Razor's Edge

by Shannon K. Butcher

  Jake’s expression went cold, and he sat down. “I’m not going anywhere until I’m sure.”

  “Sure of what, Jake?” asked Roxanne.

  “Sure he’s not with them.”

  “He’s not. He’s with me.”

  Jake shook his head. “I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone but you.”

  “I trust him.”

  Tanner used the comm unit in his ear to ask the men outside, “Any sign of movement?”

  “None,” said Reid.

  “We’re clear here, too,” said Clay.

  “Clear,” echoed Gage in a deep, quiet voice.

  Roxanne sat down and took Jake’s hands. A waitress came up and asked, “What can I getcha to drink?”

  “Nothing,” said Tanner.

  Jake didn’t look up. “Coffee.”

  “Water.”

  She left, scowling at Tanner. He didn’t care. “We need to go.”

  Jake ignored him. “Rox, how many men did you bring?”

  “Don’t answer that, Razor.”

  “He’s right, Jake. We need to go. They could have followed you here.”

  “They didn’t. I was careful. I wouldn’t risk your life like that.”

  “You look sick. We need to get you to a doctor.”

  “No!” he shouted, his voice radiating out so that an older couple a few booths over gave him an odd look. He lowered his voice. “No. No doctors. I’ve had enough of them to last me a lifetime.”

  “Fine by me,” said Tanner. “We’ll go wherever you want, but we’re doing it now.”

  Jake held his head as if it hurt. “Make him leave, Rox. I can’t deal with him right now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Roxanne’s tone was gentle but firm. “He’s here to protect me. We know those people did things to you. He’s just here to make sure that you’re still the man I know and love.”

  Tanner’s gut clenched hearing her tell another man she loved him. He wanted her to love him, damn it.

  The thought made all the others go quiet for a brief moment. Now was not the time to be thinking about love. Now was the time to be thinking about bullets ripping through Roxanne’s head if he didn’t get her out of here.

  The waitress came back with their drinks. “What else can I getcha?”

  “Nothing right now,” said Tanner, still on his feet.

  His scowl drove her away. He pulled a five from his wallet and tossed it down to cover the cost of the coffee. “Razor, we need to go.”

  She looked up at him with anger glowing in her golden eyes. Her voice dripped venom. “Back off, Tanner. Give us two minutes, okay? Can’t you see he’s hurting? There’s no one here. It’s safe.”

  She wasn’t going to relent. She cared more about Jake’s delicate feelings than she did about her own damn life.

  Frustrated, he turned, scanning the diner for signs of danger. There were only a few people here—the elderly couple they’d interrupted and a young family with two small kids. The waitress didn’t seem to pose a threat, and the cook behind the wall was busy over the grill. If there was anyone else here, he couldn’t see them, but he was nervous, feeling that hair-raising, in-the-sights kind of feeling that he knew meant danger.

  “Are you sure he’s not one of them?” he heard Jake ask in a whisper.

  “I swear,” said Roxanne. “He’s one of the good guys. Please, we need to go before anyone finds us. That thing they put in your head could allow them to track you.”

  Jake let out a low moan of pain. “I have to get it out. It’s killing me.”

  “I know. We’ll take care of it. But the less you talk, the safer it will be. Remember what we told you about those other two men?”

  “Oh God. I’m going to be sick.”

  Tanner turned just in time to see Jake sprint by, running for the bathroom. He wasn’t about to leave Roxanne’s side and follow after him, since this could be a trick—a distraction. Clay had checked the bathrooms earlier, but that had been almost an hour ago. They’d kept tabs on it. Everyone who’d gone in had come out, but something here wasn’t right.

  Roxanne rushed past him, hot on Jake’s heels. He grabbed her arm to stop her.

  She tried to jerk her arm away, but he held firm. “Let me go,” she warned under her breath. “I need to check on him.”

  “No. I’ll do it. You stay here.”

  Tanner stalked into the men’s room to find Jake hunched over a toilet, puking. They were alone. There were no doors or windows in here, no way out, no way for someone to sneak in. He checked all the stalls, looked into the trash can, under the sinks. There were no explosive devices or any other signs of danger.

  Jake’s misery wasn’t an act. The retching sounds were real, as was his shaking body. The incision on the back of his head in the center of a shaved patch was as obvious as it was sinister. Someone had done that to him. Someone had cut him open against his will. Whoever had done it was going to pay.

  Feeling like an ass for doubting the man, Tanner grabbed a wad of paper towels and wet them in the sink. Once the vomiting stopped, he handed them to Jake. “Here. Clean up. We need to go.”

  Reid’s voice sounded in his ear. “I see movement. On the roof.”

  Roxanne was out there alone.

  Fear took hold of Tanner. He raced to the door, but when he pushed it, it didn’t budge. He twisted the dead bolt to unlock it, but the knob spun uselessly. Someone had tampered with it.

  From above, a deafening boom shook the building. There was a huge crash, like a mountain had fallen on top of them, and people in the diner started screaming.

  “Get down!” Roxanne gave that order, her voice ringing with command. “Under the tables.”

  As relieved as he was to hear that she was still alive, the million things that could be happening to her ran through his mind, sending him into a panic he could barely control.

  “Chopper,” said Gage, his steady voice lending Tanner some much-needed calm.

  He barreled his shoulder against the door, but it didn’t budge.

  “I see it,” said Clay. “It’s headed right for us. Where the fuck did they hide it?”

  He pulled out his pistol and fired at the lock. Wood flew back at him, biting his skin.

  “What the hell is happening?” asked Jake. “You did this, didn’t you? You locked us in here.”

  Tanner didn’t waste time arguing. He shoved at the door with his foot, but it held firm.

  Jake slammed into his back, knocking them both into a wall. A moment of shock trickled through Tanner, but then he regained his wits. Jake thought he’d been betrayed, but Tanner didn’t have time to sit down and discuss it with him. Roxanne was out there alone.

  Tanner turned, grabbed the thin man, and flung him across to the far side of the room. He went right back to the door, but even a solid blow from his boot did no good.

  Right outside the door, three rounds went off. Roxanne’s gun? He couldn’t tell. “Talk to me! What’s going on?”

  Reid was out of breath when he responded. “They blew a hole in the roof. There’s one guy inside. That’s all I saw.”

  Another shot was fired, but this one sounded different, with a hollow ring.

  “Razor’s down!” shouted Clay.

  “Chopper’s over the diner,” added Gage, his voice calm. “I’m out of range. Moving in.”

  Rage exploded inside Tanner. He fired at the lock again, barely waiting for the bullet to land before he slammed into the door. It flew open.

  Ten feet away, a man covered from head to toe in gray had Roxanne unconscious and draped over one arm. In the other was an odd-looking rifle.

  The man lifted the rifle and fired. Something hit Tanner in the thigh, but he ignored it. He aimed his weapon. He had to be careful so he wouldn’t hit Roxanne. Before he’d lined up his sights, his vision wavered and a swell of dizziness hit him hard.

  Jake flew past Tanner in a blur, flying through the air. He let out an enraged scream as he
barreled into the man in gray.

  The man, Roxanne, and Jake all swayed to the side. Tanner stared in confusion as his head fogged up. How were they moving sideways? He couldn’t figure it out.

  He tried to find a shot, but his arm was too heavy to hold up. He took a step forward and stumbled. His vision narrowed, and he finally realized he’d been drugged.

  Tanner looked down and saw the dart sticking out of his thigh. Tranquilizer? Poison? He couldn’t tell. He didn’t care. All he cared about was getting Roxanne back.

  Jake punched the man in gray. The pile of people lifted up, and Tanner realized they were suspended from some kind of line.

  “Gage, do you have the shot?” asked Reid.

  “Negative.”

  Tanner shambled forward and fell to his knees. His body wouldn’t listen. He couldn’t move.

  “Tanner’s down,” said Clay.

  “I’m almost there.” Reid sounded scared, which was something Tanner wasn’t used to hearing. He tried to tell his brother that he was fine, that he needed to worry about Roxanne, but his mouth wouldn’t respond to his demands.

  The man in gray had his arm wrapped around Jake’s throat, choking him while they rose up and out of the hole in the roof. Jake was fighting back, but every blow was weaker and less effective than the last.

  “Hang on, Tanner. Don’t you fucking give up.”

  Tanner struggled to remain conscious. He fell to his side. His weapon clattered uselessly to the floor. His eyes wouldn’t focus, but he could see well enough to watch Roxanne be hoisted toward the helicopter as it flew away.

  Roxanne. His mind screamed her name, but no sound escaped his lips—just a weak puff of air.

  She was gone, and then everything else disappeared along with her.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Roxanne woke up with a jolt, her heart racing. She gasped, trying to suck in enough oxygen to feed her starved lungs. Panic seized her muscles and narrowed her vision so it felt like she was looking through a straw.

  She moved to push herself up from her bed, only to realize she wasn’t on a bed. She was sitting in a chair, and her arms wouldn’t move.

  Her panic deepened, churning her thoughts until nothing made sense.

  Don’t move, little girl. We just want to cut you a little. Daddy’s going to pay big to get his baby girl back in once piece.

  A low moan breached her lips as the memory hit her. It wasn’t real. She was a grown woman. Her kidnapper was dead. He couldn’t be here.

  Her wrists throbbed, and there was little feeling in her cold fingers.

  Hold real still or you’ll bleed to death.

  This wasn’t happening. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She was in control. She just had to get a grip.

  Roxanne forced her breathing to slow, despite her aching lungs. Her tunnel vision expanded, and she could see black strips of tape binding her wrists to the chair.

  She wasn’t losing her mind. She wasn’t back in that moldy basement, praying Daddy would give the man what he wanted.

  She tried to still her churning thoughts and separate her memories from reality.

  There was a man at her side, pressing a bit of gauze against her arm. A syringe was in his other hand. It was empty. He’d injected her with something.

  Fear enveloped her, and she fought against her bonds, letting out a feral scream.

  “Easy,” said the man. “You’ll be fine. The stimulant will counter the tranquilizer. It’s a bitch to wake up to, but it won’t kill you.”

  She had to calm down and figure out where she was, who this man was, and what he wanted. Forcing herself to take slow, deep breaths, she looked around to survey her surroundings.

  It wasn’t a basement. She was inside a large, open building. It was old and run-down. The ceiling stretched thirty feet overhead, revealing beams and a network of wire, conduit, and ductwork. Dirty windows high above let in searing light, adding to the stifling heat inside. Dusty, abandoned workbenches sat in neat rows near one wall. There was a large open space on the opposite side, and the concrete was discolored and dotted with rusted spots, as if some kind of large machinery had once sat there.

  It was a factory of some kind, she guessed—one that hadn’t been used in years. But how did she get here?

  Her memory began to re-form, pushing to the front of her mind, sifting through and discarding the distant past. She’d been in that diner with Jake and Tanner. She’d finally found him, but he didn’t look good. She hadn’t seen him so scrawny since his preteen years, and never before had he looked so sickly. He’d always been strong and healthy. She’d had a hard time holding back her tears, but she’d done so out of respect for him. Jake hated seeing her cry.

  As soon as she broke the seal on her memory, the rest of it flooded into her, filling in the gray spots with vivid color.

  She felt the heat and power of an explosion. A man appeared from the rooftop. She’d tried to get the civilians out of harm’s way, but they sat there, too shocked to move.

  Roxanne lifted her weapon and fired, but her aim was off by inches. He fired back, hitting her. She fell into blackness.

  Tranquilizer? That must have been what hit her. She certainly didn’t have any throbbing gunshot wounds—just a slight ache in her thigh where she’d been hit.

  The man turned away from a small table and faced her. He looked to be in his late forties with a salt-and-pepper flat top and frigid blue eyes. He was dressed in fatigues, marked by shiny stars and an emblem she couldn’t recognize—a red sword on a field of black.

  “Where am I? Who are you?” she demanded.

  “I’m General Bower.”

  “Why am I here?”

  He crouched down, putting himself on eye level with her. His face was tanned, and the sun had left its mark in deep lines around his eyes and across his forehead. “We want the diary. It wasn’t on you, so you’re going to tell me where it is.”

  Feigning ignorance seemed to be the safest course of action. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He stood, pulled his arm back, and slapped her across the face. The blow stunned her, and she nearly fell backward in the chair. Only his rough hands pushing down on her arms kept her from toppling.

  Roxanne’s ears rang, and a stinging ache radiated down her neck. She tasted the coppery tinge of blood in her mouth and felt a small cut her teeth had made along the inside of her lip.

  Bower crouched down again, exactly where he’d been before. His expression hadn’t changed. He wasn’t mad. He wasn’t upset. He didn’t even seem frustrated. He’d simply hit her and gone on as if nothing had happened. “Let’s try this again. Jake Staite sent you his diary. Where is it?”

  She hesitated, weighing her options a little more carefully this time. “It’s locked in a high-security vault, under twenty-four-hour surveillance.”

  He nodded. “That’s better. I respect honesty. In fact, I think I should be completely honest with you.”

  Something about the way he said it made the hair on the back of Roxanne’s neck lift in fear.

  He covered her hand with his, and she couldn’t help the immediate surge of revulsion she felt. “I have your boyfriend,” said Bower.

  “Tanner?” She craned her neck, stretching the limits of her bindings in an effort to see him. He was nowhere to be found.

  Bower’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Oh. I see. So Jake isn’t your sweetheart. It’s the other man—the one who hesitated when he should have taken the shot on my man. Tanner could have saved you, you know. One shot and you’d be with your honey right now, all safe and sound.” He smirked as if that had amused him. “Actually, I was talking about Staite. He’s here. He’s waiting for the doctor so she can put on the final touches.”

  Trepidation vibrated through her body, chilling her. She didn’t want to ask, but the compulsion was too great. “What did you do to him?”

  “We’re making him better. Stronger. Faster. Obedient. I think you’ll like the ch
ange, at least for a little while.”

  “I’ll give you the journal. Just let him go.”

  “You know, I think that’s a fine idea. We’ll have your boyfriend go and fetch it, then bring it here.”

  She couldn’t ask Tanner or anyone else to risk their lives for her like that. “No. Let me go get it.”

  “Do I look that stupid? We’re not letting you go anywhere. You’re part of the show.”

  “What show?”

  “Our investors are watching. We can’t leave them bored without some form of entertainment. That would be bad manners.”

  He wasn’t making any sense. She could tell he was toying with her, but she couldn’t figure out his angle. “What do you mean?”

  “Does he love you?”

  Her confusion deepened. “Who?”

  “Staite.”

  “He’s like family. I’ll do anything to save him.”

  “That’s so sweet. And fortunate. You’ll be the perfect test.”

  “I don’t understand. Just tell me what you want to let Jake go.”

  “Oh, we’re going to let Jake go, all right. We’re going to let him out of his cage, and he’s going to come down here and kill you. Once our investors see that our protocol works, the money will pour in like rain.”

  “I have money. I’ll give it all to you if you let us go.”

  He leaned down so he was in her face, his hot breath shoving its way up her nose. “Sweetheart, I know who you are. You have millions, which is cute, but not nearly enough. We’re looking for bigger fish. You’re worth far more to us dead than alive.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Wake the fuck up,” shouted Reid.

  Like all those years back at home, Tanner obeyed his brother’s order and opened his eyes. For a second, he thought he might be late for the bus; then he realized how stupid that was. It had been years since he’d been in school.

  Reid’s face hovered over his, concern and fury mingling into a fierce mask. “Can you sit up?”

  Confusion plagued him. Of course he could sit up. What kind of a crazy question was that? He tried to push himself upright, but his arms were too wobbly to support his weight.