Seeing Red (25 page)

Oliver kept calling his brother, and there was no
answer. Heather and Oliver hovered over Jill, rubbing her arm and
speaking to her.

Minutes passed.

More minutes . . .

Half hour later . . .

Jill whispered so low that it was barely audible,
“Rocco,” and passed out.

“Jill!” Oliver yelled.

“What’s going on, Oliver?” Heather was frantic.

“I don’t know. She’s never passed out. In all the
years . . . I mean, she gets tired, but I’ve never seen her pass
out.”

“Bring some water and some rubbing alcohol or
something that she can smell. Maybe she’s just sleeping.” He was
beside himself. Heather ran to the kitchen and brought water, a
towel, and rubbing alcohol.

“Baby, please wake up.” He had her on his lap, he
kissed her forehead ever so gently, and placed the bottle of
rubbing alcohol under her nose, but she didn’t stir. Heather patted
cold water, using the small towel, around Jill’s neck and forehead
in an attempt to get some sort of response. Heather checked
Jillian’s pulse, and it seemed normal and so did her breathing.

“Oliver, I think we need to call an ambulance.”

“Fine. Call. Just don’t say anything about the
vision. She only tells very close people, okay?”

“Okay.”

After she called 9-1-1, Heather asked, “Do you think
we should call Paul? I mean, he’s her boyfriend. I think he should
know, right?”

“Um . . . I don’t know. If you think that’s what she
would want, I guess. But, don’t tell . . .”

“Don’t worry, Oliver. No one but you, your brother,
and I can know. I understand.”

“Exactly. Sorry for being so crazy. She’s one of the
only people I have, and I want to respect her wishes, you
know.”

“You don’t have to explain, Oliver. I understand.”
Heather grabbed Jill’s cell phone and looked up Black’s number.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Paul answered.

“Um, no, Paul, this is Heather, Jill’s roommate. I
think you should come right over. Jill passed out, and we can’t
seem to wake her. She’s breathing and has a pulse. We called for an
ambulance.”

“I’ll be right there. Do not let them take her until
I arrive. Understand?”

“Well, then you better hurry, darlin’, because I
ain’t stopping the docs when they get here.” She said,
sardonically.

“She better not be gone when I get there.” He hung
up.

“Ugh. Asshole! He said that she couldn’t be taken to
the hospital until he got here.”

“That’s not his call to make! He should be glad we
even called him. The paramedics are in charge, not the
teacher.”

“You mean professor.” She said, mimicking the
statement he’d made earlier. “I don’t like him.”

“That makes two of us.” And with that last
statement, the paramedics arrived and a whirl of commotion ensued.
Jill was laid on a stretcher, and the paramedics began taking her
pulse, poking this and touching that, writing all sorts of
scribbles on charts, and talking to each other.

“What was she doing when she fainted?” Paramedic #1
asked.

“She was just sitting on the chair.” Oliver replied.
Not technically a lie.

“How long has she been like this? Did she eat
anything different today or do anything different?”

“It’s been about fifteen minutes, and as far as I
know she didn’t eat or do anything unusual. Her fr— Her boyfriend
brought her lunch. He’ll be here shortly. He can tell you what she
ate.” They continued probing and poking Jill.

“Oh my God, is she going to be alright?” Tears were
now streaming freely down Heather’s face. Oliver was nervous too;
he’d never seen this happen to Jill. He held Heather’s hand. This
was a nightmare.
And where the hell is Alexander?
The only
comfort he had was that the name she had whispered before passing
out wasn’t Alexander.

“Is she okay?” Paul stormed through the door.

“Sir, you need to back away and let us work.”

“Boyfriend.” Paul said, cockily pointing at
himself.

“Paramedic.” Paramedic #2 replied, pointing at
himself. There was immediate animosity. Oliver noticed the look of
hysteria on Paul’s face. Maybe he did have genuine feelings for
Jill, because his was the face of a panic-stricken man.

“She,” paramedic #1 glanced over at Heather, “said
that you brought her lunch today. Was it anything unusual?”

“No, I brought her food from the same Italian place
we’ve gone to before, and she had the same pasta dish she’s ordered
before.”

Paul went to stand next to Heather and Oliver,
allowing the paramedics to work.

“I apologize for my behavior over the phone. What
was Jillian doing? What happened?”

“She was just sitting on the chair and then passed
out.”

“Just sitting?” He asked.

“Yes. Just sitt—”

With a startling gasp, Jillian awoke suddenly, “What
happened? Where am I? Ow!” She tried to sit up, her head hitting
paramedic #2’s chin, who was hovering over her.

“Sorry,” said the paramedic, rubbing his chin,
“you’re at your home. You passed out. What was the last thing that
you remember ma’am?”

Oliver rushed over and quickly grabbed her hand and
squeezed it, while stroking her hair. Jill looked at him for
answers. She didn’t remember much. “Baby, you were sitting on the
chair and you passed out, remember?” He hoped she would get the
gist of what he was hiding.

“Oh, yeah, I was sitting there,” she pointed at the
chair. “We were talking. It’s probably nothing. I didn’t eat much.
I was probably just hungry.”

Then she heard Paul’s voice. “What are you talking
about? Heather said you ate the lunch that I brought you not even
two hours ago. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Just help me up. I’m fine.
No need to fuss over me. Everything’s fine.”

“Ma’am, we’d like to take you to the hospital for
some tests. You were out for about twenty minutes. It could be
something as simple as low blood sugar or something a lot more
serious.”

“No. I’m fine. It’s nothing. I don’t want to
go.”

“Ma’am—”

“Oly? I don’t want to go.” She looked at Oliver for
help. He knew what had happened and that there would be no tests
that would explain her spell.

“Sweetheart, listen to the paramedic. Come on. I’ll
ride in the ambulance with you.” Paul said.

“She said she doesn’t want to go.” Oliver
retorted.

“You aren’t the one that gets to make that decision
Jacobs. Get out of our way. Come on, Jillian.”

“Neither are you, professor.” Oliver snarled.

“I’m okay, Paul. I don’t want to go.” She was
exhausted but kept up the fight as much as she could in order to
get the paramedics and Paul out of her apartment. “I have a house
full of people. If I feel even a little bit sick, I promise that
I’ll have one of them take me to the hospital.”

“Okay ma’am. Sign here. It says that you refuse to
go to the hospital against our orders.”

Jill signed and the paramedics left.

“I cannot believe you didn’t go, Jillian.” Paul
looked livid.

“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy spell. I need some
rest.”

“Then I’m staying. If you pass out again, I’m taking
you myself. And you,” he said pointing at Oliver, “should have
helped convince her to go. I thought you were her friend.”

“I am her friend. I know what she needs. Get out of
her home. I’ll take care of her. You’re stressing her out.”

They were both so close that Jill and Heather
nervously took a step back, afraid that they’d be in the crossfire
if the fighting erupted.

“I can’t deal with any of this right now. I have to
go to sleep.” Jill interrupted. Only Oliver knew how exhausted the
visions left Jill, and he was ready to help her get to bed. But, he
was also anxious to know if there was any sort of danger or
something she needed to tell him, but he couldn’t have that
conversation in front of Paul, and Paul, unfortunately, didn’t seem
to be going anywhere.

“Okay, baby. Good night. Um, hey, by the way, I’ve
been calling Alex since . . . for about half-hour now, he doesn’t
answer. Have you two spoken? Is he alright?” As soon as Oliver
called him Alex, she must have known he was asking about the
vision, because Oliver never called his brother Alex.

“As far as I can
see
,” she said, accentuating
the ‘see,’ “I don’t have any missed calls from him, and I haven’t
heard from him since last night. I’m absolutely sure he’s fine.”
She discreetly winked and went to bed. Paul followed Jillian into
her room.

***

Jillian

“Paul, really, I’m fine. You don’t need to stay.”

“Sweetheart, I want to stay.” He pulled her shirt
over her head and slid her pants off her legs. She was so utterly
exhausted that she couldn’t even feel embarrassed. Her eyes were
closing. He opened one of her drawers and found a t-shirt and
slipped it on her. Then, he took off his shirt and slid in bed next
to her. She was not used to sleeping with anyone, and when he
pulled her body close to his chest, she felt safe and
protected.

“Good night, sweetheart.” He gave her a kiss on her
temple, and she felt her pulse and her heart begin to slow down
until she was sound asleep.

She slept for fourteen hours, waking up
confused.

She got out of bed and saw a note on her bathroom
mirror.

Sweetheart,

I didn’t want to wake you, but I had an errand to
run. Oliver and Heather promised to watch you for me—I gave them my
number. I should be back soon. Text me when you wake up so that I
know you’re well. You scared the hell out of me. We’ll talk
tonight. I hope you are still up for our trip. I postponed it until
tomorrow morning. Please rest.

All my love,

Paul

Love?

Jill was relieved that Paul was not there. She
needed to breathe and regroup and couldn’t do that with him
hovering. When she walked out of her bedroom, Heather and Oliver
were sitting on the couch, watching television.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Heather said with her
normal charming smile.

“How do you feel?” Oliver asked.

“I’m . . . I don’t know. Okay, I guess. Sorry if I
scared you. How long was I out? Did you tell Paul or the
paramedics? Did you sleep here, Oliver? Does Heather know?”

“Wow, you’re full of questions this morning. Of
course, Heather knows. She saw it happen. I had to tell her. You
were out about forty-five minutes, and we didn’t tell anyone
anything. We just said you passed out. And, no, I didn’t sleep
here. I just got here, actually.”

“Sorry about this, Heather; I should’ve told you
about it sooner.”

“It’s okay. I understand. It would have been a
strange conversation. I enjoyed your
surprise-your-roommate-with-your-psychic-coma tactic better.” She
said with a sweet smile.

“So you want to talk about what happened? You said a
name, but we couldn’t quite pick up what you said.”

“Rocco. Rocco Taylor. That’s what RT stands for, and
that’s the name of my father.”

“Wait, Rocco Taylor? As in the owner of Taylor
Enterprises, Corp.?” Heather asked, already getting up and booting
up her laptop.

“I don’t know about the company thing, but I know
that RT is Rocco Taylor and that he’s my father.”

“What about the passing-out thing? You’ve never
passed out that way,” Oliver asked.

“I know. It was weird. I think he was calling me or
something. It wasn’t a premonition-type vision. It was more like
Rocco was inside my head. In my mind, I saw him and heard him
clearly. He sat on, I don’t know, like a yoga mat or something with
his eyes closed. I could see the ocean outside his big
floor-to-ceiling windows. I could even hear the sound of the ocean
crashing into the side of a mountain. I smelled the musky cologne
or candle that surrounded him. He was thinking his name in his head
and meditating on the name over and over until I heard it. It was
eerie: Rocco, Rocco, Rocco—a continuous chant. Until suddenly, I
just knew his name. That’s what he meant by the note. Then the
energy between him and me was just too much. It was overwhelming
and I passed out. It was as if he had literally sucked the life out
of me. I think he passed out too.”

“WTF?”

“Did you just curse in acronyms, Heather?” Oliver
asked with a laugh.

“Sorry, I don’t normally curse.” They all laughed.
That had broken some of the intensity.

“I don’t really know what to say, Jill. Are you
okay?” Oliver asked.

“I’m a little spooked, but I guess, physically, I’m
okay. He’s looking for me. I think he fed me his name so that I can
find him.”

“Remember that your mom was terrified of him and was
trying to get you out; finding him isn’t an option. I hope you know
that, Jillian. Maybe we should keep this all to ourselves for now,”
Oliver said, looking at Heather and Jill.

“You’re secret’s safe with me, hon’.”

“I know. Thank you both, but I have this
overwhelming feeling that I need to find him. I think that he now
knows that I know who he is. He felt it just as I did. More than
that actually, it was as if he willed me into knowing who he
was.”

Heather brought her laptop and set it on Jill’s lap.
“Honey, is this him? Is this the man you saw?”

“Yes!”

“That’s the owner of Taylor Enterprises, Corp. We
use his company as examples in our classes all the time. This guy’s
a zillionaire, honey. Everything he touches turns to gold. He’s
Midas incarnate. He’s a ruthless businessman, but I wouldn’t think
he’s evil in the murderous sense of the word, unless mergers and
acquisitions are considered murder.”

“Well, this is definitely a lot to take in. I need
to think about all this.”

“If you suspect that he may already know that you
know, don’t take too long to think about it. There must be a reason
that after all these years he wants to find you. Maybe you should
go to Alexander’s place with me until you figure out what you’re
going to do. I don’t feel right about you staying here with a
dangerous man looking for you.” Oliver paced.