Page 17 of Remington’s Mate

Sutcliffe said, “Another ten percent, if you can get the costs down under this number.”

There was a pause, and then a low whistle from Colt. “That would be very difficult,” he said carefully. “It would require me pulling some strings in the state inspector’s office. Strings with dollar signs attached. Fifteen percent.”

Ethan said, “Twelve percent.”

“Done.”

Jaeda’s fingers came to a standstill. If she was hearing right, Colt Freakin’ McCall had just accepted a bribe to use substandard construction materials in a high-rise office building, and offered to bribe officials to look the other way.

She couldn’t believe it. The McCalls might be pains in the ass, but they wouldn’t do something like this.

But wait—he’d said he was ‘investigating.’ For who? Not the Enforcers or the Shifter Council. They only dealt with shifter issues, and this wasn’t a shifter-owned company.

In fact, there were literally no shifters working here—that was one reason why she’d applied.

So what the hell was Colt up to, in her backyard?

She cut the connection to Sutcliffe’s office and printed out three copies of the contract just before Sutcliffe buzzed to ask her to bring it in.

She handed one copy of the contract to Colt and the other to Sutcliffe. The third was in a file drawer in her desk, ready for her to sneak into her tote bag to read more carefully at lunch.

Colt glanced at the papers, then tapped them on the table next to him to align them. “That’s great,” he said to Sutcliffe. “I’ll just take these with me, have my legal team look them over—”

Sutcliffe said in his smarmiest voice, “I’m afraid this is time-sensitive. I need you to commit now, or I’ll have to move on to the next candidate.”

The two men locked eyes for a moment, and then Colt gave a little smile. “Well, then, I’ll just give them the once-over right now. To make sure there are no… errors.”

Jaeda busied herself clearing away coffee cups and pastry plates while Colt looked through the papers and changed the percentages in the ‘bonus’ section, initialing the changes. Finally he signed all the places that Jaeda had flagged.

Sutcliffe handed over the second copy, and Colt updated and signed that too.

Then he handed both copies back to Sutcliffe. Jaeda expected her boss to initial and sign, but he just smiled and tucked the documents into a folder.

Oooh. Hissss. Bad business protocol, even for corrupt asshats. Colt’s name was now on a potentially incriminating document, and Sutcliffe’s wasn’t. And Colt knew it.

“What about my copy?” Colt asked.

“In due time,” Sutcliffe said.

Colt stared at Sutcliffe for a few minutes, letting his dominance ramp up far enough so even a human could feel it.

Sutcliffe didn’t like it. Colt kept it up for another few seconds, then dialed it down and gave an easy smile. “Of course,” he said. “I trust you.”

“Naturally,” Sutcliffe said. “Jaeda, would you see Mr. McCall out, please?”

“Yes, Mr. Sutcliffe. This way, Mr. McCall.”

They walked out through Jaeda’s office to the elevator in the hallway. As soon as the elevator doors shut, Jaeda turned to face Colt, her back to the security camera.

What the hell? she mouthed.

Colt’s gaze flicked almost imperceptibly to the camera. He smiled lazily at her.

“You know, Ms. Harris—Jaeda—I’m staying in a hotel, and hotel rooms do get lonely.” His voice was low and caressing, like fingers stroking her skin. Jaeda could feel herself getting warm. “If you could suggest a good place for dinner, I’d be happy to take you out. I’ll give you my number.”

He pulled a business card out of his pocket and wrote on the back of it. Jaeda took it.

“I’d enjoy that,” she said primly. “I’ll see what I can come up with.”