Page 48 of Remington’s Mate

Come on, come on. She didn’t want to have to stab him before he had a chance to use his computer with the keylogger and they could find his hidden files—and bank accounts.

He was moving around—probably getting dressed in the clean clothes he kept in there.

Done!

Jaeda pulled the thumb drive and dropped it in her pocket just as the bathroom door opened. She straightened up the pile of binders on Sutcliffe’s desk and said brightly, “Do you want them all in here?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Jaeda.”

“I guess that’s a ‘no’.” She walked out of the room, the back of her neck prickling as he watched her.

A minute later he left, taking his coat and laptop. He didn’t even look at her. Hopefully he was gone for the night.

As soon as she heard the elevator, Jaeda called Remy. “I got into it with Sutcliffe tonight.”

His voice immediately filled with concern. “Got into it how? Where are you? You’re not still in the office at this hour, are you?”

“He was punishing me with busywork for kissing you. I guess he decided six hours of overtime wasn’t enough, though, because then he cornered me in the storage room.”

“Did he hurt you?” It was a snarl. “If he did, I’ll rip him apart.” It was surprising how good it felt to have a dominant shifter man willing to do violence for you. Maybe she wasn’t so human after all.

“No,” she said. “But if it makes you feel better, I broke his nose and almost dislocated his shoulder. Plus I threatened to slit his throat. I was very convincing.”

“That’s my girl. I wish you’d’ve let me do it, though.”

“That’s sweet. Next time you can.”

“I’m looking forward to it. So are you blown? Does he know you’re trying to bring him down? We can come and get you.”

“I told him I wanted to make a deal to take you—Colt—out when the deal is done, and take your cut. With any luck, he just thinks I’m a greedy traitorous bitch. The problem is, I’m pretty sure the humiliation of being beaten by a girl will be too much for him to handle. There’s a good chance he’ll decide I’m replaceable and come after me again.”

“I’m on my way. Where’s Sutcliffe?”

“He just left. Coat and all, so hopefully he’s on his way home.”

“Let’s not assume that. He could be waiting for you in the parking garage. Stay in the office until you hear from me.”

For once, she was glad to have backup.

“I will.”

Brandon, Kitty and Squatch were with him at the safe house. Remy brought them all, just in case.

“Do you really think he’s going to come after her again tonight?” Brandon said as they piled into his truck.

“Logic says no, but this bad feeling in my gut says better safe than sorry,” Remy said.

“Should I call in Colt and Callie in from the hotel?” Brandon put the truck in gear, and started toward downtown.

Remy thought about it while he opened his laptop and started the sequence to call up the Stuyvesant security system.

Rip the bad man to shreds, his leopard said.

His owl said, It’s foolish to burn the mission. There may not even be a threat.

His heart said, Fuck everything else. Keep Jaeda safe.

But there were other people involved in this. And Brandon was letting him call it.