Rough Edges Read online

  “Your loose brains speak eloquently on my behalf.”

  He leaned over to kiss her, but she put up a hand and stopped him cold.

  “Don’t,” was all she said.

  “So, that’s it? We’re done?”

  “No, we have a mission to complete. The fucking is done.”

  His mouth went tight with anger, but he nodded. “Fine. Whatever you have to tell yourself. But when you wake up in the night, aching and wet, needing what I just gave you, don’t think I’ll be waiting around.”

  “I do own a vibrator, you know.” She almost laughed at how ridiculous and lame her self-inflicted orgasms seemed compared to what he’d just given her.

  He stood and shed the condom. “Apparently I’m easy to replace then. Excellent to know.”

  She’d hurt him, which had been the last thing she’d wanted to do. “It’s not like that.”

  He held up his hand for her to stop talking. “It’s fine. I get it. You’ve been clear from the beginning that this thing between us could never be more than fucking. If that’s the way you want it, then that’s the way it’ll be. You’re the boss.”

  She flinched at the chill in his tone. Things had been so good just a minute ago, then she had to go and mess it up by opening her big mouth.

  He picked up his clothes and stalked down the hall to the bathroom. She didn’t follow. Not only was she worried she’d make it worse, she wasn’t entirely sure her legs could support her weight right now.

  She stripped out of the tattered clothes he’d ripped open, and eased into an upright position. The world was still spinning from the epic orgasm he’d given her.

  She really wasn’t sure how she was going to go through the rest of her life without feeling that again, but she needed to find a way. Fast. Pleasure like that could easily be addicting, and she needed to stop now, before she no longer could.

  Victor came back, completely dressed, tidy and looking unfazed by the rocking he’d just given her world. The only sign of emotion she got from him was the heat in his eyes as his gaze slid along her naked body. “Your turn. There are still more scrubs in the cabinet for you to wear.”

  “I think we should talk.”

  “Nothing to talk about. Your position is clear—something I always appreciate in a manager.”

  “We can’t let things get weird between us.”

  “Then perhaps you should clean up and put on some clothes. The wet gleam between your thighs is a bit of a distraction for me. It reminds me I haven’t eaten in far too long.”

  She used the shreds of fabric to cover herself and scurried to the bathroom. One hit of an addictive man like Victor was bad enough. Two would hook her for life.

  For the first time in years, she actually considered whether or not life with a man would be such a bad thing.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Where is she?” Randolph asked the second Lila answered her phone.

  “What?” she asked, sounding confused.

  “Where is Bella? You were supposed to be keeping tabs on her.”

  “I tried. I told you she doesn’t tell me where she goes. It’s early. She’s probably home asleep.”

  “Wrong. I checked. There’s a man in her house, but she’s not there.”

  “Oh, right,” said Lila. “I heard something about a rotating detail to watch her house. I guess someone broke in while she was gone.”

  That someone had been him, but he saw no reason to enlighten the woman. “Does she have a boyfriend? A lover?”

  “Bella? Not that I know of. She doesn’t have time for a social life.”

  “Then where the hell is she?”

  “I’m trying to do what you want. I really am, but my hands are tied. There’s a system that tracks the locations of everyone who works at the Edge, but I don’t have access to it.”

  “Who does?”

  “Bella does. So does Mira Sage. Maybe one or two others, but I don’t know who they are.”

  Mira was the brains that ran the tech at the Edge. From what Randolph had heard she wasn’t much use in a fight, but put her at a keyboard and she was a devastating force. “I want you to steal Mira’s access information. Codes, passwords—whatever it takes to break into that tracking system.”

  “I can’t do that without getting caught.”

  “Your son needs you. Find a way, Lila.”

  A sob tightened her voice. “I swear I would do it if I could, but there’s no way. Mira is always in her office. Whenever Adam Brink isn’t looking for his brother, he’s with her. Even if Mira doesn’t see what I’m doing, he will. That man misses nothing.”

  “There’s got to be some way to break into her office when she’s away.”

  “Even if I did, how would I find what you need? I doubt she has all of her passwords written down on a Post-it note by her keyboard. And even if she did, I wouldn’t know how to use the system. It’s a live tracking system, which means that I’d have to have constant access to it. I know Mira would be able to see that I was logged in as her.”

  Randolph couldn’t risk losing an asset like Lila, not until she’d come to the end of her usefulness. But it had been too many hours since Bella had last been dosed with the drug that would be her undoing—the one Stynger had developed all those years ago to subdue Bella’s aggression, making her obedient and afraid. It was supposed to be absorbed through the skin, activated through heightened emotional states. She needed only three or four doses to do the job. That’s why he’d put it in her hot water tank. Was it too much to ask a woman to shower at home every day? He didn’t think so.

  Frustration rode hard on Randolph’s heels, making his words clipped. “I need to find her.”

  “I can call around and see if anyone’s seen her, tell them she has an urgent call. It might get back to her that I was snooping around, but I could probably come up with a cover story by then.”

  “Do it. Find her, bring her back into the office and when she’s there, you’re going to do something for me.”

  Fear made Lila’s voice shake. “What?”

  “I’ll drop off a vial of medicine in your car tonight. Tomorrow, you will find Bella and make sure she takes it.”

  “Please don’t ask me to poison her. I can’t do that.”

  “It’s not going to hurt her. She won’t feel a thing.”

  “I don’t care. I can’t hurt Bella like that. She’s my friend.”

  “I thought you wanted your son back.”

  “I do.”

  “Then do this one last job.”

  “If I do, you’ll bring my baby back home?”

  “You have my word. Now, follow my instructions exactly, or I’ll be reporting back to Dr. Stynger that you’ve lost interest in getting your son home safely.”

  “Please, no. I’ll do what you say. You promise it won’t hurt her?”

  “Just think of it as medicine she needs to remember who she really is.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t need to. All you need to do is follow orders. Once I know you’ve done the job, you’ll get your baby back safe and sound. But if you fuck this up, Lila, you will be sorry.”

  She started to cry. He hung up the phone so he wouldn’t have to listen to her irritating sobbing. There was too much for him to do to waste time on her nonsense. Not only did he have to drop off Stynger’s cocktail for Bella at Lila’s apartment, he also had a man to kill. He probably should make it look like an accident, but in the mood he was in right now, there was bound to be bloodshed.

  * * *

  Payton was still wide awake when his phone rang. He hadn’t slept at all last night and was starting to wonder if he ever would again. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the faces of the kids he’d hurt, including Bella’s.

  She, the woman he loved like th
e daughter he never had, hated him. With good reason. The things he’d allowed to happen to her and countless others were not the sort of things worthy of forgiveness.

  He’d been trying to make up for his crimes for decades and he still hadn’t found a path to forgiveness. Maybe there was none.

  He answered the call from General Norwood, bracing himself for whatever bad news was waiting for him this time.

  “Good morning, General.”

  Norwood didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “Kerrington was murdered less than an hour ago.”

  Shock ricocheted through Payton’s system for a moment before settling through his body in a wave of grief and regret. There was no love lost between them, but he had a family, friends—people who loved him and would grieve deeply for him. “How?”

  “Gunshot to the head. Stab wounds to the body. Lots of them. There was a lot of blood splatter, Payton—too much for the head shot to have come first. Someone was pissed.”

  “Were there defensive wounds?” asked Payton, hoping the man had been asleep when the attack had happened.

  “He was bound.”

  Kerrington had been alive while the killer had worked on him, a notion that turned Payton’s stomach. The senator hadn’t been a great man. Most of the time he’d hardly been a good one. But no one deserved to die like that, not even after the things he’d done.

  At least that’s what Payton wanted to believe, because if Kerrington deserved a gruesome death like that, Payton deserved much, much worse.

  “His wife?” he asked.

  “Out of town visiting relatives. She’s safe.”

  Payton let out a long breath. “Thank God.”

  “She’s on her way back now. Local law enforcement assured me that they won’t let her see him like that.”

  “Any idea who did it?”

  Norwood paused for too long. “There was a note.”

  “What did it say?”

  “Loose end number one. Two more to go.”

  Payton’s breath caught in his chest. He knew that he was a walking target, that sooner or later Stynger would get tired of him nipping at her heels. But knowing that someone wanted him dead and knowing she was coming after him now were two different things entirely.

  “Are you two or three?” he asked Norwood.

  “No clue. But I’m protected. As long as I stay where I am, she’ll need a bunker buster to reach me. You’re the one who’s vulnerable.”

  “Nothing new there. I can handle it.”

  “That’s what Kerrington said, too.”

  “Yes, but he didn’t have my skills, did he?”

  “You’re not as young as you used to be.”

  “I’m young enough to do what needs to be done.” At least Payton hoped that was the case. And if not, if his crimes caught up with him, so be it. As long as he took the killer down with him so Norwood would survive to continue their work, he would be content. “What about the note? Why is she suddenly so interested in tying up loose ends?”

  Norwood pulled in a long breath. “I’m not at liberty to tell you everything I know.”

  Payton shoved down his immediate surge of anger. He knew Norwood was in a tenuous position, and that every bit of information he divulged was a calculated risk. The fact that he told Payton anything at all was a blessing.

  “I understand,” said Payton, modulating his voice so none of his anger came through. “I can figure it out on my own.”

  “Just ask yourself, why would you want to tie up loose ends?”

  “Because I got tired of having them hanging over me. Because I found an effective means to deal with them. Because something changed and I had to do it now before it was too late.”

  “Bingo. I think that’s the winner. I think she’s getting ready to make a big move.”

  “That’s nothing new. She moves around all the time. That’s why we have such trouble finding her.”

  “That’s just her flitting around the States. We have reason to believe she’s thinking bigger.”

  The pieces fell together in Payton’s head. Stynger had been working to gain funding for her research—the kind of funding only larger governments could afford. There was no way the US would back her work. That meant she’d found help beyond the border.

  “She found a backer,” said Payton.

  “I can’t tell you that, but if she did, it would probably be one that really doesn’t like us very much. Once she makes this move, she’ll be out of our reach forever. Unless, of course, we want to start an international incident to take her down.”

  “You think she’s worried that you and I have the clout to make that happen? Certainly she knows that’s not true.”

  “She doesn’t think like we do. She doesn’t think about rules and laws, only what she wants. If she had the kind of connections we do, do you think we’d still be alive?”

  Not a chance. “How much time do we have before she’s out of reach?”

  “I have no clue. My hands are tied. I’ve done all I could by giving you Victor and what few resources I’ve been approved to put at your disposal. The rest is up to you and your crew.”

  “You mean Bella’s crew.”

  “She’s still pissed, I take it.”

  “Understatement of the decade. But she’s working on it. I’m letting her have access to the holding facility to question the one man we managed to save.”

  Norwood let out a soft whistle. “You really are desperate to make up with her if you’re letting her in that place.”

  “We’re running out of time. If she thinks she can get this man to talk, more power to her.”

  “And if she can’t?”

  “I’ll keep him safe and comfortable, just like all of the rest.”

  “See that you do, Payton. Because if I find out that you’ve mistreated even one of those men, I’m taking it out on you, personally.”

  “It’s no less than I’d expect.”

  “Watch your back, old friend. I’d hate to have to pretend to cry at your funeral.”

  “You be careful, too. I know you have all kinds of thick walls and skilled sharpshooters between you and the world, but that doesn’t mean you’re immortal.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m holding out for grandbabies.”

  Payton laughed, letting go of some of his growing tension. “You may have one hell of a wait. Sloane loves her job at the Edge too much to be letting the mommy bug bite her.”

  “Guess she should have told that husband of hers. Too late now.”

  “Sloane is pregnant?”

  “She doesn’t want anyone to know yet, so don’t be a jackass and ruin the surprise, okay?”

  “That’s shocking enough I’ll probably still have my mouth hanging open when she does get around to sharing.”

  “I told her she can’t take long to start her maternity leave. That damn job of hers is way too stressful and dangerous. Especially now. Will you see that she doesn’t take any risks?”

  “I’m not exactly in the popular crowd right now at work, but I’ll do what I can. I have a friend who’s spending a few months on the beach in Costa Rica. I bet I can convince her she needs a couple of bodyguards, especially if I foot the bill. Sloane and her husband would be a perfect choice.”

  “Thanks, Payton. I owe you.”

  “I stopped keeping track a couple of decades ago.”

  “Well, I didn’t. You need to live long enough for me to wipe the red from my ledger, so stay safe.”

  “I will,” said Payton, hoping it wasn’t a lie.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Jordyn was so nervous she puked three times before she was able to leave her quarters. The shift change was almost over, and her window was closing quickly.

  She hurried along the halls as fast as she dared, knowing every camera she pas
sed was recording her movements. She couldn’t give anyone who might be watching any indication that she was about to free Mother’s prisoner.

  It was hard not to break into a dead run. Only the sure knowledge that the motion would be seen held her in check.

  She entered Gage’s cell as she had before, with a key card attached to an employee that didn’t exist. As compartmentalized as things were down here, it would take security weeks to realize that the person was a fake.

  Gage lay in his bed, unmoving. For a second, she worried that the sleeping gas Mother used had filled the space. She’d already pulled in a breath, so if the room was drugged, she’d be sprawled on the floor in seconds.

  “I’m awake,” he said, dispelling her fears.

  Relief dragged at her weary limbs. She hadn’t been sleeping well. She was exhausted all the time. Her nerves were getting the best of her, causing her to throw up nearly everything she ate. If this went on much longer, she wasn’t going to be strong enough to escape Mother’s clutches, much less help Gage to do the same.

  She stepped in and shut the door silently. “I cut the camera to your cell. They can’t see us for the next three minutes. It’s time to go.”

  He sat up, tossing the blanket aside. He was fully clothed, shoes on, as if he’d been expecting her arrival.

  A surge of suspicion swept through her. She gripped the spare lab coat she carried hard enough to wrinkle it. “Did someone tell you I was coming?”

  “No.” He crossed the space toward her, all smooth strength and flowing muscle.

  Jordyn stepped to the side, out of his reach. “How did you know?”

  “I didn’t. I hoped.” He tilted his head to the side, studying her. “You look sick.”

  She straightened her spine in an effort to hide her weakness. “I’m fine. Are you ready?”

  He nodded. “The plan?”

  “I’ve cleared us a timed path through the halls. We have to walk at exactly the right pace so that each camera deactivates as we enter the zone and reactivates as we pass. No hurrying. No running. Act like you’re supposed to be there.” She handed him the lab coat. “Can you do that?”

  “Yes.”