Edge of Betrayal

by Shannon K. Butcher

  Adam realized in that moment that, despite his good intentions, he’d been outmaneuvered. Stynger had whatever crazy thing she wanted out of this. Sage had the data he wanted to leapfrog Stynger’s work. And Adam had lost Mira forever. She’d never believe he was only trying to help—not with the history they shared.

  “I’m sorry,” he said as Ruby began wheeling him out, still strapped to the gurney.

  “Don’t,” Mira said. “Just don’t.”

  The second guard pushed her ahead of him. “Move.”

  Mira marched ahead without a single glance back at Adam.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Adam’s message led Riley and Gage right to Sage’s lab. They’d had to steal a car to get here, and Riley prayed it wasn’t too late.

  He wanted to rush in and find Sophie, but Gage’s hand on his arm held him back and reminded him that they had to be smart about this.

  Smart and fast.

  Every second she was in there was one too many.

  “Four out,” said Gage as he peered through his binoculars. “Ten inside.”

  “Sophie? Mira?”

  He shook his head. “Can’t tell.”

  “How do you want to play this? Stealth or force?”

  “You’re all force.”

  “I know. I can’t calm the fuck down—not with Sophie and Mira in there.”

  Gage nodded and pulled a sniper-rifle case from Adam’s trunk. “Stealth part’s mine.”

  “How long do you need?”

  He started assembling the rifle. “Not long.”

  “We could wait for reinforcements.”

  “Can’t. Other plans.”

  Riley blinked. “We’re going on a rescue mission and you’re thinking about other plans?”

  “Bella’s orders.”

  “If she were here, she’d change her orders. She’d want our friends safe.”

  Gage stared at him over the rifle. “They will be. Go.”

  Riley moved away from Gage’s position so he wouldn’t give it away if he was detected. As soon as Riley was through the opening in the fence that someone else had made, Gage opened fire.

  Riley broke into a sprint, counting shots as he went. Each distant boom of Gage’s rifle was another enemy down. No question. He was just that good.

  As the fourth shot rang out, Riley fired a breaching round through the lock on the back door and barreled inside.

  The only thought on his mind was finding Sophie before she got hurt.

  * * *

  As soon as the first shot went off, Mira knew her friends had arrived.

  A nearly overwhelming sense of relief swept through her, making her knees go wobbly.

  “You stay with them,” said the guard to Ruby as he handed her a gun. “I’m going to see what’s happening.”

  Ruby took it, looking completely capable and at ease with the weapon. Not a good sign.

  As soon as the guard was out of sight and only Ruby remained, Mira channeled Bella and struck.

  All those hours in the sparring ring came back to her. Endless drills had created enough muscle memory that her body flew through the moves with no thought. Before she even realized what had happened, the woman was on the floor, unconscious.

  Mira picked up Ruby’s gun and used a strip torn from the bedsheet to restrain her.

  “Free me,” said Adam. “I know a way out.”

  They were in the middle of a long hallway. Anyone could come around a corner at any second and shoot them. She believed her friends were outside, but it could have just as easily been Stynger’s men invading the facility.

  Mira didn’t care.

  She stared down at Adam, trying to find some control over the emotions raging through her.

  “Why should I trust you?” she asked. She could think of no reason to trust him other than that she so desperately wanted to.

  “The thing with the passcode looked bad, but I swear it was all an act. I didn’t betray you.”

  “No? You just pretended to?”

  “Yes. I needed to know where to find you. Stynger knew. I called her.”

  “And she just told you out of the kindness of her heart?”

  “No. There was a price.”

  “What was it?”

  He hesitated.

  “What? Trying to think up something on the fly?”

  “No. She told me that Sage had some files of hers and that if I agreed to give him the passcode, she’d tell me where to find him—where to find you. She said the code would destroy the information as well as his internal network.”

  “That’s not what happened.”

  “I know. The only thing I can think of is that she wanted him to have the information.”

  “Why would she want that? Those two hate each other. They’ve been having the same pissing contest since I was a child. She’s not just suddenly going to change her mind and share research.”

  “I don’t know why it went down the way it did. All I know is what I was told.”

  Mira nodded as another volley of gunfire erupted somewhere inside the building. “Me, too. Only I’m not stupid enough to believe your lies this time.”

  “So—what? You’re just going to leave me here, strapped to this bed, unable to defend myself?”

  She couldn’t do that. She so desperately wanted him to be telling the truth. Just wishing for it made her weak enough to consider the tiny chance that he was. If anything happened to him because she walked away, she’d never forgive herself.

  Chances were he was counting on that.

  The radio Ruby carried clipped to her waistband was still active. Mira pulled the earphone from Ruby’s ear to listen in.

  Dad’s voice filled Mira’s ear. “Execute the escape plan. Ready the helicopter.”

  He was going to escape. Likely with all of his newfound research that Adam had unlocked for him.

  If her dad got away again, she’d never be able to sleep at night. She’d always worry that he was coming for her. Coming for her children, if she ever had them.

  She wasn’t going to let him do that to her. He’d terrorized her all her life. It ended here. Now.

  Mira shoved Ruby’s gun in her waistband. She unfastened one of Adam’s wrist cuffs, found the nearest exit, and then ran off toward the sound of a helicopter’s engines revving to life.

  Her father wasn’t going to make it onto that helicopter alive.

  She kept to the shadows as much as possible. Floodlights lit up the area but left deep pools of darkness here and there where obstructions blocked the light. She heard gunfire in the distance, heard men shouting nearby. She passed two bodies on her way to the helipad and made a point not to look at them too closely. The last thing she needed now was to start puking.

  The helicopter was bigger than she expected. One man was in the pilot’s seat, getting ready to lift off. Two more men were carrying several boxes out to the aircraft. One of them took a shot to the leg and went down screaming. The boxes toppled to the ground, spewing papers and electronics.

  Her father was trying to escape with his research intact, presumably so he could continue torturing people indefinitely.

  Mira clung to the shadows behind a fenced-in area that held the facility’s garbage. She pulled the gun and held it while she waited for her father to appear.

  The air was freezing, but despite that, sweat pooled in her palms. Hatred for the man burned deep in her gut, doing little to quiet the queasy churning there.

  She didn’t want to shoot anyone. Just imagining the blood spraying out and bones crunching under the impact was enough to make her sick. But if she let her father get away, she knew he’d never stop working. He’d never stop hurting people.

  Unless she pulled the trigger.

  Mira sucked in a series of heavy breath
s, trying to gather her nerves enough to steady her hands. Dad would walk outside any second, and when he did, her aim had to be true.

  She might not get a second shot before one of the guards took her down.

  The shouting grew louder. She couldn’t hear what they said, but it didn’t matter. Her path was set. Her finger was on the frigid trigger. All she needed was her target.

  Her father scurried toward the helicopter carrying a cardboard box. A leather laptop case was slung over his shoulder, bobbing against his hip with every hurried step.

  She had a clean shot. No one was in the way. She’d reliably hit the center mass on targets farther away than he was now. They hadn’t been moving, but she was good with patterns, understood physics, and could predict exactly where her aim should be.

  A slight adjustment for the slope of the ground, the wind, and his clumsy gait, and her sights were lined up just right.

  Her finger tightened on the trigger, but before she could finish the pull, something hard shoved against the base of her skull.

  “Don’t,” came a quiet command. A voice she didn’t recognize. “Drop the weapon. Your finger so much as twitches and I’ll shove a bullet through your brain stem.”

  Mira froze. The owner of that voice was not fucking around.

  She let her weapon dangle from her index finger, then slowly set it on the ground. The whole time, she watched as her father climbed onto the helicopter with his precious boxes.

  “Stand up and walk.”

  Mira did. The barrel of the gun against her head shoved her toward the helicopter. Her hair flew around her face in a wild storm. She could barely see but didn’t dare move her hands to hold it away from her eyes.

  Her father saw her approach. Disappointment covered his face in a familiar mask.

  Funny how it no longer bothered her. She’d spent most of her childhood trying to please him, and she’d finally reached a point where she truly didn’t care what he thought anymore.

  “Bring her,” her father yelled over the heavy pounding of the helicopter’s blades. “She’s finally going to be of some use.”

  The gun barrel scraped across the back of her neck as it ripped away. The man holding it screamed in pain. She heard the shot, instinctively looking toward the noise.

  Adam held the weapon that had just fired at her captor. He fired again, hitting the man on the ground. The guard didn’t move again.

  Nearby, another man fired, and this time it was Adam who went down. Blood erupted from his leg, splashing the wall behind him.

  Adam rolled and shot his attacker. A small hole bloomed in the middle of the other man’s forehead, and he crumpled.

  Another man nearby flew back onto his ass, following the pink spray that bloomed from his head. A second later, Mira heard the distant boom of a rifle.

  Adam tried to regain his footing. Before he could, the last remaining guard kicked the gun from Adam’s hands and hauled him up to serve as a shield.

  “Bring him,” shouted her father.

  The shock of being in the middle of a gunfight started to fade, but not soon enough for her to realize just how precarious her position was. She was within reach of her father. He grabbed her arm and hauled her onto the helicopter before the thought of fighting back even tickled her mind.

  By the time she had her wits gathered enough to think straight, her father had his own weapon out and pointed right at her.

  Adam was shoved inside, bleeding everywhere. He slumped in his seat, clutching his wound to slow the bleeding.

  Her father looked at the guard who was covered in Adam’s blood. “Stay here and destroy what’s left.”

  The guard loped away and the helicopter began to lift.

  In that moment, Mira realized just how screwed they were. Adam was seriously injured and bleeding badly. He was in no shape to fight, assuming he was even on her side anymore. She was weaponless and trying not to throw up, both of which left her at a serious disadvantage. She had no idea where they were going. And her father had that look in his eye that promised the kind of punishment she wouldn’t soon forget.

  As the ground became out of reach, it became clear to Mira that they were well and truly fucked.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Riley had to force himself to move slowly through the halls, checking every doorway and corner for another possible threat.

  So far, his path had been clear. He’d seen a couple of men scurry by with their arms loaded with boxes, but none of them had seen him. Yet.

  Gage’s voice sounded in his ear, calm and low. “All but two men down.”

  “Can you see where Sophie is?”

  “Smaller heat signature north of you.”

  “That could be her. Or Mira. Is she okay?”

  “Not moving.”

  Cold dread poured down his back. He picked up the pace and switched his weapon to the nonlethal tranq gun. “Where are my targets?”

  “Twenty yards.”

  Riley went silent and swept down the hallway. After a few paces, he heard voices.

  “Doc said to torch the place. Start the timer.”

  “How long?”

  “Set it for ten minutes. That’ll be enough time for us to get clear.”

  “What about the girl?”

  “She’s research. Goes up with the rest.”

  That was all Riley needed to hear. He used the last bit of his remaining willpower not to switch back to his Glock and kill the assholes for discarding a life so easily. It almost didn’t matter that they were victims, too.

  In the end, Bella’s orders to save as many lives as they safely could took over, and he moved in on his targets.

  He hit the closest one. The man swayed on his feet but managed to get a couple of shots off before he toppled. The second man swung around just as Riley ducked into a doorway and readied his next shot.

  A bullet tore through the wall, grazing his calf. Pain streaked up his leg and landed at the base of his brain in a searing pile. By the time he was able to breathe again, the second target was on top of his position.

  Riley turned the knob at his back and fell through the doorway just as another volley of gunfire came screaming in his direction.

  The shots flew over his head. He jackknifed up, took aim and fired. The tranq stuck in the man’s throat, but Riley didn’t wait to see how long it would take to work. Instead he rolled away, scampering to get out of the way of whatever finger twitches the man still had left in him.

  Three more shots went off, ripping holes in the wall next to Riley. The heavy thud in the hall told him the job was done. The man was down.

  “Anyone else moving around?” he asked Gage.

  “Negative. You hit?”

  “It’s not bad. Just keep looking for Sophie and warn me if anyone comes my way.”

  Riley pulled a small roll of duct tape from his pack and wrapped a strip tightly around his wound. He used his sleeve to wipe away the blood on his boot so he wouldn’t leave visible tracks on the floor and pushed to his feet.

  He continued down the hall, each step burning. The damage was minimal, but it still hurt like hell. When he reached the spot where the first man had fallen, all thoughts of physical pain disappeared.

  There, recessed in the concrete floor, was a timer counting down toward zero. Dread hit him hard.

  “Looks like they’ve rigged the place to blow. You need to get clear,” said Riley.

  “How long?”

  “Nine minutes. Is the building clear?”

  “No one’s moving.”

  Riley started running. “I don’t know if it’s Sophie or Mira at the end of the hall, but I’m grabbing them and getting out. If there’s time, I’ll come back for the men.”

  “I got them.”

  “No,” said Riley. “Do not come in here. Stay clear.�
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  No response.

  There wasn’t time for him to deal with that now. He had a job to do.

  Riley hit the door at the end of the hall at a dead run. It swung open against his weight, and his eyes immediately fixed on Sophie lying on a hospital bed. She had a tube dripping drugs into her body, but he couldn’t see any sign of blood or damage.

  Without pausing, he rushed to her side and peeled off the tape holding the IV in. The tube came with it, as well as a trickle of blood.

  He took the fact that she was bleeding as a good sign and scooped her up in his arms.

  She groaned as he carried her out of the room. It was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.

  Sophie was alive.

  In his mind he traced his steps back to the nearest exit. He’d passed several on the way but needed the one that would get her to safety fastest. The sooner he could get her on the other side of some solid earth, the better.

  He sped past the timer, glancing at it as he went.

  “Seven minutes,” he said into his mic.

  Gage didn’t respond.

  Fuck.

  As gently as he could, he repositioned Sophie over his shoulder so he could use his hands to open the door.

  The cold night air hit him in the face. He kept searching for signs of danger, but every man he passed was dead or tranqed.

  Gage had done a thorough job of taking care of the men outside. Just like always.

  Riley hit the button that opened the rolling gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark shape streaking toward the building.

  He drew his weapon before he realized that it was Gage.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

  “Working.”

  “Get out of there. There’s no time.”

  Gage said nothing.

  “If you’re not out of there in two minutes, I’m coming in after you.” That was how long it was going to take to get Sophie to safety, and he couldn’t bring himself to set her down just anywhere.

  As much as he cared about his buddy, he loved Sophie more. It made no rational sense that he would love her, but that didn’t seem to stop his heart from stretching out to nearly painful proportions every time he thought about her.