Razor's Edge (23 page)

“Then let's get out there and look for the truth. I'll take you to talk to people who can answer your questions.”

“You make it sound as though I'm a kid who's confused. I'm not. I've talked to people online—people who know the truth.”

Jake barely stifled the urge to roll his eyes. “Of course you can find some idiot online who thinks the end of the world is coming. You can also find idiots online who think the Earth is hollow. That doesn't make it true.”

The light in her eyes winked out as if she'd drawn the shutters closed. He felt her pulling away at his insults when what he'd wanted to do was get her to help him.

“You should go,” she said. “If they find you here, you won't like what happens.”

“They're going to find out. There are too many cameras around for them not to. I'm surprised the cavalry hasn't already come to save you.”

“Then you should leave.”

“I've already committed the crime. I came here hoping you'd help me and my friends escape.”

“I can't. I'm sorry. I've already done everything I can to help your friend. That's all I can offer.”

“We need to get out of here.”

“I can't go anywhere.”

“You can't stay here. Your mother is a fucking monster.”

“My place is here. Please try to understand that. I do what I can to . . . mitigate the things Mother does. I have to stay.”

He couldn't listen to any more. He grabbed her arms, struggling to keep his grip light enough not to hurt her. He wanted to shake her and knock some sense into her, but he worried that if he made the wrong move, she'd stop listening to him. “Why did you help me mail my journal? You had to know that the authorities would find it and shut this place down. You'll be held as accountable as the rest of them.”

“No one will ever find us. We move around. We hide. We've been doing it for years, and no one's ever found us. If I don't stay, who will stop her from doing the truly horrible things?”

“You don't think what she's done so far is horrible?”

Jordyn's gaze slid to the floor. “I've seen worse.”

This whole mess had grown far beyond what he'd thought was at stake. Sure, Rox was in trouble, and he and his buddies were in even worse trouble, but it was more than that. If he didn't stop Dr. Stynger, more men would be fooled into coming here. More men would be drugged and tortured—or worse, if Jordyn was to be believed.

Jake couldn't let that happen.

“Just ask yourself this,” he said. “What if you're wrong? What if you have a better chance of stopping her from the outside?”

He saw a flicker of indecision cross her face. “I don't. There are too many other locations where they could go, and I know how to find only a few of them.”

“Are you sure she's not exaggerating? She holds people against their will. She tortured me, and if I'm not mistaken, you as well. How big a leap is it to think she'd lie, too?”

Jordyn turned her back on him. “You need to go. Now. Or I'm going to raise the alarm.”

“Please, just consider what I said. That's all I ask. Just think about it.” All he had to do was plant the seeds of doubt in her mind. She was smart. She'd figure the rest out herself.

At least he hoped she would.

“Go!” she commanded .

Jake backed away, feeling defeated. “I'm leaving. In fact I'm leaving this whole place. With or without your help.”

 

 

Jordyn heard the door to her quarters shut.

Her legs sagged beneath her, going weak. She sank down to the toilet and cradled her head in her hands.

What if he was right? What if Mother was lying? It certainly wouldn't have been the worst thing she'd done.

Then again, what if she wasn't? And what if Jordyn's only chance to help was to stay where she was?

She didn't know what to believe. The one thing she did know was that if she lost what little control she had, countless innocent lives would be destroyed.

There were no simple answers. But she did know for sure that if Jake was caught roaming the halls, his punishment would be severe.

There wasn't much she could do to help him, but she had to try something. She logged in to the security system and began deleting stored images from the camera feeds as fast as she could.

R
oxanne woke suddenly. Fear spurted through her system before she had time to register what had caused her to wake. For a moment, she couldn't remember where she was. It was dark and cold.

A noise—that was what had woken her.

“Easy,” came Tanner's low, reassuring voice. “It's just me. I'm sorry I woke you.”

“It's okay. I'm a light sleeper.” The alarm clock said she'd been asleep for only an hour, but now that adrenaline had flooded her body, she wasn't sure she could go back to sleep. Besides, the dreams she'd been having weren't much fun. She kept reliving the episode at the clinic, but this time the nurse was dead, too, and Jake had been in one of the exam rooms, bleeding out onto the floor. Roxanne hadn't been able to save him. He'd died while she watched, begging her to help.

Suffice it to say, she was not enjoying her subconscious's effort to work through her worry, guilt, and fear.

She fumbled to find her bottled water and gulped some down. Her throat ached as she swallowed, and it probably didn't look any better than it felt.

Tanner flipped on the bathroom light, and it cast a yellow glow over the right side of his body. He was shirtless, and his jeans had been unbuttoned, displaying ridges of muscle that angled beneath his low waistband.

She blinked her eyes, letting them adjust to the light. A slow, warm heaviness began to build in her abdomen, driving away some of the lingering effects of her startle.

If she kept staring, she was going to start thinking about their kiss, and if she did that, she was going to embarrass herself by trying to get another. As needy and desperate as she was beginning to feel, she certainly didn't want to
look
like she was needy and desperate. It wasn't at all becoming.

Roxanne threw the covers back so she could get up. Cold air hit her bare legs. “It's freezing in here.”

His gaze slid up her legs, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sorry. The air conditioner has only two settings—arctic and off.”

“Doesn't matter. We should get moving, anyway.”

“There's no rush. No one is at the Edge yet, and you haven't had enough sleep.”

“Did you sleep?”

His response was a shrug.

“What does that mean? You did sleep or you didn't?”

“I dozed.”

“Why don't you doze some more while I call Payton. He's an early riser. And if he's not up yet, I really don't mind waking him.”

“Or I could call Reid. It wouldn't be the first time I woke him up at crazy o'clock.”

“We'll call both of them. We need all the help we can get.”

“And then we'll go find breakfast.”

She smiled at that. Tanner was always hungry. “It's a wonder you're not fat.”

“Fast metabolism.”

“I can only wish.”

“It's really not as great as you might think. We were cut off from our supply lines once, out scouting in a small group. We got pinned down for three days with no food, unable to even move enough to hunt for lizards or anything, and I can tell you that the guy with the fast metabolism is the first one to starve.”

The thought of him suffering like that gave her pause. She had never once been in a position where there was no food—not even when she'd been held hostage. Hunger wasn't something she ever had to face. She tried to imagine what it must have been like—how desperate he must have felt.

She reached up and touched the side of his face. “I'm so sorry.”

He swallowed and stared down at her mouth. “It's no big deal. But I am really happy to be back in the land of the Big Mac.”

“And we're happy to have you home.”

She was standing too close. His eyes had dark blue rays jutting out from his pupils, which were swallowed up by black as he continued to stare. The short stubble under her fingers tickled her skin.

She wasn't supposed to touch him. They were keeping their distance now. Staying professional. She didn't fondle the faces of the men she worked with.

With a strenuous force of will, Roxanne stepped back and let her hand fall. She fled and hid in the bathroom, praying her heart would slow and her body would stop trembling.

Tanner O'Connell was a potent package, and she kept being pulled in by him. Knowing what he'd suffered was only going to make it that much harder to keep her hands to herself. Nobility was a prize worth more than gems or precious metals. It couldn't be bought, but it was within her reach, beckoning her to grab hold and never let go.

She shoved aside the ridiculous notion and dialed Payton. He answered on the second ring, his voice clear and alert.

“Good morning, Razor. You're up early.”

“Or late, depending on how you look at it. Is Bella back yet?”

“Not for another three days. I'm afraid you're stuck with me.”

“I was wondering if you had any manpower you could spare,” she said.

“Where are you? Is this about that journal?”

“It is. We're in New Mexico. We've run into some trouble. I need help.”

“Of course. You're willing to pay our usual rates, I'm sure.”

Payton cared more about profit than any man she knew. Of course, it was because of him that the Edge had the money to cover Bella's expenses. “You know that's not a problem. But I need people I can trust. Tanner wants to call in Reid. I think our best bet is to find a couple of men who can pass as good ol' boys in a small town.”

“Gage Dallas fits that profile.”

“But he's not much of a talker. I need someone who can chat up the locals and find out if any strangers matching Jake's description have passed through.”

“Why not do it yourself?”

“We tried. We ended up in police custody, and I'm not too sure just how friendly local law enforcement is to our cause.”

“Were you charged with anything?”

“Not yet. Two medical professionals were attacked. They have Tanner and me on camera going in well after the attack took place. They also have the guy who did it on video. I don't think it will be a problem, or I would have already called my attorney.”

“But news spreads fast in a small town. And no one is going to trust you now.”

“Exactly,” said Roxanne.

“Clay is on call. I'll send him and Gage to meet you. Will that suffice?”

“Add Reid's time onto my bill, too. He'll probably come without getting paid, since he's Tanner's brother, but he shouldn't have to.”

“I'm not so sure he'd come. Tanner and Reid aren't exactly close.”

“No?”

“No. Not that it's any of my affair.”

Which was rich for
I know juicy gossip that I'm not going to tell you.

“I'll let them sort that out,” she said, refusing to get nosy. She was dying to know more about Tanner, even if it wasn't something sterling and noble. She craved information, but she wasn't willing to talk behind his back. If he wanted her to know, he'd tell her. Right after she asked.

 

 

Payton breathed deeply, struggling to still his internal panic. His training kept him calm on the outside, but inside, he was boiling with anxiety.

Razor's life was at stake. So were the lives of several others—people he had sworn to protect. But he couldn't stand by and do nothing. He had to know the truth. He had to know if the entries in that journal were the deranged ravings of a lunatic, or solid proof that what he'd felt in his gut was true.

The Threshold Project wasn't dead. It wasn't buried under a mountain of top secret documents—those he hadn't destroyed himself. The research had started again. Maybe it had a different name, and maybe they were using grown men instead of children, but the results were still the same. People were going to die, their lives would be destroyed, their families torn apart.

And what about the original subjects? The List had been destroyed, or so they'd thought, but he still remembered the names of the people he'd hurt.

He couldn't let it happen again.

Sending Gage and Clay helped ease some of his concern. Even with Clay's injuries, he would be an asset. Both men were deadly. Both would protect Razor with their lives. Both of them would know where to look for signs of human experimentation, since they'd both been subjected to the same thing. Neither one remembered, but the knowledge was in them, buried deep and hidden under layers of security.

Maybe something they'd see would strike a chord and they'd find whoever was doing this and stop them fast.

Then again, maybe seeing that same thing would break away some of those layers, leaving them closer to remembering the truth. If that happened, not only would his cover be blown, but chances were neither of them would live through it.

Payton considered going into hiding for one brief, cowardly moment. He had enough money to live out his life in peace. He could find a beach somewhere and be served fruity drinks by busty women until the day he died.

But if he did, what would happen to those kids? They needed him here, watching over them, keeping them safe from themselves. Keeping the world safe from them.