On the Edge of Love (Mama's Brood Book 1) by Shay Rucker Read Free Book Online Page A

had a low tolerance for social interactions. Every nerve she had was hyperalert from attempting to maneuver safely through the undercurrents swirling around her. She wanted to sleep and blot them all out but was unwilling to leave herself vulnerable again.
    She opened her eyes as Zeus reached behind him and secured the scalpel-sharp blade near the small of his back.
    “Who are you all, anyway? Not police. Not FBI. Possibly ex-military.”
    “ We ,” Terry said, spreading his arms magnanimously, “are the good guys.”
    She snorted. The others laughed outright at the absurdity of the declaration. The only one of them who could possibly pass for good was Coen. In her opinion, not even Mama or Terry pulled it off. Despite their ease and concern, there was something hard about them. They both seemed a bit too complex to fit the simple description of “good guys.”
    “Though I didn’t birth them,” Mama said, “these are my brood. My later-in-life adopted children, if you will. Each of them is special to me. Each has special skills, special sensibilities. None of them are good in the standard meaning of the word, but they have been committed to helping me in my endeavors.”
    “Which are?”
    “Maybe it’s not the best idea to tell the stranger who Kragen wants bad enough to have snatched from her home a lot about who we are, Mama,” Price cautioned.
    The older woman shrugged, watching Sabrina with praying-mantis stillness. “I’ll take a chance on her. She doesn’t strike me as one ready to share secrets.”
    “Did you forget Kragen has a pretty sadistic way of handling people who don’t want to share their secrets?” Lynx asked.
    Mama waved the concerns of both men away. “Stopping soulless men and women from destroying the lives, innocence, and souls of others is what we’re about,” she told Sabrina. “Sometimes, like now, we act independently, choosing to go after people and organizations others either turn a blind eye to or truly don’t know about. Sometimes we contract out to others for our various services.”
    “Like contracting with the government?”
    “Well, that question’s a little dicey,” Terry said.
    “A lot of times governments employ the people who need killing,” Zeus said, reaching for her leg and draping it over his shoulder as if it were his pet python. He reached under the pant leg and stroked her bare skin. She’d noticed he needed to keep his hands busy. It must be a testament to how tired she was that she didn’t object. The repetitive motion actually eased the tension in her body instead of causing her revulsion.
    “Bluntly stated, but Zeus is correct,” Terry said. “Sometimes people have prices. Governments harbor people all too willing to be bought.”
    Sabrina let her head fall back on the love seat and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t sleep, just rest, listen, ask. She didn’t have the energy or the mental capacity to answer any more of their questions without accidentally saying something she shouldn’t say.
    “So what happens next?” she asked.
    “You rest, dear girl. We’ll watch over you,” Mama said.
    “I take care of myself,” she muttered. “I always take care of…” She sighed, overcome by a crescendo of darkness.
    “WEIRD THING OUT at the warehouse, Mama. It might have nothing to do with nothing, but we thought it best to check in around it,” Lynx said.
    “What did you find?”
    Lynx was silent for a moment. “Fresh wounds, bruising, multiple contusions on the head and throat areas of the kidnappers. At least two of those men took a hell of a beating. Didn’t think it was your style to beat ’em first and slice them up after, Zeus.”
    Zeus paused in his downstroke on Sabrina’s leg. “I just cut.” He shrugged. “Nothing more.”
    “Ante up, Lynx. I told you he didn’t do it.” Big Country rubbed his fingers together, anticipating his winnings.
    “It was her,” Price said. “It had to be. More than likely the third or fourth