Edge of Betrayal Read online

  PRAISE FOR SHANNON K. BUTCHER AND THE SENTINEL WARS

  Falling Blind

  “Amazing and dramatic . . . heart pounding [and] heartbreaking.”

  —The Reading Cafe

  “A taut mixture of action and suspense.”

  —Smexy Books

  “I like this author’s voice and have enjoyed journeying with her into this paranormal world filled with monsters, aliens, talented women, and powerful men.”

  —Fiction Vixen

  Dying Wish

  “You’ll be thrilled, entertained, enamored, and when it’s all done, you’ll be begging . . . for more.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “[A] fascinating, gritty read.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “Unexpected twists and turns.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “I loved Dying Wish. . . . If you have not started this series, please do not miss it.”

  —The Reading Cafe

  Living Nightmare

  “There’s only one way to describe this book to me: fabulous!”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “[An] action-packed story of the brooding and angry warrior Madoc and his journey to the future. This series rocks!”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Utilizing her ability to combine excellent characterization with riveting danger, rising star Butcher adds another fascinating tier to her expanding world. You are always guaranteed generous portions of pulse-pounding action and romance in a Butcher tale!”

  —Romantic Times

  “Ms. Butcher’s written word began to grab hold of my imagination and lead me on a ride unlike anything I have read before.”

  —Coffee Time Romance & More

  Running Scared

  “I love it!”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “I cannot wait for the next book in this really fun series.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “Superb storytelling.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “A must read for all paranormal fans.”

  —The Romance Reviews

  “Keeps you hooked till the end.”

  —Smexy Books

  Finding the Lost

  “The same appeal as Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series.”

  —Booklist

  “Shannon K. Butcher’s world building is phenomenal.”

  —The Romance Reviews (5 stars)

  “A very entertaining read. . . . The ending was a great cliff-hanger, and I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.”

  —The Book Lush

  “Hard-hitting action and wrenching emotions. Butcher is a major talent in the making.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Brings danger right up against a love of the centuries.”

  —Joyfully Reviewed

  “I can’t wait to read the next book in the series . . . fast-paced with great action scenes and lots of hot romance.

  —Night Owl Reviews

  Burning Alive

  “Nonstop action. I look forward to the next installment.”

  —A Romance Review (5 roses)

  “Ms. Butcher is carving her way onto the bestseller lists with this phenomenal nonstop ride.”

  —Affaire de Coeur (5 stars)

  “Absorbing. . . . Fans of Butcher’s romantic suspense novels will enjoy her turn toward the paranormal.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Fresh and delightfully creative . . . [an] exciting new series.”

  —Darque Reviews

  “Butcher’s first foray into paranormal romance and what a doozy it is!”

  —ParaNormal Romance

  “A different twist on the paranormal genre.”

  —Fallen Angel Reviews

  THE EDGE NOVELS

  Edge of Sanity

  Razor’s Edge

  Living on the Edge

  NOVELS OF THE SENTINEL WARS

  Willing Sacrifice

  Falling Blind

  Bound by Vengeance

  (A Penguin Special)

  Dying Wish

  Blood Hunt

  Living Nightmare

  Running Scared

  Finding the Lost

  Burning Alive

  SIGNET ECLIPSE

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014

  USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

  penguin.com

  A Penguin Random House Company

  First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  Copyright © Shannon K. Butcher, 2014

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  SIGNET ECLIPSE and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  ISBN 978-1-101-63263-5

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Contents

  Praise

  The Edge Novels

  Title page

  Copyright page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Shannon Butcher’s next Edge novel

  For Gretchen Jones, who always has the best ideas and is constantly ready for an adventure, and whose sense of direction is so good, it must be some form of dark sorcery.
/>   Chapter One

  Dallas, Texas, February 18

  There were only two men in the world Mira Sage had ever hated enough to consider killing with her bare hands, and only one of them was still breathing.

  She watched the man on her tablet, ignoring the fact that she was breaking about seven laws by doing so.

  Adam Brink was up to something, and no matter how many bugs she had to plant, no matter how many traffic cameras or surveillance systems she had to hack into, she wasn’t letting the man out of her sight.

  His tall, lean body glided swiftly over the cracked pavement in the alley behind a vacant distribution facility. His arms were filled with more boxes of who knew what—just like the boxes he’d been carrying in for the last hour. He glanced over his shoulder occasionally, checking to make sure he wasn’t being followed.

  Even from this extreme distance, with the poor camera angle and night descending on the area, Mira swore she could see guilt riding his angular features.

  Whatever he was doing, she was going to catch him in the act. Maybe then her coworkers at the Edge would believe her when she said Adam Brink was still the enemy.

  Mira started her car’s engine and moved in on his location. Still out of sight, she slipped from her car and did her best to slink closer to the building where he was up to his nefarious deeds.

  Without any windows in the building to peer through, she had no choice but to slip inside and follow him. There was no way to know what greeted her in there—dead bodies, illegal human experimentation, a meeting of twisted scientific minds—but she was ready for anything.

  The gun holstered under her arm still felt awkward. She was a much better shot now, thanks to her boss’s insistent training, but skill and resolve were two different things. As much as she wanted to believe she could shoot someone if she had to, she wasn’t sure she had it in her.

  She knew intimately just how much being shot sucked.

  Bella had promised that the will to survive would shine through if Mira got into trouble, and that she’d be able to pull the trigger. She wished she had even half of her boss’s confidence.

  The employee entrance, at the back of the brick building, was unlocked. There was no light spilling out from under the door. No sign that anyone was inside.

  With a deep breath for courage, she drew her gun, turned the doorknob, and slipped inside.

  There was little light to see by—just the glow from another room ahead beckoning her forward, and even with that, all she could see was dust and open spaces. She heard nothing but the frantic drum of her own heartbeat. Beneath her clinging black layers, sweat collected along her spine. The revolver in her hand trembled.

  You can do this, she told herself. Bella has trained you well.

  A deep, melodic sound rose from the glowing opening ahead.

  Singing? The sound seemed so out of place here, she was sure she had to be imagining things.

  As the sound continued, she realized that she knew that voice. It was filled with quiet strength and, like everything about Adam, skill.

  Hearing him do something so normal gave her pause. There was no evil in the simple act of singing. It was all too human, shaking her resolve.

  And that pissed her off.

  Adam Brink had tricked her, lied to her, drugged her, abducted her, and delivered her to her father, who had been more than willing to kill her to get what he wanted. A sweet, crooning tune didn’t change any of that.

  Mira steadied her weapon and moved forward, being careful to follow in the footprints left behind in the dust. For all she knew, this place had been filled with explosive traps to keep out unwanted visitors.

  As she moved forward, the singing grew louder. There were no other voices, but she could hear low strains of music filling the lighted space that was blocked from sight by the wall on her left. She vaguely recognized the tune as one from the 1940s. Dramatic, romantic, and filled with the hope of new love.

  The way Adam sang it almost made her forget he was a monster.

  She steadied her weapon and eased around the corner just enough to get an idea of what faced her on the other side of the wall.

  Adam sat at a table covered with a pristine white cloth. Atop it was a glass bowl filled with water topped with floating candles. She could smell something savory, sinfully rich, and loaded with garlic coming from the room. Two dome-covered plates were laid out, along with sparkling stemware filled with deep red wine. Candlelight glinted off the flatware and made Adam’s pale gray eyes sparkle with warmth as they met her gaze.

  “I was hoping you’d come,” he said.

  Mira jerked her head back around the corner and stood on the other side of the wall in shock. He was alone. There were no instruments of torture, no screaming human subjects, no evil scientists. Just Adam and a candlelit dinner for two.

  She was so confused by the sight, she looked again. Sure enough, nothing had changed. He hadn’t even shifted in his seat.

  “Will you join me, Mira?” he asked.

  He’d seen her. There was no sense in pretending he hadn’t.

  She stepped around the corner, revolver raised and aimed at his chest.

  “Your hand is shaking. I’d really prefer not to be the victim of an accidental shooting.”

  “Wouldn’t be an accident. Bella told me never to point a gun at anything I didn’t want to kill.”

  A sad flicker of disappointment wrinkled his brow. “I see.”

  “Who else is here?” she demanded.

  “No one. You’ve doubtlessly been watching me all day.”

  How had he known? She’d been so careful in her surveillance.

  Adam continued. “Have you seen anyone else enter the building?”

  Mira hadn’t, but she wasn’t about to say so. “I’m the one asking questions here.”

  He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. His shirt pulled tight across his shoulders, and for a second, the memory of him covered in blood sprung back into her mind. She wanted to feel some kind of satisfaction in his pain, but all she felt was a queasy swell of nausea.

  “Ask away, then,” he said.

  She swallowed hard, shoving the bloody image from her mind. “Why are you here?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  She steadied the weapon, forcing her shaking to even out. “I don’t assume anything you do is what it seems.”

  “In this case it is. All that’s going on here is dinner.”

  “Who’s coming?”

  “You.”

  That news rattled her, but she tried to hide her surprise. “You didn’t know I was coming.”

  “Of course I did. You’ve been watching me for weeks. All I had to do was give you an enticing enough reason to investigate.”

  “All this trouble so I’d come to dinner with you? Even you aren’t that desperate.”

  “I’ve tried to talk to you at work. Repeatedly. You walk away and lock me out of your office every time. I went by your house. Twice. You refused to answer the door even though I knew you were home. You’ve left me no choice but to resort to extreme measures to gain your attention.”

  “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  He glanced pointedly at the barrel of her revolver. “I beg to differ. You’re speaking eloquently right now.”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “Never. All I want is a few minutes of your time. After that, I’ll leave you alone.”

  Mira didn’t see how that was possible, considering they worked at the same office. She had made it clear to her boss that she couldn’t stand the man, but Bella had made sure that Mira knew that hiring decisions were none of her business. She would work with Adam, or she’d find a new job.

  No way was Mira going to let Adam scare her away from the job and friends she loved.

&
nbsp; “The weapon isn’t necessary,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Again, you mean.”

  Adam winced but didn’t break eye contact with her. Nor did he try to pretend that he hadn’t done to her what he’d done. “Yes, Mira. Never again.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I understand why you wouldn’t, but I’m trying to do the right thing by you. Please, just have a seat.”

  “If you think I’m going to let you drug me again by eating your food, you’re insane.”

  “Fine. Don’t eat. Just listen.”

  “Why would I listen to you? I know how well you lie.”

  Adam stared at her for a moment, regret plain in the lines on his angular face. Somehow, the emotion made him even more handsome than he was naturally. She knew it was an act—everything he did was a carefully planned series of lies meant to fool her into trusting him—but that didn’t mean she didn’t notice his appeal. Being honest about her feelings was the only way to combat them.

  There had been a moment not too long ago that she’d actually believed she could fall for this man.

  How wrong she’d been.

  Mira had always been gullible like that—willing to trust any kindness offered her, no matter how fake, no matter the ulterior motives.

  His posture shifted, moving from relaxed to alert. She could almost feel him coiling to strike. Even so, his voice remained quiet and gentle. “You’ve been ignoring me since I started working at the Edge. I gave you time to heal from your wounds. I gave you weeks to accept that we are now coworkers, but it seems that you’re as immovable as your father.”

  A violent surge of fury consumed her, clenching her jaw around her words. “Don’t ever compare me to him. Do you understand?”

  “Finally, a reaction. You’ve been so cold I wasn’t sure there was any fire left in you.”

  Her fingers tightened around the butt of her revolver and she lifted her aim. She wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to pull the trigger, but after what Adam had done to her, scaring him was the least he deserved.

  Not that anything she did could scare a man like Adam Brink.

  He ignored the weapon aimed at his head and stood. As he glided closer, she swore she could feel the heat of his body shimmering out of him. There had been a time—a few insane moments last December—when she would have done anything to get closer to him. He’d fooled her into thinking he was a decent man. Right before he’d drugged and abducted her for reasons she still didn’t fully understand.