Edge of Betrayal by Shannon K. Butcher

If you don’t let me help, then you’ll be out there all alone. Afraid.”
    “I’ve been afraid before. It’s not fatal.”
    “Yes, but my guess is you’ve always been afraid of what others might do to you. Now you also have to worry about what you might do to others. Someone you love could get hurt.”
    She closed her eyes. He could see the sheen of tears wet her lashes, but not a single one fell.
    When she looked at him again, he could see the steel running through her. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose had turned pink, but there was a fierce look in her that gave him the craziest urge to kiss her.
    “No one I love is ever going to die again,” she said.
    “Then you’ll come with me? Let me help you?”
    “I’ll listen. That’s all I can promise right now.”
    “But what about what you just said about no one you love dying?”
    She shrugged, and her sad expression broke his heart. “That’s easy. All I have to do is never love again.”

Chapter Eight
    M ira lasted for all of twenty minutes after Payton left before she gave in to the uncontrollable urge to look at the file he’d mentioned. It was password protected, but that wasn’t an issue for her. Less than thirty seconds later, she started reading.
    She was still reading an hour later, despite her shaking hands and queasy gut.
    Adam wasn’t just part of the Threshold Project. He was its pinnacle.
    The notes she’d read were well beyond her medical knowledge, but she was smart enough to understand what they meant: Adam’s parents had altered him before birth. What they’d done to him was written in his genes—inescapable.
    At least with some of the other victims, their programming could be overwritten. The drugs they’d been given had worn off, and with enough counseling, they were able to live normal lives.
    Adam would never have that. No matter what he did, what drugs he took, what therapy he received, he would never be able to undo his genes.
    Childhood tests showed he was faster than other children. Stronger. His mind worked more quickly, and hewas able to compartmentalize better than any of the other subjects.
    No wonder he was able to do the things he’d done and not show guilt. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel it so much as he’d locked it away where it couldn’t alter his effectiveness—as he’d been designed to do.
    Mira’s eyes burned as she sat back in her chair. She’d hardly blinked as she’d read the file. It was all too much to take in.
    Adam had never been a child. He’d been a construction. A project.
    Even Mira, daughter to a man who cared nothing for her safety or comfort, had a home and a loving mother to care for her between experiments. Adam had had none of that. Both his parents were scientists, committed to the Threshold Project.
    So committed that they’d given up their son to the cause.
    It was a wonder Adam had even survived. There were no notes in the file about whether he’d been rescued or if he’d escaped. The last entry she read was dated shortly after his first birthday.
    She picked up the phone and dialed Payton. “I want to know more.”
    “You read the file.”
    “You knew I would. Tell me the rest.”
    “There is no more to tell. That’s the only file I recovered on the subject.”
    “Why didn’t I see it before? Why wasn’t it with the others?”
    “Even you don’t get to see everything. Believe me. That’s more a blessing than a punishment.” Pain and regret coursed through the words.
    Mira shivered. “You’re right. The less I know, the better. Except about Adam.”
    “You know what you need to.”
    “To do what? You read the file. We can’t help him.”
    “We already are helping him. We’ve given him a job, a group of people who accept him.”
    “Except me.”
    Payton sighed. “No one can make you forgive him for what he did. All I’m asking is that you work with him until Gage is free again. You’re both safer working with each other. It’s what Bella wanted, and we