Riding The Edge - Elise Faber Page 0,60

head slowly, eyes searching, ears open and listening.

Snap.

Closer this time. Close enough that Dan would have certainly announced himself.

Close enough that the person was dangerously close.

Movement at my back had me leaping up, gripping Luna 2.0 tightly as I spun and faced—

Daniel.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” I said.

“I’m hard to kill.” He smirked, crossed his arms, and leaned back against the tree, less than ten feet from me. The man was handsome, I’d give him that. Large biceps, narrow hips, a pretty face with a strong jaw and kissable lips. Too bad he was an absolute fucker.

Still, he was also close, an easy enough target to shoot.

I lifted my rifle.

“You sure you want to do that?” he asked, stretching casually, and I saw the faint pink line on his throat that must have been the result of Laila’s knife at the warehouse.

I put my finger on the trigger. “Pretty fucking sure.”

“You’re not even going to ask where your boy-toy is?”

I had to work not to react, worry for Dan coursing through me. I couldn’t think about that, not at the moment, not when I wasn’t certain that Daniel had come alone. Because I was fairly certain he hadn’t.

“How do you know about this place?” I asked instead of biting.

A shrug. “Property records are easy to trace when you know what to look for.” His eyes flicked to the side, the barest amount of movement I barely detected.

But one I detected just in time.

I swiveled on my cast, my ankle protesting the movement.

I was fast enough anyway, dodging the man creeping up behind me, not bothering to consider as I fired off two rounds that hit him right in his chest. He collapsed to the ground, dead before his body hit the dirt, and I spun back, seeing Daniel had taken several steps toward me.

Pointing the barrel of the gun at his crotch, I asked archly, “Are you attached to that part?”

Palms up, he leaned back against the tree again.

“How’s that ankle?”

“Fucking fabulous,” I snapped. “Why are you here?”

“Turns out that your dear cousin Sergio would like a word with you.”

I expanded my senses, certain there were more of the enemy out there. “And you’re what? A fucking lapdog?”

Anger on that handsome face. “I’ve got something important now,” he spat.

“Evil on your soul?” I countered.

A slow, sickening smile. “Power,” he said, pushing off the tree again. “So much power that you idiots at the agency don’t even know what you’re missing. Come with me to Sergio, join your family, and fulfill your legacy. We can rule the fucking world if we play our cards right.”

“How?” I asked, lifting the gun slightly higher when he took a step toward me. “By trading in people, in innocents?” I shook my head. “I can never do that.”

“Can’t you?” he asked condescendingly. “Haven’t you already perfected that?”

Once the memory might have had my stomach twisting itself into knots, horror at my past actions making me sick. Today, I knew that I hadn’t forgiven myself, but I also knew I wasn’t that child of the Toscalos any longer, hadn’t been one of them for a very long time.

And I wouldn’t ever be again.

A shift in the air to my right, to my left, behind me.

Surrounded.

Fuck.

Where was Dan?

In front of me, Daniel smiled, and I watched him almost from outside my body, sensing his nod almost before he completed it.

Air moved.

I dropped to my knees, out of reach of the first man who came for me.

Pop. Pop.

Dead.

I rolled, spun around, aimed at the one on the other side.

But the cast made me slow, a little clumsy, and it took three bullets to bring him down. I started to push up, but before I could move again, shift to hit the final man bursting through the trees, a hand grabbed my hair, yanking my head back, pain exploding in my scalp.

Daniel grabbed Luna 2.0 and tossed her to the side.

“Enough,” he muttered when I threw an elbow, clawed at his hand, kicked back with my good foot. “I said, enough.” He punched me hard in the temple, making my vision blacken for a moment, my breath come in rapid gusts.

“Fuck you!” I snapped, throwing my head back, cracking my skull against his chin.

He cursed, fingers loosening, and I ripped myself from his grip, losing more than a few hairs in the process, but then I was free, lurching toward my gun just in time to see Dan burst through the trees and launch himself at the final man