Edge of Sanity: An Edge Novel

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “None. But I found a camera. Step back and let me take a photo before we start taking stuff down. The position may be important.”

  “We should call Payton.” The prepaid cell she’d bought earlier, when she’d stopped for shoes and jeans, was tucked in her pocket.

  Clay nodded. “Yeah. Maybe he’ll know what all of this means.”

  Leigh made the call while he took the SD card out of the camera and slipped it into his wallet. He started opening boxes just as Payton answered.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Leigh. We think we found something. Can you meet us?”

  “Where are you?”

  “At a self-storage facility right near Clay’s place. There are a bunch of photos and notes here, as well as several boxes full of who knows what.”

  Clay waved to get her attention. “Ask him if he’s ever heard of something called RC101886. It’s written all over the notepad on the desk.”

  Leigh repeated the question.

  Payton’s voice went cold and hard. “Tell Clay to stop whatever he’s doing. Now. Don’t touch anything.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Don’t ask questions, just do it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then he hung up.

  up.ont> <

  Leigh looked at the phone in shock. “Payton says to stop touching stuff. He sounded pretty freaked-out.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s not the only one. I’ve never seen any of this stuff before, and yet it’s all so fucking familiar.” He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes. “I swear I’m going crazy, Leigh. I keep seeing little flashes of things, like I’m peering through someone else’s eyes.”

  She went to him and pulled his hands down, forcing him to look at her. “You are not going crazy. I won’t let you. Those flashes are good—that means we’re on the right track. All you need to do is hold it together a bit longer. We’ll find whoever did this to you and we’ll make them undo it.”

  “What if it can’t be undone?”

  His words spoken aloud sparked the secret fear inside of her, making it flare to life. “I refuse to believe that. We will fix this, Clay. You need to trust me on that.”

  “I want to, but—” He stopped short, cutting off what he’d been about to say.

  “What?” she asked.

  Clay put a finger to her mouth, reached over, and turned the light over the desk off. The small room was plunged into darkness.

  She felt his breath at her ear as he whispered, “I heard something.”

  A bolt of terror ripped through her at the sudden dark. She fumbled in her pocket for the phone and hit a button to make the screen light up. The underside of Clay’s face was bathed in blue light. His jaw was bulging in anger, but his touch on her mouth and his hand on her shoulder were gentle.

  Through the metal door, Leigh could hear muffled voices. “This is the place . . . thought I saw light.”

  A second, deeper voice replied, “You’re imagining things. No one’s here.”

  “He’ll come. We find the locker first and wait.”

  Clay pulled her toward the wall of boxes. The screen on the phone went dark, and she pushed another button to light it up.

  This time the beep sounded incredibly loud, echoing off the concrete walls.

  Clay leaned close to her ear—so close she could feel his lips brush the outer rim. “Turn it off. If they hear that . . .”

  He didn’t need to finish his sentence for her to fill in the blanks. She cradled the phone inside her jacket and muted it.

  Footsteps grew nearer outside. The door of a nearby unit squeaked as they pulled it open.

  Clay took her by the shoulders and pulled her down to a crouch next to him. His weapon was in one hand; the other he used to cradle her neck, under her hair. His thumb moved in soothing strokes along her throat.

  Their door rattled.

  “Lod Rat.cked,” said one of the men, right on the other side of the overhead door.

  “Then cut it,” said the second man, as if the first one was a complete idiot.

  “There’s no lock to cut, jackass.”

  “Skip to the next one. It’s probably broken.”

  “We need to find his stash before he shows up.”

  The voices became more muffled as they walked away.

  “Stash?” whispered Leigh.

  The light on her phone went out again. She could no longer see Clay, but she could feel him nearby—feel the heat coming off his body and the slight vibration of tension in his hand. The scent of his leather jacket and the warm body beneath wrapped around her. Her fear began to fade the farther away the voices got.

  “I have no idea,” said Clay. “Maybe they’re looking for weapons.”

  “Are there weapons here?”

  “Could be some in those boxes. I haven’t opened all of them.”

  Another door rattled as the men outside lifted it.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  “We can’t move until they’re gone. They’ll hear us if they’re not close enough to see us. And there’s a good chance they’ll have a buddy guarding the way out to let them know if I show up. Or try to leave.”

  “So we’re stuck?”

  “Yeah. Get comfortable. This could take a while.”

  * * *

  Clay could hardly think straight with Leigh sitting so close to him in the dark. He could smell her shampoo and the sweeter, more subtle scent of her skin. Fear radiated out of her. He kept trying to soothe her with gentle touches, but all that did was draw him tighter.

  In the dark like this, there was nothing to distract him from the sound of her rapid breathing or the trembling of her body beneath his hand.

  He tried to run through options for escape, recalling the possible ways in and out of this place. But he came up empty.

  If he thought he could open the door enough to slip out and take these men on, he’d do it in a heartbeat, but it would make too much noise, and there was no way he was risking Leigh’s safety by drawing any attention to their hiding spot.

  “Payton’s on his way,” whispered Leigh. “He’s going to be walking into an ambush.”

  “Give me the phone.”

  She did. He sent a warning text, telling Payton to stay the hell away. His hand brushed hers as he handed her the phone. It was shaking harder than the rest of her, and cold to the touch.

  Without thinking about the consequences, Clay slid her hand inside his jacket, under his shirt. Her frigid fingers were a shocking jolt against his stomach, but he’d suffer through that a million times over if it meant he could do something to make this fucked-up situation easier on her.

  The light on the phone went dark again, and she sucked in a startled breath. Her fingers clenched against his skin, and his traitorous body took the movement to heart. In the matter of a few seconds, he was hard and aching, despite the danger perched just outside.

  His dick really did have a mind of its own—a deranged, one-track mind.

  “It’s going to be fine,” he promised. “Eventually they’ll get bored or the sun will come up and scare them away. We just have to hold out for a few hours at most.”

  “I wish we could turn on the light.” Even as quiet as her voice was, he could hear a tremor running through it.

  “If there’s even a small crack under the door or a hole in the metal, they could see the light. Our best bet is to stay quiet and in the dark.”

  From down the row of storage units came a heavy clang, like something had hit one of the metal doors.

  Leigh jumped and her fingers dug into his skin. “What’s that?”

  “Probably a piece of broken lock flying around. Nothing to worry about.” He hoped.

  Her fingers relaxed against his abdomen again. “This reminds me of when I had to sit around, waiting for the verdict in Garrett’s trial. I’m so tense I feel like I’m going to shatter.”

  He stroked her hair, enjoying the cool slide of the strands between his fingers. He knew that touch
ing her like this was playing with fire, but he couldn’t help himself. His need to soothe her combined with the giddy thrill he got every time his hands were on her was enough to make him lose his mind. He didn’t care about consequences, which wasn’t like him at all.

  “What trial?” he asked in an effort to get her mind off their current situation.

  “The police thought he’d killed Hollis. He hadn’t, but we weren’t sure the jury was going to see it that way.”

  “But they did,” he guessed.

  “They did. But it took three days of deliberation, and I don’t think I ate or slept the whole time. Payton pulled some strings and got the trial expedited. If not for him, I might still be waiting for the trial, wondering if Garrett was going to be convicted for something I know he didn’t do.”

  Clay wanted to ask her how she knew, but it seemed less important than the other detail she’d revealed. “Payton helped? Did he know your brother?”

  “No. At least he said he didn’t. He was doing it as a favor for me.”

  “Favor?”

  “Repayment for services rendered. I’ve patched up morpatace="Time than a few gunshot wounds for people connected to Payton—at his request.”

  “You mean you patched them up and didn’t report them.”

  “Right. Another black mark on my career. After this is over, you’ll have more knowledge to bring me down than any other man alive.”

  Clay grabbed his flashlight from his jacket and upended it on the concrete floor before turning it on. Enough light spilled out that he could see her face. And that she could see his. Their bodies blocked the light from reaching the doorway, reducing the risk of the minuscule light being seen. It was still a slight risk, but this was important. He tipped her chin up until he was looking in her eyes. He needed her to know that what he said was true. “I would never do that to you. When this is over, I’ll never breathe a word to anyone. I swear it.”

  Her hand slid around to his back as she leaned forward, hugging him. “Thank you. If I lost my license, I don’t think Payton would need me anymore. And if he doesn’t need me, then I have nothing to offer him in exchange for visits to see Garrett.”

  “Wait. What? Why do you need Payton to see your brother?”

  “He’s being held in a secret location. I don’t even know where it is. I have to drug myself unconscious in the car before he’ll take me there. I don’t even know what state it’s in.”

  Anger seethed just under the surface of Clay’s skin. How dare Payton do that to her?

  “That fucking bastard,” said Clay, too loudly. Leigh covered his mouth, and the soft touch of her fingers helped mute some of the searing fury pounding through him.

  “No. He’s not. He saved Garrett. He’s still saving him every day—protecting him from what he’s capable of. Without Payton, both of my brothers would be dead. For that I owe him everything.”

  “Bullshit.” Payton was using her, but she was too emotionally invested to see it. Clay wasn’t.

  Or maybe he was and his feelings for Leigh were getting in the way. In either case, Clay was no longer sure that he could trust Payton. The man had some kind of agenda of his own—one that involved Leigh’s brother.

  A memory hit him, filling his mind as if it had suddenly been illuminated by the flash of a camera. He sat in a room with two other boys. They were young. So was he. His scrawny legs stuck out from under a hospital gown, covered in small scrapes and bruises.

  The two boys were afraid. They were looking to him for support, but he had none to offer. This place scared the crap out of him, even though he knew better than to let it show.

  A man in a white coat walked in. Clay couldn’t see his face—as if someone had blurred it out. But whoever he was, Clay knew he was bad news.

  As the door shut, he saw another man standing in the hallway. His face was familiar, but Clay couldn’t quite place it.

  He had hidden a fork under his thigh. His fingers were wrapped around it, waiting for the man to get close enough cllwato strike.

  The other two boys raced around his bed, hiding behind him for protection.

  The man in the coat had a syringe in his hand. The outlines of more were visible in the pocket of his coat.

  Terror bubbled up, and Clay found a way to convert it to rage. He propelled himself from the bed, shoving the fork into the man’s groin.

  The memory disappeared, and already, Clay could feel it dissipating, like a dream. Only fear and the familiar face of the man in the hall lingered.

  “Are you okay?” asked Leigh.

  “Yeah,” he said, though he wasn’t sure how true that was. He was sweating and sick to his stomach.

  That hadn’t been a dream. It had happened—he’d somehow blocked it out. Or maybe someone had blocked it for him. That would certainly explain the blurred face if whoever had done it didn’t want to be recognized.

  Then what about the man in the hall? Clay was sure he knew him.

  Leigh watched him with concern. Her bottom lip quivered slightly before she bit it and stilled the movement. He could barely see her in this light. She was more shades of gray than color, with deep shadows painting her skin.

  The need to see h

  er naked by this light struck him out of the blue. With all the shit floating around in his head, with thugs lurking outside, the fact that he could even go there proved how screwed his brain really was.

  At least thinking about her luscious body all naked and laid out for him, draped in heavy shadows, was a pleasant thought. Unlike all the others he was battling.

  The phone buzzed and lit up. Leigh grabbed it and checked the screen. “It’s Payton. He’s outside and says it’s safe to come out.”

  And suddenly, just like that, Clay knew who had been standing in the hall, watching some doctor do God knew what to Clay and two other little boys. He was much younger in that memory, but Clay was certain of the man’s identity.

  It was Payton.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Leigh felt the shift in Clay well before the lights came on for her to see it. Tension vibrated out of him, along with a hard, rigid chill. He moved away from her to unlock the door, and by the time it had lifted, his gun was in his hand.

  Payton stood outside, breathing hard. His tie was slightly crooked, and his hair was no longer perfect. Lying at his feet was the crumpled form of a man. Another was sprawled a few feet away.

  Leigh rushed forward to check on them, but before she could cross the threshold, Clay grabbed her arm and pulled her to a halt.

  “I just want to see if they’re alive,” she explained. “They won’t hurt me.”

  “It’s not them I’m worried about.”

  “Clay?” said Payton, concern making his tone heavy. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” said Clay.

  Payton’s hands came up toward his shoulders. “I took them both down. You’re safe now. But we really need to go before anyone else arrives.”

  “How did you take them down?” demanded Clay.

  Payton shrugged. “I’ve been training with Bella. She’s taught me some things.”

  “Bullshit. You’re not the man I thought you were.”

  “I have no clue what you mean, but we really should go.”

  “Not until I get the truth.” Clay stepped toward Payton with lethal intent in his every step. “You knew about what they did to me, didn’t you? You were there. I remember.”

  A flicker of fear crossed Payton’s features, ruining his usual composure. “I don’t know what you think you remember, but that’s completely understandable. You’re dealing with a lot right now. Let’s go somewhere safe and talk about it.”

  “We’re not going anywhere with you.”

  Leigh was confused by what was going on between the two men. Something had happened, but she couldn’t figure out what. “Clay? What’s all this about?”

  “Payton was there when they fucked with my head. I was a kid, scared ou
t of my mind, and he stood there, watching as someone drugged me and two other boys.”

  “You’ve got it all wrong,” said Payton. “You’re confused. Please, just come with me and we’ll talk about it.”

  Raw fury fell from Clay’s tongue. “I don’t trust you.”

  Leigh put her hand on Clay’s shoulder, hoping to calm him down. “This could be a trick your mind is playing on you.”

  He shrugged her hand away and growled, “It was no trick.”

  “Think about it. How better to alienate you and cut you off from any help you might find than to make you distrust your friends?”

  “I don’t distrust them all. Just him. He was there, Leigh.”

  She opened her mouth to try to talk some sense into him when Payton beat her to it. “Clay is right. I was there. I have no excuse for what I did, but I’m on your side now. I swear it.”

  Clay let out a low growl. Leigh’s body went cold as the implications of what Payton had just said sank in.

  Her voice was faint and barely audible over the howling wind. “You were there? You let this happen? To my brothers?”

  “I did. And I’ll tell you everything, but not here. It’s not safe.”

  “How can you stand there so calm, knowing what you did?” asked Leigh.

  “Because he’s just that cold. Any man who would let that happen to a kid is a sociopath.”

  “No. I’m not. I regret what I did, and I’ve spent years trying to make things right. I’ll never be able to make up for what I did, but I can at least help lessen the pain of those whose lives we ruined.”

  “We?” snapped Clay.

  Payton shook his head. Sadness and regret fell off him, making the air around him seem colder. “There were many of us. We thought we were doing the right thing. We were wrong. If you want to know any more than that, then you need to follow me.”

  Clay let out a scoffing laugh. “Fuck that.”

  Leigh stared at Payton. She needed the truth. She needed to know how to fix this so that Garrett could have a life. “I’ll go with him.”

  Clay whirled around to face her. His amber eyes were wide with disbelief and scorn. “You believe him?”