A man appeared out of the brush, only ten feet away. The barrel of his gun zeroed in on Clay.
The buzzing haze of rage that always came to him right before he blacked out hit him as hard as a charging bull. He could feel it pulsing at the edges of his control, urging him to let go, give in, stop fighting. He tried to stave it off, but the need to fight pounded at him. It clawed at his mind, ripping away what little sanity he had left.
A boiling scream rose from his chest. He could feel the power of it vibrating within his lungs, but he could hear nothing. He rose from his crouch behind the car, weapon raised, and began firing.
* * *
As soon as shots were fired, the situation in the barn changed fast.
Leigh found herself lying on the floor, unsure how she’d landed there. A burly guard raced by. Maybe he’d knocked her over. She wasn’t sure.
She rolled away from the stampede of feet, watching as Dr. Sage aimed his gun at his daughter. His gaze was fixed on the doorway where Clay stood, his chest heaving, blood smearing his cheek.
The look on Clay’s face was horrifyingly familiar. The hollow stare he wore, the feral snarl, the careless disregard for the danger he faced—all of that told her he’d been triggered.
This was no longer the man she loved.
“Stop right there,” ordered Dr. Sage.
Clay kept walking. He didn’t even slow.
Across the room, Adam glided toward the doctor, putting himself squarely in front of the gun pointed at Mira.
“Clay?” said Mira, uncertainty making her voice waver.
Leigh pushed to her feet. “That’s not Clay.”
Two burly men in body armor stood in front of Dr. Sage, guarding him with their bodies.
Dr. Sage glanced to where his gun was aimed, seeing Adam standing there. “Out of the way, Adam. He won’t care if I kill you. I kill Mira, on the other hand . . . well, she was always a useful lever when it came to Clay.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said Adam. “I promised Mira I’d get her out of here alive.”
“Stupid move,” said Dr. Sage. He fired.
Adam flinched in pain. A bright red starburst began to spread out over his white dress shirt. Behind him, Mira let out a shocked breath and went down hard. She was bleeding. The single bullet had gone through Adam, into Mira.
Clay charged. Dr. Sage swiveled his gun around toward Clay.
Leigh screamed an incoherent warning, but the sound was drowned out by gunfire. Clay’s body jerked as bullets hit his chest, but he kept on moving, firing shot after shot.
There was nothing she could do for him, but Mira was bleeding. So was Adam.
She made the only choice she could. Even though it ripped her heart out to abandon Clay, he was too dangerous to approach. Instead, she crouched and ran toward Mira. If Clay had been himself, that’s what he would have told her to do. It was part of the reason she loved him.
Blood pooled beneath Mira, seeping from a wound below her left breast. Her eyes were open and wide with shock. Her hand clutched the wound to stop the bleeding, but it was bad. Blood seeped out from between her fingers.
Leigh shoved Mira’s hands aside and applied pressure to the wound. “You’re going to be fine.” She hoped it wasn’t a lie.
Leigh looked up to gauge the danger.
Both men in front of Dr. Sage had fallen. A fine mist of blood covered Dr. Sage’s face and shirt. Clay advanced on him, weapon raised. The barrel of the gun shook in his hand.
“You can’t do it,” said Sage. “I made sure of that.”
Clay made a noise somewhere between fury and pain. It vibrated the cold air in the room, sinking into Leigh to steal away her warmth.
To her left, Adam began to move. He pushed himself up on one arm and lifted his weapon.
“Don’t you dare hurt Clay,” growled Mira. Her voice lacked volume. Leigh wasn’t even sure that Adam had heard her.
Clay came to a full stop. His face was contorted with fury, and he struggled as if trying to break through an invisible wall.
Dr. Sage grinned, smug satisfaction wrinkling his face. “You were always so easy to train, like a puppy desperate for a few scraps of food or affection.”
“Cover your ears,” shouted Leigh.
Clay didn’t respond—not even a flicker of recognition lit his eyes.
The tranquilizer was here in the barn somewhere. It was the only thing she could think of that would stop Clay without killing him.
She scanned the rscanned oom, looking for the man who’d taken it from her.
Mira tried to sit up. More blood welled from between Leigh’s fingers. “Hold still. You’ll bleed out if you try to move.”
Adam’s eye twitched, and he pushed to his feet. “I don’t think he can hear.”
Dr. Sage’s grin faltered. His hand started to shake, along with the gun in his grip.
He was going to shoot Clay. The tendons in his wrist were shifting as his finger tightened on the trigger. And there was nothing Clay could do to stop him.
One of the guards who had been killed lay only three feet away. Leigh pressed Mira’s hands hard against the wound, telling her silently to keep up the pressure.
Leigh lunged for the weapon and fired before anyone else could stop her. Her shot ripped a hole in Dr. Sage’s side, sending him screaming to the floor. An eerie stillness fell over him. He didn’t so much as twitch.
She’d killed him, and she couldn’t muster even a flicker of guilt for ending his life.
Clay turned and saw her holding the weapon. His eyes were empty. He had no idea who she was.
A gun went off. Clay spun around, blood flying from his arm.
Adam slumped back down, panting. The gun in his hand clattered against the crumbled concrete. His shirt was soaked with blood. His skin was pale.
Clay’s arm hung uselessly at his side, but that didn’t stop him from advancing. Fury burned deep groves around his mouth as he charged the closest person—Mira.
His intent was clear. Leigh had seen that look before, right before he’d killed. If she didn’t do something, he was going to murder Mira, and there was no way he’d ever forgive himself for that. If he hurt Mira, he was as good as dead.
Leigh couldn’t lose him. She loved him. She couldn’t let him destroy himself like this, and there was not a single doubt in her mind that hurting Mira would kill him.
“Clay,” whispered Mira, pain ringing in her voice. “Please don’t do this. It’s me. You know me.”
Clay continued to advance, an empty husk of the man he once was. He was only a few feet away from Mira now. Blood dripped from his arm, leaving a trail on the broken concrete.
Leigh had no drugs and no way of stopping him except with the gun.
Tears made her vision wobble. She blinked them away as she lifted the weapon. He was wearing a bulletproof vest. None of the shots he’d taken to his torso had slowed him down much.
Normally, anatomical data flowed through her easily as she cataloged things that could go wrong with the human body. But now, as she went through the list of ways to disable without killing, the knowledge turned her stomach.
This wasn’t just any man. It wasn’t just any body. This was Clay.
Only it wasn’t. She had to remember that.
Leigh steadied her aim and fired. Clay’s leg crumpled beneath him, making him stumble. His gaze turned to her, twisted with violent intent. He pushed himself to one leg and began to hobble toward her.
She fired again, hitting his other leg. Clay fell face-first onto the giant oil stain. His head bounced off the concrete. He didn’t move. Leigh’s voice rose in a scream of grief and denial as she raced to his side.
Her fingers met the hot skin of his neck, and there, fast and hard, she felt the beat of his heart.
He was alive but bleeding badly. And there was no way to know how much damage she’d done to him.
Payton appeared in the doorway. “I’ll get your med kit from the car.”
She sat back, peeling off her bloody gloves as two men in black carried off the last wounded guard. Payton stood over her, offering her a bottle of water.
“Where are the police?” she asked, suddenly realizing how odd it was that there had been no lights or sirens.
“They’re not coming. I’ve taken care of everything. All you need to do is keep quiet. None of this ever happened.” There was something in his expression that scared her—some kind of warning she knew better than to ignore.
“Where is Clay? I want to be there when he wakes up.”
Payton’s mouth flattened into a hard line of refusal. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. We’ve taken him somewhere safe.”
Exhaustion loomed over her, threatening to crush her, but she found the strength to push to her feet. “You will let me see him.”
Payton shook his head. “I’m sorry. That’s out of the question. Once he’s stable, he’ll be going to the facility w
here Garrett is housed.”
Locked away. Stolen from her.
“Like hell. I did everything you asked. I want to see them both.”
“It will only hurt you more. You need to let them both go.”
Discard them, as if they didn’t matter? Not in this lifetime. She loved them. She would not stop until she found a way to free them. “If you don’t let me see them, then I’m going straight to the press with everything I know.”
Payton rocked back in genuine shock. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me. You can’t steal the men I love from me and not expect me to react.”
“I could have you lod have ycked up. You’ve broken the law. Many times over.”
“Then who would you get to patch up all those gunshot wounds you don’t want reported?”
Payton sighed. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to protect you.”
“I’m a big girl. I’ll protect myself.”
He shook his head in regret. “If he survives, I’ll let you see him. After you’ve had time to think. This isn’t the life you want, Leigh. Not even close.”
Chapter Thirty
Leigh had to wait three weeks to see Clay. Payton insisted that he needed time to recover from his injuries and for his hearing to return.
Leigh used the wait to her benefit. She spent the time with Mira while she recovered, gathering every bit of information she could. When the date to see Clay finally came, she was more than ready.
Part of her had hoped that the feelings she’d had for him would fade with time and distance, but instead, they’d grown more powerful, blooming into something she could no longer deny. She loved him, and because of that, she was willing to do whatever it took to save him. No matter the risk.
Payton took her to the facility as usual, insisting she be drugged unconscious for the transport. She woke up inside a car, parked inside a huge hangar that led to a series of secure doorways underground.
Payton took her bag from her and dumped its contents on a stainless-steel table. Keys, wallet, makeup bag, condoms, and a syringe fell out.
He lifted a brow in question.
“I plan to have sex with him,” she said, as if daring Payton to tell her to abstain.
“And the drugs?”
She shrugged. “Self-defense, in case things get out of hand. I’m assuming you’ll afford us some privacy, which also means I need to deal with any problems that arise myself.”
“He’s been in control since arriving here—ever since he found out that you and Mira were safe and that we found those children in Sage’s lab and took them home.”
It had taken Leigh two days to work through the almost debilitating relief she’d felt knowing that Dr. Sage’s work had been shut down and that the children he’d been holding there were now back with their families. Until now, she wasn’t sure that Clay had been given the same information.
“Good, then I shouldn’t need to drug him,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she really was.
Payton hesitated in indecision. He took the condoms and syringe and shoved them back into her purse. Everything else stayed on the table. “You’re making a mistake getting involved with him like this.”
“I love him,” she said, uttering the words aloud for the first time. It felt good to say them, while at the same time it scared her to death.
“I’m sorry,” was Payton’s response.
He turned and led her to a solid metal door. A camera was trained on the entrance, and an armed man stood at attention, wearing the same black uniform as the people who’d come to the barn via helicopter two weeks earlier. He didn’t spare her a single glance.
“You have an hour,” said Payton. “Make the most of it. This is the last time you’ll ever see him again. I won’t be a part of you torturing yourself over and over.”
Leigh steadied her nerves, dried her sweaty hands on her skirt, and went to see the man she loved.
* * *
Clay was dreaming. He had to be.
Leigh appeared in his doorway, her body bathed in light. Her red hair fell in soft waves over her shoulders. She was safe and whole, and so beautiful, it made his chest ache with longing for things he could never have.
The door shut behind her with a metallic clang, casting them both back into the dim light of his prison cell.
He’d been here only three weeks, but it had felt like three years. No one would tell him anything about what had happened that night in the barn. The last thing he remembered was the barrel of a gun pointed at him, and then . . . nothing. He’d woken up in a hospital, a cast on one leg and several bullet holes ripped through him.
Payton had told him that Leigh and Mira were alive and safe, but that was all the detail Clay had received. He’d been left to imagine the rest, wondering what had happened. And who he might have hurt.
They hadn’t let him have crutches—only a hollow, lightweight cane—which made him wonder just how much damage he’d done.
Clay had no way of knowing if he’d hurt Leigh again, and the worry was eating him alive. He’d hardly slept or eaten since he’d gotten here, but all that weakness went away as he stared at her.
He didn’t dare move. He stayed planted where he stood—next to his bed, where he’d jumped up as the door had opened. If he took so much as one step, he’d want to pull her to him and never let go.
For all he knew, she was here to scream at him for hurting her again.
She took one hesitant step and then another. The next thing he knew, she charged him, flinging herself at him.
The feel of her body against his was like heaven. Her soft curves and feminine strength melded into him, filling a dangerous void that had been growing for days.
Clay tipped her face up for a kiss, unable to stop himself from indulging in her mouth. Maybe he was taking advantage of her pity for his imprisonment, but right now, he couldn’t bring himset bring lf to care. She was too sweet to resist, opening to him with an eagerness that left him aching and breathless.
Leigh pulled away, color high in her cheeks. “I’m so sorry I had to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
He shook his head.
Her dark eyes closed in regret. “I shot you. Twice. I didn’t want to, but Mira was there, bleeding. She couldn’t get away.” She let out a long, shaky breath. “It seems that all your mistrust of me was valid.”
He tipped her chin up so she’d look him in the eye. “You stopped me from hurting Mira. I’d never hold that against you. You shooting me proves just how wrong I was not to trust you.”
“That is insane logic.”
He shrugged. “If the shoe fits . . .”
> “You’re not crazy. I’m going to get you out of here.”
“You can’t, Leigh. No one can. This is where I need to be. As much as I hate it, we both know that this is the only way to keep me from doing more damage.”
“No. I refuse to believe that. There’s another way, but there’s no time to explain,” she whispered. “We need to hurry.”
“Hurry? What are you talking about?”
She pulled her purse from her shoulder and unzipped it. “We only have an hour alone, and I don’t know how long this will take.”
Clay covered her hands. “Slow down. I don’t know what’s going on. What are you doing?”
She went still and her mouth trembled. “Mira and I think we found a way to help you. I don’t know for sure if it will work, but she said you’d want us to try.”
“Try what?”
“Payton knows your trigger phrase. He heard it through my earpiece when Dr. Sage said it. I can’t trust him not to use it on you.”
The idea of Payton using him wasn’t a new one. It burned like acid, but Clay knew that if he dwelt on it, suspicion would eat him alive. He was stuck here and needed to learn to accept that.
“You need to worry less about me and more about yourself.”
“How can I when you’re locked in here? We both know this place will kill you. And Garrett. This is our best shot at freeing you.”
“How?”
“I’m going to try to . . . reset you—replace your trigger phrase so that no one else can ever use it against you.”
Clay wanted to hope, but he didn’t dare. False hope in a place like this was a death sentence. “I don’t want to waste even a second of our time together. I just want to be with you, hold yo you, hou—for however long we have.”
He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but that wouldn’t be fair to her. He didn’t want to give her any reason to sit around and wait for him to get out of this place. Chances were he never would. Leigh needed to move on with her life.
He needed her to be happy.
She squared her shoulders, aligning them with stubborn intent. “Payton wouldn’t let Mira come here. And she’s still a little weak. I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with me.”
Edge of Sanity: An Edge Novel Page 29