Edge of Sanity: An Edge Novel

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “I believe he knows something. I need to know what that is. For Garrett’s sake.”

  “You’re not leaving with him.”

  “I’ll do what I think is right. It’s up to you to come along or not.”

  Payton’s gaze slid past them, into the storage unit. “We’ll need to take this all with us.”

  “Why? So you can destroy the evidence?” demanded Clay.

  Payton marched closer and didn’t stop until the barrel of Clay’s gun was shoved under his chin. Anger poured off Clay, but Payton was calm and accepting. “Pull the trigger if you want. It’s no less than I deserve, and God knows I’m tired. But know that if you do, everything I know dies with me. I’m probably the only person on the planet who knows all the connections and can piece the puzzle together and help you find who’s doing this to you now. If you want your life back, I’m your only shot.”

  Clay stared at Payton for a long minute. Leigh really didn’t know if he was going to fire. She’d never seen him this angry—even when he wasn’t himself, he hadn’t been running this hot, shaking with rage.

  “One slip,” whispered Clay, “and I won’t give a shit what you know. Understand?”

  Payton nodded as much as the barrel of the gun would allow. “I would expect no less of you. You are as we created you to be.”

  Clay shoved away from Payton. “Go get your car and drive it down here.”

  Payton turned and left.

  Leigh stood there, feeling the cold wind sink through her clothes. Everything she’d thought she’d known had suddenly shifted, leaving her wobbly and off-balance.

  < wing the colfont size="-1" face="Times Ten LT Std Roman">Clay stowed his weapon and cupped her face. His hands were strikingly hot against her skin. “Do not let your guard down around him. I know he’s helped you, but you can’t let that sway you now. He’s not a good man.”

  “I know. I’ll be careful.”

  “You stay with me, okay? Please don’t go wandering off with him. It would—” His words cut off in a strangled sound of frustrated rage. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer. “I can’t stand the thought of you being with him. Promise me you won’t trust him.”

  “I promise. If he was involved in what happened to my brothers, then he’s the enemy, even if we are forced to work with him.”

  “For now. We’ll see where this goes. Until then, stick by my side.”

  Leigh nodded and let her head fall to his shoulder. He hugged her tight for a moment before pushing her away just as Payton’s car slid down the row.

  “Come with me.”

  She followed Clay inside and watched him shove a few things from the desk into his pocket. She couldn’t see what they were, but she didn’t dare ask what he was hiding now that Payton was within earshot. Instead, she acted as though she hadn’t seen anything, grabbed a cardboard box, and carried it to Payton’s trunk.

  They loaded up everything in less than five minutes, emptying the storage unit of everything but the furniture and lighting.

  “I have a safe place we can go,” said Payton.

  “Safe?” asked Clay as if it were a joke.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. Neither of you. I understand your lack of faith, but—”

  “But nothing,” said Clay. “We’re taking your car and all the boxes. You can take ours.”

  “Will you at least follow me home?”

  “To your house? Not a chance.”

  “I have a safe room. No one will be able to find you there or hear anything we say. Right now the only thing we have on our side is knowledge. If the others find out what we know, we’ll never be able to find them.”

  “The others?”

  Payton clamped his lips together and shook his head. “No. Not unless you come home with me. It’s the only place I’m sure is safe.”

  Clay looked at Leigh as if seeking her opinion. She didn’t know what to say. She was floundering here, still trying to catch up with the news that Payton was behind what had been done to Clay and her brothers.

  “Do you have a better idea?” she asked.

  “Not if we’re going to get answers out of him.”

  “Then we should go. I’ve seen you fight. Payton’s no match for you if things go badly.”

  Clay glared at Payton. “Fine. Lead the way.”

  * * *

  When Payton had said he had a safe room, Clay had not pictured the sprawling, labyrinthine mass of tunnels and rooms beneath his estate. Behind several layers of security, including a secret entrance hidden by a false wall, there was no way anyone was going to find them.

  “How many people have died down here?” he asked Payton.

  He pushed a cart loaded with the boxes and items from the storage locker. “Two. Both of them deserved it, if you must know.”

  The heavy steel vault door shut behind Leigh, locking with a resounding clang of metal on metal.

  “Are we prisoners?” asked Leigh.

  “Not so long as I have this gun pointed at his spine,” said Clay.

  Payton glanced behind him. “Of course not. I won’t hold you here against your will. Has the part where I told you that I’m trying to make up for past wrongs not quite settled in yet?”

  “Some things can’t be forgiven,” said Clay, remembering the way he’d hurt Leigh, and those kids he’d collected for the doctor.

  For a moment, that gave him pause. He liked to think he was a decent guy. He tried hard not to be a dick, and yet he’d done horrible things that he felt the burning need to set right. Maybe that was how Payton felt, too. It didn’t mean he was going to trust the man or feel pity for his mistakes, but at least it helped ease some of the bulging rage running under Clay’s skin.

  Payton unlocked a room and shoved the cart inside. It was an open area, with twelve-foot-high ceilings and thick, plush carpet. One corner contained a couple of couches and a TV; another was a full kitchen on a much smaller scale than the one upstairs. In the third corner was a large table and chairs, and in the last was a workout area, complete with a variety of equipment.

  “The kitchen is fully stocked. So is the bar. Avoid any live TV, but there are several hundred movies you can watch. Sleeping quarters are down the hall to your right. Use whatever you like.”

  “We won’t be here that long,” said Clay.

  Payton stared pointedly at the cart overflowing with boxes. “You have no idea what we’re dealing with here. It could take weeks to sort through all of this information. Identifying the people in the photos on that wall alone will be days of effort.”

  “What’s the point?” asked Clay. “How the hell is a scrapbooking fest going to help us find out who did this to me? I don’t know any of the people in those photos.”

  “No, but I do. Once we figure out who everyone is and which of them are still alive, then we may see a connection. Those photos could narrow down the choices to help us find the person pulling your strings.”

  Clay looked at the boxes, dreading what was in them.

  “You said not to touch any of them,” said Leigh. “You completely freaked, like they’d be filled with live grenades or something.”

  “I was worried you’d discover my involvement. Now that you know, there’s nothing for me to hide, is there?”

  “You were there,” Clay practically shouted. “You know who did this. Just give me a fucking name and point me in the right direction. I’ll kill the asshole and be free by sunrise.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Even if killing one person could free you—which it can’t—there were dozens of us involved. I’ve tried to track everyone’s movements, but I learned a few months ago that I made a mistake. At least one person I thought was dead is alive, which means that there could be others, too.”

  “Dozens?” breathed Leigh as she sank into a nearby chair. “There were dozens of people willing to hurt kids? And they got away with it? How does that happen?”

  “It was a different time then. The fear of a world war r
an rampant. We were trying to protect our way of life—trying to protect our country.”

  “By ruining its children? And the Ass for Brains Award goes to . . .”

  “I’m serious, Clay. There was no excuse for what we did, but there was a reason. And like it or not, apparently not everyone who worked on this project has abandoned the cause. These boxes could hold information on not only who is behind this, but also what they’re doing now.”

  A hot burst of fury detonated in Clay’s gut. “That’s why the doctor wanted me to bring him more kids. He’s doing to them what he did to me.”

  “He?” asked Payton, as if that shocked him.

  “That’s what the guy who was providing the stolen kids implied.”

  “Did he mention a name? Stynger, perhaps?”

  “No. No names.”

  Payton went to the kitchen and poured himself a drink. He sloshed it back and poured another. “I thought for sure that she was behind this. After what she’d done to Razor’s friend . . .”

  “Whoa. Razor is involved in this, too?”

  “You mean Razor, as in Roxanne Haught?” asked Leigh.

  Payton nodded. “It’s a long story, but the short version is that a friend of Razor’s got recruited into what he thought was a special ops group. It wasn’t. He ended up being subjected to all kinds of drugs and mental and physical conditioning. It changed him. It made him stronger, faster, and completely violent.”

  Leigh perked up. “We should talk to him and see if he knows anything. Maybe he met this doctor or heard something. Where is he?”

  Payton’s eyes filled with guilt as he stared at his glass. “He lives in a cell next to Garrett’s. I’m sorry, but seeing him is far too dangerous too d Std Ro risk.”

  “Then let Garrett talk to him. Or you do it. We can’t sit around without pursuing every possible lead. Garrett is counting on me.”

  “We can’t allow contact between the men. There’s no way to know what could happen.”

  “Exactly how many people do you have locked up, Payton?”

  “Too many. That’s all I will say.”

  “I don’t mind taking the risk,” said Leigh. “My brother is worth it.”

  Payton shook his head. “I’ve already made my share of bad decisions. I know you want to help, but the answer is no. I never should have let you see Garrett. I should have let you think he was dead. It would have been kinder.”

  She covered her face with her hands, but not so fast that Clay couldn’t see the look of desolation that scrunched her features.

  Seeing her in pain made something dark and predatory rise in him. He went to her side and crouched in front of her. He put his hands on her knees, startling her. She jerked and her lips parted on a silent gasp. She’d gone pale, which caused the bruises along her jaw to stand out, reminding him of what was at stake.

  Her gaze met his. She covered his hands with hers and gave him a silent, pleading look.

  She needed him, and while she may not have said the words, he could see in her eyes how much she was counting on him to see her through this.

  Her need made him stronger. It sealed up all the tiny cracks in his weary resolve and filled him with purpose.

  He stood and turned toward Payton. “My patience is officially gone. You’re going to tell us everything so we can fix the mess you made. Sit the fuck down and start at the beginning.”

  Payton nodded slowly. He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and two extra glasses before sitting down at the table. He filled the glasses and slid them to two empty seats. “You’re going to need this. There’s no happy ending with this story.”

  Clay squeezed Leigh’s knee gently. “You don’t have to do this. You can get some rest if you want. I’ll make sure we get the truth.”

  “No, I need to be here. If there’s anything I can do . . .”

  There probably wasn’t, but if the thought gave her some hope to cling to, then Clay was all for it.

  He took Leigh’s wrist and led her to the table. The feel of her skin soothed him, and the steady beat of her pulse reminded him that she was alive and safe. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure she stayed that way.

  He sat between her and Payton and set his weapon on the table as a not-so-subtle reminder for the man to tell the truth.

  Payton ignored the gun and stared into his drink. “We were trying to save the world—or at least our way of life.” He let out a laugh, but Clay heard no humor in itno LT. “Most of us were young, with no children of our own. I think they recruited people like us on purpose, because we hadn’t yet learned the true value of a child. They were simply lumps of clay for us to shape into what we desired—people we thought we were offering some grand opportunity.”

  “Which was?”

  “There were different focuses. Some of the experiments were designed to increase intelligence. Others to make people more physically capable. Strength, speed, stamina. Some wanted to go further, but those ideas were tossed out as too dangerous. At the time, we thought these were all great things that we were going to hand out like shiny little gifts.” He emptied his glass and refilled it. “That’s not the way it turned out. Things didn’t go as easily as we’d hoped. Some of the researchers grew desperate, worried that their funding would run out and they’d fail. They cut corners. Took risks. Not all of us knew what had happened until the gears had already been in motion for too long to stop them.”

  “What kind of risks?”

  He shook his head. “I still don’t know all the details of what was done. Most of the data was destroyed before I could find it. I wasn’t one of the brains—I was simply the guy who knew which buttons to push to get people to do what I wanted.”

  “You were the guy who acquired the children,” guessed Clay.

  “One of them.”

  Leigh’s fingers tightened around Clay’s. “Did you give them my brothers?”

  “No. That was someone else. But Clay, what you’re going through now is all because of me. I saw you playing with Mira when you were little. She’d invited you home because you’d scared away a bully who’d been hounding her. You had a black eye and she had a serious case of hero worship. Her dad and I were friends, and I happened to be at his house that day. You were so skinny, your clothes too small and dirty. It was obvious you were neglected. Getting your stepfather to loan you to me was easy.” Shame made his voice crack.

  “Did he know?” Clay had to shove the words out. “Did he know what you were going to do?”

  Payton shook his head. “That was part of the deal. No questions asked.”

  “I can’t believe a parent would agree to such a thing,” said Leigh.

  “Most wouldn’t. Enough did for us to continue the research.”

  “So what exactly was done to me?”

  “I don’t know. After you left my sight, I wasn’t told anything. I have my ideas. I’ve seen patterns over the years—things that men like you, Hollis, and Garrett have in common. But there were records. If we find them, then you’ll know for sure. I believe that whoever is activating you now has access to those records.”

  “And you have no idea who it is?”

  “All I have are guesses. I’ve kept tabs on everyone from back then, and as far as I know, all but one of them is working on legitimate research.”

  “And that one?”

  “Is a woman. I’ve been looking for her for months with no leads. She’s well funded and stays hidden. And she doesn’t use children. She prefers fully grown men.”

  “Then it couldn’t be her,” said Leigh.

  “I haven’t ruled her out, but we need to be sure.”

  “It’s not a woman,” said Clay. As the words left his mouth, he knew they were true.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I have no idea, but I’m certain. I can almost hear his voice in my head, whispering.” But the harder he tried to isolate the voice, the more his head began to throb. Finally, the pain was too much and he let go of
the thread, letting it snap back out of reach.

  Leigh put her hand on his in an obvious show of comfort.

  Payton saw the gesture and his eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second. Clay couldn’t tell if it was anger, regret, or suspicion he’d seen flash against the other man’s features, but it was definitely something.

  “So you think that if we look through all of this stuff that the person or people responsible will become known?” Clay asked.

  “I sincerely hope so.”

  “And then what?” asked Leigh. “Even if we know who is doing this, we still have to find a way to undo it, right? That’s what you meant when you said that killing them won’t solve the problem.”

  “I’m not even sure there is a way to undo it, but taking this doctor alive is our best chance at fixing those who are suffering.”

  “That’s going to make the job much harder,” said Clay.

  “I know. But I have some ideas that might draw them out of hiding.”

  “Like what?”

  Payton glanced at the boxes they’d collected. “That code you mentioned—RC101886—refers to a specific file. My guess is that either the doctor has the file or is looking for it.”

  Bells chimed in Clay’s head as puzzle pieces clicked together. “I was tasked to do some kind of job. Do you think finding this file would be it?”

  Payton nodded his head. “It’s possible. Let me do some checking first. I have contacts who may have information we can use.”

  “Enough with the cryptic bullshit. Just tell us what the damn file is.”

  Payton shoved to his feet. His expression was hard, with a clear warning that he wasn’t going to bend. “No. Not yet. Not until I’m sure. If I guess, it could get you killed. I won’t risk your lives like that.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Leigh. “How are we supposed to help if we don’t know what you do?”

  “Just gman uno through those boxes. Spread out the photos for me to look at. I’ll reach out to my contacts and come back in a few hours with answers.”

  Clay stood. “We want answers now.”

  “I know, but trust me when I tell you that if I give them to you now, you’ll wish I hadn’t.” Payton’s gaze flicked to Leigh and back. A look of warning was in his eyes.