Living on the Edge

by Susan Mallery

  “Please enter your authorization code.”

  The computerized voice confused her. She punched in Alison’s number, only to hear the instruction again.

  “What?” she demanded, then remembered this was Tanner’s safe house. The regular rules didn’t apply. She hung up the phone.

  “I have to know,” she murmured as she scanned the room for some way to find out the truth. There were only blinking cursors on various computer screens. How could she—

  Tanner’s cell phone! She could use that or have him make the call from the regular phone.

  She turned toward his bedroom, then froze in place as fear battled with reason. Tanner. He’d said that her father was okay. He’d let her listen to his conversation with one of his men. Her father was fine. He hadn’t been going to the doctor. This was just a trick. Christopher was trying to trick her.

  “But not through Alison,” she whispered to herself.

  The gray-haired woman had been with her father for years. Madison had met her countless times. There was no way she worked for Christopher—she’d been employed by Adams Electronics over ten years when Blaine had first met Christopher.

  “Why would she lie?”

  Nothing made sense. Was it possible that Christopher had been lying about her father being sick, only now he’d had a real heart attack? Stranger things had happened. She had to find out.

  She hurried to Tanner’s bedroom. He was still sprawled across the bed. She stared at him, not sure if she should wake him or not, then she decided to err on the side of caution. She reached for the cell phone he kept clipped to his jeans and carefully pulled it out of its carrying case. When that was done, she hurried to the far end of the house and punched in Alison’s number.

  There was a moment of silence followed by the sound of ringing. Thank God Tanner didn’t use an access code for his cell.

  “Hello?”

  Madison’s chest tightened. “Alison? Is that you?”

  “Madison? Finally. Where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you for days.” The other woman sounded frantic. “Oh, Madison, your father is so sick. He had a heart attack. It’s bad. Really bad. He’s been having symptoms for days but ignoring them. He was so wrapped up in his work. You know how he is. I made him go see his doctor, who warned him to take it easy, but would he listen?”

  Alison began to cry softly. “I’m sorry. It’s just I’m the one who found him. He never came out for lunch and I got worried. I went back in his lab, even though he’s told me not to. It’s his sacred space. He doesn’t want anyone mucking around with his experiments.” The tears came faster. “He was on the floor. I thought he was dead.”

  Madison felt tears fill her eyes. How was this possible? “Are you sure? He’s really sick?”

  “He nearly died. The doctor at the hospital said if I’d found him an hour later, it would have been too late. You have to go see him right away. He’s been asking for you.”

  “I will. What hospital?”

  Alison gave her the name and address, along with the direct number for Cardiac Care. Madison wrote it all down. She felt as if she were living underwater where nothing was as it should be.

  “I wish he’d listened to his doctor,” Alison said sadly.

  “When did he go see him?” Madison asked.

  “A few days ago. Three, maybe four.”

  After Madison had listened to Tanner’s man give his report. Was it all a lie? Tanner had been so furious about her playing him for a fool, but was the truth the opposite?

  “Thanks, Alison,” she said. “I’m going to call the hospital right now.”

  “You do that, honey. I’m praying for him to make it.”

  “Thank you. For everything.”

  Madison finished the call and immediately made another.

  “Los Angeles General. Cardiac Care.”

  “Hi. I’m trying to find out about my father. Blaine Adams. I understand he was brought in this afternoon.”

  “Just a minute.”

  A couple of seconds later, another woman picked up. “Hi, this is Sandy. Are you Dr. Adams’s daughter?”

  “Yes. This is Madison.”

  “Great.” The woman sounded intensely relieved. “We’ve been going crazy trying to find you. Your father was brought in this afternoon in critical condition. The doctors are hopeful he’ll pull through, but it’s still not a sure thing. The next twenty-four hours will tell. He’s pretty out of it, but he’s been asking for you.”

  Madison’s tears fell faster now. Oh, God. Her father was really sick. He could die. Christopher had been telling her the truth and she hadn’t listened.

  “I’ll be there,” Madison promised. “Please tell him to hold on a little longer. I’ll be there.”

  She hung up the phone and ran to her room. It only took her a couple of minutes to dress. She tucked the cell phone into her jeans pocket, then headed for the cabinet in the control room where Tanner kept the keys to the van. As she reached for them, a faint light from the window glinted on the bracelet.

  Damn. The second she walked out of the house, the alarm would go off. Tanner couldn’t possibly sleep through the noise. He would come after her and stop her from seeing her father.

  Panic surged through her. She glanced around for the electronic device he’d used to unfasten the bracelet, but she couldn’t remember what it looked like. Every second she wasted felt like a lifetime. What if her father died while she was still searching?

  Where would it be? Where would—

  She saw the medicine cabinet. Drugs, she thought, remembering what Tanner had done to her. It would serve him right, she thought as she ran over and jerked open the door.

  Several bottles of liquid and pills sat on shelves. She flipped on a desk light, then began reading the labels. The long names confused her. Besides, she couldn’t make him swallow a pill and she didn’t know how to use a needle. What if she didn’t inject him correctly? What if he wasn’t knocked out? She needed a sure thing.

  And then she remembered the gun he’d given her. The one with a sedative instead of a bullet.

  She returned to the first cabinet, pulled it open and grabbed for the van keys. When they were safely in her other pocket, she searched through the various weapons on shelves until she found the one she recognized. She knew enough to drop the clip and check that there weren’t any bullets. She wanted Tanner out of it, not dead.

  She ran back to his bedroom. He lay sprawled across the mattress, naked, vulnerable. How could he have done this to her? How could he have lied? She thought about her father, slowly getting sicker and sicker. Fury and pain steadied her arm as she pointed directly at his chest and pulled the trigger.

  The shot was quieter than she would have thought. The sedative struck him in the upper left part of his chest, close to his shoulder. His eyes flickered open, then closed. She waited five seconds before shaking him.

  “Tanner,” she yelled. “Can you hear me?”

  He didn’t budge.

  She dropped the gun onto the floor and ran for the garage.

  She was nearly halfway across the cement floor before the computerized voice warned her that she had violated her authorized perimeter. That if she didn’t return, an alarm would sound. The shrill siren began as she started the engine. She started to back out before the garage doors had fully opened, and there was an ugly scraping sound, barely audible over the pulsing alarm.

  Madison turned on the lights of the van and drove down the street. She had a vague idea of where she was from the trip to Christopher’s house a couple of days before. At least she remembered her way to the 110 freeway. Once she was going north on that, she could head west and make her way to the hospital.

  Not long now, she told herself over and over again in a litany of prayer. I’ll be there, Daddy. Just hang on for me.

  Tears threatened, but she willed them away. She had to see to drive. There was no point in escaping only to get in an accident. She had to stay strong and in charge. Once
she was with her father and he was getting better, she would figure out how to make Tanner pay for what he’d done to her.

  In the hours after midnight even the Los Angeles freeways were empty of traffic. Madison made excellent time to the hospital. She parked in the back, then hurried toward the building. Her heart pounded in time with her steps as she wondered how long it would be until the effects of the sedative wore off. She figured she had at least a couple of hours but not much longer.

  She might have taken Tanner’s van and his cell phone, but once he woke up, he could still use the land line to call in his team. If only she’d thought to tie him up. That would have bought her more time.

  Too late now, she told herself. Once he was awake, he could easily figure out where she’d gone. After all, he had access to her e-mail, which meant he could get to Alison. She would have to warn the other woman.

  But first, her father, she thought as she hurried inside and studied the directory.

  The large sign told her that Cardiac Care was on the third floor. Madison took the elevator, then followed the arrows to the right department. A woman sat at the front nurses’ station.

  “I’m Madison Hilliard,” she told the nurse. “I’m here to see my father—Blaine Adams. Is he all right? Is he still…”

  The nurse, a young woman in her twenties, smiled. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Hilliard. Your father is doing all right. Actually, as soon as I told him you were coming, he perked right up.”

  “He did?”

  “Absolutely.”

  The nurse took her by the arm and led her through the closed double doors into the department. There was a sign saying only family members were allowed for ten minutes every hour. Madison glanced at her watch only to realize she wasn’t wearing one.

  “Can I stay longer?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him in so long.”

  “Of course. Take as much time as you need.” The nurse stopped and pointed at a curtained area. “Just through there.”

  Madison ran forward and pushed the curtain aside. In that second before the cloth moved, something inside her head screamed out.

  But it was too late.

  The curtain parted to reveal Christopher sitting in a chair. He had a gun, and when he saw her, he raised it until it pointed at her heart.

  “Ah, my lovely wife. Hello, Madison. I’ll say this about you—you’re consistent.”

  Her stomach clenched until she was afraid she was going to throw up.

  A thousand thoughts filled her mind. Everything from wondering when he’d turned Alison to how he’d managed to get control of some of the hospital staff. There had to be a whole lot on the line for him to go to this much trouble.

  The last thing she thought before she inhaled the sweet, sticky smell she remembered so well and everything went black was that Christopher was finally going to win.

  Consciousness returned in the form of a blinding headache. At first, all Madison could focus on was the pulsing pain. She didn’t want to open her eyes or move in any way, but she forced herself to turn onto her back and look at her surroundings.

  Even with her head throbbing, she saw she was in a small room, on a bed. Muscles ached from the awkward position she’d been in. As she tried to straighten her legs, pins and needles shot through them. She gritted her teeth and moved her feet, then her legs.

  The pain made her cry out. Her stomach flopped over, making her nauseous. All she wanted was to curl up and disappear into unconsciousness, but she refused to let herself. She’d gotten herself into this and she had to find a way out.

  The ache in her legs faded first. Slow, steady breathing kept her stomach under control. If her previous experience with Christopher knocking her out was anything to go by, the headache was there to stay for at least a few hours. She would simply have to work through it.

  She sat up and looked around. The room was maybe ten by ten, with a bed, a sink and toilet and a small window. The quality of light was faint enough to make her think it was dawn. So she’d been out about four hours. There was no sound—not a car driving by, not a dog barking. Wherever she’d been brought, it was in the middle of nowhere.

  At least she was alone. Last time, she’d awakened to find herself watched twenty-four hours a day. The constant monitoring had been difficult to take. Better to be alone, she thought as she stood and explored the room.

  There was only one door—metal and locked. No food, no change of clothes. In a way it was very much like the room Tanner had taken her to when he’d rescued her. Only a lot more terrifying.

  Tanner. She didn’t want to think about him, but she had to. How could she have been so stupid as to believe he would turn on her?

  It was Christopher, she thought grimly. He’d been smart. Somehow he’d gotten to Alison and had convinced her father’s secretary to help him. Madison would have been suspicious of anyone else but not Alison.

  Madison drank some water from the faucet and returned to the bed. Tanner would probably have recovered from the sedative, but that wasn’t going to be much help to her. Sure, he could trace her to the hospital, but then what? She looked at the bracelet she wore. It only worked within the grounds of his property. No hidden beacon was going to give him a clue. She was on her own.

  Christopher was going to kill her. She accepted that. If not today, then soon. The thought of death scared her, but what really made her want to pound her hands against the walls and scream was the thought that Tanner would never know she was sorry to have misjudged him. He would live the rest of his life aware that in the heat of the moment, she hadn’t trusted him.

  “I was a fool,” she whispered into the silence. “I should have remembered Christopher would do anything to get his way. I should have known you were on my side.”

  Worse, she should have listened to her heart. Over the past couple of days, she’d been feeling things for Tanner. Maybe they were about him rescuing her as much as about the man himself, but they were still there. And they’d made her nervous. She didn’t want to be vulnerable to any man. Christopher had taught her the danger of that.

  She tried to imagine what Tanner would think when he woke up. He would find her computer and the e-mail. He would start with Alison. But then what? Would the secretary be in hiding? She had a feeling Christopher would take care of that little detail. Which meant Tanner would end up with no way to find her.

  It didn’t occur to her that he wouldn’t look for her. Despite what she’d done, he would come after her. That’s the kind of man he was. If only she could tell him how much she regretted what she’d done.

  Time passed. When the sun was high in the sky and the small room had become uncomfortably hot, the door opened and Christopher entered.

  “I hope you slept well,” he said politely as he stood just inside the door.

  She stayed on the bed, back against the wall, legs stretched out in front of her, and studied the man she’d been so excited to marry.

  He was tall, slim, with dark blond hair and light brown eyes. He was a man born to wear expensive clothes and have them look good. She’d been fooled by a facade of good manners and a great lineage. She’d never seen the real man behind the smile.

  When she didn’t answer, he sighed. “You’re going to make this difficult, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not inspired to cooperate.”

  “Even if I threaten to kill you?”

  She was proud of herself for not reacting. “You’re going to do that anyway.”

  He smiled. “Probably. But wouldn’t you rather it was later?”

  “Not if it means having anything to do with you.”

  Christopher’s good humor faded. “We could have been good together, but you had to spoil everything. You couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

  For the first time she realized he was the crazy one in the relationship.

  “You don’t want me,” she said quietly. “You’ve never wanted me. It was always about my father’s company.”

  “Which I have now. Di
d you hear? There’s a merger pending.”

  She nodded. “What do you want from me?”

  “So impatient to be dead?” he asked. “Be careful, Madison. You’re only a phone call away from the loony bin.”

  The thought of being locked away like a crazy person had always terrified her. She did her best to keep the fear small and buried.

  He moved over to the bed and sat next to her. “How did you do it?” he asked conversationally. “How did you turn Keane? He’s supposed to be the best in the business. You must have told a hell of a story.”

  His calmness and even temper told her how in control of the situation he thought himself to be. Not comforting for her.

  “I told him we were divorced,” she said, not seeing any point in keeping the truth from him.

  His mouth twisted. “That damn divorce. I hadn’t mentioned it to him. That was enough to convince him?”

  She shrugged. “It was a start.”

  “How much does he know?”

  Terror swept through her, but this time it wasn’t for herself. She’d expected Christopher to come after her, but she didn’t want him chasing Tanner.

  Christopher leaned close and wrapped his hand around her hair. He tightened his grip until every hair follicle burned.

  “You’re protecting him?” he asked, sounding incredulous. “Bitch. Did you sleep with him? Was he just as bored with you in bed as I was?”

  He released her hair, stood and slapped her across the face. The blow stung, but she refused to react.

  “I want you to change your clothes,” he said as he walked back to the door. “You’ll have to eat, too. No fainting. In fact, nothing out of the ordinary.”

  She waited, knowing he was finally going to tell her what this was all about. And then, before he could speak, she understood.

  “You need more money,” she breathed.

  “Smart girl. About ten million. We’re going to your broker’s office and you’re going to sign your stock and options over to me. Just like that.”

  Before she could respond, he pulled a small electronic device from his suit pocket.