Excerpt of Razor's Edge by Shannon K. Butcher

Chapter One

Catching a thief was easy. Catching a thief in the act was more of a challenge -- one that made Roxanne Haught's skin sizzle with eager anticipation.

The lavish retirement party was her idea, despite the fact she'd never met the guest of honor. It was the perfect trap, complete with juicy bait her target would be unable to resist.

She mingled among the well-dressed partygoers, smiling and making small talk as she passed from one cluster of people to the next, waiting for the right time to strike.

Her client, Mr. Chord, had graciously opened his home for his friend's party -- something the middle-aged reclusive genius had never done before. Because of that, dozens of people had come here tonight, curious to get a peek into the executive's estate.

Roxanne cared little about the details of the hand- carved woodwork or the intricacies of the mosaic tile floor inlaid with semiprecious stone, which seemed to delight many of the people here. She'd seen it all before. She was more interested in the number of exits on each floor and the location of the information she'd been hired to guard.

The stage was set. The party was in full swing. Mr. Chord had made sure his newest employee, the unlikely named Mary Smith, knew that the plans for Chord Industries' latest invention were being kept safe on his hard drive at home, away from any possible thieves at the office. That machine had no Internet or network connection, making hacking it from a remote location impossible. No copies were being stored elsewhere, not since the last fiasco. If someone wanted that information, the only way to get it was by breaking into his home office.

He was being extra careful this time. Too bad for Mary Smith her boss suspected her of the theft and had hired Roxanne to catch her in the act.

The Kevlar designed into the bodice of Roxanne's beaded evening gown gave her little comfort. Mary looked more like the kind of woman who would prefer knives -- up close, personal, and silent.

She was a small, innocent-looking woman. She had delicate, softly rounded features, like a porcelain doll. Her bright, cherry red hair was styled in an old-fashioned manner that reminded Roxanne of glamorous actresses from the 1940s. Her dress matched her flamboyant hair color and skimmed the kind of curves that made men forget their own names. If it weren't for the fact that her boss was a freaking genius, Mary probably would have continued to get away with stealing his intellectual property.

But Mr. Chord was a genius, and, after a bit of surveillance, Roxanne was sure he was right. Mary Smith was a thief.

Roxanne stood on the grand staircase leading to the second floor where several people mingled, both here and on the balcony above. She watched Mary laugh at something Mr. Chord said, placing her delicate hand on his chest while she batted her fake eyelashes. The redhead stared up at him in rapt attention, hanging on his every word. Her hands were quick, but Roxanne was watching carefully, expecting the woman to make a move.

Mary didn't disappoint. With a quick, graceful motion, she swiped Mr. Chord's key card from his breast pocket, palming it until it was safely in her red beaded evening bag.

Busted, but not good enough yet. Mary had to be caught stealing the information, or no one would believe little Miss Innocent was guilty of anything more than stunning good looks.

Mary excused herself, heading toward the staircase. Roxanne turned to the nearest group of people and chatted with them as the other woman passed behind her, moving up the stairs, to the right, toward Mr. Chord's office.

Roxanne caught Mr. Chord's gaze and gave him a slight nod. Tonight, she was going to plug her client's information leak once and for all.

A smile stretched Roxanne's lips as she waited until the last flash of red skirt was gone before following Mary down the hallway. The floor plan to Mr. Chord's home was firmly in her mind. There was only one reason Mary would be headed down this hall -- to reach Mr. Chord's office.

Roxanne waited a few brief seconds outside the solid wood door, giving Mary time to power up the PC and begin her illegal hacking.

The high-tech keypad controlling the office door indicated the door was securely locked. Roxanne used her key to open the lock. By the time she swung the door open, Mary was already standing, her eyes wide with innocence.

"What are you doing in here?" asked Roxanne.

"Mr. Chord asked me to look over some of his papers." She held up a key card. "See? He gave me his key."

"Liar," said Roxanne, her grin widening. "But then everything from your dyed hair to your name to that résumé you used to get hired is a lie."

Mary did a good job of sputtering in indignation and picked up her cell phone from the desk. "How dare you? I'm calling Mr. Chord right now to have security escort you out."

"Go ahead," said Roxanne, shrugging. Mary was caught, and if the sweat beading along her hairline was any indication, she knew it. The only way out was through the door behind Roxanne, or out the window, which was easily twenty feet down, thanks to the high ceilings on Mr. Chord's first floor. It was too high up to jump out the window, and there was no place in that outfit for her to hide rappelling gear.

Mary Smith was well and truly caught.

"I've been made," said Mary into the cell phone. "Heads up. Window."

Roxanne's confusion lasted for a millisecond, but even that was too long. Mary had a partner -- something Roxanne had failed to uncover.

Roxanne lunged across the room to stop the woman, but before she could cross the space, Mary hurled a stapler through the window, jerked a USB drive out of the PC, and tossed it through the broken opening. Roxanne slammed into Mary, pinning her to the frame of the window. Outside, she saw a man below pick up the drive and sprint off across Mr. Chord's manicured lawn.

Sure, the data on the drive was fake, but that wasn't the point. Roxanne had been charged with catching a thief, and she'd failed to realize there were two of them.

Fury boiled up inside of her as she grabbed the dainty woman's arm to spin her around and tie her wrists with the flex cuffs she'd brought with her. Mary had other ideas.

She lashed out, slamming her pointy elbow into Roxanne's stomach. Pain flew out from that spot, driving the air from her lungs. Mary shoved away from Roxanne, but she moved only two feet before Roxanne snagged her arm and jerked her to a halt.

"You're not getting away," Roxanne snarled.

Mary's hand snapped out, striking Roxanne's forearm hard enough to break her grip, likely leaving a bruise. She reached beneath her short skirt and pulled out a slim knife. "Like hell I'm not."

Sometimes being right sucked.

Roxanne hated knives. She really did. She'd much rather be at the receiving end of a nice, fat shotgun. There was something inherently wicked about knives, something far more sinister than the effective simplicity of a revolver, or the efficiency of a semiautomatic pistol. Guns were designed to kill; knives were designed to hurt. It took a long time to die from stab wounds, unless a person were lucky enough to have an artery severed. And while Roxanne had been trained to deal with the threat, facing a shiny blade again still had the power to make her break out in a nervous sweat.

Mary stabbed forward, slicing at Roxanne's arm. The blade didn't cut her, but she was sure some of the hair on her forearm had been shaved clean. Good thing she'd brought a gun to a knife fight. It was in her evening bag, which she'd dropped on the floor by the door when Mary had shattered the window. All Roxanne had to do was get to it and the fight would be over. One way or another.

Mary kept swiping, holding Roxanne at bay as she backed up to make her exit. Roxanne made sure not to glance at her beaded bag, not wanting to give away that it was important to her. A woman cruel enough to carry a blade as her weapon of choice would not hesitate to use anything against her she could find.

"I'm leaving. Keep quiet, and I won't hurt anyone on my way out," said Mary. The wicked gleam in her dark eyes spoke differently.

"Bullshit. We both know that's a lie."

A slow, amused smile spread across Mary's mouth as she backed up a bit more. Roxanne followed her up. As she passed the desk, she picked up a heavy crystal paperweight and flung it at Mary's head.

The woman dodged, and Roxanne took the opening. She charged forward, gripping Mary's wrist and shoving it high to keep the knife away from her. She used her momentum to slam the woman into the hardwood door. Her head hit hard. She blinked several times as if dazed.

Roxanne didn't wait to see whether it was an act. She smashed the knife hand against the wood, over and over until the gleaming metal fell to the floor.

Mary screamed in outrage and head butted Roxanne right in the nose.

Pain flashed red behind her eyes, making them water like crazy.

Roxanne grabbed the front of the woman's dress and flung her to the floor, face-first. Mary's skin squeaked against the gleaming hardwood floor. Roxanne crashed down on top of her, driving her knee into Mary's back hard enough to make her cry out in pain. Something along Mary's back popped, but Roxanne didn't care what it was. She wrenched Mary's hands behind her and pinned them there while she fished a set of flex cuffs from her evening bag.

Mary was secured, moaning, and no longer fighting.

Time to go after the other thief.

Roxanne picked up the knife so Mary couldn't use it to free herself and dropped it into her purse. She took out her cell and dialed Mr. Chord as she raced out of the office and down to the exit nearest to where Mary's partner had been. "Mary is in your office. She might need an ambulance."

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"Not as much as I would have liked. She had a partner. I'm going after him."

Roxanne didn't wait to hear what he had to say. She raced across the lawn, but the second thief was nowhere to be seen. Behind a screen of manicured bushes, several bars had been recently cut away from one section of the iron fence surrounding Mr. Chord's property, and on the other side of that, there were dark tire marks on the street.

Roxanne had failed to catch him, which meant it was only a matter of time before a new Mary showed up to finish what the last one couldn't.

Mr. Chord was not going to be pleased.

* * *

"Mr. Chord is pissed," said Roxanne's boss, Bella Bayne, the next morning.

Bella was the owner of the Edge -- the growing private security company in Dallas where Roxanne worked. They handled all kinds of needs from threat assessment to protective details to US troop support to ridding foreign countries of any number of pesky criminals. For the right price.

Roxanne's specialty was stealth security for corporate espionage cases. She made sure the bad guys didn't know who she was until it was too late and she caught them with their hands in the cookie jar. At least that had been her specialty. Based on Bella's scowl, she might have been demoted to cleaning the locker room toilets if she wasn't simply fired.

Roxanne really didn't want to walk away from the job she'd come to love. She had to find a way to make things right.

Bella stood to her full, impressive height. She was easily six feet tall in her combat boots, and every inch of her was sleek, sculpted muscle. Her stormy gray eyes narrowed in fury. "Where shall we start, Razor? With the fact that your client's information was stolen? Or maybe with the part where the guy who stole it got away?"

"The data was fake. I planted it. Whoever has it isn't getting anything of value."

"And now they know that, too. Mr. Chord told me how hard it was to architect that setup. Your chance to catch the thieves is gone, and he still has no idea who Mary works for or with."

Roxanne looked down and toyed with her wide cuff bracelet. "Were the police able to get her to talk?"

"Not a word. Not even to a lawyer. And now whoever is doing this knows we're onto them."

What was worse was that the police were now involved -- something Mr. Chord had wanted to avoid from the beginning, which was why he hired the Edge to deal with the problem. If word got out that his designs were being stolen, his company's stock price could plummet. He might lose investors.

Roxanne had no idea about the specifics of the devices that had been stolen from him. She didn't need to know any secret information to do her job. But what she did know was that Chord Industries had contributed to several advances in the field of medicine. His machines helped people. Saved lives.

Because of her, he was losing his ability to do good in the world, and that pissed Roxanne off more than her own failure.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I should have realized Mary could have a partner."

"Yes. You should have. So the question is, why didn't you?"

Roxanne considered giving her boss some lame excuse. She could come up with half a dozen that might help her cover her ass, but she couldn't do that to Bella. They were friends. Bella trusted her, and she wasn't going to screw that up by lying.

Roxanne took a deep breath and admitted what she'd hoped she wouldn't have to. "I've been distracted."

Bella crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a dark eyebrow. "Distracted? Care to elaborate on that?"

"My ex, Kurt, he's been sending guys after me, having them follow me. I thought he'd stopped a few weeks ago, but I guess I was wrong. He's not done with his games. A new man showed up yesterday, and I spent so much time losing him before I went in to do the job, I was rushed. I wasn't completely focused."

Bella's face darkened with rage, and her voice became lethally calm. "What, exactly, are these guys doing to you?"

"Nothing. They just watch me. Kurt was the jealous type, and even though we split three months ago, he apparently still hasn't managed to accept the fact that we're over."

"Give me Kurt's address. I'll go speak to him."

"No, Bella. You'd only make things worse if you confront him. I already did, and he denies everything. I know he's lying, and I told him I'd have him brought in for stalking if it happened again. I thought I'd gotten through, but either way, this is my mess. I'll be the one to clean it up."

Bella glanced at Roxanne's arm where the bruise from last night's combat darkened her skin. "Did he hurt you, Razor?" she asked, her hands clenching to fists at her sides.

"No. It was nothing like that. He's not a bad guy. He just didn't want to let go."

"I could make him."

Roxanne had seen Bella mad. She'd seen the woman take down three armed men by herself. And she'd heard stories about that building Bella destroyed in Mexico a few months ago. But Roxanne had never seen this kind of steely, quiet rage so intense it vibrated through her entire body. She heard rumors that Bella had a dark past -- one she never discussed with her employees -- but seeing this kind of reaction made Roxanne wonder just what that past had been.

"I've got it covered," said Roxanne. "I'll go see him today and make sure he quits playing these games."

Bella swallowed several times before her hands unclenched and the redness in her face abated. "I won't have anyone hurting my people."

"Kurt isn't hurting me. He's just jerking me around."

"Are you protecting him?"

"No. He's an asshole for screwing with me like this, and I plan to tell him that to his face."

"I don't like the way he's treating you."

"Neither do I."

"He interfered with your work, and I can't let that slide."

"I know." Roxanne let out a long, resigned breath. She loved her job, but she knew the score. A mistake like this was too big a thing to simply ignore. "Are you going to fire me?"

Bella's mouth flattened in frustration. "I should. That would certainly appease Mr. Chord. But no, you're not fired. However, I'm not handing out any more chances, either. You blow it again, you're out. Our work is too dangerous for distractions. You need to get your personal shit straightened out before I can assign you any more jobs."

"What about finding the guy who got away?"

"The cops are involved now. They're looking into it."

"So . . . what? We just leave Mr. Chord hanging?"

"No, I'm going to offer him our services for free to calm him down, but he already said he didn't want you back. I'm sorry."

The rejection stung, but not nearly as much as her failure did. Mr. Chord was right to be mad. She let her personal life get in the way of her professional life, which was a big no-no. She knew better.

"I understand. I'll go see Kurt on his lunch break and make sure he understands that his games are over. I should be back by one."

"No. I don't want you back until you're sure you've fixed the problem for good."

Roxanne took a deep breath to keep herself from shouting at her boss. "How long is long enough to convince you?"

"As long as it takes. No less than a week."

A week? If Mr. Chord's thief had left any trail, it would definitely be cold by then. "That's more time than I'll need."

"This isn't negotiable, Razor," said Bella. "If his buddies stay away for a few days, chances are they won't come back. And there's something else, too."

"What?"

"Assholes have a tendency to escalate things when confronted. I'm not letting anything happen to you, so I'm assigning the new guy to you. Wherever you go, he goes. Got it?"

"You're giving me a babysitter?" Roxanne did shout this time, jumping to her feet in anger.

Bella strode around her glass desk and got right in Roxanne's face. "I'm giving you a badass former special operations babysitter -- one I want on our team. Don't fuck that up."

Great. Now she wasn't going to be able to look into possible leads on the thief. Her babysitter would no doubt rat her out. "I don't need him, Bella."

"I think you do. And he needs you, too. While he's babysitting, you're going to explain how things work at the Edge. He's already passed all our tests and breezed through training, but he hasn't taken on any real jobs yet. Think of this as his orientation." Bella pressed a button on her phone. "Lila, please send Tanner in."

"This isn't a good idea. I'm a horrible teacher. You need to get Riley to do the training. He's good at that kind of thing."

"Riley's good at everything, which is why he's too busy for this. You, on the other hand, happen to have some free time on your hands. Deal with it, Razor. This is happening."

Fine. Roxanne had screwed up. If this was her punishment, she'd take it like a woman, get through the next few days, and be back to her real job in no time. "Let's get this over with."

"Nice to meet you, too," said Tanner as he came in on the heels of her statement.

Bella made the introductions. "Razor, this is Tanner O'Connell."

Tanner was not what she'd expected. She'd been so upset about being saddled with a babysitter, she hadn't even considered that he might be a hot one. And he was. Smokin'. Taller than Bella, even in her boots, Tanner stood with a posture that screamed complete confidence. His shoulders were wide, his back straight, and his blue eyes stayed fixed on her, unblinking. An amused grin lifted one side of his mouth and formed little crinkles at his eyes. His jeans clung to thick, long legs, and on his feet were the worn cowboy boots of a true Texan.

"Tanner, this is your new partner, Roxanne Haught. We call her Razor."

Tanner's dark brows went up at that. "Razor? Is that because you have a sharp tongue?"

"The sharpest," she replied. "You'd better beg Bella for a new trainer, or I'll skin you alive."

His gaze dropped to her mouth. "Might be worth it."

Bella grabbed each of them by one arm and pushed them toward her office door. "I see you two have a lot to talk about. Outside of my office. I have work to do."

"This is a bad idea," said Roxanne, praying for a last- minute reprieve.

Bella ignored her. "And don't think you can come back here in a few hours claiming you tried to make it work. There will be no trying today. Just doing. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Tanner. "We won't let you down."

Bella gave Tanner a stern look. "She's going to try to ditch you. Don't let it happen. Some asshole is giving her trouble, and if she gets hurt, you're fired."

All hints of amusement fled Tanner's rugged face, making his eyes turn cold. He seemed to grow a couple of inches taller and took a step closer to Roxanne. It reminded her of her best friend, Jake, who had a tendency to be a bit overprotective.

Tanner nodded. "I understand."

"Good. I'm glad that's settled. Now get out." Bella shooed them through the door and shut it behind them.

It was time to let the new kid know how things worked around here. "If I'm going to be your trainer, we have a couple of things to get straight."

"Such as?"

"I'm in charge. You do what I say, when I say."

The slightest creases formed at his eyes, but he didn't refute her order. "Is that it?"

"No. I don't want or need a babysitter. I'm going to deal with my personal problems on my own, without your interference."

"Anything else?"

Wow. He was taking that remarkably well.

"I think that covers the basics. But I reserve the right to change my mind."

He moved, somehow maneuvering her so that her back was against the wall. He nudged closer, breaking the edge of her personal space. His voice dropped to a quiet rumble that Bella's secretary, Lila, would have had trouble overhearing from her desk a few feet away. "Then it's my turn to talk. I don't work for you. I work for Bella, which means she's the one who gets to hand out the orders, not you. So, while I'm happy to learn whatever it is you have to teach me, I'm sure as hell not going to stand around like a good little boy while you deal with your personal asshole problems when Bella specifically told me not to."

Roxanne wasn't sure what she'd expected from the seemingly good-natured man, but it wasn't that. She pulled in a breath to put him in his place, but an instant later, his thick, hot finger pressed against her lips, quieting her.

She was so shocked by the touch, she forgot all about the fact that she should have been upset by it. Instead, she drew in a breath scented with soap and the faintest hint of his skin.

A touch of vertigo spun inside her head, and she realized she'd forgotten to breathe. The roughness of his work-hardened finger grazed across her mouth as her lips parted slightly so she could pull in enough oxygen.

"I'm not done," he told her. "You and I are going to be working together, and I'm not going to let you do anything to screw up my chances of keeping this job. I need the work. So you and I are going to get along real nice-like and make Bella proud. Got it?"

As close as he was, she could see deep blue streaks radiating out from his pupils. The creases around his eyes were paler, as if he'd spent a lot of time in the sun, squinting. His scent reminded her of a summer drive in a convertible -- warm and exhilarating with just a hint of an incoming storm.

She felt her skin heat and attributed it to her sudden flash of irritation at his high-handed ways.

Roxanne pressed her hands against his chest to push him back, but as soon as she felt the hard contours of his muscles beneath her hands, her mind stuttered for a moment before she remembered herself and finished pushing.

Tanner stepped back, his finger shiny from her lip gloss.

Roxanne pressed her lips together to fix the damage he'd done to her makeup and swore she could taste him -- salt and earth and something else that made her wish for another taste just so she could figure it out.

Not that she would do that. Bella generally frowned on her coworkers tasting each other.

Roxanne cleared her throat to cover her discomfort. "I can see already that you and I are going to have problems."

"Nope," he said. "Not a single one. We're both going to do what the boss says."

No way was she letting a stranger into her personal life to help her make an ex-boyfriend back off. But he didn't have to know that. "Fine. You win. We'll meet back here after lunch and get started on your training."

By that time, she'd have dealt with Kurt and no longer have anything to hide. She'd throw herself into training Tanner, and in a few days, everything would be back to normal.