Edge of Betrayal (14 page)

“Stop it. All this second-guessing is doing is making you doubt yourself now. Do you really want him to continue to have such power over you?”

“Hell no.”

“Then let it go. Do what you know is right now and destroy everything he’s ever worked to create.”

He was right. Her father might have made her what she was now, but she was determined to use every bit of brainpower and stamina she had to see that his betrayal ended with her.

She squared her shoulders and looked at him. “Take me back to the office. I want to look at the research and
see if I can find out who Ruby really is. And how we can help her.”

“She’s not the kind of woman we help,” said Adam, his voice ringing with the hard edge of steel on steel.

“No?” asked Mira, confused.

“No. Sadly, Ruby Rypan is beyond our help. She’s the kind of woman we destroy so that others can survive.”

*   *   *

Ruby lounged in her tub long enough to give her visitors time to escape.

It had taken them long enough to find her. She’d been waiting for this for weeks, and the second her silent alarm had been triggered, she knew her patience had paid off.

Adam Brink and Mira Sage were exactly what she’d been hoping for. They no doubt would have bugged her apartment, giving her the perfect way of conveying information to them that she so desperately wanted them to have.

Now all she had to do was set her plan in motion.

Dr. Sage would be free soon, and when he was, he would reward her for her faithful service.

S
ophie spent hours going through videos of the area surrounding the location of her abduction. When she found nothing, she moved on to the area where she’d finally managed her escape.

Lila Mallory, a secretary who worked at the Edge, slipped into the room with a steaming cup of coffee.

The woman was about as interesting as a used brown paper sack. Her drab clothes and plain face were made appealing only by close proximity to her mousy hair and gnawed fingernails. There was a nervous quality to her, as if she were expecting someone to jump out and scare her at any second. Her nose was pink, as if she’d recently been crying, though Sophie doubted that was the case since she’d looked like that for the past several hours.

Every few minutes, Lila very sweetly popped her head into the conference room where Sophie was working, just to see if she needed anything. So far, she’d refused the kind offer, which, apparently, had led Lila to take matters into her own hands.

She set the coffee next to the laptop. “I don’t know how you take it, so I brought cream and sugar.”

“Thanks.”

Lila slipped into the chair next to Sophie’s and waited. For what, Sophie wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t about to ignore the other woman.

She sipped the coffee, covering the grimace over how awful it tasted.

Lila beamed. “Are you having any luck?”

Because it seemed to make her happy, Sophie kept drinking the coffee. “Not really. How did Riley get this footage, anyway?”

“Payton pulled some strings. He’s got friends everywhere.” She leaned forward and whispered, “He’s rich, you know.”

“I didn’t, but good for him.”

Lila just sat there, letting the uncomfortable silence roll on.

“I should probably get back to work here,” said Sophie.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude. It’s just that everyone around here is gone all the time, and I get a little lonely.”

“Not enough work to do?”

“Not really. I usually finish before noon and just hang out the rest of the day.”

“Boring.”

“Very. But I’ll let you go.”

Sophie took pity on the woman. “No, it’s okay. You can hang out here.”

Lila smiled and relaxed in her chair.

Sophie drank more of the vile brew as she queued up the next video. “So what do you know about Riley?”

“He’s a great guy. Works really hard. Takes care of his mom. Bella couldn’t run this place without him.”

Was that a hint of a crush Sophie heard in her voice?

“Is he seeing anyone?”

“Oh,” said Lila. “No. He doesn’t date anymore.”

“Any idea why?”

“Something to do with his ex-girlfriend. Lots of
drama. I didn’t hear much, but Bella was ready to shoot someone over the whole thing.”

“I met Bella. She seems like the type who’s always ready to shoot someone.”

“She’s not that bad. She took me in when I needed a job.”

“And you’re very loyal.” Sophie stifled a yawn.

“It’s easy to be. Everyone here is so glamorous. Did you know they have a whole room here just for evening gowns and tuxedos?”

“Why?”

“They’ve all got built-in armor and stuff. Pretty cool, huh?”

Sophie didn’t know what it was about this woman, but she was practically falling asleep just listening to her. “Yeah. Cool.”

“I put one on once. Bella made me do it. She said I needed to dress up once in a while.”

“Is that so? Bet that was fun.”

“Not really. It was stiff and itchy. And I didn’t really have enough boobs to pull it off.”

Sophie’s head did this slow, lazy spin thing. Clearly, her exhaustion and dehydration were catching up with her.

“You look tired. I’ll go now so you can concentrate.” Lila picked up the empty coffee cup and slipped out.

Sophie pushed the laptop aside and laid her head down on her hands. She went lights-out in seconds.

*   *   *

Lila cracked the door open and made sure the drugs had taken hold. As soon as she saw Sophie’s limp posture, she knew it was time.

She used the cell phone that had been given to her to dial the man who’d been waiting for her signal all morning.

“It’s time,” she said.

“Location?”

“First-floor conference room. Did she tell you when I can see my baby?”

“She’ll be in touch.”

“But that wasn’t our deal. She said if I did this, I’d get to see him.”

“Take it up with the doctor. I’ve told you all I know.”

“But—”

“Listen, lady. If you don’t do the job, neither one of us is going to like what the good doctor does to us. Pull the trigger, already.”

He was right. She had no choice. “Cameras down on your mark.”

“I’m in position. Go.”

Lila temporarily deactivated the cameras inside the first floor of the office. “You have two minutes to get her out of the building.”

“I’ll only need one.”

R
iley couldn’t concentrate. His mind kept wandering back to Sophie.

The way she looked wearing only his sweatshirt. The way she smiled at him. The way her eyes warmed when talking about sex.

With him.

He read the same paragraph for the tenth time, comprehending none of it.

What he really needed was a couple of hours in the gym to blow off some steam. Too bad there wasn’t time for such things. The best he could do was take ten minutes in the john with his fist and his thoughts of a woman he knew better than to touch.

If the idea hadn’t felt so wrong, he might have actually given in to the urge.

He pushed away from his desk and went to seek her out. If he couldn’t get her off his mind, maybe he could help her with the task of working through hours of video footage that might or might not have caught a glimpse of a face or license plate of the bad guys on tape.

Without a solid lead to follow, there was no way to find and stop the men who were after her.

A repairman passed Riley’s office, pushing the
sagging remains of one of the gym’s battered heavy bags on a cart.

The man smiled, but it was purely social, not quite reaching his eyes. “This thing’s seen better days, huh?”

“We had a lot of good hours together. I left more than a bit of skin on that thing over the years.”

The repairman pushed the elevator button to take him down to the garage. “Well, the new one’s up and ready for a beating whenever you are.”

Something wasn’t quite right here. “Did Lila sign you out?”

“She was going to walk me out, but she’s on the phone. I didn’t want to bother her.”

Riley’s instincts were humming, telling him something about this guy was off. Bella normally didn’t allow people to traipse around without an escort—especially not since they’d taken on the new government contract. There was way too much sensitive information floating around to let strangers wander the halls.

“I’ll walk you out.”

“Thanks,” said the repairman, “but you don’t need to.”

The elevator doors opened.

“I was on my way out anyway,” lied Riley.

The man nodded and pushed the cart inside. As it bumped over the threshold, the heavy bag shifted. Riley reached down to steady it.

It was warm and didn’t feel at all like it had the thousands of times he’d thrown a punch at it. In fact, it felt . . . bony.

A female moan rose from the bag. He knew that voice, muffled or not.

Sophie.

There was a flash of motion from the left. Riley saw a glimpse of the man’s weapon a second before it was too late.

He lunged for the man’s arm, slamming it back into the mirrored wall. The glass cracked. The gun went off, blowing a hole in the ceiling of the elevator car.

Riley reacted as he’d been trained to do—with lethal force. He slammed the blade of his hand against the man’s throat, hard enough to crush his larynx. The man pounded his fist into the side of Riley’s head, ringing his bell. Still the gun stayed pinned up high, where it couldn’t hurt Sophie.

There were a couple of wobbly images of the guy in front of him, and both of them were as pissed as hell.

The repairman hadn’t yet realized he was dead.

Another hard punch to Riley’s temple made his head snap sideways, but he didn’t let go of the gun. The guy could beat on him all day long, and that gun was staying right where it was. If he let go, he was as good as dead.

Riley saw the moment the man realized there was no more air for him. His eyes widened and started to water. He clawed at his throat with the hand that had just been busy knocking the hell out of Riley.

He waited, defending himself the best he could from the man’s thrashing. As soon as he started kicking—way too close to Sophie’s head—Riley gathered enough strength to sweep the other man’s legs and ripped the gun free from his grip.

The man toppled. Riley pushed the cart away with his foot. The elevator doors tried to close but kept hitting the cart before bouncing open again.

After a few more seconds, the man quit fighting. He stared up at Riley as he passed out from lack of oxygen. In a few minutes, he’d be dead.

Riley staggered back and wiped the blood from his mouth.

Pounding footsteps drew closer. He drew his weapon.

Payton appeared with Adam only a couple of steps behind him. Both men were armed and ready to fire. As soon as they saw the situation, they reholstered their weapons.

Riley didn’t. “Move out of the way, Payton.”

“Put the gun away,” said Payton.

“Sophie’s in the punching bag. Get her out.”

“What happened here?” asked Adam, apparently sanguine about Riley’s gun being aimed at his head.

“You sold her out, didn’t you?” asked Riley. “You let that fucker in here to take her.”

Adam lifted his hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Put your weapon away and we’ll clear up everything.”

Payton ripped the duct tape off the opening in the heavy bag and pulled Sophie’s limp body from where it had been hidden. Sand spilled out.

“Is she okay?” asked Riley.

“She will be. Come see for yourself,” said Payton.

“I’m a little busy.”

“Is he dead?” asked Adam, nodding toward the fallen man.

“Not yet. Give it a minute. Crushed throat.”

“I’m going to help him,” said Adam, his voice calm but hard.

“If you think I’m going to let you save your buddy, you’re out of your ever-loving mind.”

“He’s not my buddy, but he may have useful information. Shoot me or don’t, but I’m doing this.”

As he spoke, he pulled a penknife from his pocket and leaned down next to the unconscious man. Less than ten seconds later, Adam had performed an emergency tracheotomy, shoving the shaft of a pen in the hole to give the man room to breathe.

“Hand me the tape?” he asked Payton.

He shifted Sophie’s limp weight to one arm, then ripped the duct tape free the rest of the way.

Adam finished the job by taping the pen in place and stood.

Riley still hadn’t shot him, though he wasn’t sure why. Probably because Bella would have given him hell over it.

“Search him for drugs,” ordered Payton. “We need to find out what he used to dose her.”

“Drugs?” Riley’s blood temperature lowered a degree or two.

Lila appeared in the crowded elevator doorway and immediately burst into tears. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” said Riley as he steadied his aim on Adam, “but I’m sure as hell going to find out.”

*   *   *

Adam kept his movements slow and nonthreatening. He didn’t for one moment believe that Riley wouldn’t shoot him where he stood if he felt the need to do so.

“Lila, go get some cuffs.”

She scurried off to obey Riley’s command.

Air hissed through the pen in the man’s throat.

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Adam.

Mira’s pretty face appeared in the elevator doorway, and until this very second, he hadn’t realized just how worried he’d been about her. Her office was one floor up, not far from the elevator shaft. It would have been nothing for the bullet to have ripped through the walls and hit her.

His whole body relaxed slightly against his will. Normally, he controlled such movements, but when it came to Mira, he had so very little control.

All he wanted to do now was wrap her up in his arms and carry her away from this place. Of course, had he done that, Riley would likely shoot him, thinking he was saving Mira.

Her voice was high with disbelief. “What the hell, Riley? Take that gun off his head.”

“He did this. He drugged Sophie just like he did you, only this time he let this bastard do his dirty work and cart her off like so much dirty laundry.”

Adam looked right into Mira’s eyes. “I did not.”

She pulled out her phone, tapped on it a couple of times. “He’s not lying.”

“How do you know?” asked Riley.

“I track him everywhere he goes. He’s been in his office for the past hour.”

“You mean his dog tags have been.”

“No. All his trackers were in the same place.”

“
All
of them?” asked Adam. He knew she kept tabs on him, but until now he hadn’t realized just how far her mistrust of him had gone.

“Yes. All of them.”

Riley lowered his weapon and went to Sophie’s side.

Lila came back, her face wet with tears. In her fist was a pair of zip ties.

Adam used them to bind the unconscious man before searching his clothing. “He doesn’t have any drugs on him. Just weapons, keys, and cash.”

Sophie groaned.

“It’s okay, honey. You’re safe,” said Riley.

It was a lie, but one Adam understood. What sense was there in distressing a woman who was so drugged she couldn’t even keep her eyes open?

“Let’s move this show elsewhere,” said Payton. “I’m going downstairs to see if our friend has anyone waiting on him.”

“I’ll come with you,” said Adam.

Riley shot him a violent glare. “No. You’re staying in this building until I figure out how this went down. Mira, go check the video logs.”

She didn’t move. Instead, she accessed something on her phone again.

“I’ll be fine,” said Payton. “I may be old, but I have done this a time or two before.”

Adam lifted the unconscious man, making sure his airway was still open. He set him on the cart and pushed him toward the nearest conference room.

Riley was right behind him with Sophie in his arms. Mira and Lila brought up the rear.

The conference room filled up fast. Adam tracked Mira’s movements as she entered the space. He wished for a few
minutes alone with her to make sure she truly believed that it wasn’t he who’d tried to hurt Sophie. He wasn’t sure why it should matter so much to him, but it did.

Riley settled in the far corner of the room with Sophie on his lap. She was awake enough now that she was clinging weakly to his neck, which was a good sign.

Lila moved the chairs to make room for the cart along the back wall.

Adam tried to catch Mira’s gaze, but she was too busy with her phone to look up at him.

“We need to call an ambulance,” said Lila.

“Not until we question him,” said Adam.

“But he can’t talk—not with that pen in his throat.” She started to remove the tape, but Adam stopped her.

“If you take that pen out, he’s dead. Leave it alone. When he wakes up—if he does—we’ll make him write down what we want to know.”

“He needs medical attention,” said Lila.

“And he’ll get it. As soon as he tells us who sent him.”

She paled and sagged into a chair.

Mira finally looked up from what she was doing. “Someone definitely let him in. Records show that the garage entrance opened about twenty minutes ago and never closed. Someone must have propped the door open.”

“Whose key card was used to open it?” asked Riley.

“It was opened from the inside. No key card needed.”

“There are cameras on that door. What did they show?” asked Adam.

“Nothing. They were disabled. Whoever did it knew enough to trick the security systems into thinking that nothing was wrong.”

“Adam knows enough to do that,” said Riley.

“But I didn’t.”

“Just about everyone here is smart enough to learn how, and they all have access to the building,” said Mira.

“Do you want me to get you a log of who was inside at the time?” asked Lila.

“No, I’ve got that right here. Looks like there are about a dozen of us.”

“We should gather the others,” said Lila. “I’ll go get them.”

“No,” said Adam. “Let them think their plan is still in place. Only we know the truth.”

Riley stood with Sophie in his arms. “I’m taking Sophie to see Dr. Vaughn.”

“I’ll tell her you’re on the way,” said Mira as she sent the text.

Riley glared at Adam. “If I find out this was your doing, I will take you down.”

Adam nodded. “I’d expect no less.”

Riley left.

Lila leaned over the man’s breathing tube. “He’s sounding worse. You really need to let me call an ambulance. You can question him after they patch him up.”

Adam doubted the man would survive his injuries, no matter what doctors did for him. But as the minutes ticked by, it was getting less and less likely that he would wake at all. “Go ahead, Lila, but have them come in the front doors. We don’t want them destroying any evidence by coming in through the garage.”

She got up and scurried away, sniffing and wiping her nose as she went.

As soon as the door closed, Mira looked up. “Tell me you didn’t drug Sophie.”

“I didn’t,” he said without hesitation.

She got up and crossed the room until she was right in front of him. She grabbed his shirt and pulled. He let her do as she pleased, following her lead.

As soon as he was on eye level with her, she asked again, “Did you drug Sophie?”

“No. I did not.”

She stared right into his eyes for a few seconds before nodding. “Okay.”

“You believe me?” he asked, keeping all signs of
frustration from his voice. He hated it that she still didn’t trust him, but he refused to hold it against her.

Mira would have had to be an idiot to trust him under these circumstances, and Mira was no idiot.

“I do. Which means we need to find out who did.”

“Are you sure that the only people inside the building are ours?”

She shook her head. “No. I wish I could say otherwise, but anyone with enough skills to do what was done to trick our security system could easily have found a way in from the outside. They could have been in here for hours—days, even—just waiting until it was time to strike.”

“We should consider focusing less on who did it and more on why.”

“Sophie is on the List. Riley had me research her.”

“Looks like Stynger is still collecting subjects.”

“Yes, but this was a risky hit. What makes Sophie so important that Stynger would be willing to take these kinds of risks?”

“Stynger wouldn’t have seen it as a risk.”

“Why not?” asked Mira. “Surely she’s smart enough to know that sending people into the enemy camp is dangerous.”