Cutthroat: Sutton Capital Series, Book Eight Page 13
“Wow. The trial organizers can’t pick up on that somehow?” Jarrod frowned as he thought through the implications of that for all involved. For the person who was risking building a real habit that wouldn’t be helped by the trial. For the trial organizers and physicians whose results could very well be skewed by their participation. It was an all-around bad idea.
She raised her hands, palms to the sky. “How could they? The person comes in and tests positive for heroin in their system. They fake the right history. Heaven knows they’ve seen what the addiction looks like in their time on the streets. They know the language, the signs. They can fake it well enough to get into the trial.”
She leaned toward the men a fraction. “Things are a little better now. Have you heard of Zero: 2016?”
“Pretend we haven’t,” Jarrod said. He had but his knowledge of the program was vague. He wanted details from someone who knew more about it than he did.
She nodded. “It’s an initiative that began with homeless veterans, but we’re expanding it now to the entire homeless population. It’s a national program to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. Connecticut was one of only four states to sign on—the rest are cities or municipalities. We’re now poised to be the first state to end chronic homelessness and reach the goal of functional zero for our homeless population.”
“What does that mean?” Cal asked. “Functional zero? I mean, I’ve seen a huge decrease in the homeless around here lately, but it seems to me they’re still out there.”
Jarrod was hesitant to agree with Cal, given the woman’s clear commitment to the goal, but Cal was right. They’d just walked by several people who looked like they were living on the streets on the way inside.
She nodded. “It’s a technical definition. It doesn’t mean that homelessness doesn’t exist. It means that we’re at such low numbers that we’re able to identify people either before they lose their housing, or immediately afterward, and are able to get them into permanent housing within thirty days. It also includes anyone who refuses assistance in getting off the streets.”
She didn’t have to explain that one to Cal or Jarrod. They both knew that sometimes, people refused help.
“And Connecticut has done this with veterans?” Jarrod asked.
“Yes. And we’re close on all others. It’s meant a big shift in how our organization functions. We’ve freed up some of the space we were using for temporary housing before. We’ll be making that into additional clinic space to expand the medical services we can provide. If we get the funding we need,” she added, with a smile that was much more natural now.
“Do you think that will put a stop to the drug trials?” Cal asked.
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so. It might slow them down, but even after we find housing, there are always needs. Clothing, food, medical costs. They might not be as desperate, as driven, to get off the streets, but our people will always suffer from a level of need others aren’t able to begin to understand.”
Jarrod liked the way she called the people they helped “our people.”
“So you don’t know if Leo was taking part in any trials?” he asked.
“No I’m afraid I don’t. We don’t track them or have any involvement in them at all. They’re independently run.”
“So how do people find out about the tests?” The question came from Jarrod this time.
She pointed out toward the hallway. “They often post notices for the trials on our community boards. We allow it because it’s one more way for us to get people in the door, where we can offer them services, try to help them. We’ve discussed stopping the practice, but honestly, it wouldn’t stop the problem.”
“And what about the clinic? Do they run any of the trials directly?” Jarrod asked.
She nodded. “Yes. But I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you without a warrant. We sign a hefty confidentiality agreement every time we allow a trial to be run through the clinic.”
“Is that standard?”
“Yes. It’s reality.” Her answer showed her pragmatic side. She seemed to care deeply for those she was trying to help, but he also had the sense that she was realistic about what she could and couldn’t accomplish.
Jarrod wasn’t surprised she’d clammed up at that. Honestly, she’d given them far more information than he’d thought she would, but all of the information had been pretty general. When it came to actually talking about the deaths or any specifics, she wasn’t going to give them dick.
“If a person involved in one of the trials is sick enough to be admitted to a hospital or dies, does the company running the trial have some way to find out about that?” Jarrod wasn’t really sure why he asked the question. Maybe part of him wanted to know if the people using these men even knew or cared that they’d died. If they were in fact even in a trial. They had yet to determine that for sure.
She shook her head. “No, there’s no main registry or anything like that. I suppose if the person doesn’t tell the hospital when they check in, then the company would only find out when the patient missed their appointments. They’d likely try to contact the person then, I suppose.”
Jarrod and Cal glanced at one another and stood, silent communication easy after years partnering together. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Hastings,” Cal said.
She smiled. “I’m sorry I don’t have more answers for you. For what it’s worth, I really liked Leo.”
Jarrod nodded and the men walked out, neither one speaking. They had very little to go on other than gut instinct. If they didn’t find anything concrete soon, they’d be forced to let this go and turn their attention to other cases. The thought ate at him. Jarrod hated to think they were letting down a segment of the population who couldn’t speak for themselves.
“It’s disgusting that drug companies can take advantage of people who have nothing like that,” Jarrod said, opening the driver’s side door of their unmarked sedan. “They dangle cash, a bed, food over their heads and give them God only knows what to put in their bodies. What choice do these people have but to grab at that?”
Cal shrugged. “It gets them off the streets for a bit, gets some food in their stomachs. Besides, the FDA doesn’t let them run these tests until they’re pretty damned sure they’re safe, right? I mean, they have to.”
Jarrod gave him a look that said he didn’t buy that at all.
“Aw, come on,” Cal said. “For the vast majority of these trials, they’re just trying to find out if the meds are gonna give them the runs.”
Jarrod shook his head. Sometimes, he didn’t know if Cal was only arguing with him to mess with his head or what. He wasn’t going to do this right now. “Yeah, but if we’ve got some doctor running around giving out meds in a trial that isn’t FDA sanctioned, we’ve got bigger issues on our hands than ethics. We’ve got someone using our homeless population as Guinea pigs.”
Cal’s face grew dark, and there was no doubt in Jarrod’s mind, they were on the same page on this one. “Yeah,” Cal said. “But how do we prove that?”
Yeah. They needed to find something more than gut instinct, all right, because gut instinct wouldn’t let them put a stop to this. It wouldn’t help them put anyone away for the deaths of these men.
But damn, his gut was burning on this.
* * *
“Think of it as an insurance plan. For both of us.” The man should have chosen someone of stronger character than Mark Coleman. The connection Coleman had to Simms Pharmaceutical was too damned good to pass up though, and with the history of heart attack in his family, he’d been an easy target.
The man had thought Coleman’s gambling debt would be enough to keep Coleman under control, but he should have seen it for what it was. An indication of weakness. And that weakness was now causing trouble for him.
He had Leo Kent’s friend and daughter sniffing all over the damned place and the police asking questions. It was what he wanted, eventually, but not now. Not when he didn
’t have everything in place yet.
He had paid muscle taking care of that little problem, but he needed to move up the timeline. There was a lot of groundwork to be laid.
Sykes nodded and took the fake paperwork. “I got it. I’ll head over there after dark.”
“You’ll need this.” He handed Sykes a keycard that wouldn’t lead back to either of them. “Use the back entrance. The lobby and the front entrance have cameras, but they don’t have cameras in any of the offices or clinic areas.”
He watched as Sykes walked away. Now he needed to figure out an exit plan for Sykes as well. It never hurt to plan ten steps ahead of where you were. It was what he’d always practiced in the business world, and it was serving him well now. Plan ten steps out and with any luck you only had to make it to step three or four.
Chapter 25
Jax heard Chad behind him and turned. The man jogged to catch up and they walked through the doors to the garage together.
“Any plans tonight?” Chad asked.
“Probably gonna drive up to Hartford,” he said, and the dumbass smile that he couldn’t seem to stop crossed his face again.
Chad laughed. “You seemed a little tired during the meeting this afternoon. The drive getting to you?”
Before he could answer, his phone sounded a text alert. The next thirty seconds stopped his heart cold as rage and fear vied for control.
A video played on his phone. A man’s hands pinning Mia to the ground. Her terrified face as she begged. Jax read the text beneath the video.
Back off if you don’t want this pretty girl hurt.
He heard Chad curse beside him, but it was nothing compared to the string of curses that came from his own mouth. Jax’s heart felt like it was trying to claw its way up his throat as he dialed Mia.
Please, God, please. He didn’t ever remember praying this hard. Not even overseas, when demons from hell seemed to have been let loose on earth.
The phone rang several times before a man picked up.
“Hello.”
“So help me, if you hurt her in any way, I’ll rip your heart out of your chest and make your mother eat it for fucking breakfast, asshole.”
Dead silence for a split second, then, “It’s for you.”
Jax heard shuffling and the muffled sounds of the phone moving, before Mia’s voice came on the other end. “Jax? I’m okay.”
His whole body seeming to deflate as relief flooded through him. “Where are you? Who’s with you?”
“I was attacked in the stairwell at work. Nick found me.” She started crying then, and he could tell she was struggling to talk.
Jax closed his eyes and sucked in air, and it struck him. That’s what the world felt like when he thought of life without Mia. Like he couldn’t breathe. Like there wasn’t enough oxygen to sustain him.
He began to move to his Jeep. He needed to get to Mia.
“Oh hell, no. I’m driving.” Chad put a large hand on Jax’s shoulder and started steering him toward his truck. Jax didn’t fight it. He rattled off the location of Mia’s office to Chad, before opening the door to his truck.
“Mia?” Jax had a million other questions for her. Are you okay? Are you scared? Did he hurt you? He didn’t ask any of them. His sole focus right now was on getting to her. “Can you hear me, honey? I’m on my way.”
The man came back on the line then. “She’s pretty shaken up, but physically, I think she’s ok. She might need stitches on her forehead.”
“Is this Nick?” Jax asked and was both grateful and resentful that the man was there to console Mia.
“Yeah.” He paused. “I’ll stay with her until you get here. The police are on their way.”
“Thank you,” Jax bit out.
As Chad pulled out into traffic, Jax talked to Mia. He talked to her until the police arrived and she had to hang up, saying stupid shit to make her laugh, to try to set her at ease.
Chapter 26
Jax didn’t know when he’d get a full night’s sleep again. He’d been awake the last few nights off and on watching Mia. He’d fall asleep for an hour or so, then wake with a start to see if she was still there. Still safe.
If he wasn’t waking to check on her, she was waking from a nightmare. The whole right side of her face was discolored and swollen. She had a nasty bruise and sixteen stitches on her left temple where her attacker had struck her.
When she woke, he’d hold her hands so she didn’t tear at the stitches in her panic. He’d calm her and whisper to her while she fell back to sleep. He wanted nothing more than to take that fear away from her. To make this go away for her.
Incredibly, she was doing better than he was during the day. It had been three days and he still wanted to lock her away and hide her somewhere safe. She was ready to take on the world. She jumped a little when they were out doing things, and she would start to look over her shoulder before she’d remind herself not to.
He could see her actively take a breath and force herself to move on whenever it happened. And it scared the crap out of him. Every morning, he’d drop her off at her office, then make the drive down to New Haven, showing up an hour late. He’d leave an hour early so he could get to Mia’s office to pick her up. His bosses were understanding so far, but he wasn’t sure how long he could keep it up.
Obsessive and possibly a little creepy?
Yeah. He was working on it.
Mia’s eyes fluttered and she woke, thankfully, not with a jolt of panic this time.
“Morning,” he said, leaning in to kiss her.
“Mmm.” Her response came with a press of her body against his and her hand came up to press against his heart. He wondered if she knew just how much she touched him there.
He’d never tire of waking with her in his arms, even if he would someday need to give up on escorting her everywhere.
“So, I was thinking,” she said.
“Yeah?” His brows rose.
“I think you should drive to New Haven from here today and I’ll drive myself to work.”
“Is that a gentle way of saying I need to back the hell off?”
She laughed. “Yes. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll tell you to back the hell off.”
He laughed with her. Part of him loved that she wasn’t letting the attack chase her into hiding. The other part, well, that was the caveman part. That guy was struggling.
He looked at her face and saw anxiety written in her features. Hell, was he doing that to her?
“What is it?” He asked.
“I need to tell you about something I didn’t mention before.”
She was trying to be casual, but Jax tensed. “Okay.”
“I dated a guy in college,” she began, and he saw clouds gather in her eyes. Oh man, he knew he was going to hate this story. “It was one of those relationships that started out hot and heavy right from the start.”
Like ours. The thought hit Jax and he wondered just what had happened in this relationship in college. It sounded like the exact opposite of what she’d described with Nick. Maybe there’d been more to the way Mia was drawn to the comfortable safety of Nick.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Then Gary got, well, a little too possessive. He was controlling and jealous all the time over absolutely nothing.” She shivered as if a memory had washed over her and it wasn’t a pleasant one. “It got really nasty, really scary, with him following me.”
Jax had to focus on her face and steady his breathing. That, or hit a wall. The thought of someone doing that to her pissed him off. Except … “Shit. And I’m acting that way now, aren’t I?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No. I get where you’re coming from. I feel the difference between you and Gary. Where he wanted to control and own me, you want to protect me. I get it. I’m frightened knowing the guy who attacked me is still out there, but I also won’t live my life in fear because of that. I’ll be careful, but not trapped by that knowledge. I need you to do that, too.”
“My mom and I confronted him, and said I’d get a restraining order. My mom told him she’d make damned sure the college knew about it. He was there on scholarship. It was enough to wake him up and get him to back off, thankfully.”
“And now I’m triggering memories of this by being so overprotective. I’m sorry, Mia. I’m just—”
“An overbearing goon who’s lucky I love him or …” She seemed to freeze as her words came out. “I didn’t … that just …”
Jax felt his heart thud to a halt and he studied her face. If someone had told him he’d hear those words and not panic a month ago, he’d have laughed. Now, he hoped like hell she wasn’t about to take it back. “Do you mean it?”
She nodded, her answer a whisper. “Yes.”
“Yes!” His echoing answer was anything but a whisper. He dropped his voice. “Yes.”
The word kept coming from his mouth between kisses as he travelled the length of her body. He could hear her breathing grow irregular, and knew his touch was affecting her, but she tugged at his shoulders. He pushed himself up to look at her face again.
A slow grin started from deep within him and he didn’t fight it. He loved this woman. Body, heart, and soul were hers for the taking. “I love you, Mia.”
Her eyes went wide. “You do?”
He laughed again. That happened a lot around her. A hell of a lot, and it felt good.
Since she seemed to doubt the veracity of his claim, he set back to work, showing her just how much he loved her.
* * *
“If you really love me, you’ll let me go,” Mia said, hands on hips and eyes ablaze.
Well, damn. That one came back to bite him in the ass in a hurry. He rubbed a hand over his forehead.