Edge of Grey

by Phelps, J. C.

  I regained my feet immediately and rushed him from behind. I ran up his back and sat on his shoulders and threw myself backward. We hit the ground hard and I didn’t let up with my leg lock around his neck. I started raining blows on his face. It didn’t last long before he rolled over, taking me with him. I tightened my legs around his neck, but he managed to wiggle out of my grip.

  I rolled over in time to catch his dive onto me with my feet. Again, I got him in the chest, but he pushed into me, driving me into the dirt.

  “You afraid to die, Alex?” he asked.

  He started punching me in the sides and my legs gave out. He lost his position and I slammed my elbow into his face as he fell, doubling the impact. I scrambled out from underneath him. He lay on the ground, unmoving, so I went over and kicked him in the side.

  “Get your ass up and finish this,” I said.

  He came around with my kick to the side and staggered to his feet, laughing.

  “Maybe Dad didn’t choose wrong, but I liked Eric,” he said.

  “Figures you’d like that asshole. Your dad was right. I made the kill shot. Right between the eyes. Quick and painless. Such a shame, really,” I said.

  I’d finally found the realm of complete apathy and felt serene. It was similar to the calm I always experienced right before I completed a job. I was going to kill him tonight or he was going to have to kill me and I was fine with either outcome. Will crossed my mind for only a second then Black’s comment about Will knowing what he was getting himself into came back to me.

  Alan rolled his head on his neck and shook himself.

  “Talking shit? You aren’t very good at it,” he said.

  “Let’s go,” I said in a low growl.

  “You don’t know how much I’m enjoying this,” he said as he advanced.

  “I don’t enjoy this part, it’s the kill I enjoy,” I returned. “That’s why Eric wasn’t a complete disappointment, he died like he was supposed to.”

  “Dad told me about how appealing you looked covered in blood. I’m getting the picture now,” he said and nodded at my arm.

  I could feel the blood running down my arm, but I didn’t take my eyes off Alan to check my shoulder.

  “You have an injury you didn’t tell us about?” Alan asked.

  He rushed me again but aimed for my shoulder and hit me hard. I groaned and my left side completely gave out. I landed on my knees and Alan was behind me, holding my head back by my hair and digging his fingers into my wound. I started to black out as he got close to my ear and said, “This is just foreplay, Alex. Stay awake for the real rough stuff back inside.”

  I fought the blackness and pain in my shoulder as I reached up and grabbed him around the neck. I flipped him easily and then stood slightly and dropped my entire weight onto his neck with my forearm.

  He clutched at his neck and regained his footing. He kept his distance until he could catch his breath.

  “You’re playing for keeps.”

  His voice was raspy.

  “It was your idea,” I said.

  It took all my energy to hold my hands up to protect myself, but I was trying not to make that evident.

  “Did you really shoot Eric?” he asked.

  “Yes. It was gratifying,” I said.

  Alan dropped his guard and moved toward me with an outstretched hand.

  I backed away.

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Of course not,” I said.

  “You’re learning,” he snarled and came at me.

  I dropped and rolled behind him again and saw dark figures approaching through the trees. I didn’t know if they were my partners or some other force. I had to end this fight and get under cover.

  “I’m about to win,” I said as I came up behind him. I grabbed him by the wrists, found a foothold in the small of his back and stood up, bringing his wrists straight up with me as hard as I could. I felt both of his arms pop out of their sockets and he started to fall to his knees. I made sure his downward momentum turned into forward momentum with a nudge of my knee in the back of his neck. His face broke his fall. I let go of him and fell back toward the cabin, leaving him screaming in the dirt. I pulled my pistols out and pointed them at the figures in the dark.

  “Who the hell are you?” I called out.

  “Stand down.” It was Black’s voice.

  “Son of a bitch!” Alan said as he stood.

  Again, I couldn't make myself put the weapons down as the men approached.

  Alan noticed my stance and said, “Shoot them, Alex.”

  I took my eyes off the approaching men and trained my weapons on Alan.

  “I think I’d rather shoot you,” I said.

  My partners approached more quickly when my pistols were aimed at Alan instead of them.

  “Both of your arms seem to be out of socket. How did you manage that one?” Blue asked him, then laughed.

  “Nice fight,” Brown said and spit on Alan. “You touch my girl ever again and I’ll kill you, Alan.”

  “Nice to see you too, Josh.”

  Alan was sweating.

  “There’s another man you’ve got wrapped around your finger. The rest of you just as dumb as this fool?”

  Alan nodded in Brown’s direction.

  “Wrapped up nice and tight with tidy bows,” Black said then hauled off and knocked Alan out cold.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Brown asked. “We were just getting started.”

  “Me too,” Black answered.

  “Anyone inside?” Green asked me.

  “No. Posner left about half an hour ago,” I pointed off in the direction I heard the vehicle depart.

  My hand was shaking and I felt faint.

  “Is that blood?” Blue asked and grabbed my arm.

  “Damn it, Alex. It’s never going to heal if you keep ripping your stitches, or it’ll heal wrong.”

  “I had to defend myself,” I said.

  “Let’s get inside,” Green said and led us up the stairs.

  Black and Brown grabbed the unconscious Alan and hauled him inside. They brought him to the kitchen and sat him upright in a chair. He was still out so Black held him upright by his shoulders.

  “He carries a Glock,” I said as Blue pushed me down into a chair so he could check my shoulder.

  “Sorry, Alex,” he said as he lifted my shirt over my head.

  “I don’t even care. Just fix it,” I said.

  The fight with Alan had taken everything out of me and I was bleeding pretty good again.

  “Why the hell didn’t you give up at the airport? Our guys had your back,” Red said.

  “I didn’t want Alan to get away. I thought if I stayed with him you could track us with my watch,” I said.

  I was very self-conscious sitting at the kitchen table in nothing but my bra, but my partners didn’t seem to notice.

  “We’re going to have to put his arms back into the sockets if we want to restrain him,” Red said as he paced around the kitchen.

  “Not yet,” Black said.

  “Ow,” I said as Blue poked at me.

  All of my partners looked at me at the same time. Each of them wore the same expression of concern. I’d given in completely to the coldness that came with making the decision to kill or be killed. It wasn’t easy to let it melt because I could have been killing Will if I killed Alan. Detaching was the only way to go through with it. But, their expressions washed it all away. I felt gratitude and part of something worthwhile again.

  “Thanks for coming for me. I don’t think I could have taken Alan. He’s brutal,” I said.

  “What are you talking about, Alex? You did take him out. We watched the entire fight,” Brown said.

  “That last move was pure art,” Green said.

  “We only stepped in because we didn’t want you to actually kill him,” Red said.

  “You guys saw the whole thing and didn’t step in sooner?”

  “Watching you work is a
pleasure,” Black said past a gigantic smile.

  “I almost lost more than once. I thought he was going to kill me. You guys put me through a lot of pain for nothing. I might have broken ribs,” I complained.

  “Sorry, but I’m about to put you through more pain. I don’t have anything to numb your shoulder and I have to stitch you up again,” Blue said as he pushed down on my wound.

  “Wait,” Red said and rummaged around in all the cupboards then left the kitchen. He came back with an armful of stuff. He handed Blue a first aid kit and set a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of vodka on the table.

  “Just in case,” he said.

  “My kit’s probably better than this one,” Blue said and started pulling items out of his pockets and laid it all out on the table.

  Blue opened the bottle of whiskey and handed it to me.

  “This might help a little,” he said.

  “I knew you’d look good with your clothes off.”

  Alan’s voice cut the air, then he groaned as Black squeezed his shoulders.

  Red raised his weapon. It was a beautiful Colt AR-15. He shoved it in Alan’s face.

  “Should I give you the same treatment you gave Derrick?”

  Alan shied away some.

  “That was an unfortunate accident,” he said.

  “You were our teammate and I watched you shoot him in the face.” Red flipped the safety off and pushed the barrel deep into Alan’s cheek.

  “You’ll never get your boy back if you kill me,” Alan said.

  “We found him as soon as your dad deserted the lodge. Desertion runs in the family, it seems. So you’re no longer needed, or wanted,” Red said.

  Did they really find Will? I looked at Blue as he turned toward me to start sewing me up. He nodded and smiled in answer to my unasked question.

  “Seems like you’ll get your flight training in, after all,” Alan said to me.

  “I pilot better than you do. I had both Will and Brown as my instructors,” I said.

  “You really did have my father wrapped up tight,” he said.

  “Time for you to shut up now, Alan. We’ll deliver you to the Admiral and he can decide what to do with you. He just might hand you off to Slade. We’d lend him the use of any of our compounds or properties to let him get his satisfaction,” Red said.

  Alan gave me an evil look. “How’d you pull that one off? Dad said he had eyes on scene and they confirmed the kill. You could have been a major part of Mesa, Alex.”

  “Why would I want anything to do with a piece of shit company like Mesa when I’m an equal partner in White and Associates?”

  “You’re nothing more than a glorified whore,” Alan said.

  “I’m much more than that, Alan. You’re just not on the need-to-know list. But your father is,” I said with my own evil grin. I could hardly wait to find Posner and fulfill my contract.

  Red hit Alan in the cheek with the butt of his rifle, silencing him.

  “Put his arms back into the sockets and then hogtie him here on the floor,” Green said.

  Blue started sewing just as Alan let out a yelp. I took a long pull from the bottle as I watched Black and Red putting his other arm back in place. Alan stared at me with hatred in his eyes and neither of us made a sound from the pain we were feeling.

  He smiled at me as the men pushed him to the floor and bound his hands and feet behind him.

  “At least, it was only one side this time,” Blue said as he finished sewing me up. I was more than a little tipsy and regretted drinking as much of the whiskey as I did.

  I took a deep breath and staggered to my feet.

  “I love it. You can kick a man’s ass who’s three times your size, but you can’t handle your booze,” Brown said. “Don’t go anywhere near the prisoner until you feel a little more sturdy.”

  His last statement was said with more seriousness than the first.

  “We need to get out of here and start tracking Posner,” I said.

  “She ready to go?” Brown asked Blue.

  “Yep.”

  He’d been busy replacing his stuff back into his pockets.

  “Brown, go out to the chopper we saw out back and make sure it’s acceptable,” Green said.

  “I’ll go with him. I could use some air,” I said.

  “No, Alex. You’ll stay with me,” Black said.

  “I’ll go with him,” Red said.

  I went over to the counter and finished what was left of the bread I’d made earlier.

  “Eating?” Black asked.

  “To counteract the alcohol,” I explained.

  Black smiled at me.

  Brown and Red weren’t gone long and came back with bad news. The chopper didn’t have enough fuel to get us far.

  “Can it get us a couple miles to the south?” I asked.

  “Probably. Why?” Brown asked.

  “We flew in to an airstrip. The plane might still be there if Posner didn’t take it. It might be able to get us back to the city. We did take a few bullets as we left the airport,” I said.

  “It’s worth a shot. If the plane isn’t sufficient we can call Sam to come pick us up if there’s an open airstrip,” Green said.

  “Up,” Black ordered Alan as he cut the zip tie binding his feet.

  Alan didn’t move.

  “Going to make it difficult?” Red asked.

  He pulled some rope out of his pack and secured it under Alan’s arms and started dragging him out of the house face down.

  Alan stood up and wrapped the rope around himself, bringing Red in close. He attempted a head-butt, but Red dodged and smacked him in the face with the butt of his rifle again.

  Alan fell to the ground.

  “Nice try,” Red said. “You want to walk or you want me to drag you? If you choose dragging, we’ll hogtie you again and drag you that way.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  THE CHOPPER GOT US SAFELY to the airstrip and the plane got us back to the airport without incident. Sam met us on the tarmac and took possession of the plane.

  “She’s pretty beat up,” he said.

  “She’s free,” Brown grinned.

  “Worth the trouble, then,” Sam smiled back at him.

  Brown gave him the coordinates to the airstrip in the mountains so they could retrieve the chopper and anything else they could get their hands on.

  “Be careful up there. The area’s not secured,” Brown said as we started to escort Alan toward the waiting van.

  “All the better,” Sam said.

  “Do we get a lot of our equipment this way?” I asked Brown as we took our seats inside the van.

  “No. But this is an exception. We might have to surrender the equipment to the government when this is all done. But, if we repair them, the government is more apt to accept our much lower bid or give them to us for the repairs we put into them. At the very least we’ll be paid for fixing them up. Posner’s fuel’s a different matter. It’s not traceable.”

  He grinned.

  Within the hour, we marched Alan into our building and had him secured in one of the interrogation rooms on the seventh floor. Red went up and retrieved the Admiral while I went into the office and called Colin to let him know we’d secured Alan again.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Alex? I see you’re calling from White and Associates. Does that mean everything’s okay?”

  “Yes. We’ve got Alan, but Mark is on the run. I’d love your help finding his money.”

  “I had his accounts frozen as soon as Alan was taken,” Colin said.

  “Not all of them.”

  I gave him the account numbers I was aware of and he said he’d call me back as soon as he could. I thanked him and started to put the receiver down.

  “No. Alex, wait. I want the Admiral back,” he said.

  “Not yet.”

  “I want to talk to him, at least.”

  “Let me see what the guys say. Oh, the woman you’ve been dating works for Pos
ner,” I said.

  “I know. She’s already in custody. Now please, the Admiral.”

  “Hold on. He’s not even here yet,” I said.

  I didn’t let him say anything more before I pushed the button putting him on hold.

  Red stepped off the elevator with the Admiral almost as soon as I pushed the button.

  “Colin wants to talk to him,” I called out before they could turn to go to the interrogation rooms.

  “Make it quick, Admiral, or you’ll miss out on my interrogation,” Red said as they walked from the small lobby area into the office.

  I picked up the receiver and handed it to the Admiral and walked away.

  I stepped into the hallway between the interrogation rooms and found Green.

  “Will you let me into C.I.C.?”

  “What for?” he asked.

  “So I can start looking for Posner. All I really need is a jumping off point. I’ve got Colin helping me to find his money. If we can find that, we can probably find Posner.”

  “Red’s about to come in and start questioning Alan. You might want to wait. I’m sure he’ll get Mark’s location from him.”

  “That’s if Alan knows. I have no problems going at this from different directions at the same time. The sooner I find him, the sooner I get my access back. Then I’m certain we’ll find out what happened to White. I can’t go on much longer not knowing if my father played a part in all that,” I said.

  “You sure you want to know?” Green asked.

  “Yes. Please, just let me into C.I.C.”

  Green handed me White’s keys and said he’d call when they got information out of Alan.

  I passed Red and my father as I was leaving.

  “Alex.”

  The Admiral stopped me with a light touch to my arm.

  “Yes, Admiral?”

  “I’m glad you’re back,” he said.

  “Me too. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I have a job to complete. Red,” I said. “Could you please hold onto the Admiral for a while. Posner doesn’t know what happened at his cabin. If we keep the Admiral under wraps for a while it could give me an advantage,” I said as I held up Alan’s phone.

  “Absolutely, Ms. Grey,” Red said.

  “I need to get back to work,” the Admiral said.

  “Supervise from the phone,” I said and walked out.