CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tessa stared in horror at the syringe that could very well end her life. She struggled to swallow against the fear that had constricted her throat, but what choice did she have but to try to talk sense into the woman who had made her life a living hell for the past three weeks.
“Jackie, why are—”
“Don’t,” Jackie practically screamed, holding the syringe like one would a knife before swinging it upward, only to stab someone with all her might. God only knew what type of drug was contained inside the long plastic barrel, but Tessa was one hundred percent sure she didn’t want to find out. “Don’t pretend that you’re all innocent. You knew I needed that position, and yet you accepted it anyway. I warned you over and over to just leave, but you couldn’t take a hint.”
This was not the same Jackie Bauer who Tessa had grown up with. Granted, she’d graduated a year after Tessa, but they’d both been cheerleaders. They’d both attended the same events, the same parties, and basically had hung out with the same crowd without ever actually becoming close friends. That was kind of hard to do back then, especially after Tessa had left to attend nursing school. The woman standing before her was not the Jackie she’d grown up with. This woman was a psychotic version of the girl she’d known.
“Jackie, there were quite a few of us who were up for that position,” Tessa said, trying her best to use reason. She had her hands up in mock surrender, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Jackie all but had her cornered in the nurse’s lounge, which had little traffic this time of night. “I-I didn’t know you wanted it that bad, s-so why don’t we go and speak to Lydia? She’s the one who—”
“All you had to do was move to Florida like your parents wanted you to do.” Jackie seemed to be talking to herself more than she was to Tessa. “It was a good offer. You could have been next to your parents. I would have become Nursing Director here. The other nurses are mediocre at best. And then Derek showed up, causing you to think you could have something here. I heard the two of you talking at the reunion. I heard him say he was thinking of coming back and that’s when I realized I would have to do something more to change your mind. I should have just killed you in that damned restroom.”
“Look, we can go and—”
“We aren’t going to do anything,” Jackie cut in on Tessa’s plea. “I tried to take care of this weeks ago. You know, you’re really fucking stupid for someone supposedly so smart. I mean, you were offered a job in Florida where your parents live, and one who anyone in their right mind would have accepted. Why is it that people like you get everything you want, and I end up with nothing?”
“People like me?” Tessa asked, trying her best to stall Jackie from doing something she would regret. Harassment was one thing. Murder? “Jackie, we practically grew up together. You don’t want to do this. The authorities will look at everyone and know that you—”
“The authorities won’t even connect me to your sudden heart attack. I’m just a distraught coworker,” Jackie wailed, indicating how she would come across to the police. Her despondent features changed in the blink of an eye to one of rage. “I did everything in my power to make sure you left Catfish Creek, but you were just too dense to see what was right in front of you the whole time. The best thing I can do is end this right here and now.”
Jackie gestured toward the door with the syringe—the one Tessa couldn’t stop staring at in shock—and explained how she thought she could get away with murder. The terrifying thing of it was…she could.
“It’s so sad the way Tessa died.” Jackie’s head was tilted, and she was speaking in a voice that mimicked what would be said after the other nurses found her body. It amazed Tessa that this woman was able to bring tears to her eyes within seconds. She was truly psychopathic. “She was so young to go into cardiac arrest. She—”
“That’s right,” Tessa confirmed, having no choice but to push Jackie’s buttons. What other alternative was there at this point? “I’m in perfect health, so you know the authorities will conduct an autopsy. A healthy woman just doesn’t drop dead like that, Jackie. Think this through.”
“Oh, I’ve thought this through.” Jackie sidestepped the small kitchen table to block off Tessa’s attempt at reaching the door. She brought herself up short. “It’s my turn to have everything, Tessa.”
This couldn’t be happening. Tessa had done everything she could to keep Jackie talking so that someone—anyone—would come through that door. Margaret was on shift, and she was always sneaking her way into the lounge for more coffee. There were numerous other employees who used the lounge as well, but no one had even attempted to come into the room. This was her floor. She should have been safe here. She’d left Derek downstairs, thinking she would only be away from him for five or ten minutes. Jackie was trying to make it last forever.
Tessa could sense that her attempt to stall Jackie had slowly dwindled down to this precise second. It was odd. She would have thought she’d be a quivering mess, but her fight or flight instinct had kicked in…and she wanted to fight. She had too much live for and hadn’t realized how much of a coward she’d been until this very moment.
Tessa was going to fight.
Jackie lunged forward, but Tessa had already anticipated her movement. Adrenaline coursed through her body, and she instinctively kept the table between them as she lunged for a knife someone had washed in the sink. The blade was pointing toward her. She had no choice but to grab it and keep moving, but there was no way in hell Jackie was going to allow her near the only exit.
Tessa succeeded in quickly shifting her weight and bending her ankles, barely managing to miss Jackie’s downward swing with the syringe. She didn’t stop her forward momentum either. She persistently kept advancing, leaving no choice but for Tessa to shove the chairs in her wake. She kept stumbling backward while trying her best to keep the table between them.
“Jackie, stop!” Tessa cried out, hoping like hell someone heard her through these thick walls. “Someone! Help!”
Tessa was finally able to get a proper grip on the knife, and she held it out in front of her, swiping sideways when the syringe in Jackie’s hand came a little too close. The woman’s anguished cries echoed around the room, but it was Derek’s voice that penetrated the pulsing whoosh that had taken up residence in Tessa’s eardrums. He was too late, and it was more than apparent that Jackie had locked the door. She’d been sane enough to think this through, but she hadn’t counted on certain unexpected variables.
Tessa had taken the evening off, and she’d spent it with Derek and his parents. It had been a fluke that she’d ended up in the lounge at the same time Jackie had, unknowingly walking into a trap. They’d both made mistakes, but it was Jackie who would end up paying.
Jackie’s face contorted with rage as she stopped in her tracks to stare at the door. It was clear she was going through her options. There were none.
“It’s over, Jackie,” Tessa said, unable to hide the tremor of fear in her tone. She raised her injured hand, not realizing the extent of the damage done by grabbing the knife by the blade from the sink until now. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt. All she was aware of was the relief washing over her at the knowledge that this hell she’d been going through the past few weeks was finally coming to an end. “Look at me. No one is going to believe there wasn’t a struggle of some sort.”
“Then I have nothing to lose.”
Tessa wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Maybe she thought Jackie would concede and put down the syringe, facing whatever charges the police filed against her. Or maybe that she would collapse to the floor in tears, asking for forgiveness. This entire confrontation had been surreal, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.
It was if she was having an out-of-body experience. The strangled, anguish cry that came out of Jackie’s mouth was something Tessa would never forget. She did the only thing she could at the forward attack and turned her body while holding up the knife in an attempt to defend herself. The blade sunk deep into tissue in a manner she hadn’t experienced since her days in nursing school when she’d worked on a cadaver. Both of them abruptly froze upon the end result.
The gurgling Jackie emitted from her throat turned Tessa’s stomach. She glanced down to find the blade of the knife inserted deep below Jackie’s sternum, the woman’s hands resting over Tessa’s. Where was the syringe? Where was it?
Tessa stepped back in panic, but it was as if her body finally registered all the stings and aches that had accrued over the past twenty minutes. The palm of her hand throbbed where the cut was still bleeding and her shoulder stung as if she’d gone a round or two with a bumble bee. She glanced down through the tears to see the syringe sticking out of her shoulder.
“No. No.” Tessa tried to see if the contents of the barrel had been injected, but she had to blink several times to clear her vision. “No.”
* * * *
Derek could barely hear Tessa’s plea through the heavy door, but he believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that her life was in danger. Someone on the inside had thrown the deadlock, and chances were it wasn’t by her own hand.
“Margaret!” Derek yelled the woman’s name, the only one coming to mind that would have access to this room. “Margaret! Where the fuck are you?”
Derek started going room to room, not caring that he was barging in on someone’s privacy. Tessa needed him. He had to reach her as soon as possible.
“Margaret!”
“What’s wrong?” Margaret said in somewhat anger that Derek would be causing such a disturbance on her floor. She had appeared from down the hall, a frown marring her tired features. “Why are you yell—”
“Tessa’s locked in the nurse’s lounge. I need the key.”
“What do you mean she’s—”
“Margaret, I don’t have any time to waste,” Derek barked out, reaching for the keys that were attached to her wrist on one of those elastic spiral bracelets. “Call security. Go! Right now!”
Derek didn’t waste any time and ran back down the corridor, taking a shortcut through the deserted nurse’s station. He tried three keys before locating the right one, flipping the deadbolt to gain access to the room. He shoved the door with his shoulder and took in every detail of the bloody scene before him without stopping.
Jackie was on her knees, holding a hand to her bleeding stomach. Tessa was three feet away with a bloody hand hovering over some type of syringe that was sticking out of her shoulder. Chairs were overturned, the table had been shifted toward the counter, and blood was smeared over the floor in numerous areas.
Jackie Bauer. Jackie had been the person responsible for the constant harassment, but what would have driven her toward attempted murder?
“Tessa,” Derek called out to her softly, not sure why she hadn’t pulled the needle out of her arm. He reached for her, but she jerked away in panic. “Tessa, look at me. What was in the—”
“I-I can’t see, Derek.” Tessa had looked up at him with tears in her eyes, her lashes beating furiously to erase the moisture away. “Is there anything inside the barrel? Is the syringe full or did she…”
“It’s full,” Derek reassured her, but he afraid to touch her or the syringe. Honestly, he was terrorized for the second time in a short time span that he could lose someone he loved. And he did. He loved Tessa with a passion, regardless that they’d only gotten reacquainted seven days ago. It was hard to control his heart rate or his thoughts as he tried to figure out what his first move should be. “It’s full. Can you take it out? What’s in it? Do you need me to get Margaret or—”
Tessa jerked the syringe out her skin and through the fabric of her shirt, keeping the barrel tight inside the palm of her hand. Derek’s chest tightened at what could have happened had that red liquid entered her body. Her blue eyes were crystal clear and now filled with contempt as she held up the needle in accusation. She tried to take a step forward, but he stopped her. He didn’t want her anywhere near Jackie Bauer.
“You were willing to kill me for a fucking job?” Tessa barely got the words out in such a harsh whisper filled with a variety of emotion that the rough undertone hurt his ears. He reached for her, not allowing her to pull away. He tucked her in close and held her, both of them looking on as Margaret knelt before Jackie to see how badly she was injured. “What kind of monster are you?”
Jackie was now sobbing uncontrollably and staring at her hands the entire time Margaret tried to get her to lie back. Security guards rushed through the door, one of them having been at the crime scene last night. He had already whipped out his cell phone, no doubt calling the police.
They would want the evidence contained, so Derek motioned that they would need some type of cap and bag to secure the syringe. The security guard was still speaking into his phone while searching the drawers for something that would work.
It was over. It was finally over, and Tessa was safe. She’d come out on top, and her life was no longer in danger.
“It’s over, Tessa.” Derek held her against him until she finally accepted his declaration. A sob caught in her throat, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”
“I want you to come back to Catfish Creek.” Tessa pulled back far enough so that she could look up at him, her sincerity and hope shining through. Something shifted inside of him and a warm peace settled over his heart. “I want you to finish your contract and then come home. Come home to me, Derek.”