Edge of Grey

by Phelps, J. C.

  My father had been hiding his involvement. Why did he give me my access back if he knew I'd find this out immediately? He had to know this would be the first thing I looked up.

  My emotions got the best of me again, just like the moment I’d found out White was gone, except it was worse. Now I knew, the only other man who’d held my entire heart, had killed my one true love. I couldn’t breathe.

  “Alex? Are you still there?”

  Colin’s voice felt like a hammer on my head.

  “Yeah. I’m here. What did you want?”

  “I need to know where the body is. We need to send in our own team to deal with this,” he said.

  “Oh. Yeah, right. I’m in Rio,” I said.

  “What’s wrong, Alex?”

  Colin was sounding panicked now.

  I swallowed hard and made myself focus.

  “I’m okay. I just got distracted for a second. There are three bodies,” I said and then gave him the address.

  “Three bodies?”

  “Yeah. He had bodyguards. I’m sorry. I left a big mess this time around. My blood was still on the floor and Posner’s blood mixed with mine and I kind of got some footprints all over.”

  I looked at the scene with an outsider’s point of view and felt sick to my stomach.

  “Yeah. This is going to be a hard one to clean up. I guess I’m not very good at up close and personal,” I said.

  “I’ll have a team there in about an hour. Can you be gone before they get there?”

  “I can do that.”

  “Did you leave a calling card?”

  “Yes, but it’s not my normal card. I wrote it on a napkin. In blood.”

  “That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

  “I didn’t have anything else,” I said.

  “No. It’s okay. It might have traces that lead back to you, but my team will pick it up and take care of it. Who knows, when word gets out it might stop a few people from landing on your list. I think it’ll be good for you to return with a bang and that’ll definitely do the job.”

  I let out a shaky breath. I didn’t want to repeat what I’d told my father about taking a vacation. He’d been right about needing to talk to Red. I’d started feeling more like myself after a few days back at White and Associates, but White not being there made it harder. Now, knowing my father definitely played a part in his death as well as knowing I needed some time off, if not give up Penumbra forever, made it even harder to tell Colin. Especially since his tone had become lighter and supportive.

  “I better get going so you can get your team here,” I said.

  We said goodbye and I rummaged through Alan’s things until I found a hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants. He didn’t have any sunglasses. I took a quick shower then put Alan’s clothes on. They hung on me, but they were better than my own blood-covered clothes. I put those in a garbage bag and set it near the door, being careful not to let it get into the puddles of blood near the dead bodyguards. Then I went to the computer and booked a flight home.

  The word home brought the taste of bile to my throat. I had no home anymore. Before today, home had always meant where my parents were. Now I couldn’t face my father and that meant I couldn’t face my mother, either.

  I forced myself to stop whining and made sure to erase all traces of what I’d done on the computer. Then I grabbed up the bag with my clothes and left the scene.

  When I was out on the street, I tossed the bag in a garbage can and called the car company I’d used the day before. I needed a ride to the airport. I stomped on Posner’s phone while I waited and took all the insides out. I deposited some of the pieces into the trash can but put the rest in the front pocket of the sweatshirt. I did the same thing to my Mesa phone. It was a relief to be rid of that phone.

  When I got to the airport, I deposited the rest of the phone parts in various garbage cans and bought myself some sunglasses and a floppy sun hat. I had to make up a lie about an abusive boyfriend to security before they’d let me board. I found myself telling a cab driver the address of my covert apartment before I was ready to get close to White and Associates building again.

  It was two in the morning, so the odds of them seeing me at this time of day were low, but I still pulled up the hood and hurried into the apartment building after I paid the driver. Inside my apartment, I immediately changed out of Alan’s clothes and tossed them into the trash. They made my skin crawl.

  My pistols were right where I’d left them so I brought one into the bathroom with me while I took a long, hot shower.

  I dried and dressed and went back out into the main part of my apartment and used the bug detector to make sure all was right in my world. It didn’t pick up any devices, but all was definitely not right in my world.

  I’d used the flight back to think through the past year of my life again. Still, the only thing I’d change was to spend more time with White instead of leaving. I would have done everything the same, except for that one thing. I thought about it again as I laid on my bed, staring at my ceiling and I came to the same conclusion. And the strangest thing dawned on me. I didn’t hold my father responsible for White’s death anymore.

  Posner wore that blame, and rightfully so. White would never have tried to retrieve Alan had Posner not been holding Will and my father didn’t go out of his way to hunt down White. White had been going against his wishes and could probably have been charged with treason had he been caught alive. The men who protected Alan probably didn’t even know it was White they were up against until it was too late. It all led back to Posner. I’d gotten justice for White.

  My thoughts wandered to Jake. I hoped he was recovering well and could take over Mesa now that Posner was out of the way. Then I thought of Will. I hadn’t even had the chance to see him yet. That would be hard because he and White were so much alike. At least, we still had him, though.

  I fell asleep feeling more peaceful than I’d felt in more than a year. Maybe I wouldn’t have to talk with Red. Maybe I could work through this on my own and I hadn’t completely lost my ability to be human.

  I WOKE UP WITH A start. It was dark. How long had I slept? Then I heard a light tapping at my door. My Beretta was on the nightstand. I picked it up and glanced at the alarm clock. It was three in the morning. I wondered if it was the same day or the next day.

  The light tapping came again.

  I didn't turn on any lights. No one should be at my door at any time of the day, but three in the morning was ridiculous. Then I remembered the intercom. Whoever it was shouldn’t even be at my door without having been buzzed into the small lobby area.

  I opened the door with my pistol drawn. The light from the small lobby area presented me with a familiar silhouette.

  “Will? What are you doing here at this time of night? How did you even find me?” I asked.

  “Alex?”

  I dropped my weapon and started to shake before I could stop myself. I knew seeing Will again would be hard, but the similarities made me think I was looking at White’s silhouette in front of me and hearing his voice. It was more than I could handle.

  “I can’t—” I said.

  “Alex,” he repeated and this time, I knew it wasn’t a similarity. White stood in front of me.

  He leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips.

  “Did Posner do this to you?” he asked as he touched my swollen face gently.

  I grabbed him tightly and kissed him so hard my eyes watered. He picked me up and carried me into my dark apartment.

  I took in his scent and nestled my head in the crook of his neck for a second, then I fought for him to put me down.

  As soon as my feet touched the ground I went to the nearest light switch.

  Something in my mind told me to be sure before I ended up in bed with White’s little brother. I’d always been attracted to him, but I could never be with him.

  “How?” I asked between sobs when I was certain it really was him.

  �
��It’s a long story,” he said.

  “Then start talking.”

  He reached over and barely touched my cheek.

  “You need to have Blue look at this,” he said.

  “Shut up about my face. How are you here?”

  We sat together on my bed as he explained that the team he’d brought in to retrieve Alan had been subpar. He’d been shot. He lifted his shirt to show me his new scar. He said it was touch and go for a while, but the Admiral had made sure he was nursed back from the brink.

  “Why wouldn't my father tell us?” I asked.

  “He couldn’t admit to having Alan. He didn’t want any of the other men to try to make the trade either.”

  “But why tell us you were dead?”

  “He thought I was at the time. I coded right after surgery and he thought my partners should know I was gone. He found out I survived after he’d made the announcement.”

  “You coded?” I asked.

  “Yes. I died, but only for a little bit,” he smiled.

  I felt my loss overwhelming me again even though he was right in front of me. I broke down and wept.

  “It’s a hazard of the job, Alex.” He moved my hair out of my face. “The doctors informed the Admiral they’d brought me back, but it was already too late. If he admitted I’d been involved in an act of treason and survived he’d have to charge me with treason. The only way out of this was to get rid of the only other person who knew I’d been involved.”

  “He let you go because I killed Posner?” I said.

  This is what my father had meant by a full recovery and everything would be as I hoped.

  “Yes. He had to hold me until Posner was out of the picture.”

  White went on to explain that trying to break Alan out was one of the worst things he could have done. Not just because the team he went up against almost killed him but because he hadn’t trusted the Admiral to hold up his end of the deal.

  When I asked him what his end of the deal was White told me the Admiral had promised to help but hadn’t given him any details. It turned out that my father and Jake had an agreement. If Jake could find out where Posner was holding Will he’d make Jake head of Mesa after we took Posner down. Jake had been working for the Admiral the entire time to help find Will and to keep me safe.

  Jake didn’t know where Posner was holding Will but suspected he was in the holding cells at Ruiz’s refinery. That’s why he had me thrown into the cells. He thought if I found Will there I'd quietly call White. Jake told my father that he wasn’t convinced Will wasn’t in the cells, even though I’d not found him there. So, they staged the explosion to force Posner's hand. It worked. Posner could no longer keep Will there. It was too much of a risk of losing the one person keeping his son alive. Posner had Jake move Will, but then pulled a switch and Jake never knew where he stashed him.

  Because White was unaware of the Admiral’s plan, he put his own into motion. The men who shot him were only doing their jobs. As soon as the Admiral found out who’d been leading the assault on the compound he got the best doctors to fix him up. Turns out that White being presumed dead worked out best for the Admiral’s plans until Posner confronted Jake about being in league with our partners. Jake had to lay low for a while and then Eric shot him before he could do any more searching. Then we’d taken the Admiral into custody so he couldn't do anything more and had to trust in us to finish the job.

  As soon as we let him go, the Admiral debriefed White on the entire story and let him come home.

  My father wasn’t as heartless as I’d thought. He’d actually been protecting White from treason charges in the best way he could.

  “Oh. I thought you’d like to know, we have a sister company now. Your father, Jake, and Helix became partners in Mesa as soon as the government was able to release the holdings. Actually, it’s not official yet, but it will be soon. We will be working closely with them from here on out.”

  “Helix too?”

  I shook my head and smiled.

  “There is something you haven’t answered yet. How did you find me here?” I asked. “I thought no one knew about this apartment.”

  “We didn’t until about half an hour ago. Green pinged your watch as soon as I made it back to the office. You weren’t answering your phone. You must have been on a flight because it was a sketchy reading. He told me you were in Rio the last time he talked to you a few hours earlier. He figured you’d taken a commercial flight out of Rio and as soon as you sat still for a little while we’d get a location. We were all shocked you were practically across the street.”

  “I’m torn between loving this watch and wanting to throw it out,” I said.

  We laughed but then he became serious.

  “The Admiral questioned me as soon as I was well enough. He used the serum,” he said.

  “You mean sodium pentathol?”

  “Yes. He knows all of our partners are aware of Penumbra. But, after he got the information out of me we had a nice long talk. He realizes none of us would ever do anything to put you in jeopardy and he also knows the feelings go both ways so he’s promised to pretend like he doesn’t know as long as our partners keep their mouths shut.”

  “How long has he known for sure?” I asked.

  “For a couple of months.”

  I laughed.

  “Did you tell the guys?”

  “No. There’s no need.”

  He moved off the bed and went to the freezer.

  “Are you hungry? I can make you something,” I said as I hurried to his side.

  “No. I’m looking for ice for your face. It looks like it hurts. You sure you killed Posner because if you didn’t, I want to.”

  “I’m fine.” I wrapped my arms around him and he leaned down and put his lips to my forehead. He held me there for a long time and we completely forgot about the ice.

  WHEN THE SUN STARTED TO light up my apartment White insisted we make our way back over to the office building so Blue could take a look at my injuries. I didn’t argue with him and before the hour was up I found myself at the hospital getting x-rays on my face.

  Within thirty minutes Blue came back to the room where he’d deposited me and White and told us nothing was broken.

  After being officially told I’d heal a full week went by in a blur. White wanted to be certain Will was taken care of and moved him into his apartment. That meant there was no time alone for the two of us. Instead, we spent the week working out at Helix’s gym and over feeding Will to help him build back the muscle he’d lost in the several months he’d been held captive. White had the benefit of being held under a doctor’s care and had been in therapy for his injuries. Still, he needed the workouts as much as Will.

  After a week of working out and spending the rest of our time just hanging around White’s apartment Will finally left us alone to spend some time with Brown. White and I were discussing how we were going to spend the evening and a dinner date was high on the list with relocating to my apartment a close second. Then his phone rang.

  He answered it, gave a few yes sirs and then hung up.

  “I guess we’re going out this evening,” he told me.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “Your father. He says the three of us need to talk.”

  “I’m not ready to spend time with my parents right now,” I objected.

  “Ready or not, it has to be done.”

  I’d been very pliable since White had resurfaced but this was something I felt strongly against. I didn’t hold my father responsible any longer, but I was disappointed in how I’d been left off the need-to-know list when it came to White being shot and Will being alive. I could have been of more help if I’d only been told what was going on. As luck had it, I was more of a hindrance than a help.

  “I’m not going,” I said.

  “You have to. He wants to talk about Penumbra.”

  “What about her?” I said in defiance.

  “I don’t know. We should go
find out.”

  White was already at his front door. He held it open and made a sweeping motion with his hand to usher me out of his apartment.

  “In and out?” I asked him.

  “Yes. We’ll make this quick. I promise,” he said.

  When we reached my parents’ estate my mother pulled me in for a hug and I stiffly hugged her back.

  “Alex. I know this has been exceptionally hard for you, but please don’t blame us,” she said.

  “You could have told me what was going on, Mom. Dad is prevented from talking to me about certain things by his oath but you aren’t,” I said.

  “If I started spilling your dad’s secrets he’d stop talking to me and then where would we be? Divorced,” she said.

  “I’m sure I’ll get over it, eventually. Where’s Dad? I want to get this over with. We had plans.”

  Mom smiled at me with understanding. She knew I needed a little time to walk away from my hurt but I’d get past it after some time had passed.

  “So you won’t be staying for dinner?” she asked.

  “No. But thank you for the offer, Mrs. Stanton,” White said with a smile.

  “He’s in his office. Let him know dinner will be ready in about ten minutes. That should help you get out of here without an hour long lecture.”

  Again my mother gave us an understanding smile.

  I leaned over and gave her a true hug with all stiffness gone.

  “I love you,” she said into my hair.

  “I love you too,” I returned.

  I led White to my father’s office and waited for his characteristic “Come in,” after I’d knocked. It came through the door immediately.

  “Alex. White,” he greeted us. “Please, sit down.”

  “Mom said dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” I said and then sat in one of the chairs near his desk.

  He nodded and waited for White to get seated before he spoke again.

  “You are aware that I’ve made Green her handler.” My father directed this at White before including me in on the discussion. “I need to speak to you both about that arrangement.”

  We nodded.

  “The final decision is mine to make, but I would like to hear your thoughts,” he said.