Gina got out of the passenger door. She gave him a wink, then walked right up to his dad and introduced herself. Seconds later, both Gina and Dad went inside with a squeak and a slam of the front screen door.
Lucas shoved his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t reach for Sloane. He had no idea why she was here and he didn’t want to jump to any awkward conclusions. For all he knew she was here to bring him back for more police questioning.
“Hi,” he said. “I didn’t expect to see you.”
“I didn’t expect to come. My father talked me into it.”
“And you listened?” he asked, joking, hoping to lighten the weird mood.
“He told me some things—reasons why he did what he did. He said you were the one who convinced him he should. I wanted to thank you.”
“You could have done that over the phone. Why are you here, Sloane?”
She looked at the house, the trees, the sky, everywhere but at him. “I like your family’s place. It’s nice. Gina said it looks just like a real home should.”
She was avoiding his question, but he decided to take pity on her. “How’s Gina doing?”
“Good. Better. Gage snapped some photos of kids that were leaving Soma’s villa and Julia was there with her mom. It’s a huge relief, especially for Gina.”
“That’s great news. But you still didn’t need to come this far to tell me that.” He could no longer control his hands. He had to touch her. If she shrugged him off, he’d at least have part of his answer.
He stepped forward and slid his hands down her arms until he’d captured her fingers. They were cold. Shaking. She was nervous.
“Why are you here?” he asked again, gently.
“I think I love you.” Her words were sharp and laced with just a hint of violence and so much like Sloane he almost laughed. He knew she’d probably slap him if he did, so he kept his grin in check.
“You think?”
She glared at him. “Well, I guess I know I love you. I’m just not sure I want to. That’s the part I’m thinking about.”
Lucas felt something hot and tight in his chest loosen and expand. He pulled in a breath, shocked at how easy it seemed to be now compared to a minute ago.
She loved him. It was more than he’d thought possible. Even her uncertainty about it didn’t ruin the giddy feeling that was growing inside him by the second as the reality of her declaration sank in.
He bent his knees to intercept her line of sight with the front lawn, ignoring the throb it caused. “Would it make a difference if I told you I wanted you to love me? That it would sure as hell make it a lot easier for me to admit I love you, too.”
Her gaze jumped to his, her eyes narrowing as if expecting a prank. “What?”
“I said I love you, Sloane. It’s why I left. I didn’t want you to tie yourself to me when I know how much you love your job.”
Her fingers tightened around his. “Screw the job. It’s not nearly as important to me as it was a few days ago. That something-to-prove thing I had going on with my dad disappeared.” Her eyes filled with tears and her chin wobbled as she whispered, “He said he was proud of me.”
Lucas pulled her against him for a hug. He needed to hold her again, but he also wanted to save her pride. If she was going to cry, better she do it into his shirt than for him to watch. “Of course he’s proud of you. What’s there not to be proud of? You’re a fantastic woman.”
“You think?”
“I know. That’s why I want you in my life. A little. A lot. Up close. Long distance. However I can get you.”
“I won’t ask you to leave your parents. I know taking care of them is important to you.”
Lucas cringed inwardly. “I don’t know how much you’re going to like it here, but there’s nothing I want more than for you to stay. Want to meet them?”
Sloane sniffed and pulled away to look at him. Her eyes were luminous. She was so beautiful it nearly stopped his heart to think he might have a chance with her. He was going to do everything in his power not to fuck it up. Sloane was the One.
“No one’s ever brought me home to meet their parents before,” she said. “I’m not sure how to act.”
He threaded his fingers through hers and pulled her toward the house. “You’ll do great. They’re going to love you.”
They walked into the kitchen where Mom was feeding Gina. Dad looked at Lucas’s and Sloane’s joined hands and grinned.
“Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Sloane Gideon.” He had to bite back the words my future wife, because he hadn’t exactly talked that part of the deal out with Sloane yet. It seemed rude to assume.
Sloane was adorably nervous, but by the time Mom had shoved a cookie in her hand and sat her down next to Dad, she seemed to relax.
Lucas wasn’t worried. His parents would love her, just like he did.
Gina looked up at him with a wistful expression on her face. “Your mom was telling me about your new job running the restaurant. Got any positions for someone like me? After all the excitement, I’d love to settle down in a quiet place like this for a while.”
“I don’t know. What do you do?”
“I have a degree in hotel and restaurant management. I was assistant manager of a small but posh hotel in New York. I didn’t run the kitchen, but I think I could learn how.”
His dad looked at Gina in surprise, then shared a meaningful look with Mom. She nodded slightly, a sad smile on her face. Dad said to Gina, “You’re hired. You can stay in our guest room until you find a place of your own.”
Lucas frowned at his dad. “Uh. Isn’t hiring people supposed to be my job now?”
“Son, the restaurant business isn’t for you. We both know it. Go and do what makes you happy.”
“But it would be nice if you spent a few days,” said Mom. “I’d like to get to know your lady friend.”
Lucas looked at Sloane. “What do you think? Can you stay here for a few days?”
“I told Bella I needed some time off to take care of Gina. Make sure she’s safe here.”
“A small town is the safest place she could be,” said Lucas. “Everyone knows everyone here. There’s no way a stranger can walk around and not be noticed.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Gina. “My arm hurts, but other than needing help to wash my hair, I’m good.”
“I’d be happy to help you with that,” said Mom. Her smile was back in place now at the idea of having someone to fuss over.
“She’ll make you fat,” warned Lucas, teasing his mom. “Watch out for the chocolate-chip muffins. They’re lethal.”
Mom shot him a maternal look of warning. “She could use a little fattening up, so you just back off, son.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Lucas, hiding his grin.
“Are you sure, Gina?” asked Sloane. “I don’t mind looking out for you for a while. Or we could help you disappear and get a new identity. The man who paid Lorenzo is still out there.”
Gina waved her off. “Let your dad give me a new name if he wants, but you know better than anyone how bad it is not to have a life because of possible danger.”
Sloane did. All those years of being cooped up felt like wasted ones. She didn’t want to do that to her friend.
“We’ll watch out for her,” said Lucas’s dad. “The whole town will.”
Sloane hoped it would be enough. In the meantime, she was going make plans with her father to ensure Gina’s safety. Even if that meant hunting down anyone who might be a threat. “Promise me you’ll be careful and call at the first sign of danger.”
“I’ll have you on speed dial, but I don’t want you butting in. Go have your wild monkey sex with Lucas and leave me in peace.”
Dad cleared his throat. Sloane turned red. Mom said, “There will be none of that going on while I’m in the house. Wait until I’m at work. There are some things a mother doesn’t need to hear.”
Lucas laughed. He couldn’t help it. He had everything he needed right here in th
is room. His folks were happy and going to get the retirement they deserved. He was no longer committed to a job he knew would suck the life from him. Sloane was at his side. And she loved him. She wanted a future with him enough to give up her career. He loved her enough to make sure she didn’t have to.
He didn’t care who was watching. He scooted her chair out, pulled her to her feet, and kissed her. She was stiff for a second before she forgot they had an audience and went all soft on him. He loved that about her—how she gave everything she had to give, throwing herself into the moment with abandon.
He felt her love for him flowing through that kiss. Or maybe it was his for her. He couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t matter. It was real. Solid. He could feel it in his bones. They were meant for this—for each other.
He pulled away and watched her eyes open slowly. Desire darkened them. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were parted as if she was waiting for the next kiss.
He could hardly wait to oblige.
The man in West Virginia living under the name John Doran wasn’t Eli.
Adam Brink bit back his disappointment and lowered the binoculars as the man jogged toward Adam’s hiding place along the wooded bike trail. He’d know his brother’s face anywhere, even after all these years, and John’s was not Eli’s. John’s forehead was too wide, his eyes too dark, and he wasn’t nearly tall enough to have the same genes as Adam.
But that didn’t mean that his trip was wasted, or that John wouldn’t be useful.
Adam waited until the man jogged close before he stepped out from the brush and fired the Taser. Instantly, John fell to the asphalt path, twitching and gurgling in pain.
Adam made quick work of injecting him with a heavy sedative, then dragged him off the path into the cover of brush. The sun would be down soon, and there weren’t many people around, but Adam was a careful man.
He lifted John’s shirt and placed the gadget Dr. Stynger’s scientists had made for him against John’s abdomen. The device vibrated faster and faster until the hum was nearly undetectable.
Adam copied the readout from the device into his notebook exactly as it appeared. Some of the numbers had degraded with time and were unreadable, but others were there—another piece to the puzzle that might lead him to his brother’s location.
He stashed the device and hefted John over his shoulder. Adam’s truck, complete with a parks and recreation logo magneted to his door, was parked only a few yards away on an access road. He stuffed John into the passenger’s seat and buckled him in. He wasn’t sure what Dr. Stynger was going to do with this test subject, but it was Adam’s job to make sure John was nice and healthy when he arrived.
Adam’s phone vibrated at his hip. The text message read: Possible subject located. Male. ND.
He texted back his confirmation code. As soon as he got rid of John, he’d be on his way.
Maybe this time the man he found would be his brother.
Hope tried to rise inside him, but he tamped it down, keeping it in check. He’d been through this enough times to know that crushed hopes only made his job that much harder. And it was already hard enough trying to balance his duty to the doctor with his duty to his brother. If Dr. Stynger knew that Adam was using her resources for his own personal quest, she’d have him killed—something he couldn’t let happen while his brother was still out there, possibly suffering.
Adam was going to find Eli, even if it meant he had to hunt down every last test subject on the List one by one.
Read on for an exciting preview of the
next Edge Novel by Shannon K. Butcher,
RAZOR’S EDGE
Coming from Signet Eclipse in November 2011.
“Mr. Chord is pissed,”said Roxanne’s boss, Bella Bayne, the next morning.
Bella was the owner of the Edge—the growing private security company in Dallas where Roxanne worked. They handled all kinds of needs from threat assessment to protective details to U.S. troop support to ridding foreign countries of any number of pesky criminals. For the right price.
Roxanne’s specialty was stealth security for corporate espionage cases. She made sure the bad guys didn’t know who she was until it was too late, and she caught them with their hands in the cookie jar . At least that had been her specialty. Based on Bella’s scowl, she might have been demoted to cleaning the locker room toilets if she wasn’t simply fired.
Roxanne really didn’t want to walk away from the job she’d come to love. She had to find a way to make things right.
Bella stood to her full, impressive height. She was easily six feet tall in her combat boots, and every inch of her was sleek, sculpted muscle. Her stormy gray eyes narrowed in fury. “Where shall we start, Razor? With the fact that your client’s information was stolen? Or maybe with the part where the guy who stole it got away?”
“The data was fake. I planted it. Whoever has it isn’t getting anything of value.”
“And now they know that, too. Mr. Chord told me how hard it was to architect that setup. Your chance to catch the thieves is gone, and he still has no idea who Mary works for or with.”
Roxanne looked down and toyed with her wide cuff bracelet. “Were the police able to get her to talk?”
“Not a word. Not even to a lawyer. And now whoever is doing this knows we’re onto them.”
What was worse was the fact that the police were now involved—something Mr. Chord had wanted to avoid from the beginning, which was why he hired the Edge to deal with the problem. If word got out that his designs were being stolen, his company’s stock price could plummet. He might lose investors.
Roxanne had no idea about the specifics of the devices that had been stolen from him. She didn’t need to know any secret information to do her job. But what she did know was that Chord Industries had contributed to several advances in the field of medicine. His machines helped people. Saved lives.
Because of her, he was losing his ability to do good in the world, and that pissed Roxanne off more than her own failure.
“I’m sorry, Bella. I should have realized Mary could have a partner.”
“Yes. You should have. So the question is, why didn’t you?”
Roxanne considered giving her boss some lame excuse. She could come up with half a dozen that might help her cover her ass, but she couldn’t do that to Bella. They were friends. Bella trusted her, and she wasn’t going to screw that up by lying.
Roxanne took a deep breath and admitted what she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to. “I’ve been distracted.”
Bella crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a dark eyebrow. “Distracted? Care to elaborate on that?”
“My ex, Kurt, he’s been sending guys after me, having them follow me. I thought he’d stopped a few weeks ago, but I guess I was wrong. He’s not done with his games. A new man showed up yesterday, and I spent so much time losing him before I went in to do the job, I was rushed. I wasn’t completely focused.”
Bella’s face darkened with rage, and her voice became lethally calm. “What, exactly, are these guys doing to you?”
“Nothing. They just watch me. Kurt was the jealous type, and even though we split three months ago, he apparently still hasn’t managed to accept the fact that we’re over.”
“Give me Kurt’s address. I’ll go speak to him.”
“No, Bella. You’d only make things worse if you confront him. I already did, and he denies everything. I know he’s lying, and I told him I’d have him brought in for stalking if it happened again. I thought I’d gotten through, but either way, this is my mess. I’ll be the one to clean it up.”
Bella glanced at Roxanne’s arm where the bruise from last night’s combat darkened her skin. “Did he hurt you, Razor?” she asked, her hands clenching to fists at her sides.
“No. It was nothing like that. He’s not a bad guy. He just didn’t want to let go.”
“I could make him.”
Roxanne had seen Bella mad. She’d seen the woman take down three armed
men by herself. And she’d heard stories about that building Bella destroyed in Mexico a few months ago. But Roxanne had never seen this kind of steely, quiet rage, so intense it vibrated through her entire body. Roxanne had heard rumors that Bella had a dark past—one she never discussed with her employees—but seeing this kind of reaction made Roxanne wonder just what that past had been.
“I’ve got it covered,” said Roxanne. “I’ll go see him today and make sure he quits playing these games.”
Bella swallowed several times before her hands unclenched and the redness in her face abated. “I won’t have anyone hurting my people.”
“Kurt isn’t hurting me. He’s just jerking me around.”
“Are you protecting him?”
“No. He’s an asshole for screwing with me like this, and I plan to tell him that to his face.”
“I don’t like the way he’s treating you.”
“Neither do I.”
“He interfered with your work, and I can’t let that slide.”
“I know.” Roxanne let out a long, resigned breath. She loved her job, but she knew the score. A mistake like this was too big a thing to simply ignore. “Are you going to fire me?”
Bella’s mouth flattened in frustration. “I should. That would certainly appease Mr. Chord. But no, you’re not fired. However, I’m not handing out any more chances, either. You blow it again, you’re out. Our work is too dangerous for distractions. You need to get your personal shit straightened out before I can assign you any more jobs.”
“What about finding the guy who got away?”
“The cops are involved now. They’re looking into it.”
“So . . . what? We just leave Mr. Chord hanging?”
“No, I’m going to offer him our services for free to calm him down, but he already said he didn’t want you back. I’m sorry.”
The rejection stung, but not nearly as much as her failure did. Mr. Chord was right to be mad. She’d let her personal life get in the way of her professional life, which was a big no-no. She knew better.
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