Page 43 of Atone in Darkness
Okay, then. If that’s how she wanted it, who was he to argue? He’d scout around, make sure they were safe for the time being, and then get some rest himself. Come tomorrow, they’d hike their asses down that road. The sooner they reached civilization, the sooner he could get his life back.
The one without an aggravating woman in it.
•••
MARISOLSTARED OUTof the window until Chase left the room. It had taken all the strength she could muster not to beg him to believe her story instead of Edgar’s. She’d had little reason to trust men in her life, but she’d thought Chase was different, that last night had meant something to them both.
And it wasn’t just the emotional betrayal that she was mad about. No, back in the compound he’d let herthink that she’d written him off for dead when he wasn’t. Only now, when he was backed into a corner, was he finally sharing the truth about what that DNA marker meant. He had been dead. Really dead. Not only that, it wasn’t the first time since she’d known him.
More than anything, she wanted to believe that either he was crazy or that she was. The trouble was she had the hard data to prove,at least to herself, that Chase had amazing recuperative abilities. It wasn’t much of a leap of faith to know that Edgar had them, too, if he really was patient Number Three.
It only seemed logical that whoever had hired her to do the study knew all about Chase and the others long before she’d arrived on the scene. If so, what had they hoped to accomplish by having her study Chase? Had they onlywanted to prove he could survive all that abuse, or were they hoping for more? Long term, had they hoped she could find a way to trigger the same kind of abilities in humans wholacked that all-important marker?
She could only imagine what it would do to her professional credibility if she were to attempt to publish her findings about a subspecies of humans who not only healed faster than anyonecould imagine, but for whom death wasn’t always the end of the road. Yeah, even if she hadn’t signed a nondisclosure agreement at the outset, there was no way she could risk saying a word about what she’d learned. That would be tantamount to pouring all of her education and everything she’d worked for right down the drain.
No longer interested in sleep, she put on her shoes and grabbed her jacketoff the back of the chair. Even if Edgar was asleep, she wasn’t comfortable spending time alone in the house with just him. Besides, the walls of the small cabin felt like they were closing in on her. She wouldn’t go far, just outside to walk around for a few minutes.
She crept past the man sleeping on the floor, hoping to make it out the door without disturbing him. When she stepped out ontothe porch, she paused to draw in a deep breath of fresh air heavily scented with wood smoke and cedar. She walked around to the side of the house to face the hillside where Chase had gone exploring. It was tempting to follow him, but she rejected the idea. If he came back a different way, they might miss each other, and she couldn’t risk crossing paths with the men who were hunting them.
Instead,she did several brisk laps around the house, each time stopping just long enough to see if she could spot Chase on his way back. The longer he stayed gone, the tighter the knot of tension in her chest grew. Had he finally decided that he was better off without her? Worse yet, had the guardscaught up with him?
That thought had her regretting that she’d left the chef’s knife in the house. Onemore lap, and if she didn’t see Chase on his way back, she’d go inside and retrieve it. She paced off the distance around the cabin, counting her steps mostly as a way to keep her mind focused on something other than her fear. Finally, as she reached the front steps, she spotted movement up in the trees. Rather than assume anything, she ducked back around the corner and waited until she knew for sureit was Chase returning.
If it wasn’t...
Instead of standing there like a lamb waiting to be led to the slaughter, she headed to the porch and let herself back inside. Ignoring their unwanted guest, she grabbed the knife from the kitchen before returning to the bedroom to watch out the window.
“What has you so spooked?”
Even though she’d heard Edgar up and moving around, he had still managedto startle her. She glanced out the window one last time before turning to face him, keeping the knife pointed in his direction. “Nothing now. Chase went outside to reconnoiter. He’s making his way down the hillside now.”
Edgar gave the trembling knife blade a dismissive look. “If I didn’t say so earlier, thanks for doctoring my shoulder. I suspect I was less than gracious about it.”
Really?He’d accused her of torturing him, not to mention his words had caused Chase to doubt her again. Anger over that betrayal had her gripping the hilt of the knife hard enough to make her hand ache. That didn’t mean she could risk giving in to the powerful urge to lash out in retributionat Edgar, who was both stronger and an experienced fighter. “Think nothing of it. Being polite is usually thelast thing on someone’s mind when they’re in pain.”
He rubbed his upper arm, grimacing when he hit a sore spot. “True enough.”
If he thought his smile was reassuring, he was wrong. She also hadn’t missed the fact that while he might regret his rude behavior, he hadn’t apologized for lying about her involvement in whatever had happened to him back in the compound. Why had he done that? If he’dmeant to drive a wedge between her and Chase, he couldn’t have picked a better way to do it. Apparently he did share that DNA marker with Chase, but that didn’t prove Edgar really was patient Number Three. Even if he was, he could’ve been a willing participant.
“So much distrust in your eyes, Dr. Riggs.”
Had Chase ever referred to her by her full name? She didn’t think so. Again, that didn’tmean anything. If Edgar had been at the compound, prisoner or not, he could’ve heard of her. It would be nice if she could come up with some clever idea that would trick Edgar into admitting that he was lying about everything, but right now all she cared about was the fact that Chase was nearly back.
She started toward the bedroom door even though Edgar still blocked her way. “If you’ll excuseme, I need to add wood to the fire.”
Edgar held his position a few more seconds before retreating. By the time she reached the stove, Edgar was seated in one of the club chairs, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. She gave him a disgustedlook as she shoved two more logs into the stove, letting him know without words that she wasn’t buying his innocent act for onesecond.
He knew it, too. His smile made her skin crawl. “I don’t care what you and Chase have going on, Doc, but there’s one thing you should know. Men like me and Chase stick together, especially against outsiders.”
She wanted to slap that smirk off his face as he kept talking. “And byoutsiders, I mean people like you. He might like fucking you—I probably would, too, for that matter—but oursis a bond born in blood. There’s no way he’s ever going to believe you over me. Now, if you show me a little of the same action you’ve been giving him, we might work something out.”
Then he stood up and prowled toward her. Why had she thought it a good idea to come back inside? Rather than contemplate her stupidity, she made a quick grab for Chase’s uniform pants and swung them at Edgar’s head.When he ducked, she knocked the kitchen table over in his path and then bolted around the other side heading straight for the door.
Edgar was hot on her trail, cursing a blue streak. She bolted down the porch steps and charged up the hillside, hoping and praying with each step that she reached Chase before Edgar caught up with her.
•••
CHASE HAD BEENgone longer than he’d meant to, mostlybecause he needed time alone to get his head on straight.Right now, he wanted to kick his own ass for doubting Marisol. Even if she hadn’t proven herself to him over and over again, the connection they’d forged since running from the compound together meant he should have at least given her the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he hadn’t been thinking straight because he’d been away from the barrierand his fellow Paladins for too long. Paladins didn’t go rogue often, but it did happen. Why hadn’t he listened to his gut instincts when it came to Edgar? There’d been something off about the man’s story from the minute he’d opened his lying mouth, and Chase had found the proof of that about a quarter mile beyond the top of the ridge.
Backtracking the path the other Paladin had followed to thecabin, he’d found where the bastard had stashed a rifle just like the one Chase had taken from the guard in the compound. Not only that, he’d left a perfectly good sword there, too. While he considered how he should handle the situation, he carved his name in a tree at the top of the ridge just in case Jarvis and the others were able to track them that far. After a brief hesitation, he added Edgar’sname and then drew an X through it, hoping they’d understand that meant the man wasn’t to be trusted.
When he was done, he started back toward the cabin, picking up speed as he went, needing to get back to Marisol. Once he reassured himself that she was all right, he and Edgar were going to have an ugly discussion. Unless the other Paladin came up with some pretty convincing arguments about hisinnocence, it might not end well for him. Regardless, the thought of killing one of his own madeChase sick, and he would do so only as a last resort.
If as he suspected the bastard had betrayed their entire organization, he needed to let Jarvis and Devlin have a chance to interrogate Edgar. Once they drained him dry of everything he knew, they could decide what to do with his worthless carcass.Personally, Chase thought a one-way ticket straight to hell sounded like the perfect reward for his betrayal.
