by Naomi West
“I think you miss Zed,” Jackie said quietly.
Abby closed her eyes and put her hands on the desk. “Jackie,” she warned.
“I think you should try again with him,” Jackie continued, pushing forward despite the warning her boss had just given her.
“I can't,” Abby said. “I'm getting married to Ethan. You know that. The invitations went out, and the wedding is just weeks away. This is just stress, maybe a little bit of cold feet, but just stress. Why would I choose a psychopath over a nice guy like Ethan?” She leaned forward. “Do I need to remind you that he took you hostage in a fucking elevator?”
Jackie smiled a little. “Yeah, but he called me ‘sweet thing’ when he did it. Ethan would never have had the balls to do it the first place, and he'd never be so nice while he did it.”
Abby sighed. “Because he's not a fucking psychopath, like Zed Besides,” Abby continued, groaning. “I can't break Ethan's heart. He doesn't deserve to suffer like that, just because I'm getting some pre-wedding jitters. Things will be good with him, especially when all this shit is over with. I promise I'll try to get better with controlling my anger, okay?”
Jackie sighed and stood up from the chair, heading for the office door. “Fine. And remember, no yelling at your assistant. I'm here to make your life easier, not to be screamed at. You should be thanking me for keeping your head from exploding, particularly while you're planning a damned wedding.” She opened the door and turned to leave just as she was finishing.
/
“I know, Jackie,” Abby said. “I know. And, by the way?”
“Yeah?” Jackie asked as she was about to shut the door.
“Thank you.”
# # #
Zed
“Got a minute?” Kai asked, as Zed swung his sledgehammer into the wall, blowing through a chunk of brick and the drywall behind it like he was wielding Thor's own hammer.
They were on their first job already. Zed was astonished at how fast they'd been able to pick up jobs. Surprisingly, a lot of them had come from first responders around the city, people who knew Zed by reputation alone, and wanted to give them the work to get started out. They knew about Kai, too, but to them, he was more a warning sign for them all. It was very much a, “there I go, but for the grace . . .” kind of thing, and both brothers knew it.
But, no matter where the work was coming from, they'd been raised to not look a gift horse in the mouth. These first few jobs were enough to get them going, but how well they performed them was going to determine their futures. And they both knew it.
“Sure, man,” Zed said, as he brought his hammer back under control and used his forearm to swipe some sweat from his forehead. “What's up?”
“I've been thinking about what we talked about a few weeks ago.”
“Remind me,” Zed said, grinning. Work had been a Godsend for him. It was really the first time he had been able to clear his head since Kai had been put away. He came in, planned the job with Kai, then he and the guys got to swinging. Not surprisingly, blowing holes in walls was pretty cathartic and kept his brain occupied. Meaning he wasn’t thinking about Abby Winters.
“About Abby.”
Zed groaned and turned away. “Not this shit again, man. I told you, I'm getting over her. If she wants to be with this Ethan guy, that's her deal. I know I've just gotta pick up my life and move on.”
Kai clapped a hand on his shoulder. “It's not that. It's just, me and Kara, we're getting a little more serious. I've been giving it some thought, bro, and I think you should try again with her.”
Zed's shoulders slumped and he tossed the hammer away. He whirled on his brother. “Don't you think I did, man? I went and saw her before I saw you, remember? She didn't want me back!”
“What I don't understand,” Kai said, taking a step toward him and slapping both hands on his twin brother's shoulders. “Is why you only tried once! You literally took down a massive corporation almost single-handedly! But one try at her, and that's it?”
Zed brushed his brother's hands off his shoulders. “Just let me get back to work, Kai. Okay? I just care about Abby's happiness, and she seems like she'll be happy with this Ethan guy. I can't make her love me, can I? What do you want me to do? Force her to leave him? It doesn't work that way.” He grabbed his sledgehammer up off the ground and went back to swinging. Every time it collided with the wall, every chunk it sent flying, he felt a little closer to a job well done.
Still, though, no matter how fast he swung the hammer, no matter how hard he made it strike, he couldn't get Abby Winter's out of his mind—the smell of her, the feel of her, the way she cried out his name, the way she called him, “sir.”
It just wouldn't leave him. And, deep down, he knew it never would.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Zed
“Hey Zed,” Kara said, an obvious grin to her voice. “You got a minute?”
This was weird, to be getting a call from his brother's girlfriend on his cell phone. “Uh, sure,” Zed said as he grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, I've been thinking. Okay, honestly, Kai and I have been thinking.”
Oh shit, this was going to be about Abby again, wasn't it? He was getting pretty sick of it. She was getting married, and not to him. End of story. Zed braced for whatever bullshit was going to come next.
“I just wanted to say thank you. Formally.”
That was a surprise. He hadn't expected the conversation to take this kind of turn, especially because he'd never really thought about it that way. Kara had been there, and was one of the only reasons he'd been able to accomplish what he had. He'd never expected a thank you from her.
“I never have before, I realized,” she continued. “You're the reason I have my own show, and you're the reason why I'm with your wonderful brother. If it hadn't been for you, we never would have met, and, so, I wanted to give you one little inside scoop, like you gave me.”
Completely disarmed and surprised, Zed just laughed. “Sure, Kara, shoot. What is it?”
“Abby's wedding.” She spilled off the date, time, and location before he could object.
Zed groaned into the phone. “What am I supposed to do with this, Kara? What can I do? She's getting married to some other guy.”
“Zed, I've been an investigative reporter almost my entire adult life, and part of being one is learning to read people, especially when they aren't being completely honest with you. And do you know what I read on Abby's face when we did that interview together, and Kai came out as a surprise guest?”
He didn't respond. He knew she'd tell him anyways.
“She thought it was you, Zed. She thought your brother was you, until they hugged. I saw a woman who was ecstatic to see who she thought was the man she loved for the first time in almost a year.”
After his trip to Abby's house, and their final passionate moment together, he'd convinced himself that he'd hallucinated seeing that look on her face when Kai had shown up on stage. “You saw it, too?” he asked.
“Fuck, yes, I saw it!” Kara yelled, forcing Zed to take the phone from his ear.
“Well what the hell should I do, then?” he yelled back, forgetting that this was his brother's girlfriend on the line.
“You need to go in there and do what you did last time, you idiot! Make her listen to you, like you managed to do about the cover-up!” She hung up before Zed had a chance to respond, to either shoot down the whole idea or just keep yelling back.
He tapped the phone on his chin, thinking. “The same way I made her listen the last time?” he asked the empty kitchen. He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and popped the cap on his beer.
“Last time?” he repeated to the empty kitchen, hoping the spoken words would somehow give him a burst of inspiration, a piece of divine revelation like some angel's song from on high.
Then, Zed nodded as he drank down a swallow of beer. He knew what he needed to do, finally.
“Like last time?” he asked the empty kitchen again, taking another swig. “Just like last time.”
# # #
Abby
Who knew your wedding day could be so damned stressful? She'd been in a chair, first getting her hair done, then her makeup, for what felt like hours. Meanwhile, Jackie, her maid of honor, was running around like a poor chicken with her head cut off trying to get the rest of the bridal party in order.
Outside, in the hotel's ballroom, the famous and classy hobnobbed with the college friends and industry insiders Abby had managed to hang onto throughout her life. Natalia Winters had insisted she invite all her friends, so they could see in person how lovely and strong she'd become in the intervening years, since she'd left Hollywood for the business world.
Grudgingly, Abby had agreed to the expanded list, and had increased the opulence of the whole event. It was a day of celebration for not just them, but her and Ethan's families as well, she reminded herself.
Now, as she paced back and forth in her wedding gown, walking the perimeter of the bridal suite, she grew increasingly unsure of all her decisions. Not just about food choices, or music, or any of those other silly things. But, she hated to admit, she wondered whether this even the right decision in the first place.
Jackie came bursting into the room like a bull in a china shop, throwing the door wide without even knocking. “Champagne!” she shouted, as she stormed in in her purple dress, desperately searching the suite.
Visions of a dry wedding reception floated in her mind. How would they toast? How would they do anything? “Champagne?” Abby asked in a panicked voice. “They're out of champagne?”
“No!” Jackie said, exasperated. “For me! Your mother is driving me up the fucking wall!”
Abby collapsed back into her chair, the dress bunching up about her legs as she nearly swooned in relief. “Thank Christ, I almost had a meltdown.”
“Spend some more time with Mommy Dearest and you probably will,” Jackie snarked, as she finally found the ice bucket full of melted water and a nearly-full bottle of bubbly.
Abby rolled her eyes. “She's a handful, I know.”
“That's putting it mildly,” her maid-of-honor-slash-executive-assistant said, as she poured two glasses of the good stuff. “Here,” she said, as she handed one of the flutes to Abby, who promptly threw it back.
“Thanks,” Abby said, holding her glass out for more.
“Liquid courage?” Jackie asked, as she poured a bit more into the glass.
“Nerves. Just my nerves.”
“It's still not too late,” Jackie said. “We can hop in the elevator and be out to my car in no time flat. I promise you, I won't think less of you.”
“For the last time,” Abby said, pausing to take a more modest sip than before. “No, Jackie.”
“Look,” Jackie said, setting aside the glass. “You keep saying it, and I keep hearing it. But you're not convincing yourself, or me. You love Zed, and I know it.”
“Jackie,” she said, a warning note in her voice.
Her assistant ignored the warning. “When have you ever been so nervous about something that felt right to you?” Jackie asked. “Huh? When was the last time your confidence in your choice was so shaken that you had to drink to go through with it?”
Abby didn't say anything. She couldn't. She genuinely had no response, because Jackie was right.
But, then, she was saved by a knock at the suite door.
Jackie started to cross to get it, but Abby stopped her. “Probably just my mother,” Abby growled. She threw the door open, and her jaw dropped.
She barely had time to register who it was standing at the door before she felt a sharp stab in her thigh, through her dress. She looked down at the syringe in the man's hand, then looked back up at him.
“You. Zed?”
“You're coming with me,” he growled to her.
In a flash, Abby was transported back to the day she'd first met Zed Hesse. It was suddenly just like it was yesterday, where he was stuffing her into the passenger side of her Escalade and kidnapping her. As the sedative—her sedative, she realized—began to work through her veins, she shook her head to try and clear her suddenly fuzzy thoughts.
It was no use, though. Between the quick glass of champagne she'd just downed and the sedatives in her thigh, it was like her skull was stuffed with cotton and her brain was made of cotton candy.
“Jackie,” Abby turned to her assistant. “You remember Zed Hesse, don't you?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Abby
Jackie's head jerked back and forth between them, her eyes like saucers. She trembled, a little like a Chihuahua. “What the hell are you doing, Zed?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“Keep calm,” Abby soothed, the sedative apparently being just what she needed to soothe her frazzled nerves.
Why she hadn't thought of it in the first place, she had no idea. But, damn girl, was that a great cocktail with the champagne, or what?
“I'm really sorry,” Zed said to Jackie, as he grabbed hold of Abby and pulled her from the room, wedding dress train flying out behind her as he led her barefoot down the thickly carpeted halls. “This is just something I have to do!”
Jackie came out of the bridal suite after them, stopping at the open doorway “Abby!” she shouted.
“Go for help!” Abby called back, almost as if it was a formality, but not even bothering to fight Zed as he dragged her to the elevator that would take them to the parking garage below.
Besides, she was feeling pretty good at the moment. All the stress from the last few months, with the wedding and the new job, had completely evaporated from her shoulders when the sweet little cocktail entered her circulation. She no longer cared one way or another what happened to her, although, she was kind of grateful that Zed had finally swooped back into her life.
“I just didn't know how to explain it to you otherwise,” he said, as he dragged her into the elevator and hit the button for the parking garage. “No other way I could think of that you'd understand how serious I was.”
Her eyelids suddenly very heavy, she fluttered her eyes in an almost vain attempt to keep them open. She looked around, bleary-eyed, at the inside of the elevator as it lowered them down into the depths of the earth, and her eyes finally settling on the form of her handsome tormentor.
The doors buzzed open and Zed grabbed her in his bear-trap-strong grip, pulling her out into the garage. He dragged her, not quite kicking and screaming, to his car, an older Honda Accord. He stuffed her into the passenger seat, just like he had that day a little over a year ago, then went around and hopped in behind the wheel.
He pulled out with a squeal of tires, then flew out of the garage as fast as he safely could.
She slumped in the passenger seat, realizing just how arrogant she suddenly didn't feel. Gone was her sense of knowing what was best all the time for everyone, for even herself. So what if she'd thought Ethan was going to be perfect for her and that he'd be able to give her a good life? What fun would it have been?
Abby knew she'd never be able to escape Zed Hesse, no matter what she did. She could run to the ends of the earth, all the way to Kathmandu or some other ridiculous place, and he'd still show up looking for her. They were connected on some deep level, one deeper than she had ever considered possible.
Besides, why would she want to?
# # #
Zed
He drove without purpose. He hoped the constant, unceasing movement of the car would somehow magically impart some sort of deep, mystic understanding of the universe, and of his actions. But, he was out of luck, at least on that front.
As he drove around the city, Zed realized he hadn't really thought this plan all the way through. He'd acted on impulse this time, just like he had before with Pharma-Vitae. And, a year of prison notwithstanding, that had worked out surprisingly well. Hadn't it?
He shook his head.
This time things were d
ifferent. His reasons for acting weren't vindictive. They were pure. At least, he hoped Abby and the cops would see it that way. After all, he had kidnapped her.
Abby's head lolled to the side, and she groaned a little.
Shit. The sedative would be wearing off soon, and Zed didn't have much of a follow-up plan. He didn't have any more syringes, and she might fight him to take her back to her wedding.
God, what the fuck was he doing? Clearly, she loved Ethan. Look how beautiful she'd made herself for their big day? She was wearing beautiful, expensive gown, her hair was all done, with a crown of flowers woven into her blonde tresses, and her makeup was virginally radiant. On the one hand, he felt bad for breaking the wedding up like this. On the other, though, he knew he could change her mind.