Living On The Edge. Susan Mallery

head to the door midway down the hallway. Not until he’d heard three more individual clicks, followed by a soft “Red Two, go.”

      Still clear.

      Tanner emptied his mind of everything unessential. The floor plan of the suite had been etched into his brain. When last he’d seen Madison, she’d been on the balcony. Given her few freedoms in the past couple of weeks, he doubted she would have moved. Her guard would still be sleeping on the job. One shot would take care of her. With a little luck, she wouldn’t know what hit her.

      He turned the container he still held and shot the second blast of acid from the back end. A slow count to sixty, then he eased the door open.

      “Man on the stairs, Tanner. Watch your back.”

      Tanner swore under his breath. There was an extra man on duty tonight. Wasn’t that always the way?

      He left the door, pivoted and pressed his body into the shadows. Someone walked into view, his gun drawn.

      “Natalie, are you all right? There’s been some trouble. A.J.’s missing.”

      “What?”

      When things went to hell, they did so at light speed. Madison’s female guard—aka Natalie—stumbled from her seat. Tanner heard the sound just as he zapped the guard. Unfortunately she tried the door and found it unlocked. There was the sound of a pistol being cocked.

      Tanner dropped the guard onto the landing and waited for Natalie to come out, hoping she was just stupid enough not to follow orders. That rather than staying with her prisoner, she would venture onto the landing.

      Sure enough, the door cracked open. He got her in the arm before she cleared the threshold. Which left Madison Hilliard all alone.

      Tanner dragged a now-unconscious Natalie out of the way and headed into the suite. He hoped he didn’t have to go looking for the rich princess. He also hoped she wasn’t a screamer. He hated screamers…well, not in bed.

      But Madison hadn’t hidden. She still stood by the railing, watching him approach.

      “I’m one of the good guys,” he said. “Let’s move.”

      Her long hair hid most of her face, but he thought he saw her smile. Coolly, though. Not with relief. She wasn’t going to throw herself at him with gratitude, but at least she didn’t seem to be a screamer.

      “I always thought my rescuer would have a better line than that. Maybe ‘Come with me if you want to live.’”

      Tanner couldn’t help an answering grin. “Yeah, I’m a Terminator fan, too, but I’d rather talk on the helicopter. Unless you’d like to stay here?”

      She didn’t answer. Instead she walked toward him.

      “Shoes,” he said. “Don’t sweat which ones. We’re not going to a fashion show.”

      She stuffed her feet into loafers and hurried toward the door. He followed her. Once they reached the landing, he took the lead. After grabbing her hand in his, he hustled them down the stairs.

      There was no point in telling the team he had her; everyone would have heard their conversation.

      “You’re clear,” Angel said quietly. “Chopper will be here in thirty.”

      They headed out the rear of the house. Tanner pulled off the night-vision goggles as they went. The rumble of a helicopter started in the distance while he and Madison hovered by the edge of the patio.

      “How did you find me?” she asked.

      He glanced at her. “That’s my job.”

      “Ah. The strong, silent type. That must have impressed my father.”

      Tanner looked at her for the first time. Really looked. Madison Hilliard was no longer a glossy photo, but a real, breathing woman. Her long blond hair began to fly around her face as the helicopter started to descend. She tried to hold it at the back of her neck. One of the lights from the copter caught her full in the face.

      Not much shocked Tanner—not anymore. But he was unprepared for the ugly slash scarring her left cheek and the way it contrasted with the beauty of her face. She saw him watching—staring—but didn’t blink or turn away.

      The helicopter landed. Before they could board, there was a yell from behind the house. Tanner swore and turned in that direction.

      “Two guards,” Angel said into his earpiece. “Son of a bitch. Early shift change. They just drove up. Kelly, get down. On your left. On your—”

      The sound of gunfire cut out the rest of Angel’s words. The pitch and volume of the blasts told Tanner they hadn’t all come from his men’s guns. Not good, he thought grimly. His team quietly checked in, except for Kelly.

      “Go,” he told the woman, pushing her into the helicopter.

      Madison scrambled inside.

      Tanner hated stepping in next to her, but his men were trained. They would fan out and find their fallen team member. Sure enough, less than two minutes later, three men appeared, although only two were walking. They carried the third between them.

      “Get going,” Angel said into Tanner’s earpiece. “Kelly got both of the other men after they got him, but they’d already made a call requesting backup.”

      “Will do. You get out of there, as well.”

      “I’m already gone, boss.”

      Tanner helped his men drag an unconscious and bleeding Kelly onto the floor of the helicopter, then he signaled for the pilot to take them up.

      As they rose high in the sky, he checked his man. Two gunshots, both bad. One in the chest, one in the leg. Dammit all to hell, he thought grimly and glared at the woman huddled in the far seat. There were things worth dying for, but saving someone like her wasn’t one of them.

      The other two team members had already started emergency first aid. Tanner moved back to give them room. He picked up a headset and motioned for Madison to do the same.

      “Your reunion is going to have to wait,” he told her, speaking into the attached microphone. “I need to get my man to a doctor.”

      Her gaze moved from him to Kelly, then back. “Of course. I can stay with you at the hospital.”

      There was no point in telling her they weren’t going to a hospital. Public health facilities required too much paperwork, and the staff would have too many questions. Tanner had his own state-of-the-art medical center with trained specialists—all former military doctors—on call.

      “One of my men will take you to a safe place,” Tanner told her. “You can wait there until I’m available to return you to your family.”

      He figured Madison and her husband could hold on an extra hour or two before seeing each other. As his was the only face his clients ever saw, he would have to return her himself. Just as well—he could pick up his sizable check at the same time.

      He jerked off the headset and fought his temper. It should have been an easy job, he told himself. No one was supposed to get hurt. Certainly not Kelly—the youngest and newest member of their team. Kelly had just gotten engaged the previous month. He was from Iowa, for God’s sake. This wasn’t supposed to happen to a kid from Iowa.

      

      Madison Hilliard paced the length and width of the small room. She had no idea how long she’d been held there—no windows provided light, she wasn’t wearing a watch and she couldn’t find a clock. She figured at least a couple of hours had passed. Maybe more.

      The space was spare to the point of being monastic—a single bed, a sink and a toilet. No closet, no desk. Nothing to read, nothing to look at, nothing to do. She supposed she should have slept—she hadn’t been able to do more than doze since the kidnapping. But anxiety kept her moving. While she wanted to believe she’d been rescued,