Edge of Betrayal (23 page)

“I
n position.” Gage’s voice came over the comms.

Beside Mira, Adam went tense.

“You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?” she asked.

He shifted in his seat and said nothing. The armored car they waited in near her father’s current location seemed to grow smaller.

The sky was heavy with clouds the same shade as Adam’s gray eyes. The bare branches of the trees in the park where they waited swayed on a cold wind. Even with the windows closed, Mira could smell snow in the air. Weather reports indicated that they were in for some flurries, but she hoped that it was no more than that. Anything that obscured visibility was going to make it easier to lose sight of her dad.

“He’s a good man,” said Adam. “Not much of a talker, but you can see it in him—that inner core of goodness running all the way through him.”

Mira had never really thought about it, but now that she did, she realized Adam was right. “He’s always been there whenever anyone has needed him. That’s probably why Bella partnered you with him. He’s not the kind to throw your past deeds in your face every day. Like I did.”

He flashed her a smile. “You haven’t tried to use that against me in at least twelve hours.”

She stared in the direction her father was hiding. She couldn’t see him from here, but she knew he was close. That was enough to make her skin crawl. “The last two times I saw my dad, he tried to kill me. If I see him again, he might succeed. There doesn’t seem to be much point in carrying a grudge against you—especially since you were the one who kept me alive both times.”

They sat in silence for a while, watching the sky darken as the day ended and the storm moved in.

“There’s something I want you to know,” said Adam. “Just in case things go . . . badly.”

He had her complete attention now. She stifled a spurt of worry and turned in her seat to face him. “Nothing is going to go badly. I forbid it.”

He gave an amused grunt. “I like your plan, but there’s still something you should know.”

“Save it for after the job.”

“No. It can’t wait. I need at least one other person to know the truth.”

And he was trusting her? That made a little warm spot light up right in the middle of her chest. “Okay. If it’s that important.”

He looked past her, taking several deep breaths as if to gather his nerve. “Gage is Eli.”

Eli, his lost little brother.

Shock streaked through her, leaving a numb path in its wake. “Gage is your brother?”

Adam nodded.

“Does he know?”

“No. No one does. Except me and your father.”

“How is that even possible?”

“He was adopted when he was young. I don’t think he even remembers that he has a brother.”

“Why haven’t you told him?”

“Everyone sees me as suspicious at best and the
enemy at worst. I wanted a chance to prove to him the kind of man I really was before I let him know we shared blood.”

“You should have told him.”

“Not yet. I mean, how would you have felt to know that your only biological sibling was working for the people you dedicated your life to destroying?”

“But you were only working for them so you could find him. That has to count for something.”

“Does it? Does it change the way you feel about the things I’ve done?”

Mira thought about it. Really thought about it.

If Clay went missing, what would she do? How far would she go to find him? She loved him like a brother, and she couldn’t think of very many things she wouldn’t do if his life was at stake.

Did that make her a bad person? She didn’t think so. And the more time she spent with Adam, seeing how he ticked, the more she came to realize that they were more alike than she’d ever suspected.

She took Adam’s hand in hers. “You should tell Gage who you are. He deserves to know that he has a brother who would do anything for him, the way you did.”

“If he rejects me, I don’t think I could handle it. I’ve searched for him for so long . . .”

“He won’t reject you. And if he does, you’ll simply win him over, the way you did me.”

His fingers tightened around hers. “Have I won you over, Mira?”

“I don’t want to kill you in your sleep anymore. That’s got to count for something, right?”

“I know I have a long way to go to truly earn your trust, but I will. Even if it takes me the rest of my life.”

Mira was reeling from that proclamation and all the attached implications when the comms squawked to life. There was a loud boom, like a tree crashing into a roof. Then a woman let out a terrified, blood-curdling scream.
Sophie. Gunfire erupted, filling the car with its explosive noise.

Silence filled the line for a second, giving Mira time to count every one of her frenetic heartbeats.

“They have her,” said Riley, his voice coming through gritted teeth.

Mira had to breathe deeply to stem the urge to vomit.

That poor woman. She’d done nothing to deserve the fear she suffered. She was innocent—another victim of a man Mira could have killed a dozen times over.

If only she’d had the nerve.

A little poison in his morning coffee. A bullet in his head as he slept. Or she could have made it look like an accident, just like he’d done to Mom.

If Mira had taken her father out when she first realized just how twisted he really was, she could have saved so much suffering.

But she hadn’t. He was her dad, and she’d let that cloud her better judgment.

Mira’s phone buzzed, alerting her that her father’s tracking device had begun to move.

She turned on her mic as she held the screen up for Adam to see. “Movement on this end. We’re in pursuit.”

Adam started the car. His expression changed as he went into work mode. Gone was the sweet warmth she’d glimpsed a moment ago. In its place was the stony-faced badass she recognized all too well.

She turned off her mic again. “Are you going to tell me what you meant by that ‘rest of my life’ remark?”

He didn’t even look at her as he pulled out into traffic. “Only if we survive.”

*   *   *

Riley had to be physically restrained from going after Sophie. If not for Gage’s unbreakable hold on his arm, Riley would have been hot on the heels of that van that carried her away, screaming and sobbing.

He prayed to God her terror was more for show than real.

“We need to go,” said Riley.

“Patience,” said Gage.

“Fuck patience. We can’t let them take her far. What if we lose her signal?”

“We won’t.”

This was part of the plan. Riley kept telling himself that as he counted off the seconds.

Payton’s voice came over the comms. “I see the van on satellite. We’re tracking them now.”

They stayed in place, hidden from sight, just in case there was a backup team covering the van’s getaway. He had no idea how much time passed, but it felt like way too much.

“Now?” he asked.

Gage laid a hand on Riley’s arm. “Patience.”

Riley growled. “If that was your woman being dragged away, you wouldn’t be so damn calm.”

Gage looked at him then, blinking twice as if surprised. “Your woman?”

“Yeah. She is. I even asked her to marry me.”

Gage let out a low whistle.

“Don’t worry. She said no. Well. Actually, she told me to ask her again if we survived.”

“Smart woman.”

“Why? Because she didn’t say yes or because she waited to tell me no?”

Gage grinned. “Idiot.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

His grin widened. “She’ll say yes.”

“How do you know?”

He shrugged.

“You don’t even know the woman. How can you possibly know she’ll say yes after this is all over?”

Gage grinned. “You’re cute.”

“I’m cute? That’s why she’s going to marry me? I’ve been
cute
for a long time and I’m still single.”

“Right woman this time.”

So Gage thought Sophie was going to say yes.

That meant a lot to Riley. Gage didn’t talk much, but he was always listening. And he was as astute as hell. If he thought Sophie was the right woman and that she was going to say yes, then odds were she was.

That thought bolstered Riley’s spirits and made him straighten his spine. The woman he was going to marry had just given herself up to be used as bait. She was taken, and he was going to do everything in his power to see to it that she came back to him alive and well. Even if he had to pry her away from the bad guys with his bare hands.

And as soon as he got her back in his arms, he was never letting her go again.

S
ophie did her best not to pee her pants in fear.

The guys who had abducted her were silent, practically ignoring her where she crouched in the back of the van.

They’d cuffed her to the wall, forcing her to brace herself every time the van turned so she wouldn’t slide across the slick metal floor and dangle by her wrists.

Her ribs ached where one of the men had hit her. She’d shot him in the leg for his effort. Three times. He was laid out on the floor of the van, leaking blood.

He glared at her over his crooked nose, his gaze promising payback.

Sophie was smart enough to not spit in his face, but she was definitely entertaining some vivid fantasies of doing just that.

The van lurched and rocked as they sped to wherever it was they were going. After what she thought was about an hour, they stopped.

One of the men stepped in front of her. He was in his late thirties, with a receding hairline and a fresh scar bisecting his chin. “Strip.”

“Not only no, but hell no.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. This is about making sure we’re not followed. Now, do it, or I will help.”

She held out her arms. “Unlock me. I can’t do anything without my arms free.”

He hesitated for a second, then did as she asked.

The second he unlocked her and stepped back, she bolted for the door. She knew she wasn’t going to get away. That wasn’t even her intention. But if she didn’t make her desire to get away look real, they’d start to suspect that she was exactly where she wanted to be.

Kind of.

Chin Scar grabbed her around the waist before she hit the door. He hauled her back, while she kicked and clawed the whole way. The second he dumped her on her ass, she cowered, pretending to be suitably fearful.

She curled up and covered her head with her hands. “I’m sorry. Don’t hurt me.”

He let out a noise of disgust. “Just change. We don’t have all night.”

She turned her back and took off her jeans.

“Panties, too. Everything goes.”

Lovely.

She gritted her teeth and did the job as fast as she could. He bundled up her old clothes and tossed them out the back door. Then he picked up some kind of electronic gadget and started sweeping it over her in a slow grid.

She tried to cover her nudity, but he kept pushing her hands aside as he waved the gadget over her. “What are you doing?”

“Checking for bugs.”

She still had one on her, but Riley had told her that they wouldn’t activate it until they had to. It was hidden beneath a patch of fake skin under her arm—barely visible even to her.

As the gadget got close to the bug, she had to consciously try not to hold her breath and give her nerves away. There was nothing she could do about the shaking
of her limbs or the chill in her fingers and toes, but he didn’t seem to attribute that to anything other than her crappy situation.

The gadget passed without beeping or flashing, and it was all she could do not to let out a long sigh of relief.

When the man was satisfied that she was clean of bugs, he handed her an ugly set of oversized sweats. They were stiff and itchy, but she would have willingly put on a dress made of live snakes if it meant not being naked with these men.

As soon as she was covered, he pounded on the front wall near the driver’s head. The van started up again. The shackles went back on her wrists. “Where are you taking me?”

“Doctor wants to see you.”

She played stupid. “What doctor? I’m not sick.”

The man she’d shot grinned. “He’s going to cut you up, honey. He’s going to saw open your skull just to see what makes you tick. Hope you enjoyed your day, ’cause it’s your last.”

“Shut up,” ordered Chin Scar.

The man shut up but didn’t stop looking at her with glee in his eyes.

What if it was her last day? What if Riley and his friends didn’t find her in time?

At least she’d gotten to spend some time with a man worthy of her love, unlike all those asshole bastards who had marched in and out of her life.

She’d never get to see him again. Never kiss him again. But she’d had the chance to see what a real man was like up close before the end. That was more than most women ever got.

As those bleak thoughts crept in, she had to forcibly shove them away.

Today was not her last day. She would see Riley again. He would kiss her again, and a hell of a lot more, too. Even if she had to seduce him every day until he gave in.

Riley was going to be hers in every possible way.

The image of a baby with her mouth and his eyes popped into her head. Need unlike anything she’d ever felt came close on its heels.

That was what she wanted. A real life. A real home and family. A man who made her heart jump with joy whenever he walked in the room, and a child who would fill her with more love than she could stand.

Sophie stared at the man on the floor of the van and smiled. “At least I got to spend my last day putting three bullets in your leg. How in the world are you going to live down getting shot by a woman? I bet your buddies help you remember me for a long, long time.
Honey.
”

He started to sit up, moving like he was going to come after her, but Chin Scar stepped between them. “Stop it. Both of you. It’s a long drive, so just settle down and be quiet.”

Sophie relented rather than risking her secret tracking device being found. She went quiet and closed her eyes, fantasizing about her, Riley, a private beach, and all the things they were going to do once she got him naked.

*   *   *

Mira checked her phone again, activating Sophie’s tracking device just long enough to get a single read on her location. Then she did the same for her father.

They’d both stopped. In the same place, in eastern Texas, almost at the Louisiana border.

“I think this is it,” she told Adam.

He stopped the car about a mile away from where she wanted to be and opened his mic. “What does the satellite show?” he asked Payton.

“The van just now pulled into the same barn where Sage’s car pulled in about two minutes ago.”

“Do you see the lab?”

“Negative. Only trees and a small farm.”

Adam shifted in his seat. His hands curled around the
steering wheel until his knuckles paled. “Something isn’t right. Why aren’t they moving?”

Mira pinged the trackers again, and both the one on Sophie and the one inside her father’s leg were still active and stationary. “They’re still in there.”

“I’m going in for a closer look,” said Riley.

“No,” said Payton. “Stay back. There’s nowhere for them to go.”

“Too late,” said Gage, who was stationed with Riley. “He’s gone.”

“This is definitely wrong,” said Adam again. “They’ve been still for too long with no good reason. I wish we had audio.”

“I’ve got a parabolic mic in back. We could try that.” She leaned over the backseat and opened the black case. The compact mic took only a second to set up, but all she heard was the wind whistling through bare branches and pines.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Nothing. Maybe we’re just out of range.”

Payton’s voice came over comms. “I just switched to thermals, and there’s definitely something wrong.”

“What?” asked Adam.

“There are warm bodies inside the barn, but none of them are moving. In fact, they’re cooling down. Fast.”

“Cooling down?” asked Mira. And then it hit her. “They’re dead.”

“Moving in,” whispered Riley.

Adam was out of the car before she could stop him. He sprinted across the dark ground, so fast he disappeared into the shadows coating the landscape.

“Looks like it’s a party,” said Mira as she slid over into the driver’s seat and adjusted it so she could reach the pedals. “I’m on the move.”

She reached the barn in time to see Adam and Riley disappear inside, weapons in hand. A thick layer of anxiety coated her skin, making it clammy. As soon as she got out of the car, the cold wind hit her hard, stealing her breath.

She turned on her flashlight, holding it in the hand not filled with her gun. So far, there had been no screams or sounds of combat from inside the barn. That gave her the courage she needed to slip in through the rotting door and do what she could to help her friends.

The first thing her flashlight beam touched was a grotesquely overinflated blowup doll—the kind men used when they couldn’t get a real woman. Her arms and legs were stiff, and her plastic skin was heavily wrinkled in places.

“He filled them with hot water,” said Adam. “Sage knew we were watching him.”

“That’s not all,” said Riley from across the barn.

Mira went to where he stood, passing several more blowup dolls as she went. Inside the car her father had been in was an array of surgical instruments on a metal tray. They were all covered in blood, and in the middle of them was a tiny tracking device she knew was rated for surgical implantation.

“It’s the tracker we put in my father. He found it and took it out.”

Adam picked up a patch of fake latex skin with another tracker attached. “They found Sophie’s, too.”

Riley let out a strangled cry of frustration and anger that made the hair on the back of her neck lift in warning. She stepped away from him. Adam shifted his body so that he was between her and Riley. Apparently, Adam had felt the same scary vibe she had.

“How the hell did they get away?” Riley snarled.

“I don’t know,” said Mira. “There’s no one here. We had satellite support the whole time. It saw the blow-up dolls, so the images must be real.”

“They are,” said Payton over comms. “I can see the heat signatures of the three of you moving around.”

Mira looked around, searching for some way of escape. There were no separate rooms where they could hide. “Is there a false wall or something?”

Riley opened the back of the van.

Adam crouched and looked beneath the car. “There’s something under here. Some kind of cellar door.”

Riley bent to look. “Cellar door? Sophie said something about going through one of those when she was taken to the labs as a kid.”

“Help me move the car.”

The keys were missing, but Mira dragged the warm, person-shaped water balloon from behind the wheel and found the key slot, which allowed her to put the vehicle in neutral. The men shoved the car out of the way, revealing a pair of rusted doors set in the dirt floor.

Riley pulled on them while Adam readied his weapon.

“They’re locked,” said Riley. “Barred from the inside.”

Adam nodded. “We’re going to need a welding torch. Or some explosives.”