Edge of Defiance (Edge of Collapse, #5)

by Kyla Stone

Sufficiently cowed, the men slunk back to their barstools to nurse their miseries.

A slight bulge at her hip revealed her concealed carry pistol. Though she looked unassuming, Liam suspected she was anything but.

“You have my eternal gratitude. My husband and I made our son answer for his reckless behavior. He’s learned his lesson. He almost didn’t get a chance to learn. We won’t forget that. If there’s anything me or my family can do for you, say the word.”

She handed him a torn piece of paper—red,

A list of twenty-one names was hastily scribbled in pen.

“I’m a veteran. So is my husband, Wayne. We have enough on our plates just trying to survive and rebuild after the collapse. There’s no place for tyrants. Mich...

She tapped the paper in front of him. “A lot of us have been talking amongst ourselves. And unlike those boneheads back there, we understand a solution requires more than talking. If you need people to help you, these are the ones you want. Count my husband and me among them.” Liam folded and pocketed the paper. “Thank you.” “Anything,” Corinne said. “I mean ...

“See? Fall Creek isn’t a lost cause, friend. Don’t give up on us yet.” Liam rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a start. I’ll give you that.”

Milo had been busy drawing his latest superhero fascination—Wolverine—on colored sheets of construction paper.

Cute!

waiting for an answer that made sense.

Hannah had asked him—begged him—to bring Milo to visit her. She’d wanted to see Milo every day, offering to care for him while Noah worked.

He liked the girl, he did. But he couldn’t have Milo spending more time with her and Molly. Their seditious ideals were dangerous. They might put Milo in danger. He couldn’t risk it.

He didn’t know how Milo would respond if he told the truth or who his son would choose. That made him even angrier. “No, son. She didn’t.” His little shoulders slumped. “Oh.” Noah ignored the stab of guilt and glanced at the clock.

A flash of resentment shot through him. Milo should be grateful for everything Noah had done for him, for all the sacrifices and compromises he’d made—would make, was about to make.

His agreement with Rosamond haunted his thoughts. Noah pushed aside his reticence. It was necessary. They had forced him into it by their own actions. He had no choice.

There's always a choice and you've made yours.

His gaze darted everywhere but at Liam. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a month, like a man haunted by his own ghost.

Irritation shot through him. Whatever Noah was here for, it wasn’t to make friends. Liam said nothing.

“If they’d just give up everything they have, they wouldn’t be forcibly starved, you mean? They wouldn’t be beaten in the streets for saying the wrong thing or looking the wrong way? Their food wouldn’t be stolen right out of their homes?”

“I’m trying to keep the peace! If you people would just see that, would see reason—”

"You people? What do you mean, you people?"

“What do you want, Noah?”

Right get to the point.

“You’re being pathetic. Get some sleep, hug your son, and pull yourself together.”

The movement slight, but Liam saw it. His coat sleeve covered his right hand, only his fingers poking out. Not his fingers—his knuckles. He held something.

Instinctively, Liam shifted into a fi...

“I see what you’re doing,” Liam said in disgust. “Leave before I kill you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “You came here to murder me.”

Noah took a step toward him, his movements quick and furtive. “No, I wouldn’t—” Liam shot him a hard look. “No? So you don’t have a knife hidden up the sleeve of your coat?”

Normally, Liam would drop his hips to further pull his target off balance and use his forward momentum to drive the knife under the hostile’s breastbone up into his heart. Instead, he wrenched Noah’s wrist so far backward that Noah screamed and dropped the blade. It fell to the carpet. Liam kicked it away. He released the man and stepped back.

Noah is just an embarrassment.

Breathing hard, he straightened, reaching for his sidearm.

Before he got a good grip on it, Liam sla...

punched an elbow strike to Noah’s face.

split his upper lip and knocked a few of his teeth loose.

“You done yet?” Liam asked.

Before Noah could recover his balance, Liam stepped forward, bent his arm, and struck him under the chin with the point of his elbow.

Liam frisked him then stared down at him, not bothering to stifle his revulsion. Hot anger ran through him like an electric current. “I should kill you.” Noah couldn’t even look at him. He was a small, weak, pathetic man. Liam fought the desire to end him. Everything in his training urged him to do it. Everything but his heart. For Hannah’s sake, Liam stayed his hand. As much as he wanted to, he wouldn’t kill the husband of the woman he loved. He wouldn’t kill the father of her child.

even if she forgave him, it would always be there between them—a shadow, a ghost, a dark and ugly thing that would not die.

“Slink away like the dog you are. I take that back. Ghost has more honor in his right paw than you have in your entire body.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean it.” “You did,” Liam said. “Now get the hell out of my sight.”

He swore that he would try again, but he was unlikely to get close enough to lay eyes on the soldier, let alone eliminate him.

How Gavin took the knife from her hands and wrapped it in a dish towel. “I’ll bury it,” he’d said without tears or theatrics. Simple as that.

They’d also buried the body deep in the woods on their twenty-acre property. It was probably still there—a pile of yellowed bones all that remained of the man who’d terrorized her for eight years.

After that, she hadn’t needed or wanted a man. Julian and Gavin were hers.

She had raised her sons the same way, teaching them that the world was theirs by right. To gain power, wealth, and influence, you had to want it more than anyone else.

Wield power over others first. Never bend, never break. Be better than your enemies

She had loved him—as any mother loves her children—but she hadn’t attempted to conceal her abject disappointment in him.

Gavin

who had done whatever she’d asked of him—and much...

He was what he was. And she’d love...

“Jealousy is not a good reason to kill someone,” Molly said. “Read some Shakespeare. They always reap what they sow. It never ends well.”

How Hannah wished that Bishop was right. That Noah was still reachable, still savable. But when he’d tried to kill Liam, he’d passed the point of no return, at least for her. Some acts were unforgiveable.

“She’s sixteen,” Hannah said. “We’ve got to cut her some slack, let her grieve on her own terms. She acts older than she is, but she’s still a kid. A kid with a broken heart.”