Living on the Edge

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “Any sexual partners since then? Specifically ones who didn’t wear condoms?” he asked, more because he wanted to know if she had a steady boyfriend than because he was worried.

  “No. You should be safe.”

  She was still scrubbing at his palm, so Lucas gently covered her hand to stop the frantic motion. “I think it’s clean now.”

  Sloane’s hand stilled, but she didn’t pull it away from his grasp. Her skin was smooth, and her hand felt small inside his grasp, almost delicate. He knew how fast those hands could move, how hard they could hit, but right now, she seemed content to simply be still and let him touch her.

  She looked up at him, her green eyes bright with confusion. “Why are you being so nice to me? I’ve run from you. I’ve hit you. I’ve threatened to kill you. Hell, I even knocked you out.”

  Lucas cringed. “Don’t remind me.”

  “I’m serious. I haven’t given you a single reason to be kind to me, and yet you are.”

  He shrugged. “We’re partners now. I’m always nice to the people I work with. That’s just good business.”

  “We are not partners.”

  “Sure we are. I’m going to help you find Gina and you’re going to help me save face with your father. I’d say that’s a great reason for a partnership. We both get what we want that way.”

  “You know I really don’t care if you get what you want, right?”

  He gave her a small grin. “Sure you do. You like me. Admit it.”

  “I do not.”

  Lucas simply stared pointedly down at where her hand rested between his. She followed his gaze, snatched her hand back, and her cheeks flushed a guilty pink. He was sorry for the loss of contact, but he’d made his point, at least.

  “I don’t trust you,” she told him, staring right into his eyes.

  “You will. I’m good in a pinch. Besides, we work well together. We took out that whole group of men, despite the fact that we were surrounded and outmanned.”

  “I didn’t need your help. I could have handled that on my own.”

  “Glory hound.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. You’re a glory hound. Instead of thanking me for saving your ass, you pretend like you didn’t need me when it’s all said and done. That’s easy to say now.”

  “It would have been a lot easier to say if you hadn’t stuck your nose into my business.”

  She was getting defensive again, and Lucas didn’t want that. Clearly, her independent streak was wider than most, and stepping on it made her twitchy. Time for a retreat.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you could have handled all those men on your own.”

  “I could have,” she stated with confidence ringing clearly in her voice. “I had Constance on my side. But if you weren’t here, I’d have an ugly scar, so thanks for that.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She nodded, but didn’t look him in the eye.

  “The rain’s died down,” said Lucas. “We should get moving.”

  “Your back. You should let me check it out, or whatever.”

  Lucas figured it was as close to an olive branch as he was going to get, so he stripped off his tee and turned in his seat.

  The man standing in front of Lorenzo was drenched, muddy, and shaking. Plastic handcuffs still clung to one wrist, vibrating with the man’s fear. Blood leaked from a cut above his eye and another on his leg. Dirty water pooled under his feet, making a mess of Lorenzo’s marble floor.

  “Well?” said Lorenzo. “Are you going to just stand there bleeding, or tell me what you have to say?”

  The man’s head ducked in shame. “The woman got away.”

  Anger leaped inside Lorenzo, howling to get out, but he kept it in careful check. He never yelled at his men. It was beneath him. “How is that possible?” he asked in a quiet tone.

  “She wasn’t alone. And she was well armed.”

  Lorenzo’s stomach tightened. Even a woman could do much damage with enough weaponry at her disposal. “How well armed?”

  “She and the man she was with killed all but me.”

  Lorenzo glanced over at Jeremy Block, who stood waiting for orders. “How many?”

  Block’s expression never changed. “Five of the six we sent are dead.”

  All over one stupid woman. Gina had better be worth his trouble. If Mr. Brink said she wasn’t the woman he was looking for, Lorenzo was going to be deeply annoyed.

  Already, she’d caused him more problems than all the others he’d hunted down for Mr. Brink combined. If he didn’t end this here, it would set a bad example. Villagers might think he’d gone soft—that they could take him out. That simply wasn’t acceptable. His father’s power was now his, and he was keeping it.

  Even the thought of someone daring to take what was his made anger rise in his throat like bile.

  Lorenzo turned to Block, switching to English. “Clean him up, feed him, let him say good-bye to his children, then execute him for failing me. Make sure the next group you send out sees it happen before they go. And make sure this muddy mess is cleaned up before it gets tracked everywhere.”

  Block nodded, his mud brown eyes never blinking. “Yes, sir.”

  Chapter 6

  Sloane was good with men, damn it. She was not awkward and stammering. She did not lose her cool no matter what came her way. And yet here she was, blushing like a kid, stammering like an idiot, and shaking so hard she didn’t know how she was going to do much more than splash disinfectant at his back.

  He was just a man. Sure, he was a handsome man—one who knew his way around a fight and had a body meant for calendars and daydreams—but still, he was just a man. She should have had him eating out of her hand by now, waiting eagerly for her to show up in some hotel room while she finished her job and left him hanging. Instead, he was right by her side, refusing to leave, putting himself in danger that had nothing to do with him.

  Lucas had gotten under her skin. Maybe it was his connection with her father that had her feeling off-balance. General Robert Norwood had a way of making everything worse by his involvement. Even holidays and birthdays were ruined when he was around. Good thing it didn’t happen often while she was growing up.

  Now that Mom was gone, Sloane just wanted to cut her ties to him and be done. Move on. But no. He had to send Lucas into her life to torture her.

  “How bad is it?” he asked.

  Sloane gathered herself enough to focus on the task at hand. “Not bad. Mostly scratches.”

  Even though she didn’t need her fingers to see, the smooth planes of his back called to her, begging her to touch. It wasn’t every day that she got a man this well built half naked in front of her. It was her womanly duty to enjoy it while it lasted.

  His skin was tan, stretched tight over dense layers of muscle. Every breath he took widened his ribs and showed off just how broad his shoulders were. Sloane slid her fingers along his flank, enjoying the feel of his firm flesh. Small cuts and scrapes marred the perfection, but not her enjoyment of her fingertips gliding over his warm skin.

  “Are you counting?” he asked, making her realize that she’d been lingering too long.

  Sloane cleared her throat. “There’s one cut that’s deeper than the rest, but I don’t think it needs stitches. We can see if it stops bleeding in a few minutes. The rest just need to be cleaned.”

  “Or you could kiss it and make it better.”

  Tempting. “I think I’ll stick with disinfectant. I also have some antibiotics you can take if you’re worried about infection.”

  “You do come prepared, don’t you?”

  “I’m not an amateur, nor is this my first trip into the jungle. Lots of nasty bacteria live out here.” Sloane popped open the small bottle of disinfectant, soaked a cotton ball, and went to work. Lucas flinched at the first contact, so she blew over the cut to ease the sting.

  “So what’s the plan for getting Gina out alive?” he asked. “They’re well ar
med and know we’re coming.”

  “They’ll be watching the road. I thought I’d go in through the jungle once we located the airstrip.”

  “You mean ‘we’ll’ go in. We’re partners, remember?”

  Sloane wasn’t convinced about that, but it was better to keep her mouth shut. “I’ll have to be careful about what gear I haul in, since I can’t carry it all.”

  “You don’t know anything about this place, do you?”

  “No.”

  “So there’s no way to know if you’re going to need to cut through a fence, pick a lock, or blow out a wall, right?”

  “Right.”

  “So how are you going to plan what gear to take?”

  Sloane shrugged. “I’ll have to scout the place out first.”

  “You said stealth wasn’t your thing.”

  “It’s not. I’ll just have to wing it.”

  Lucas turned around enough to give her a disbelieving stare. “I thought your father would have taught you better than that.”

  Resentment tightened her voice. “My father preferred not to teach me anything useful. I’ve had to learn it all on my own.”

  “Well, he taught me a thing or two. Plus, I’ve still got a couple of favors I can pull in. I bet I could get us some satellite images of the place. Maybe some thermals to tell us how many men are waiting and where we’ll find them.”

  A surge of excitement spiked through Sloane, making her feel like it was Christmas morning. “Really?” she asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. She hated accepting help from anyone connected to her father, but if it meant getting Gina out safely, then she’d do it without hesitation.

  “Sure. The problem is I didn’t expect to be doing any jungle crawls while I was here. I didn’t bring the right communication equipment. Any chance you have a satellite phone?”

  “Two, actually. In case one failed.”

  “I like the way you plan.”

  “I assumed I’d be on my own, and I really didn’t want things to progress to the last resort.”

  He shifted, turning his big body around until he could look at her. “What, exactly, is the last resort?”

  The way he was staring so intently made Sloane squirm. She didn’t like it, so she straightened her spine and pulled a flippant cloak about her. With a shrug, she said, “Walking up to Soma unarmed and offering to trade myself for Gina.”

  Hell no. There were going to be no last resorts while Lucas was on the job. Not a chance. She was not sacrificing herself like that for anyone. Lucas wasn’t going to let it happen.

  But rather than spouting off at the mouth about how he refused to let her do something so foolish, he simply bit his tongue and choked down all the rules he wanted to demand she follow.

  He’d seen for himself how prickly she could be when her independent streak was hampered. The Old Man had even said to make sure Lucas packed restraints. The last thing he needed was for her to start running from him again because he didn’t play his cards right.

  So he swallowed what he wanted to say, kept his voice carefully neutral, and said, “Over my dead body.”

  Sloane’s green eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

  “I mean it, Sloane. You do that, and they’re going to drug you or kill you or worse. And if you think they’ll just hand Gina over, you’re a fool. They’ll keep her, too. You’ll both be trapped.”

  Her jaw clenched and her nostrils flared. “I can take care of myself. You’ve seen it firsthand. From the pavement.”

  The reminder of how she’d gotten in that sucker punch didn’t sit well on Lucas’s already precarious control. “You knocked me out cold. Good for you. But that’s not going to happen if those men get their hands on you.”

  “Why? Are they better than you?”

  “No. But they’re not afraid to hurt you. I am. I’d rather take a hit any day of the week than risk breaking so much as your fingernail.”

  From the way her face flushed an angry red, that was clearly the wrong thing to say. “You’re just like him. You’re just like my father, aren’t you? You think I’m weak and helpless and need to be saved. Well, I’ve got news for you. I don’t want or need your help.”

  “I believe you don’t want it, but you do need it. And the fact that you find shame in that makes you a weaker person.”

  “I am not weak.”

  “Physically, no. Your character on the other hand could use some work. You need to learn teamwork.”

  “I work well on a team, just not on one with men like my father.”

  “So . . . what?” he shouted. “Because your father sent me, you’re willing to get yourself killed to prove a point? Are you also willing to get me killed to stick it to your old man and prove him wrong? How far will you go? Will you sacrifice Gina for your pride, too?”

  “Fuck you,” she growled.

  “The last resort of someone with no valid response.”

  “Get out.”

  “No. I’m staying, and unless you want to kill me, there’s nothing you can do to change that.”

  Her whole body quivered, but whether it was from rage or something else, Lucas wasn’t completely sure. There was something vulnerable lurking in her eyes—some old pain that called out to him. Part of him wanted to strangle her, but the other part wanted to pull her into his arms and show her that everything was going to be okay. She didn’t need to keep her walls of pride so thick and high. She was safe with him, even if she didn’t know it.

  “Shut up and turn around,” she told him. “I’m going to finish what I started so we can get this over with. I’m done wasting time on you.”

  Lucas thought he heard a thread of fear running through her tone, but wasn’t sure. He gave her a silent nod and turned back around. She wasn’t as gentle with the disinfectant this time, nor did her soft breath ease the sting, but she did the job without complaining.

  It wasn’t until he saw her reflection in the window, and saw the pain on her face, that he realized she wasn’t angry. She was sad. Worried.

  Lucas felt like he’d kicked a puppy. It was bad enough that her friend was trapped and in danger. He didn’t need to make it worse by heaping a fresh pile of guilt on top.

  Leave it to him to make a bad situation worse. If it weren’t for his loyalty to the general, as well as his need to see both Sloane and her friend home safe and sound on American soil, he would have just walked away. He didn’t need this kind of trouble. He had no business out here in the jungle, providing backup when he was busted up, washed up, and used up.

  Maybe Sloane was better off without him. Eventually, his knee was going to give out and he’d slow her down if he didn’t just get her killed.

  Stop feeling sorry for yourself. That was what the Old Man had told him when he’d brought up the fact that he was a liability due to his injury. You still have your brain if you care to use it. You’ll need it with Sloane.

  And once again, the general was right. Lucas had been an excellent strategist. That part of him hadn’t been broken.

  “What if we take your plan and reverse it?” he asked her without turning around. He didn’t want her to know he’d seen her emotions plain on her face. He was convinced that would only make her pricklier, and that was not something he wanted to witness.

  When she spoke, her voice was thick with suspicion. “What do you mean?”

  “Rather than trading yourself for Gina, why don’t we take Soma and trade him for her instead?”

  “He’s got to be guarded, right?”

  “Sure, but not all the time. We’ll grab him while he’s asleep or in the john.”

  The humidity inside the vehicle was thick, making them sweat. Sloane lifted the hem of her shirt to wipe her forehead. Of course, she didn’t know he could see her, so he got a nice glimpse of her bare belly and the bottom curves of her breasts. It didn’t matter that she was wearing a bra or that the show had lasted all of two seconds. The image was burned into Lucas’s mind, clear and sharp.

  His
stomach tightened, and sweat that had nothing to do with the stifling heat of the vehicle rolled down his ribs. That fancy party dress hadn’t done her justice. It had clung to her curves, but had not shown off the sexy lines of her stomach or the smooth radiance of her skin.

  For one long moment, whatever she was saying faded away, eclipsed by Lucas’s wayward imagination. What other secrets had that gown hidden? Had she been wearing stockings? Or perhaps nothing at all under the dress? Were her nipples the same dark pink as her lips?

  “What do you think?” she asked.

  Lucas had no clue what she’d been saying. He’d been deafened by lust. “About what?”

  She let out an exasperated sigh. “Will that be enough equipment to spy on Lorenzo and catch him alone?”

  “I’m sure,” he said, just because he knew he’d make do with whatever was available. Even if it was just the scope on her rifle.

  He turned back in his seat in time to see her square her shoulders the way he’d seen the Old Man do more times than he could count. She nodded once as if making a decision. “We’ll drive until we find a place to hide the Rover, then go the rest of the way on foot.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Lucas, though his knee cringed at the thought of more abuse. It was already aching like a son of a bitch. “On the way, I’ll make a few calls and see if we can get some satellite images, assuming you’ve got the right equipment to receive an image.”

  “I do. My laptop can hook into the sat phone.”

  It took the better part of an hour to get his answer, and when he did, it wasn’t good news. “They can’t retask a satellite right now. Sorry,” he told her. “We’re on our own.”

  She gave him a steady nod. “That’s okay. I’m used to doing things on my own.”

  Payton drove home, went to his basement office, locked the door, and dialed the number he’d hoped he’d never need again.

  Senator Gregory Kerrington II answered on the third ring. Not even his secretary was allowed to answer this line. Only Greg would know Payton had called. It was best that way.