BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Five (4 page)

“We really need to get to the bottom of this, Derek,” I said, leaning over his hospital bed. Truthfully, I was getting annoyed that he hadn’t already been brainstorming with me to figure it all out. If it was me, I would have done everything in my power to discover what the hell happened and who the hell was trying to kill me.

Or, if no one was trying to kill me, I’d be wondering what the hell I was stupidly putting into my body.

But Derek…he was a conundrum. For someone so intelligent, he was an idiot sometimes.

“When you say that, you mean accuse my brother…,” he trailed, seemingly annoyed.

“There’s something wrong with him, Derek!” I shot. “Don’t feel guilty for thinking it!”

“I’m not feeling guilty!” he shot, clearly annoyed at this point.

“Then why do you always look guilty!”

“I don’t think Joey did anything to me! That isn’t why I feel guilty!”

“Then why?” I smoothed the flesh between his shoulders softly at first and then with more pressure.

“Because, I fucked him…,” he groaned in shame.

My eyes widened and my heart sped up. “E-excuse me?” I asked, horrified, not blaming his shame at all if what he said was true.

“No!” he yelled, understanding where my mind had gone. “Are you fucking serious?”

“You chose those words, not me!” I defended. I might have had mind-in-gutter-syndrome, but I truly felt like anyone else’s mind would have ventured to the same place and thought the exact same thing.

“I mean I screwed him over!” he corrected with a busting yell, as he took a swat at me, playfully.

“How so?” My brows contorted in confusion.

“When we were younger, we developed the idea for my very first software together,” he admitted, guilt and shame evident as his breath deepened and eyes darted around the room, as if he was looking anywhere and everywhere except at me. It was like he was trying to avoid eye contact with me.

“What do you mean?” How could Joey Freeman have been able to develop anything like that? I had seen the man try and work lab equipment and fail, let alone write software.

“Joey was full of ideas…”—he sighed—“…but he couldn’t really develop anything on his own. He didn’t have the patience to learn or the determination and drive to do it. He was purely just an idea man.”

“So why didn’t you just become partners?”

“We did, but when it was just me developing it, pushing it, trying to get investors; the whole shebang fell on me.” He breathed out, once again. I could tell that the story was a hard one to tell. He probably had never told anyone before. No one probably knew, except for him and Joey. “I was getting sick of it, so when it took off, I sort of just let him fall to the wayside.”

“We didn’t talk for a long time…”—he sighed, nuzzling his head back into his pillow once again, likely trying to get more comfortable—“It was a miracle I even got him to talk to me again.”

I felt like I never fully knew Derek. Every time I felt like I did, he threw me a whirlwind of news. New things always seemed to come to light when it came to him.

“Well, hon, you need to stop defending him just because you feel guilty,” I cooed, holding his hand firmly just before placing a tender kiss atop the back of it. “You’re going to have to accept it for what it is. There’s something wrong with him—if not mentally then professionally. Something is wrong here, Derek. You don’t just misdiagnose cancer after that many tests, and you certainly don’t miss rat poison! So best case, he’s just a really shitty doctor!”

“And worst case?” he asked, visibly annoyed. “He’s not poisoning me, Zoe!”

“Well, I’m glad that
you’re
so sure!” I shot back, defensively. If he wasn’t poisoning him, then that was a good thing…the best thing, actually. “But you once asked me to trust you, right?”

“Yeah?” he asked, looking at me, puzzled.

“I need for you to do the same for me,” I said, laying another kiss on his hand before letting it go. “I just need you to trust me.”

I placed a kiss on his forehead and rose up so that I was standing.

“Do me a favor?” I asked.

“What can I do from a hospital bed?” he laughed.

I wasn’t amused. I was ready for my plan to be on its way. I was ready to figure out the truth. I stood there, my arms crossed, staring at him with great intent waiting for him to change his answer, but instead he gestured for me to continue.

And that was good enough for me.

“Confirm your normal treatment with Dr. Freeman today.”

“What?” he asked, completely perplexed. “I’m in the hospital being treated for something else; I’m not going to that.”

“I know,” I said simply.

“Then why am I saying I’m going? I need to be treated here.”

“Well, at least we can finally agree on that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Like I said, though, I need you to trust me.”

“What ever happened to the whole philosophy in believing the best in people?” he muttered just under his breath so that I could still hear.

“Just confirm with him.” I winked and turned on my heel, ready to figure all of it out once and for all.

Derek confirmed his appointment for that evening, like nothing was wrong, and that gave me the perfect idea of what to do next…of how to catch him. I didn’t even think of it as clearing his name, or anything of the sort.

I knew he was guilty.

He had to be.

But I had set my plan into action that day, and I was glad that I did. Because even before all was discovered, I heard footsteps clanking their way towards Derek’s open hospital door room. Most people wouldn’t have noticed. Most people would have shrugged it off. But I didn’t.

I had a gut-feeling that it was something bad…that there was something wrong.

And as soon as Derek’s door flung open the rest of the way, I saw none other than an angry Joey Freeman standing just over the threshold.

“What the hell is going on here?!” he demanded, and immediately Derek’s head snapped up in fear.

He wasn’t afraid of Joey—although he probably should have been—but he was afraid of hurting his feelings…which did absolutely nothing but infuriate me.

“What’s this? Why are you here?!” He was angry—beyond angry—as he rounded over to Derek, questioning him hurriedly with a voice of fury.

“I’m getting treated for toxins,” Derek stammered, still feeling guilty.

“Toxins for what?!” Joey asked, just before grabbing Derek’s arm and looking at his IVs with some sort of great intent.

“The toxins you tried to kill him with!” I blurted, without really meaning to. My plan hadn’t completely finished yet, and I knew that by speaking, I was jeopardizing something. However, I couldn’t remain quiet as he basically made an idiot out of the man I loved.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he gritted, snapping his head in my direction.

“You know what I’m talking about.” He did. I
knew
he did.

“Can you believe this?” Joey laughed, looking back at Derek.

“Did you?” Derek asked, his voice shaking. I could tell that a part of him really didn’t want to hear the answer, or at the very least, was scared of hearing the answer. Hell, I couldn’t even believe that he had asked it in the first place.

Yet, I already knew it—especially as soon as I saw his face change from normal angry to an enraged angry, with a lobster-colored face and bursting veins. “Are you seriously going to believe this crazy woman?” He laughed in a horrific cackle—one that sounded almost psychotic.

“Explain why I don’t have cancer, Joe,” Derek said, his eyes unmoving from the man.

However, Joey looked at me, breathing heavily, glaring.

“Don’t look at her!” Derek shouted. “Look at me!”

“I don’t need to look at you, little brother,” Joey whispered in the most terrifying voice I had ever heard. He sounded like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings!

“You’re dying, Derek. If some idiot doctor is telling you that you’re not, then they don’t need to be your doctor.” He was speaking, but it wasn’t normal speech. It was different. And his face was scrunched, eyes narrowed. He looked possessed as he spoke, and his words didn't seem quite directed at anyone. “I just don’t like to sugar coat it, Derek,” he continued, his voice finally going back to normal.

I looked on, hardly blinking, not believing what I was witnessing.

I wanted to be wrong, but I knew more than ever that I wasn't when I saw his craziness creep out from the shadows and rear its really ugly head.

“He’s only dying because you’re making him die by pumping poison into his veins!” I defended, launching my body upwards in a fit of equal rage to his before.

“Shut the fuck up!” he bellowed, slinging his arms in front of his body in chaotic rage.

“I won’t! I know what you did!” I wasn’t backing down. I couldn’t. I moved closer to Derek, standing almost between the bed and Joey, as if I was protecting him.

“Oh yeah?” he cackled. “Good luck proving
that
crazy accusation! If he doesn’t have cancer, the best you have is a
misdiagnosis
!” I could tell by the way he said “misdiagnosis” that he was still trying to sound like he was innocent in all of it. However, I knew that he wasn’t. I knew that he was a psycho. I knew that something was going on.

“I don’t need luck!”

“Well, country bitch, you can’t prove it,” he sneered.

“I
can
prove it,” I said again. I could.

He laughed for a moment, clearly underestimating me, but all I did was smirk in response.

“Well,
Doc
,” I began, “Derek confirmed his appointment with you for this afternoon, correct?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” he snapped, as if he was so incredibly sick of hearing me speak. However, we had that much in common; I was sick of hearing me speak to the likes of him; and I was even sicker of him. “He missed that appointment!”

I smiled. “And when you noticed he was missing his appointment, you called his office, right?” His eyes contorted in confusion. “Well, you called his office. Do you remember the name of the gentleman you spoke with on the phone?”

I smiled, knowing that I had him, knowing that he had fallen in my trap.

I circled him, a cocky smile plastered all over my face.

“Frank. Why?”

I laughed. “Joey, Joey, Joey. Didn’t you know that Frank was fired?”

“Well, then I don’t know who I spoke with; I thought he said Frank!” he shot. “What does this have to do with anything?”

I continued to circle him, explaining what I deemed to be probably the most brilliant thing I had ever done in my life.

Derek stared at me, his eyes darting all around, still too weak to properly hold his head up to view what was going on.

“Well, if you had paid any attention, Frank would have sounded a lot like a certain friend of ours.” I almost laughed. “He goes by the name of Fredrick.”

Dr. Freeman was silent.

“Well, Fredrick pretended to be Frank and told you that Derek was in this hospital…in
this
room.” I moved to stand just in front of him, so that I could continue explaining how and why he was caught. “So here you come, like a bat out of hell, completely forgetting that you had already prepared your room for Derek, that you had already prepped all of his treatments.”

“You set me up?” he asked, just under his breath, in a hushed whisper. I could tell that he was in shock, in utter disbelief. However, there was also a part of him thought he might still be able to pull it off, that he would be found to be innocent after all.

“And right about now, there are a whole slew of police officers investigating you—especially after our doctor friends reported you to the board. Right about now, they’re finding all that rat poison you put in the IVs you were to administer to Derek.” I grew colder with every word, angrier, more heated. “Am I
right
,
Doctor
Freeman?”

He stood there, completely silent for a moment, and I felt the need to continue.

“And I didn’t set you up. I just knew your move before you did.” I could see his veins as they jutted out from his flesh and pulsated with adrenaline, an adrenaline that likely caused his body to lunge over to me and slap me with a ferocious blast.

Derek screamed out and tried to move, but his body wouldn’t let him.

He was struggling—not only to move his body, but to even so much as lift his head.

Joey’s arms wrapped tightly around me and pulled me away from the hospital bed and towards the wall—violently. He was squeezing me hard, gripping me tighter than I had ever been gripped. I felt like I was in a vice.

Was this seriously happening?

I sucked in a deep breath and looked at the door. Where the hell was security in this son of a bitch? How could he be making this much ruckus and no one have heard? “You seriously need to just shut your fucking mouth.”

My nostrils flared and blood boiled; I wanted to seriously stab him straight in the face.

“You’re always talking, always sticking your nose in areas it doesn’t belong.” His words were malicious and so evil that it caused goosebumps along my flesh.

“Hey, Zoe, Laura told me to bring you some lunch…” a male voice sounded loudly as he rounded the corner.

I knew it was Stephen.

I knew it before I could even see who it was.

“W-what the fuck?” he said, turning the corner. His eyes widened, and he knew almost immediately that something was wrong. I mean, I would have hoped so. I was being held—against my will. And all I had to do was grunt under Joey’s restraint.

“Get away from her, you asshole!” Stephen screamed, as he threw the glass Tupperware container to the floor, his muscles rippling with adrenaline.

He seethed in anger, as he watched the man hold me threateningly.

“Come and make me get away from her,” Joey replied, smiling maniacally.

Stephen clenched his jaw. ”Let her go,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “I’m warning you.”

But he apparently hadn’t intimidated Dr. Freeman as much as he had intimidated me because he laughed in response, still holding me tightly

“What are you going to do about it?” he sneered, just before maneuvering in a way that allowed him to pop me in the face.

I could literally see Stephen’s anger heighten as soon as he hit me because his nostrils flared like a bull and he stampeded towards us.

I couldn’t even really recall what happened after that point until I found myself sitting on the bed beside an unconscious Derek. The men struggled between the other’s grasp and banged and clanked into literally everything in the room until Stephen grabbed Joey’s arm and turned it so that it was twisted behind his back. Stephen, now behind him, held Joey’s arm in a position that looked like he could have broken his arm then and there, but he didn’t.

And I wondered why he didn’t.

Instead Stephen kicked him in the back, knocking him to the ground face first.

I wondered where he had learned the moves, but thought, given his size and level of activity that he had likely taken some sort of martial arts or something. I didn’t figure it was a good time to ask, considering it was like a damn action movie unraveling before my very eyes.

I could do nothing but stand there, frozen, in the corner, guarded up beside Derek’s bed. I watched as Stephen stepped in front of Joey once again, so that he was between us and him. It was like he was trying to defend us, even though Joey was clearly un-moving on the floor below.

But it wasn’t long that he was un-moving. Not nearly long enough…

Just as Stephen poked his head out over the threshold to call for help, he was back up.

He lunged forward in an attempt to tackle Steven to the ground, but instead was met with none other than Stephen’s large, steel fist, clear in his face.

Blood spurted out and flew across the room, landing on the white floors and walls.  Suddenly, Joey fell to his knees in what appeared to be defeat.

“That company should fucking be mine!!!” he bellowed from the ground. “It’s my company!” he screamed out once again. “You said you’d sign it over to me!”

Well, hell, I didn’t know that little tidbit of information. Once again, another way Derek wanted to throw me for a loop.

“You stole the ideas I had and made them like they were your own and
you
were the genius!” Joey started towards Derek, seething rage and disdain evident in his eyes.

“You couldn’t make anything work!” Derek retorted, half conscious, and immediately I cringed. Why was he egging him on?! Why he was provoking?! Especially considering Joey was insane and he was half-way unconscious.

“I could never do anything right when it came to you!” he screamed. “You were always the favorite!”

He made his way to his feet, his stance aimed towards a weak Derek.

“Oh, boo-hoo!” Stephen yelled out. “Nobody loves me!”

He was mocking him. And I knew why. He wanted to keep him away from Derek. He wanted to keep Derek safe.

And it worked.

Joey launched towards Stephen, just before tackling him into the wall. Instruments flew and clanked to the ground as they wrestled against the wall and knocked over trays and trays of items. Joey gained the upper hand for a moment and pinned Stephen to the wall, holding his throat in place with his elbow, choking him.

He cocked his arm back and began hitting Stephen in the face, likely as hard as he could. Only it didn’t appear to be hard enough.

It was all happening so fast; I couldn’t see or even really understand everything that was happening. All I saw, after Stephen got hit was a smile appear on his face, a mocking one. He wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

I felt a piece of me leap for joy when I saw the smile appear. It meant that he had the upper hand; and it meant that he might finally put Joey in the place that he deserved to be in.

But Joey didn’t let up, and Stephen didn’t push him away. Instead, I witnessed blast after blast of lashing punches to Stephen’s face, and I cringed as I watched blood spew from his mouth and cheek, clearly having been ripped open from a multitude of punches.