71
Nate looked at his cuffed wrist and turned an unamused gaze to Tshepo who was sitting quietly watching his friend.
“What is the meaning of this? Am I under arrest?” Nate demanded.
"Leave us," Tshepo said to the officers in the room. As soon as they were gone he cracked a smile. “I heard you fought the nurses off and I knew you would try to escape once the drugs wore off so I took some drastic measures,” he deadpanned.
Nate fought the urge to roll his eyes or punch Tshepo in the face. The man knew him too well. Then again, they had grown up together and we’re basically brothers. And Tshepo had been right. His first instinct upon waking up had been to try and force his way out of the hospital. He should have known that the GHIA was aware of the attempt on his life. His security detail were members of Tshepo’s team after all. One of them could have easily picked up his phone and called him.
“Let me guess, you’ve asked the hospital desk not to let me go until I am completely healed?”
“Correct,” Tshepo responded, his single eye twinkling.
“And you have your men watching this place 24/7?”
“Correct.”
“I suppose my house is also under surveillance?”
“Correct.”
“And I am guessing if I tried to escape through an open window your men will stop me before I even take a step?”
“Correct,” Tshepo laughed and crossed his legs. “I thought about everything you can ever think of, Nate. That was a pretty serious injury you sustained. It could have easily met your heart.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Nate said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “In that case, I have an assignment for you. But before that…” he smacked his lips, grimacing at the cardboard taste of his mouth. “How long have I been here?”
“2 days.”
“2 days?!” he shrieked. “Oh fuck it might be too late already. Jacob’s murder attempt – I don’t think that’s the real worry here.”
Tshepo uncrossed his legs and leaned on his knees to regard Nate with pity. “If you are talking about her, it would have been too late .”
Nate’s mind snapped to attention. “It would have been? What happened? Tell me what happened!” he cried as he strained against the cuff holding him still. It bit into his flesh but he didn’t care. Fear tore at his heart at the thought that something could have happened to Rachel.
“Jacob almost killed her.”
Even though Nate wasn’t surprised he still asked, "What? Why? How?” His heart was in his throat as he worried about her. His head swarmed but he suspected that it was out of fear rather than the after effect of the drugs in his system.
“Manipulated suicide. It was well planned. The car would run off the cliff and incinerate removing every trace of Jacob’s involvement in the scheme. She got lucky, we found her after a local farmer alerted us to a car teetering off the edge of the cliff.”
With every word he said Nate’s heart rose higher in his throat and his skin ashen. He couldn’t imagine what Rachel must have gone through…what she must be going through right now. He had the sudden urge to see her. He wanted to know how she felt, what she thinking…he wanted to convince himself that she was alive and unharmed.
“I need to get out here…”
“You can’t,” Tshepo responded firmly but Nate was already trying to get to his feet. He pulled hard on the cuff ignoring the injury to his skin. Tshepo snapped to his feet to hold Nate down. The stubborn man would not be held down until Tshepo resulted to cuffing his other hand – in truth he wanted to knock Nathaniel out but he feared he would cause more damage to his friend if he did.
“What is wrong with you? Get me out of here!”
“No, I can’t do that. Listen,” Tshepo ordered. He waited until Nate stopped resisting him before he continued. “The lines are falling in place, Jacob went on air yesterday claiming to be a bereaved husband. He has no idea that Rachel is alive and we want to keep it that way for now.”
Nate went still completely. He understood what Tshepo was trying to say. It pinched his pride but he knew that if he went looking for Rachel Jacob would find out and who knew what he would do to keep Rachel silent forever. The man already showed the extent of his lunacy through the assassination attempt on him and the murder attempt on Rachel. Who knew what other tricks he had up his sleeve?
“I came here to make sure you are okay. My men will keep their eyes on you to the best of their ability but you have to do your bit by making sure you report any suspicious movements.” A cautiously guilty look made Tshepo suddenly appear sheepish. “Also it looks like your battle with the media is about to begin again.”
Nate frowned. “What do you mean?” his voice was low and as cautious as the look in Tshepo’s eyes.
“Remember what I said about Jacob going on air? He didn’t just try to portray himself as the bereaved husband, it turns out that you are right about the murder attempt. He wasn’t planning to kill you. It turns out that his scheme was a lot bigger.”
He stood up and walked to the TV on the wall – Nate was staying in an exclusive ward – and turned it on with the remote. Shifting through the channels until found what he was looking for and sought through the shows for a rerun of Jacob’s interview.
There, sitting on a sofa looking the very picture of a mourning husband was Jacob – black tie, shirt and suit.
“Sources say that you left the venue with your wife, Mr. Henderson.”
“I did,” his voice was deceptively shaky to sell his lies. “We went home and my wife confided in me. We have had a shaky marriage as you well know, Tim, and she and I have been working on our marriage. We are trying to come back together after all that happened with the teen sex drama, the episode with Nathaniel. My wife told me that Nathaniel tricked her. He deceived her into thinking he was going to help her and – my sweet innocent wife,” he sniffed.
He paused dramatically to make a big show of dabbing his eyes with his handkerchief. “You have to understand that my wife is not exactly stable mentally so I can see how easy it was for a man like Nathaniel to trick her. She is a sweet innocent woman.”
“What did she tell you – you mentioned she confided in you, I’m assuming it’s something about Nathaniel Madden.”
“Well,” he sniffed. “I could tell she was frightened. She told me about his lies, his promises but all Nathaniel really wanted was to use her and take revenge for her stand during his divorce from Vera Chang.”
“Vera Chang? But that was a long time ago. Are you saying Vera has anything to do with this?” the host asked.
“I wouldn’t know but…who knows? All I know is my wife left my side sometime last night, drove our car out of the house and I haven’t seen her. I fear the worst has happened to her.”
“Hmm, we can only keep our fingers crossed,” the host was sympathetic to him. “I assume you have gone to the cops with this information…?”
Jacob turned furious. His fury could have been mistaken for the anger of a vengeful husband seeking justice for his ‘sweet innocent wife.’
“Nathaniel holds the ropes of the country, he pulls the strings and does whatever he wants knowing he has the power to crush anyone who opposes him! I am putting my life on the line here by being on air this morning. This is the only outlet I have to let the world see what a monster he truly is.” He stood up in faux fury. “Nate Madden stole my wife, and worst of all stole my inheritance. He uses stolen wealth to buy off women. You have seen his history with women and how he lures them in with money…”
“Turn it off,” Nate growled.
