Page 27 of Every Broken Piece

Chapter twenty-seven

Gabe

I push open the door to Tess’s hospital room and draw up sharply, my heart damn near stopping.

The bed is empty.

“They took her for a CT scan.”

I turn my head to find Conor hunched in a chair deep in the shadowed corner.

I met Conor yesterday. He’d been sitting in the chair next to Tess’s bed when I arrived in the morning. When Amelia introduced me as Tess’s fiancé, his face went slack with disbelief, then hurt, finally settling on belligerent anger.

He left soon after, then came back in the evening, but I was the one sitting in the chair by her bed. Yeah, it’s a pissing match between me and some punk kid who’s closer to Pax’s age than mine. It’s stupid, and I’m determined to win whatever game he’s playing.

Part of me also feels bad for the guy. He’s clearly concerned about Tess, but it's obvious his feelings go much deeper. I don’t give a damn what he feels, and the shitty thing is I don’t know if Tess returns his feelings.

The thought that she could pisses me off because I don’t want Tess to have feelings for this guy. How fucked up is that?

“I wasn’t aware they were taking her for a CT.

” Since I’ve established myself as her fiancé, it’s been shockingly easy to receive information about her condition.

No one questions our relationship to and so far Tess hasn’t disabused anyone of that notion although I continue to hold my breath expecting her to.

“Why?” Connor surges to his feet. “Why would they tell you anything? We both know you’re not her fiancé.

Tess would’ve told me about you. She would’ve told all of us if she got engaged.

” He rounds the foot of the bed, advancing on me.

“She would’ve brought you around, but yet she’s never even mentioned your name. ”

“I live in Colorado. It’d be kind of hard for me to go to the bars with you on the weekends.” Not that that’s my scene, and I’m sure as hell not going to say I’m too old for that scene.

He stops a foot from me. He’s a smallish guy, reminds me of the techs who work in my security division. I tower over him in height and build. But I do admire his guts in standing up to me.

“Amelia told you we’re engaged,” I say.

He scoffs. “Still don’t believe it, old man. Where’s the ring?”

I try not to react to the ‘old man’ slur but damn it stings.

“Not my problem what you believe or not, son. She’s mine and I’m here to take care of her.”

Staking my claim feels right even if Tess isn’t on board with it yet.

To say she’s angry is an understatement, but again, she hasn’t denied it to anyone, which makes me stupidly optimistic that she’ll let me continue the charade.

I’m hoping today won’t be the day she denies our pretend engagement because I’m raw inside right now.

If Conor knew just how on edge I am, he’d back the fuck off, but he’s glaring at me and I’m trying to rope in every bit of patience I have.

I really need to see Tess, to hold her hand. Hell, to sit beside her in silence would be heaven.

I rub at my aching heart and steel myself for a confrontation with Conor that’s been building for days.

“You’re unbelievable,” he sneers.

My patience is unraveling. “Conor, I’m trying to be the big man in this, but she was never yours to begin with.”

I see the moment he recognizes defeat and damn me that I feel bad about it. But Conor’s young and there are other women out there. Me? I have this slightly unhinged fear that Tess is mine and, yeah, I’ll go caveman if I have to.

“She could’ve been mine if you would’ve stayed away,” he says, the heat gone from his anger, leaving heartbreak in its place.

Yet I question his statement. Could she have been his if I hadn’t shown up two days ago? Is she even mine now? If this attack hadn’t happened how far would our texting have gone? Would we have moved to something more? Because I have a feeling she would have been in my orbit no matter what.

Conor storms out, his shoulder deliberately knocking against me as he leaves. Amelia is standing in the doorway. I don’t know how much she’s heard but it appears maybe all of it. Conor hesitates, seems to consider what he wants to say to her, then walks out without speaking.

Amelia turns her head to watch him go. “Poor Conor.”

I snort. “Poor Conor, my ass.” I nod toward the empty bed. “CT scan.”

She settles into the chair Conor vacated and pulls out her laptop. She’s been working mornings at home and afternoons from Tess’s hospital room. Yesterday I worked all day from Tess’s bedside while she drifted in and out of sleep. Today I met with the lead detective to Tess’s case.

I sit in the chair beside the bed and pull my own laptop out, but my mind is too full of the things I saw this morning.

Detective Margot Hardwick showed me the video footage from the Rusty Spur, and I can’t stop reliving it. It makes me fucking sick.

The video showed Tess walking into the Rusty Spur with Amelia, Conor, and three others identified as friends.

She’s wearing a short, ruffled dress that swirls around her knees, and cowboy boots that make her look so damn adorable.

I can’t help but notice the appreciative male glances that follow her as she winds her way through the bar with her friends to a small round table in the back corner.

If she were with me, I would've glared those assholes into submission, but no one in her group seems to notice. Not even Conor. Although he sticks close to her all night and I have to fold my fingers into fists when he leans forward to plant a kiss on her cheek. Her look of surprise and discomfort answers one question. She doesn’t feel the same way he does.

Twenty minutes after they arrive, a man in a baseball hat, white t-shirt and jeans strolls in, hands in his pockets.

He pauses to look around, then locks onto Tess almost right away.

He stays by the bar, not engaging with anyone except the bartender as he spins his barstool around and rests his elbows behind him, his eyes fixated on Tess. He orders a beer but never drinks it.

Conor approaches the bar several times to refill his and Tess’s drinks but never comes within five feet of the man in the ball cap.

The small group of friends talk and drink, dance some. I keep my eye on ball cap man.

At 10:53pm, Tess peels away from her friends and stumbles toward the bathroom.

It’s clear she’s tipsy. She talks and laughs with what appears to be a bachelorette party.

Some dickface grabs her ass, then disappears into the crowd.

Another man catches her when she stumbles.

She smiles at him before moving on. My anger reaches disproportionate levels when I realize that no one in her party is concerned that a drunk Tess is wandering around alone.

Someone should have been looking out for her.

If I’d been there I sure as shit wouldn’t have let her go to the bathrooms by herself.

Conor remains at the table, shoving popcorn in his mouth while talking to one of the other guys.

At this point the view switches to the hallway cameras by the bathrooms. Sinking dread fills me because drunk Tess has no idea what she’s walking into, but I do.

Gut tightening, I watch ball cap man enter the camera’s view.

Has no one taught Tess situational awareness?

She doesn’t even know anyone else is in the hallway with her.

He glances over his shoulder before rushing forward to grab her.

They have words. Tess tries to break free.

He wraps her in a macabre hug and drags her into the closet that has no cameras. The door shuts behind him.

Seventeen minutes and fifty-three seconds.

Seventeen excruciating, horrifically long minutes, and fifty-three heartbreaking second’s pass.

We all know what’s happening behind that door. There’s nothing I can do but hold my breath and wait for the server to enter the storage room and disrupt the attack.

Almost immediately, ball cap man runs out. The server follows for a few steps then abruptly stops to return to Tess.

I pour over his statement, the description of how he found her almost impossible to read. Unconscious, bloody. He thought she was dead until she whimpered.

I force myself to watch it again.

I want a copy, but the detective says it’s evidence. So I call Jack and tell him to get me a copy however he can.

It’s clear Tess was deliberately targeted. Other women entered that hallway alone all night long but only Tess was attacked. Why?

Why her?

Was it bad luck?

Did the asshole see something in her that he didn’t see in the others? She was with a group who would obviously notice she went missing. She was with a man who’d been paying close attention to her all night. Yes, she was drunk but so were ninety percent of the other women in the bar that night.

Why choose Tess?

“Don’t blame him.” Amelia breaks into my quiet seething.

At first, I think she’s talking about Tess’s attacker. “Who?”

“Conor. He’s had a crush on her for ages and I thought they’d make a cute couple. I pushed the two of them together.”

My fingers flex on the keyboard but I keep my eyes focused on the screen. Why does it bother me, thinking of Tess with Conor?

“I see now that I was wrong in trying to force them together,” Amelia says.

“Tess tried to tell me she wasn’t interested.

She always says she can’t have a serious relationship, but I never understood why.

Don’t you think it’s weird that she claims she has no family, and she won’t make friends?

I mean I practically had to force her to go out with us in the beginning. ”

“Why did you force her if she didn’t want to go?” Amelia’s right. It is weird. Not to mention the presence of the woman in the lobby my first night here. We don’t know for sure if she was here to see Tess, but it feels too coincidental.

“She seemed lonely. Like she wants friends but doesn’t know how to be a friend. Plus, she’s just super nice and took me under her wing at TaskGenius when I first started there.”

I play back all of our texting conversations. The cat she wanted. The nights she sat at home reading. I get what Amelia’s saying. Tess leads a solitary life and yet you can almost feel a yearning for more.

“Does she know TaskGenius let her go?” I ask.

Amelia’s head jerks up. “Let her go? They let her go?”

Oh, shit. “You didn’t know?”

She closes her laptop with a snap. “Those shitheads fired her?”

“On Sunday. I found out when I was assigned a new VA Monday morning. I called the company and spoke to a Mary. She told me that information came to light that Tess had been fraternizing with a client.” I pause. “That would be me.”

“That bitch.” Her hands ball into fists on top of her computer.

“I can’t believe... I called Mary Sunday morning to tell her that Tess had been attacked and was in serious condition and would be taking sick time.

I even told her I was going to file for FMLA on Tess’s behalf.

” Her face flushes. “I guess they didn’t want to deal with all that. ”

“I’ll handle TaskGenius,” I say. “She’ll always have a job with me so that’s not a worry. In the meantime, how do we tell Tess that she no longer has a job?”

“She’s going to be so upset. She loved working there.” Amelia’s eyes widen. “What about health insurance? How’s she going to pay for all this?” Her hand sweeps around the room. “Those bastards. Do you think she can sue them?”

“Not if there’s a no fraternization policy. We were clearly violating it.” I make a mental note to visit the finance office and redirect her bills to me. As her “fiancé” it won’t be out of the ordinary.

“Damn it. What are we going to do?” Amelia says.

“What are we going to do about what?” Tess asks from her wheelchair in the doorway.

Well, shit.