Page 77 of Remington’s Mate

Sutcliffe laughed. “Not such a smug little bitch now, are you?”

“Notice how you had to chain me up to keep me from beating the shit out of you again,” she replied. “You’re such a brave little douchebag.”

He hit her again, but she didn’t even care. She was too furious—at him, and at herself, for letting herself be caught.

Sutcliff moved around to her left, and she realized that Colt was next to her, also chained. The security minion with Sutcliffe had just finished injecting Colt with something, and now he was waving the evil-smelling shit under his nose to wake him up.

“Where the hell are we?” she demanded, as Colt sputtered and came back to consciousness.

“A place where no one will ever find you. This building—” he gestured around him— “is scheduled for demolition tomorrow morning. It’s all wired up.” He looked at his watch. “In about—oh, half an hour or so—there’s going to be a malfunction, and all the explosives will go off unexpectedly. You two will probably be vaporized in the explosion, but if you’re not, there won’t be enough left that anyone will find you in the remains.”

Colt spat blood out of his mouth. “Why didn’t you just go ahead and kill us?”

Shut up, Jaeda thought. Don’t give him ideas.

“Because I don’t like you,” Sutcliffe said. “And I want you to sit here, waiting for the explosion, knowing you’re going to die. Much more fun, don’t you think?”

Jaeda said, “I knew you were a sick son of a bitch.”

He gazed at her coldly. “You will both disappear, and so will I. You’ve ruined my lucrative little scheme. You deserve to suffer.”

They’d ruined more than that, Jaeda thought with satisfaction. Remy had cleaned out Sutcliffe’s offshore accounts before leaving for the meeting. Psycho Ethan’s escape plan was about to hit a major snag.

Sutcliffe leaned down into Jaeda’s face. “You should have known better than to cross me. I thought Smith had gotten you the other night, but I see we were wrong. So finding you at the hotel was a little bonus for me.” She spit in his eye. He stood up and wiped it off with his handkerchief, then hit her again.

Colt almost wrenched his way out of the chains to get at Sutcliffe. Ethan turned and walked out.

The large room they were in had once been a lab or a morgue, with a tiled floor and solid concrete walls. The door was thick metal and fit tightly into the doorframe. As soon as it clanged shut behind Sutcliffe, Jaeda said, “The others are on their way, but I don’t know how soon they can get here. We weren’t sure exactly where you were.”

“Remy will find us.” Colt sounded sure.

“Can you Change?” she asked him. “If you can, maybe I can too. As owls, we could slide right out of these chains.”

Colt tried. “I can’t,” he said. “It must be whatever knockout drug they gave us. It’s inhibiting my ability to shift.”

Jaeda tried, but there was nothing there. Either the drug had the same effect on her, or Colt’s inability to reach his animals kept her from being able to draw on his help.

“What about the leopard?” she said. “You’re more comfortable with that form.”

“I tried that too,” he said. “Nothin’. I don’t suppose you have any lockpicks?”

“I’m Jace and Emma Monroe’s daughter,” she said. “Of course I do.”

She could hear the eye-roll in Colt’s tone. “Why didn’t you fucking say so?”

“Because they’re hidden in my belt. I can’t get to them, and I don’t know if you can either. Changing would have been faster.”

“Tell me where they are.”

They maneuvered themselves around until Colt could reach the right part of her belt. Even so, he struggled to get his fingers to the tiny hidden pocket on the inside of the belt.

“Hey,” Jaeda said, when his hands slipped for the sixth time and she felt him getting frustrated. “Just because you look exactly like my mate doesn’t mean you get to grope my butt.”

That made him laugh—and broke the tension. The next try worked.

There was more maneuvering to get into a position where he could pick the locks on her chains. When he finally got them off, she took the picks and started on his.

As she worked, he said, “You know, I haven’t had a chance to say this—or even to get to know you that well—but I just want to say I’m glad you and Remy found each other. You’re good for him.”