Chloe
Funny things happen when you find yourself in the vicinity of a serial killer, especially when you are one.
First, my heart skipped a beat, particularly during the moment the redhead at the front desk told us she wasn’t sure what happened to the sweet Diane who’d been found unresponsive in her bed last week.
Then again, when Colin’s mother told us she wasn’t on any prescription pain medications, and she still had the narrowest pupils I’ve ever seen.
I could see Colin’s unease painted all over his body, in his tense movements and clipped questions about her medications that suddenly made her hot and her apartment’s AC being on full blast, even though the weather outside is fairly cool these days.
I’m sure he noticed her pupils as well, because for one, he’s a cop, and two, he said his sister’s an addict.
He’s probably more in tune than he wants to be to the side effects of drug use.
My intuition was on high alert the moment I met the lovely Elizabeth Mills.
Specifically, when I saw the look on Colin’s face that confirmed his mother was not this sick when he saw her last, which was just a few weeks ago.
The concern etched into his features could be seen from a mile away, no matter how hard he tried to cover it for her sake.
I was nervous to meet Colin’s mother. I wanted her to like me.
To love me for her son. And all my nerves washed away when I saw the look on her face when we shook hands and she used my full name.
She knew exactly who I was, and she didn’t shy away from me.
And more than that, her asking about my mother and commenting on the men whose deaths put her in prison led me to believe she knew more about us than even Colin did.
Perhaps she’d had her own evil stepdad in another life, or husband.
An hour into our visit when Elizabeth’s nurse, Vera, walked in, Elizabeth’s demeanor went from dull but talkative to alert, quiet, and on edge, and every miniscule hair on my body stood at attention.
Vera seemed surprised that Colin and I were there, but she covered it well, quickly jumping into introductions and letting us know she had some things to do to keep herself busy while we finished visiting.
If my body hadn’t already prickled with concern, it would have at the exact moment Vera announced she’d wait for us to be gone before she administered Elizabeth’s medications.
Colin has shared with me that he’d been his mother’s medication dealer since her diagnosis, and Vera should know that. So I can only assume that there’s something she doesn’t want us to see in that medication cart of hers.
“Do you mind if I use your restroom, Elizabeth?”
Colin’s mother smiles weakly, lifting a hand in the direction of her bedroom.
“It’s right through there.” My heart aches for the woman sitting on the couch, small and bland when I know I see a spark of fire in her eyes, just like the one in Colin’s.
She’s fiery, but her flames have been doused, and I don’t like that.
I nod before leaving the group to each other, glancing in the direction of Vera who seems to be trying harder than necessary to keep her focus elsewhere.
I stop at the nightstand on my way to the bathroom I don’t actually need to use.
A few orange prescription bottles litter the surface, along with various over the counter medications and vitamins.
Tilting each medicine bottle back, I scan the labels one at a time.
Extra strength Ibuprofen. Fifteen milligram Meloxicam.
Pepcid. Laxative. Vitamin D. Another confirmation that none of these pills on her nightstand would affect the size of her pupils.
Continuing into the bathroom, I pull my phone out and quickly shoot a text off to Maeve, relaying the name I’d seen on the nurse’s badge that dangled from her bejeweled badge clip.
Vera Bryan.
Colin and I are moving fast enough in my preferred direction that I might be able to take a hiatus from my own hiatus to save his mother from certain death, which is something I feel very strongly is in the cards for her.
Vera may be the bad kind of bad, but I’d still recognize it anywhere: the hunger for release in her eyes.
Flushing the toilet, I exit the bathroom and return to the group, settling onto the loveseat next to Colin again as he and his mother carry on about how the food in this place isn’t as good as she thought it would be.
“We’ll be here for a while,” I say to Vera, who briefly stiffens as she organizes her medication cart.
“Feel free to give Elizabeth her meds so you can carry on about your day.” I smile innocently, though something tells me she can see right through it.
Colin lifts an eyebrow at me, suspicious, or maybe appreciative, of how well I’m falling into my daughter-in-law duties.
Vera smiles in response, a lift of her lips that she tries to make look sweet and appreciative—like I actually give a shit about her schedule—but I can tell it’s actually tense and forced. She gives us a curt nod and goes about readying the medication for delivery.
Vera’s black hair is pulled back into a slick bun at the base of her neck, and as quickly as I’m gathering general details of her features and appearance, I’m also focused on her movements and demeanor.
She looks like she’s in her early forties, Botox keeping that pretty skin of hers wrinkle free.
Her lips are painted red, like mine, and her long, dark lashes protect ocean-blue eyes.
She’s gorgeous, and I find myself hating her for using her sweet-looking nature to take advantage of innocent, old women. My future mother-in-law, no less.
Earlier, Colin seemed taken aback by how quickly and easily his mother and I were getting acquainted. He seems more so now as I take up more air in the space than I probably would have, had I not sensed evil lurking in the room with us.
“What’s that one?” I ask Vera as she draws a clear liquid from a tiny vial through the tip of a needle.
She smiles tightly, but I’m less focused on the curve of her lips and more focused on the flex of her arms, the tone of her biceps as she lifts the vial and needle into the air.
The shape of her hand and fingers that look like they haven’t done a hard day’s worth of physical labor in her entire life.
All the while, Stone’s voice echoes in my brain, his tips about overpowering someone who ends up being stronger than I am or less impacted by the tranquilizers he gives them.
Aim for the sensitive spots: throat, chest, eyes.
Palm strike. Kick ‘em in the balls. Well, that last one’s not exactly relevant, but likely still effective.
Vera recites the name of the medication to us, which means nothing to me, but I file it away. “It’s a bone growth stimulator,” she explains. “She takes it daily.”
“That’s new,” Colin says beside me. “I didn’t see that one listed on her medication list,” he continues, his voice merely curious at the medication change while my blood pumps wildly in my temple and throat at his words.
His arm is draped behind me, the heat of his body feeding my bravado as Vera moves between us and kneels in front of Elizabeth.
My heart nearly stops pumping altogether when Elizabeth’s dull eyes meet mine.
They may be lifeless, but the look of terror in her growing pupils is so charged I can feel it zapping across every inch of my skin.
And when my gaze trails to her hand in her lap and she performs the universal hand signal for distress—folding her fingers over her thumb bent into her palm before revealing it again—my focus snaps back up to her eyes so fast I think they’ll pop out of my head.
My hand is whipping out and wrapping around Vera’s wrist before I can stop myself, stopping the forward movement of the needle readying to puncture Elizabeth’s skin.
“Skip this one,” I demand, as softly as possible even though my pulse is beating all over my body.
Vera is caught off guard by my hand on hers, I can tell by the way she freezes when I touch her cold skin. Her gaze slowly moves from where my fingers are pressing into her wrist up to meet my death glare.
“Chloe,” Colin interrupts, leaning forward beside me, his eyes caught on where I’ve trapped the nurse’s hand. But I ignore him. I have to.
I hold Vera’s threatening glare when I ask Elizabeth, “Do you want this one?” And all I need to see is the movement of Elizabeth’s head out of the corner of my eye as she shakes it back and forth for my grip to tighten on the nurse’s wrist, unwilling to let it move any further.
“It’s her medicine,” Vera says to me as I return her dark stare.
“And it’s her body,” I spit back. “She can miss one dose.”
Vera huffs before yanking her wrist from my fingers and rising quickly from her kneeling position, replacing the cap on the needle and tucking the vile of liquid back into its pouch at the medication cart.
Pursing her lips, she busies herself at the metal rolling cart as I allow the breath caught in my lungs to breathe life into me again.
“I’ll have to tell the doctor about this,” she sneers.
I’m so far from giving a fuck. The air in the room is so charged with tension I’d think it was actually warming up the place.
Colin eyes his mother, the way she’s curled in on herself with Vera around, the relief rippling from her shaking breaths at missing a dose of something I’m almost certain was not for stimulating bone growth.
“I don’t mind talking to the doctor myself,” Colin says, glancing from Vera to me, a look of solidarity radiating from his bright eyes.
Vera clears her throat uncomfortably in the background, and Colin and I look away from each other, back at this evil nurse who I’m officially unwilling to let live any longer than necessary, her mouth pursing.
“It’s okay,” she assures us, probably hating the idea of us pursuing this because she was never really going to talk to the doctor in the first place. “She can miss one dose.”