Page 14 of Sawyer’s Mistake

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for your intervention, Saoirse. But you need to be aware of what it means.”

She nodded. She’d love to know what it meant.

“They’re going to come back soon, and they’re going to want to get you to speak. They’ll try to torture it out of you.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and she closed them tightly. She didn’t think she could stop crying if she started.

“Torture? I don’t think I can take that, Jake.”

He lowered his voice. “That’s the point. I can take it. We just need to get them to focus on me. Okay?”

“No!” she sobbed.

“Shh, it’s okay. I’ve trained for this. I can take anything they come up with. But you need to help me. We must keep their attention on me the whole time. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She nodded, though the thought of him being tortured made her stomach roil. How could he be so matter-of-fact about this?

“There’s one other thing, Saoirse. The first chance you get, you take the radio on my wrist and activate the tracker. It’s a tiny button on the left side. Storme and the team will know to come find us. You just need to hang on until that happens.”

Her reply stuck in her throat as the steel door groaned.

Chapter 8

Jake

The two Remur who walked through the door wore the silver back plate that marked them as soldiers. In his mind, he immediately nicknamed the older one Sabretooth, the younger one Wolverine, after two of his favorite characters from his grandmother’s comic book collection. Both Remur were pushing six-five and probably close to three hundred pounds each. They walked slightly lopsided due to the difference in size between their right hand and the enormous claw that protruded from their left arm.

Even if he were free and armed, Sawyer knew he wouldn’t stand a chance against the two of them together. But then he didn’t need to. He took a deep breath. He just needed to keep them busy long enough for Saoirse to activate the tracker then wait for his friends to come for them.

He hadn’t been kidding when he told her he could take anything they could dish out. Anything except watching her be tortured in front of him.

“Hey, Wolverine,” he shouted. “I’m feeling a bit tied down here. Think you can help me?”

Sabretooth strode over and stopped inches away from him. Sawyer breathed through his mouth in an attempt to avoid breathing in the alien’s powerful, musty scent. He forced himself to look up at the alien’s face. Sabretooth reached behind him and grabbed his hands, tugging upwards. The pressure on Sawyer’s shoulders became unbearable. He felt like his shoulders were going to pop out of their sockets. He clenched his teeth to keep himself from screaming in agony.

“No! Please don’t do this! Don’t hurt him!” Saoirse screamed. Her chair scraped against the ground as she tried to move her chair closer.

Sawyer glared at her, hoping she’d understand she needed to stay quiet, but she paid no heed.

The Remur froze where he was, still holding on to Sawyer’s handcuffs. He bellowed, repeating the same sound again and again, and at Sawyer. It was clear he was trying to communicate with Saoirse. He looked up at her. She’d gone very pale under her cloud of bright red hair.

Sawyer wondered just how much she could understand of the Remur’s strange language.

“Don’t listen to anything they say, Saoirse,” he cautioned.

His words earned him a punch from Wolverine. Sawyer felt his jaw rattle. Blood pooled in his mouth, and he spit it right at the alien’s feet, hoping the gesture was as offensive to aliens as it would be to humans.

Something flashed behind Wolverine’s dark, sunken eyes.

Finally getting some reaction from you.

Wolverine reached behind him and pulled on the chain from the ceiling. His arm muscles bulged for a moment. Then the chain broke. Sawyer found himself on his knees in front of the aliens, staring at the clawed toes peeking out from behind the thick foot covers the aliens wore instead of shoes. Sabretooth lowered himself on his powerful haunches.

The alien’s hand tightened around Sawyer’s neck. Sawyer struggled, trying to get his feet on the ground, but the alien shook him like an annoying pest and dragged him closer to where Saoirse was sitting.

Wolverine dropped Sawyer at her feet like a sack of potatoes. His cheek scraped against the stone floor, but he barely felt the pain, it was such a relief to be able to breathe again. He drew in a couple shaky breaths.

An instant later, a Remur foot landed on his chest. Sawyer groaned at the growing pressure, felt one of his ribs crack, knew it was only a matter of time before his organs started imploding. Sawyer forced himself to go limp under the alien’s foot.