Razor's Edge

by Shannon K. Butcher

  He took it as permission to put his nose directly into her business.

  Tanner eased the phone from her hand. “Who is this?” he snapped.

  “Jake. Who the hell are you?”

  Surprise flickered through him for a moment before he regained his wits. He pressed the button to activate the speaker phone. “My name is Tanner. I’m a friend of Razor’s.”

  “Let me talk to her.”

  “I’m right here, Jake,” she said, her voice faint. She cleared her throat. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

  “I don’t have a lot of time. I stole this phone so they can’t trace it, but I don’t want to talk long. They may be keeping tabs on your calls.”

  “Who?”

  “Not now. Just listen. I need your help. I need to find . . .” A strangling sound filled the line.

  “Jake? What’s going on?”

  When he spoke, he sounded out of breath. “I’m all fucked up, Rox.”

  “Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

  “I don’t know if they’re following me.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not alone. I’ll be safe.”

  Jake hesitated, but finally said, “Do you remember that vacation we took with my mom?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember the place where we got those banana pancakes?”

  A sad smile touched her mouth and tears spilled from her eyes. “Yes, in—”

  “No. Don’t say it. Just meet me there.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow. The same time we were there before. Do you remember?”

  “I do. I’ll be there, Jake.”

  “Come armed. Bring your friends. Bring—” He gasped as if in pain.

  “Jake? Are you hurt?” asked Tanner.

  “No. Just my fucking head. They cut my head open, Rox.”

  “Oh God,” breathed Roxanne. She covered her mouth with her hand and choked back a sob.

  Tanner took over. “Listen to me very carefully, Jake. It’s possible they put a device inside you that can poison you. We don’t know how it’s triggered, but we’re going to find out, okay. Until then, don’t say anything to anyone. What you say could kill you.”

  “Could?”

  “All we know is that two men who may have connections to Dr. Stynger died while being questioned.”

  “I understand. Gotta go.” He hung up.

  Roxanne turned away, and although her anguished cry was quiet, he heard it all the same.

  Tanner pocketed her phone and stepped up behind her. He cupped her shoulders, hoping to offer some sliver of comfort. She turned, folding into his embrace and hiding her face against his chest.

  His heart broke open. He stroked her hair and her back. He held her tight, telling her without words that he was here. He wouldn’t leave her.

  Clay regarded them for a moment before he stood. “I’m going to grab a soda,” he said as he walked out.

  “Shhh,” Tanner whispered against her hair. “We won’t let anything happen to Jake. We’ll find him. We’ll get him help.”

  She sniffed and looked up at him. Her nose was red and her eyes were bloodshot, but she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Her pain grated against him, making him want to lash out at whoever had hurt her friend.

  “I’m so glad he’s alive. I just hope we’re not too late.”

  “Of course we’re not. We’re going to find him, Roxanne. I’m going to make it happen.”

  She wiped her eyes and gave him a lopsided smile. “I almost believe you when you look all fierce like that.”

  “It’s not just a look, honey. I am all fierce, especially when someone is fucking with the friend of someone I care about.”

  She cupped his cheek. Her slender fingers sent sensation rioting down his spine. Part of him hated that she could make him respond so easily, but the rest of him reveled in the feeling. He’d never had a woman go to his head like she did. It was as if his whole world rotated around her and stopped spinning when she suffered.

  He was going to fix it. He was going to find Jake and get that damn thing out of his head before it killed him.

  And then what? Roxanne would kiss him in thanks, and they’d go their separate ways?

  He didn’t want that. He wanted her to stick around, to be part of his life. But if he did that, he’d lose his job and his family would suffer. They’d already suffered enough because of him. He couldn’t put his own selfish needs before them. Not again.

  It was best not to think about the future. He needed to focus on right now, on finding Jake and getting him home safe and sound without a dose of cyanide in his brain.

  “Where are we meeting him?” Tanner asked.

  “It’s a little town near the highway, a few miles over the Texas border. We went there when I was thirteen. My mom and dad had gone to Europe for vacation, so Jake’s mom took us on a little road trip. We stopped there for dinner.” She gave him a sad smile. “I’d never had pancakes for dinner before. I was so enthralled by the idea that Jake teased me about it for years.”

  For a moment, Tanner envied Jake’s relationship with her. It ran deep, shaping her whole life. There was a tie between them that couldn’t be severed, and Tanner found himself wishing for that same thing.

  Selfish.

  He shoved the thought from his mind and forced himself to consider their options. “We need a plan to extract him safely. We’ll have to assume he’s being followed. They could even be listening to him.”

  “I’ll see if Payton can send some more people our way.”

  “Good. We’ll take all the help we can get. And we’ll need them to figure out how to neutralize that device in his head.”

  She straightened her shoulders, wiped her eyes, and stepped back. Tanner let her go, though he already missed the heat of her skin and the feel of her body against his.

  “I’ll talk to Mira. Maybe she can come up with something.”

  “You do that. I’ll fill Clay in and see if he can add any intel from his encounter with their men. He’s had more interaction with them than any of us. He might know their tactics to help us plan for contingencies.”

  She met his gaze, her eyes glowing with relief. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  Tanner said nothing, because the only words that came to mind were to tell her she’d never have to find out. That was a foolish, unrealistic notion, and he wasn’t going to lie to either of them like that.

  Jake tried to dial 911, but his fingers wouldn’t move. He’d meant to ask Rox to bring police, but he hadn’t been able to get the words out.

  It was the pain in his head. It kept distracting him, pounding as if someone were hitting him with a ball-peen hammer.

  He checked his rearview mirror. No one was behind him. The road stretched out for miles, dark in both directions.

  Weariness tugged at him, but he wasn’t going to take a chance that what Dr. Stynger had said was a lie. He didn’t doubt for a second that she’d do something dangerous to him, that she’d risk his life for her own purposes—whatever the hell those were.

  I suggest you focus on staying alive. You shouldn’t sleep for at least twenty hours. Thirty is better.

  He checked the clock and made a note of the time. He’d sleep once he saw Rox again. Once he was sure that a whole pile of armed men were on their way to rescue Jordyn.

  He tried not to think about what her aid would cost her. She was brave as hell, and he was going to see to it that he got to tell her so to her face.

  If he called the police now, they could move in and get her out of there. They could rescue Evans, Moss, and Mac. He ordered his hand to move, to pick up the phone, but it wouldn’t listen. His fingers refused to budge from the steering wheel.

  Fuck! What the hell had they done to him?

  He tried to remember. There was a brief flash of lights and people behind masks, and then a bomb of pain detonated inside his skull. His vision went black and he slammed on t
he brakes, skidding to a stop.

  Jake let go of the memory like it was a live wire and, slowly, the pain eased, allowing him to breathe again. The spots across his vision faded, and he saw he was sitting in the middle of the highway, sweating and shaking.

  He let off the brake and moved the car off the road. He knew he had to keep moving, but if he drove now, he’d kill himself before he ever got to see Rox again.

  The phone rang. He answered it, praying it was Rox with good news.

  “Do you know who this is?” asked the woman on the line.

  Every cell in Jake’s body stood at attention at the sound of Dr. Stynger’s voice. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Good. Tell me where you’re meeting Ms. Haught.”

  No. He couldn’t do that. It would put Rox in danger. He tried to keep his lips clamped shut, but the words spilled out of him, giving her every detail he could remember.

  “Excellent.” Her praise filled him with a buoyant sense of joy. “Now, when I hang up, I want you to forget I called. You never heard from me. Carry on as if we never spoke. Understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The line went dead and Jake stared at the phone in his hand, wondering why he’d picked it up. His emotions were all over the place, jumbled together in an indistinguishable pile of joy, fear, loathing and anticipation. He couldn’t seem to control them.

  Whatever they’d done, it was too late to stop. He’d find help and get himself fixed. All he had to do was hold himself together long enough to reach Rox. She was smart, capable. Thanks to her job, she knew a ton of badass men who would do anything for her. He couldn’t think straight, but she could do the thinking for him. He just had to reach her.

  Jake eased the car back onto the highway and started driving.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  The diner had aged since the last time Roxanne had been here. The neon sign flickered wearily, and the red paint had faded to a dismal pink. Several windows were fogged, their seals long broken. A few cars were scattered in the parking lot.

  Roxanne and Tanner sat in his truck, three-quarters of a mile away, parked at the side of the road. She handed the binoculars to him. “What do you think?”

  They’d driven the rest of the night to get here. The sun was up, but just barely, casting a searing light over the small town. There wasn’t much here: a gas station, a mechanic’s shop, a barn that had been converted into an antique shop, and the diner. The rest of the buildings and homes were to the south, out of sight.

  “I think there are way too many places where a sniper could hide.”

  She scanned the rocky hills in the distance dotted with clumps of brush. “You’re right. I’m going in alone.”

  “Like hell you are. We have all day to secure the perimeter. When we go in, it’ll be safe.”

  “Jake wouldn’t have told anyone where we were meeting. He wouldn’t have risked my safety like that. I’m sure he’ll come alone.”

  “I’m sure he’ll think he’s alone. They could follow him.

  For all we know that thing in his head contains a tracking device. The best we can do is keep watch on the roads coming in and make sure that when he comes, he isn’t followed.”

  “Payton said that the police released Gage and Reid and they’re headed our way. I guess he had a friend—some general—talk to the police and vouch for them.”

  “How many more people is he sending?”

  “That’s it. Everyone else is on mission.”

  Tanner’s mouth tightened in frustration. “It’s going to be a hell of a job to secure this situation with only five men.”

  “We just need to get him and get out.”

  “I don’t like it. They’ve had him for so long. How is it that he’s just now able to escape?”

  “Maybe the timing was bad before, or he was too weak. He said in his journal that the drugs were making him sick.”

  He took her hand, threading his fingers through her thinner ones. He wouldn’t touch her like this if he was repulsed by her past, would he?

  His calluses rubbed against her skin, reminding her of just how it felt to have his hands gliding over her body. His gaze was intense and his expression grim. “He also said he thought these people were brainwashing the men. What if the same thing happened to him?”

  Denial rose up in her, swift and hot. “No. It didn’t. He’s too tough for that.”

  He stroked the back of her hand. “We have to be prepared for the worst. I know he’s your friend, but you can’t trust him. Not until we’re sure.”

  “I am sure. He sounded like himself on the phone. Worried and scared, but not like some kind of mind-controlled zombie.”

  “I want to believe, too, but that’s not smart. We have to stay safe ourselves or we won’t be able to help him out of whatever mess he’s in. Even if they mind-fucked him, we can save him. We just have to live long enough to do it.”

  Tanner was right. It wasn’t going to help Jake for her to shove her head in the sand and ignore the grim possibility that Jake could be compromised.

  She gripped his hand tighter. “Okay. We’ll do it your way. Whatever it takes to save him.”

  Tanner leaned forward and kissed her cheek, then offered her a smile. “He’s lucky to have you, you know that?”

  “And I’m lucky to have you. I would have thrown a fit if any of the others had tried to tell me Jake was lying to me.”

  His expression shifted, becoming thoughtful, almost sad. The sparkle that was normally twinkling in his eyes was gone, making him look grim and worried. “Let me go in alone and meet Jake. You can stay back and secure the perimeter.”

  “He doesn’t know you. It needs to be me.”

  “No, it doesn’t. He’ll understand why I didn’t want you in harm’s way. He cares about you.”

  “Does that mean you care about me, too?”

  His finger slid over her jaw, his touch so gentle it made her shiver. “Yeah, I do. I know it puts us in an awkward position, since we’re working together, but I can’t help how I feel. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  There was a lot more than one way to get hurt. From where she was sitting, Tanner had just as much power to tear her apart as any bad guy. In the few days they’d been together, she’d grown to care for him—a lot more than she should. Their relationship was nothing more than an adrenaline-fueled fling, or so she’d thought. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  The idea of anything bad happening to him made her panic. It was more than simply her concern for a coworker. It was deeper than that—much deeper than she cared to admit.

  With Jake on his way, possibly tailed by bad guys, the last place her head should have been was on her feelings for some man, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t sacrifice one man she cared about for the sake of another.

  “You can come with me,” she told him, “but I’m going, too. Jake’s been through hell, and after all the years he was there for me, the least I owe him is my presence.”

  He pulled away from her, retreating to his side of the truck. His jaw was bulging with frustration, and his mouth was tight with anger. “Will you at least wear a vest?”

  “Of course. We both will.” Not that it would protect either of them from headshots some sniper might deal out.

  He nodded once. “I hope Jake knows how lucky he is.”

  “I’m the lucky one,” she said, conviction ringing in her words. “When you meet him, you’ll see.”

  Her phone buzzed with a text. She read it. “Clay is here. He’s going to scout inside the diner and then report back.”

  Tanner peered through the binoculars. “He just pulled in.”

  “Is he as good as he seems?” asked Tanner.

  “Better. I’d trust him with my life.”

  “Good, because if he doesn’t do his job right, that’s what it might cost you.”

  Tanner was nervous. Usually before a mission, he went into a calm, relaxed state in which his senses heightened and his body reacted wit
h little thought or effort. He’d been trained well, and he was confident that training would get him through just about anything.

  None of his training had prepared him for walking into a likely trap with a woman he had feelings for.

  He was stupid to have agreed to let her come. She would have been safer doing surveillance or guarding the road. But no, she had to come along and be here to meet her friend.

  At least she hadn’t balked at Tanner’s tagging along. If she had, he might have had to resort to more extreme measures—ones that she would probably never forgive him for.

  Jake had walked in a few minutes ago. They’d let him, holding back to see if there was any movement near the diner. Roxanne was impatient, wanting to rush in, but she’d held back, letting the others determine when it was safe.

  After no signs of anyone following him, and no sightings of backup, they finally moved in.

  Roxanne gripped Tanner’s hand tight enough to drive the blood from his skin. She was shaking, and he had to keep pulling her back so she didn’t draw attention by running. He set a slow, steady pace up to the door and across the tiled diner floor.

  Jake sat at a booth in the back, near the rear exit. He looked like hell. He was gaunt and sallow. Several days’ growth of beard lined his jaw, and his hair made him look like he’d just climbed out of bed. His eyes were shiny and red, as if he were fevered. Needle tracks marched up and down both arms. The fact that he didn’t even try to hide them spoke volumes about his state of mind.

  Tanner kept Roxanne hidden by his body as much as possible as they approached. He didn’t want her taking another bullet if he snapped and went for a gun.

  “Jake?” said Tanner as he neared.

  The man’s head jerked up, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. A second later Roxanne stepped around him, and Jake’s expression melted into a mess of happy relief and terrified anguish.

  She pulled away, rushing up to Jake and hugging him.

  “Razor,” said Tanner in warning. “Back away.”

  She nodded and extracted herself from Jake, stepping back. “Sorry. I’m just so happy to see you.”

  Tanner kept his eyes on the man’s hands. Clay, Reid, and Gage were outside, guarding their exit, but in here, they were on their own. “Come on. We need to go now.”