were going to put it back on and try to reap more profits. Zed Hesse stopped that.”

  Zed frowned. They talked about him like he was Robin Hood, or the second coming. He hadn't thought about any of the stuff they were talking about. He'd just wanted Kai out of prison for a crime he wasn't guilty of. Sure, maybe he had committed it, but that wasn't what guilt meant. Guilt meant responsibility.

  And, as much as they talked on the screen, Zed knew he was guilty of everything they'd charged him with. He'd created a fake incident and soaked up valuable police resources. He'd taken Mark Letterman hostage at gunpoint. He'd done that, and more.

  Zed had no problem admitting to it, either. He was guilty of his crimes, and he had decided long ago to take responsibility for it, and leave the legal fund to Kai's defense. His brother had needed it more.

  Besides, his time was almost up. His year behind these walls had been a small price to pay for his brother being alive and well outside in the world.

  “What plans do you have going forward?” Kara asked the two of them.

  “Healing,” Kai said flatly. “A lot of personal healing. Ever since I came back, my life has just been dismantled, completely taken apart. I want to rebuild and try to move forward, despite my own losses. I feel like it's the only thing I can do to honor my family's memory.”

  “What about you, Abby?”

  Abby s
miled and shyly raised her left hand. A giant of a diamond, probably costing far more than Zed could ever have afforded, stood out from her ring finger. “Well,” she said, “I actually met someone at my new company, and he and I recently became engaged.”

  Zed's mouth dropped open.

  She was . . . no. It couldn't be.

  But, there was the evidence right in front of him, as plain as the day was long.

  He closed his mouth and gritted his teeth shut. It was okay. He'd deal with this, just like he'd dealt with every setback. It wasn't going to kill him. It was just going to make him stronger. That's what life was—a series of things that made you grow as a human being. He'd taken down Pharma-Vitae with Abby's help. He could withstand the blow of her moving on and finding someone else.