Edge Of Danger Read online

  He had to get her to lower her guard. One of the quickest, easiest ways was if she had a climax. Her mind would be unprotected by her usual defenses. One quick climax and he’d be in and gone before she knew it. A few seconds with her emotional shields down, and he’d have everything he needed.

  Now he was going to have to go back to damned Arizona, and try again. He knew if it didn’t work this time, he was going to have to bring her back here to a more controlled environment. As much as he didn’t want her anywhere near him, or the castle, he was running out of viable options.

  He’d skip the preliminaries, and take her to a fast, unexpected climax. Surprise was going to be his weapon against Dr. Cahill’s strong will.

  Sebastian straightened to look at his friend. “She’s not safe in Tempe.” He accepted a bottle of water and a fresh white towel from Gabriel’s butler, MacBain, who gave every appearance of being a deaf-mute. The wily bastard was anything but. The man had ears like a bat, eyes like a hawk—despite his glasses—and the organizational skills of Attila the Hun.

  Gabriel knew without it having been said that Sebastian was giving him an inch more wiggle room on this because of their long-standing friendship. As his temporary control, Tremayne had every right to demand Gabriel extract the information from Dr. Cahill in the most expedient way possible.

  “I know. Do you think I’d leave her there unprotected?” Gabriel had dispatched two T-FLAC operatives to watch her 24/7. They could not, however, get into the lab. And that was a problem that deeply concerned him. Concerned him enough that he’d placed a protective spell on her.

  “You’d trust someone else to keep her safe?”

  “I’d trust myself to keep her alive.”

  “Really? And how do you propose doing that if you won’t even touch the woman?” Tremayne took a long pull from the bottle, then upended it over his head, sluicing water over his sweat-soaked hair and face. “The good doctor scares the shit out of you. Doesn’t she?”

  Towel up to his face, Gabriel stopped what he was doing to stare at his friend. “Are youinsane ?”

  “You’ve seen her once. Yet just thinking about the woman makes you screw up your face like a monkey’s ass, Edge. Admit it. And the reason you’re whining for Alex Stone is because he buys into this whole Edridge Curse bullshit. What happens if you touch her? Your dick turns black and falls off?”

  MacBain cleared his throat. “ ‘When a Lifemate is chosen by the heart of a son, no protection can be given, again I have won. His pain will be deep, her death will be swift, Inside his heart a terrible rift.’ It’s Nairne’s Curse, sir. The witch made no mention of anything turning black or falling off.”

  As a close friend, Sebastian was aware of the content of the Curse, and Gabriel knew the other man thought it was so much bullshit. Frankly, Gabriel wished like hellhe was as certain. But it was damned hard to refute five hundred years of history to the contrary.

  “Since Dr. Cahill isn’t my Lifemate, if such a thing existed, which I seriously doubt, I can protect her just fine, thank you very much.” Gabriel shot a cool glance at MacBain. “Don’t you have butling duties to perform?”

  Small and wiry, snow white hair immaculate, the butler drew himself up to his full five feet four and a quarter inches and peered at Gabriel through the thick, black-rimmed glasses perched on his beak of a nose. As always he was immaculately dressed in a natty black suit, crisp white shirt, and a tie in the Edridge plaid. “It is mygreat fortune to attend ye at every opportunity, sir,” he said, the burr of Scotland in his voice, his expression as innocent as a babe.

  “If only,” Gabriel muttered. MacBain pretty much did as he pleased.

  “Why do you bother working for this Philistine?” Sebastian asked with a grin. “My offer is still open, MacBain.”

  MacBain’s bushy white brows dipped in a frown behind his glasses. “Ye live in acondominium, sir.”

  “Less dusting. Big screen television. No Curse.”

  “Enormous incentives, but I’m afraid I must decline yer tempting offer. I made a promise to the lad’s father that I’d keep an eye on him. And here’s where I’m needed.”

  “Why don’t you hie yourself off to keep an eye on Duncan or Caleb?” Gabriel demanded, making the decision he had to make. He’d try one more time with Dr. Cahill. But he suspected he’d have no chance of breaking through her barriers while she was in Arizona and in her own little safety zone.

  “While I ponder that intriguing question,” MacBain told him facetiously, “might one inquire as to what yer intentions might be regarding this Dr. Cahill?”

  His intention was to do what he had to do as fast as humanly possible. And then keep out of Arizona until hell froze over. “I’ll give this one more shot,” Gabriel told Sebastian and MacBain, his tone downright grim. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll bring her here, andmake it work.” Here on his turf. Where he was strongest.

  Tremayne raised a brow. “You’ll kidnap her?” Not a question.

  Still looking at Sebastian, Gabriel tossed his claymore to MacBain who, braced for the weight, deftly caught it. He was damn strong for a wiry old guy. “If I have to.”

  His friend gave him a mild look. “When are you going?”

  “Now,” Gabriel said grimly.

  The air swirled, his image blurred. And he was gone.

  Sebastian glanced at MacBain. “I freakinghate when he does that.”

  Gabriel’s majordomo cleared his throat. “Och,aye. As do I, sir. As do I.”

  “Damn it to hell. She’snaked !”

  The man’s harsh, disgruntled whisper cut through the blackness of Dr. Eden Cahill’s bedroom. Despite yesterday’s heat still trapped in the room, the voice chilled her to the bone. Her eyes sprang open as her brain leapt from deep sleep to total awareness between one heartbeat and the next.

  A myoclonic jerk? No. She was sure she’d fallen asleep hours ago. Was it the stifling heat that had woken her? More likely it was her subconscious reliving what was going on in her life.

  Feigning sleep, she held her breath, waiting. Had she actually heard the voice? Or dreamed it? She strained to listen. She couldn’t hear anyth—No…There wasdefinitely someone there. Barely breathing. Certainly not moving. Butthere. Close. She sensed the heat and power of the intruder as he loomed over her bed. The faint scent of his skin—soap—male—seemed to envelop her with a strange yearning she couldn’t begin to decipher.

  Sharp prickles of fear danced across Eden’s bare skin as her heart raced and her mind went into overdrive. There was unquestionably someone in the room. She could feel his presence. Were there two of them, or had he been talking to himself? Hard as she tried, now all she could hear was the soft hum of the struggling air conditioner in the other room.

  She realized with surprise that shewas naked. Normally shedid sleep this way. But for the last couple of weeks she’d worn pajamas because of the security people in the other room. She frowned. She was positive she’d put on her ladybug jammies before she’d crawled into bed last night…Hadn’t she?

  Obviously not, since she was bare-butt naked under the sheet.

  She didn’t waste time wondering how or why, or what he/they were doing in her apartment, or how he’d managed to get through the locks on her doors and windows, and then past several company security guys sitting in her living room just feet beyond the closed and locked bedroom door. She didn’t waste time anticipating what he might do to her, either. With any luck she’d have time to ponder those questions—later.

  Barely breathing herself, she surreptitiously slid her hand beneath her pillow.There. Her fingers closed around the cool butt of a small LadySmith.

  Why hadn’t her bodyguards stopped him? The chilling answer was: Because they were dead. She clicked off the safety as she said coolly, “I have a gun and it’s pointed at whatever body part is at my eye level. Back off.” She was surprised her voice wasn’t a feeble croak. Not only was she naked, protected by nothing more substantial than a thin sheet, but s
he was on her back. The only way she’d feel more vulnerable was if he was holding the gun and the lights were on.

  The image of Dr. Kirchner sprawled on the stark white floor of the lab, the horrifying memory of glistening red blood pooled beneath his head made Eden’s hand steady as a rock.

  Terrified? Yes.

  Determined to pull the trigger. Absolutely.

  Her finger squeezed—

  “You don’t want to shoot me, Dr. Cahill.” There was something unsettling, something hinting at a different kind of danger beneath the almost casual caution in the man’s voice. The iron fist in a velvet glove method of intimidation.

  Eden readjusted the short barrel of the gun in his direction without letting up on the trigger. “Don’t bet on it, pal.” Another little squeeze and he’d be dead. “You’re close enough that I can’t possibly miss.”

  Where the freaking hellwas he so she could make sure of that? She noticed vaguely that there wasn’t even the faint glow from the red LCD numbers on the bedside clock to help her see where exactly he was. The realization that he’d managed to unplug her clock before she was even aware of his presence creeped her out even more.

  What else had he had time to do?

  She wished the light was on—No. She didn’t. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t going to see her naked before he died. Not if she could help it.

  She was banking on helping it.

  For the past couple of weeks, thanks to her boss, and sometimes date, Jason Verdine, she’d had four beefy bodyguards with her at all times. If they hadn’t stopped the man from entering, they were most likely incapable of stopping him from leaving. And the only logical explanation for the intruder to be in her apartment was that he’d killed the guards, just as he’d killed Theo.

  Now he’s going to kill me.

  “Step away from the bed. And keep walking. I’ll even give you a head start before I call nine-one-one.”Not. He couldn’t know the bedside phone had 911 on speed dial.

  She who hesitates is lost.She didn’t wait to see if he started to retreat. Bracing for the loud retort, and the killer’s death scream, Eden pulled the trigger.

  No big bang. No flash of light.

  “What happened to my head start?” His voice was dry and very much alive.

  “I lied.” Eden squeezed off another shot.

  It didn’t make a freaking sound.

  Oh shit!Eden’s heartbeat skittered and jumped. Bad time for the gun to jam.

  Refusing to panic, she ignored the buzz of terror dulling her hearing. Mentally she choreographed getting out of bed, picking up the bedside lamp—the only thing close to hand that could be used as a weapon—and hitting him. All before he killed her.

  She didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of pulling that off. He was too close.

  “This is a dream, Dr. Cahill,” he said gently into the thick darkness, his husky voice almost hypnotic.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. How lame is that?!” she said indignantly, struggling up on one elbow while trying to hold the malfunctioning gun steady and anchor the edge of the sheet over her chest at the same time.Come closer, asshole. I’ll beat you bloody with this useless damn gun.

  It wouldn’t kill him, but it might give her enough time to get away. “Look,” she told him reasonably. “I have nothing but a few bits of costume jewelry.”And if you’ve come for anything else, you won’t find it in a drawer.

  As she talked she shifted the gun so she could use the barrel as a handle and hit him with the wooden grip. “Take what you want and get o—Oh.” A brush of air, barely felt, and the small gun vanished from her hand. Just like that.

  Poof. Gone.

  Cocking her head—damn it, wherewashe? —she scowled. Smoke and mirrors. “Who are you? What do you want?”

  It was unnerving having a stranger in her bedroom in the pitch dark. Hell, he’d probably scare the hell out of her in broad daylight too. “Are you alone?”

  There was a thoughtful silence before he answered the last question. “Why?”

  “I heard you talking to someone when I—woke up.” Nightmare or fact, Eden considered how to get out of the room and make it to the front door without being killed in the process. If the guy had come in that way, he’d probably left the door unlocked. Her tattooed and pierced neighbor was a big guy with chronic insomnia. If she could just make it out into the hallway…

  The head of her bed was closest to the door. Lie here and die, or die trying. She voted for trying. She slid her right leg carefully, inch by inch, across the cool, smooth sheet.

  She felt odd. Breathless and tingly. Fear, of course.

  “I’m alone.”

  Eden brought her left leg slowly across the mattress. Too damn slowly. At this rate she’d still be slithering across the sheets come December, for God’s sake.

  She inched her bare bottom across the sheet that no longer felt cool. The fabric seemed to caress her naked skin, and she stopped moving, puzzled by the odd manifestation of sexual heat her body was experiencing. Fear-induced lust? Nonsense.

  Fear frequently masquerades as another emotion, she told herself firmly. She wasn’t experiencing lust, she was experiencing justifiable fear.

  She moved another inch. “Where are the security guys? Did you kill them?”

  “Jesu—No, I didn’t. Lie back and relax.”

  Relax?! As if.From the sound of his voice he was no longer standing beside the bed, but she still wasn’t sure where he was in the room. His voice came from farther away, although she hadn’t heard him walking across the hardwood floor.

  Her Grandma Rose’s old chair squeaked. “You’re dreaming,” he murmured, settling into the cane back. His voice, a whisper of smoke, curled around her.

  She remembered a poem her father used to quote.The other day upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. I wish that man would go away.

  It didn’t feel anything like a dream. His voice was real.He was real. She might not be able to see him, but he wasthere. She knew he was there.

  She moved another inch across the bed. Closer to the door. This was pretty freaking bizarre. “Are you my subconscious trying to make sense of why Theo was killed?” She demanded an answer, caught between the hope that this was indeed a dream, and the fear that it wasn’t.

  Dr. Kirchner’s murder had shaken her to the core. Clearly she was under considerable stress to be hallucinating this vividly. But could a hallucination take her gun from her?

  The mind was a powerful thing.

  “Leave the killer to the authorities.”

  She would. Of course she would. But she had plenty of questions of her own. And Theo’s cryptic warning to process. Not to mention a major case of guilt for her inability to save him.

  “Who are you, and what do you want?” Eden demanded with more heat. She didn’t understand her body’s behavior. Her skin felt hot and tight, her lips swollen. Her heart was thudding arrhythmically. She was conscious of the smooth fabric of the sheet rubbing maddeningly over her nipples as she shifted, and the unrelieved throbbing between her thighs.

  She ached with a nameless longing—No, she thought, appalled and half embarrassed. Not nameless.

  She was turned on.

  Sexually aroused by a man who wasn’t touching her. A man who wasn’t there.

  “Who would you like me to be?”

  Her heart was galloping uncomfortably, and it was hard to keep her tone even. “Not the invisible man, that’s for sure.”

  “I told you, this is a dream.”

  “If this is a dream I get to ask you questions.” She realized she still felt antsy—not very scientific, but—antsy. Respiration up. Heart racing, skin tingling, body parts that had no business making themselves known, on high alert.

  Sexuallyaware. And becoming more so by the minute.

  Freaking bizarre all right. Telling herself not to be ridiculous didn’t help.

  “What kind of questions?” he asked impatiently. The chai
r creaked as he shifted.

  “That depends on who you are,” she pointed out, licking her dry lips. “Since this is my dream I suppose I can make you anyone. How about Albert Einstein?”How about… Her mind went blank as she tried to come up with some fantasy man to ease the flutter of arousal she was feeling. Nobody came to mind. How sad was that?

  “How about not?”

  “Well, that’s unreasonable since it’s my—” she broke off as she suddenly noticed the drag of the sheet sliding down her body toward her feet. The cool silkiness of the fabric skimming her skin made her shiver, and her respiration and heart rate jumped alarmingly as her breath snagged in her throat.