Living on the Edge

by Shannon K. Butcher

  Gina held her breath in the darkness of her room as she heard the guards changing shifts outside her door. It was getting late, and so far Shorty had not held up his promise to come see her tonight.

  Footsteps faded as someone moved down the hall. The scraping sound of metal on metal grated from the lock. The lever-style doorknob turned. The door slipped open slowly, letting light spill in over the wooden floor. Shorty’s diminutive shadow slid inside.

  She’d been waiting for him so long her hands had started to cramp up around the metal base of a lamp. The thing was heavy, and it was going to leave a hell of a dent in Shorty’s skull.

  “Hello, pretty,” he whispered as he shut the door behind him.

  Gina didn’t wait for him to figure out she wasn’t lying on the rumpled bed waiting for him. She slammed the lamp down against the back of his head and he crumpled to the ground.

  Her heart was racing so fast, she couldn’t hear whether or not he’d made much noise on the way down, or whether there was the sound of anyone approaching outside her door. If someone was coming, she didn’t want to be here when they arrived.

  Gina grabbed the pillowcase she’d stuffed with some fruit and bottled water and slipped out through the unlocked door. She flipped the dead bolt so Shorty couldn’t get out and raise the alarm, and moved as quietly as her strappy heels would allow.

  The place seemed deserted, but she wasn’t going to question her luck. She hurried out through the first door she found and sprinted across the manicured lawn.

  Thirty feet out, a bank of blinding lights flipped on. A second later, a siren blared out a whining warning that she was getting away.

  Gina picked up speed. Her heels sank into the dirt, slowing her. She just needed to find a place in the nearby jungle where she could hide. It was only a few hundred feet away. She could make it that far before anyone had time to catch up with her.

  A gun went off behind her, and for one heart-stopping moment, she was sure she was going to be shot, but she felt nothing. Maybe it had just been a warning shot.

  Gina wasn’t going to stop and ask.

  She made a beeline for the trees. She’d almost reached them when she saw a blur coming at her from her left. Something heavy slammed into her. She fell, crushed under the weight of the man who’d tackled her.

  She kicked and clawed at him, but before she could do any real damage, he pinned her hands and flipped her over so she was eating grass. His knee dug into her back and he spat something violent at her in words she didn’t understand.

  The man held her there so long, she was beginning to wonder if he was planning to keep her here all night. Then she saw a pair of perfectly polished shoes come into her range of vision.

  Lorenzo gave a rough order and Gina was hauled up to her feet by the man who’d tackled her.

  “Exactly what did you think to accomplish by running?” he asked. His voice was calm, but she could see rage tightening his features. His fists were clenched and his shoulders vibrated with anger.

  She glared at him. “I think that would be obvious, even to someone with your limited intelligence.”

  His nostrils flared. He made a motion with his hand and the man holding her arms behind her inched them up a couple of painful inches.

  Gina went up on her tiptoes in an effort to avoid the pain, but it did little good.

  “If you’d managed to get away, you would have died out there. Is that what you want?”

  Gina choked down the smart-ass remark that was trying to claw its way out. She really didn’t want a pair of broken shoulders to add to her troubles.

  When Lorenzo saw she wasn’t responding, he gave her captor a slight nod. The pressure threatening to tear her arms off eased.

  “Have you not been comfortable?” he asked. “Have I not given you everything you need?”

  “I need you to let me go.”

  “And I will. As soon as I’m done with you.”

  “What do you mean by that? You and I are over.”

  A condescending smile curved his mouth. “Did you really think you were good enough to keep my attention for more than a few brief moments? I was bored with you the first time I fucked you.”

  “Not from what I could tell.” They’d been at it hot and heavy for a whole week before he’d asked her to come visit his home. She’d been foolish enough to think their relationship might actually go somewhere. He’d been kind, attentive, and completely enamored of her. Or so she’d thought.

  He gave her a dismissive wave. “It was all an act, of course—done to lure you here where I needed you.”

  “Why? Why bring me here if you’re not interested in me?”

  “Because one of my colleagues is interested in you. Very much. You’ll be taken to meet him tomorrow, and it’s in my best interest to make sure you’re safe and sound until then.”

  That didn’t sound good. “Who? And why does he want to meet me?”

  “You’ll have to ask him.” Lorenzo walked away, and the man holding her forced her to follow in his wake.

  Instead of taking her straight back to her room like she expected, they took her to another part of the house. Lorenzo unlocked a door and inside was a room lined with beds. He flipped the lights on and several women startled awake. Fear was in their eyes when they saw who had interrupted their sleep.

  The woman in the closest bed clutched a small child who had been sleeping with her. A little girl who was maybe three years old.

  Lorenzo went to the child, knelt down, and took her from her mother. He walked over to Gina as the child began to cry.

  “This is Julia. Tell her hello.”

  Gina had no idea what he was up to, but clearly the little girl was scared out of her mind. She tried to make her voice soothing as she addressed Julia. “Hi. I’m Gina.”

  The little girl reached out for her. The man holding her let go of her arms, so Gina took Julia from Lorenzo, glad to have her out of that asshole’s grasp.

  There was a commotion outside the open doorway as someone dragged Shorty into view. He was crying, a stream of words fell from his lips, and even though she didn’t understand what he said, it was clear he was begging.

  “Jeremy,” was all Lorenzo said.

  A sturdy, muscular man pulled out a gun and fired it into Shorty’s head. The boom of the weapon was deafening. A bloody mess erupted onto the tile floor and the women in the room began to wail and weep. Julia screamed and clung to her with strong, chubby arms.

  Lorenzo leaned down close so she could see right into his eyes. “If you try to run again, Julia will be the next mess in the hall.”

  Chapter 8

  It was barely dawn when Lucas woke inside the little tent. The first glow of sunlight brightened the camo fabric. It took him a moment to realize what that meant.

  Sloane hadn’t woken him.

  Panic made his hands jerky as he unzipped the tent

  Had she left him behind? Had she gotten hurt during the night? Killed? A thousand gut-wrenching possibilities funneled through his thoughts in the few brief seconds it took him to get out of the tent.

  She sat only a few feet away, huddled under a thin survival blanket. Her head was bowed as if sleeping, but the second he let out a relieved sigh, she looked up. Her eyes were glossy and red from lack of sleep, but she appeared alert.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I should be asking you the same thing. How’s the knee?”

  “It’s fine. Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked.

  “You needed the rest.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “I’ll be fine. I napped.”

  He said nothing about how unsafe that was, because he didn’t want to ruin the gift she’d given him. His knee was a bit stiff, but no longer throbbing as it had been yesterday. He’d be fine hiking all day without embarrassing himself. He had her to thank for that.

  “Grab a nap if you want and I’ll pack up,” he said.

  Rather than come back with some s
tinging comment about how she didn’t need his help, she simply curled up on her side, pillowed her head on her arm, and closed her eyes.

  Guilt weighed Lucas down. Not only had he forced her to take him along, but now she felt like she had to babysit him. He hated the idea that he was slowing her down, and today he was going to prove to her he wasn’t just extra baggage. He was going to find that airstrip and get Gina back.

  The general was probably sick with worry, so Lucas took pity on the man and snuck off into the jungle to call him while Sloane was asleep. Thankfully, the general was away from his desk and Lucas didn’t have to get his ass chewed out. He left a brief message, telling the general that they were safe and on a rescue mission. As soon as they had Gina Delaney in tow, they’d be on the next flight home, likely by sunset tomorrow.

  At least that was what Lucas hoped. Rescue missions often had a way of turning into recovery missions.

  He snuck back to where Sloane slept and stowed the phone, powered off and exactly where he’d found it. She didn’t even stir when he was practically touching her.

  That was when he noticed she was shivering. In this stifling heat. Under the blanket.

  Lucas pressed his hand to her forehead and felt the heat from her skin burn his palm.

  Sloane startled awake, shoving him away as she scrambled backward. Her eyes were wide and wild.

  “Easy,” he said, holding his hands up so she could see them.

  She let out a long breath, deflating in relief. “You scared me.”

  He kept his voice low and calm. “You’re running a fever.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “Yeah. I started the antibiotics last night. It’ll take a few more hours for them to kick in.”

  If they worked at all. There was no guarantee that even the broad-spectrum stuff would do the trick. “You need medical attention.”

  “Which I’ll get as soon as we find Gina.”

  He pressed the back of his hand against her cheek, just to make sure he hadn’t imagined how hot she was.

  He hadn’t.

  Lucas pulled out one of his clean socks, wet it, then draped it around the back of her neck. “Maybe we should go back. I know your father would send men in to get her.”

  “No. I can do this. It’s not that bad.”

  “But it could get worse.”

  “We’re already here. We can have her back before anyone else has the time to get here. Let’s just get the job done. If the antibiotics don’t work in a few hours, then we’ll consider the alternatives.”

  He was going to hold her to that.

  “Why don’t you stay here and rest? I’ll scout ahead and find the airstrip, then come back and get you.”

  “All that backtracking will eat up too much time. I’ll be fine.” She pushed herself to her feet, swaying. Lucas grabbed her arm to steady her. Her bare skin felt smooth, but way too hot under his fingers.

  “You don’t look fine.”

  She eyed him with a look that told him to back the hell off. “When I need to stop, I’ll let you know. Until then, it’d be best for both of us if you didn’t try to baby me.”

  “I wasn’t babying you. I was simply offering another alternative. Besides, you’re the one babying me by letting me sleep all night. If you hadn’t done that, you might not feel so crappy.”

  “I said I’m fine. Let’s go. The map says we need to head south.”

  Lucas helped her strap her pack on. While he was at it, he relieved her of some ammunition and stowed it in his own pack. She was so bleary-eyed, she didn’t even notice, which proved just how off her game she was.

  He kept a careful eye on her as they sliced a path through the jungle, checking over his shoulder every few minutes. She was weaving on her feet, but kept putting one in front of the other like a good little soldier. She was definitely her father’s daughter, though he didn’t dare say that to her.

  They’d been moving for two hours when she’d paled so much he worried she’d fall over. He called a halt. “I need to take five,” he told her, saving her pride and any argument she might give him.

  Sloane nodded and slumped to the ground, not bothering to take off her heavy backpack. She fell asleep sitting up.

  That was it. Lucas was done letting her push herself.

  He fished some aspirin out of his pack and took them and a canteen to Sloane. “Take these.” He pushed the pills into her mouth and gave her a drink to wash them down.

  “Thanks.”

  Lucas pressed his hand to her forehead. Her eyes fluttered closed and she let out a groan as if his cooler skin felt good against hers.

  She was still fevered, which worried the hell out of him. What if those antibiotics didn’t work? How was he going to get her and Gina out of this place? He truly didn’t know if he could carry her that far, though if push came to shove, he’d figure out a way to make it happen—call the Old Man for an airlift, maybe.

  He kept touching her, smoothing his fingers over her face, trying to draw away some of the heat from her skin. At least that was what he told himself he was doing. He enjoyed the feel of her under his fingertips as much as anything. The fact that she didn’t push him away only encouraged him.

  “Let me scout ahead,” he said. “I’ll move faster without all the gear weighing me down. I’ll find the airstrip and come back before you even have time to miss me.”

  “I don’t want you to have to come back for me. It’s too far for your knee.”

  “My knee is fine. You’re the one who’s going to fall over if you keep pushing. Just sit for a while. If I don’t see any signs of our target in an hour, I’ll come back.” And to make sure she complied, he added, “Unless you’re afraid to be out here alone.”

  “Of course I’m not afraid.”

  “Good. Then it’s settled. I’ll see you in two hours or less.”

  The fact that she didn’t argue proved just how close to the end of her strength she really was.

  Lucas hid her and the gear in some thick undergrowth, made sure she had a weapon handy, and camouflaged her location with some branches he cut from nearby. He didn’t want to be away from her for long, so he hustled his ass south, praying their target wouldn’t be far.

  He’d gone about two kilometers when he heard voices. He ducked, hiding in the thick foliage. The voices got louder as they came toward him, then began to fade as they passed. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he thought he caught Soma’s name.

  Lucas kept a good distance between himself and the two men as he followed them. Maybe they were leading him in the wrong direction, but he had to take that chance. If these were Soma’s men, then they were likely on patrol, because there sure as hell wasn’t anything else out here but more jungle.

  Suddenly, one of the men stopped and held up his hand for silence. Lucas crouched low, hoping he hadn’t been spotted. He eased his weapon out of the shoulder holster and felt adrenaline slide through his veins.

  He really didn’t want to kill these men, but he knew if they came this way, that was exactly what he’d have to do.

  Payton cringed as he answered his phone, knowing he wasn’t going to like whatever General Norwood had to say. “Hello?”

  “How the hell could you have let her go to Colombia?” demanded Norwood.

  “Hi, Bob. It’s great to hear from you. How have you been?”

  “You know damn well how I’ve been. I trusted you to take care of her.”

  There was no need to ask for clarification as to who “her” was. Payton knew the general was talking about his daughter—the one only a small handful of people even knew he had. “All I knew was that she requested time off work to help a friend in a jam. She never mentioned Colombia. I didn’t even know she was there.”

  “I sent a man after her when I saw her name on the passenger manifest. He couldn’t stop her, so now he’s there with her, helping her go after her missing friend, Gina Delaney. Does that name ring a bell?”

  A loud one. Gina was on the Lis
t. If she was missing and in Colombia, chances were she was in deep, deep trouble. “You know it does.”

  “What about Lorenzo Soma? Recognize that name?”

  He was also on the List, though he’d be a grown man now. “Antonio’s son.”

  “Who has taken his father’s place in the world. Antonio had a sad mishap with an exploding car a few years back and Lorenzo made a nearly seamless transition into his father’s drug business. Only somehow he’s got access to the List.”

  A sick sense of dread welled up inside Payton. “There’s no way. It’s not possible. We destroyed all the copies.”

  “If that’s true, then how do you explain Gina in connection with Antonio’s boy?”

  “It has to be a coincidence.”

  “What about Heath Innis? Sophie Devane? Soma took them from the country, too. Their bodies have not been found.”

  That dread grew to full panic. “Where would he have found a copy?”

  “Adam Brink. He came to see me. He wanted the List and thought I had it.”

  “Why would Adam want the List? He was just a boy the last time I saw him.”

  “He’s all grown-up now, and he didn’t say why he wanted the List. I didn’t ask. The less contact I have with him, the better. I figured we’d already fucked up his life. The least I could do was stay out of it now.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me he came to see you?”

  “Because you didn’t need to know. I handled it.”

  “Apparently not well enough,” said Payton. “He must have found a copy.”

  “Let’s say he did. It still doesn’t explain why people on the List are going missing, taken by Antonio’s son.”

  “Maybe Lorenzo remembered them from his days in the Colombian facility. Maybe he’s looking for answers.”

  “Answers to what?” asked Bob.

  “Lorenzo could be remembering some of what his father had done to him. Maybe he thinks some of the other kids would know something and help fill in some of the mental blank spots.”

  “Do you think Adam is looking for answers, too?”

  “I don’t know,” said Payton. “Right now I’m more worried about Lorenzo and what he’s doing. He wasn’t exactly one of our successes. Who knows what aftereffects he might be suffering.”