Page 131 of Survival

I released a long irritated sigh and nearlycrushed the phone in my hand. “Find her,” I ordered and hung up,tossing the phone back to Mike and dismissing him. I grabbed mypersonal phone and immediately deactivated the shocking mechanismto Jaden’s collar. I didn’t need it accidentally shocking her whileshe was on a motorcycle with over 200 horsepower and no goddamnhelmet.

“What happened?” asked Scott.

I tilted my head back to stretch my neck andexhaled a heavy breath.

“My little hellcat has escaped her cage,” Ireplied.

“Ha!” Scott almost started laughing. “Damn,that girl is full of surprises.”

“No shit,” I said, placing my hands on myhips and beginning to pace my workout room. “Conniving littlebitch,” I whispered under my breath. “How close are we to findingthe rest of her family?”

We had most of the addresses already, but wewere missing a few out of state, and I wanted every bit ofinformation we could find before I decided to execute my plan.

“We’re only missing two addresses. She hasan aunt and uncle in Louisiana and a cousin somewhere in northernMichigan,” Scott replied.

“I want those addresses tonight. Noexcuses,” I ordered. Scott nodded.

“And let’s send a couple of our guys out topay her uncle in Muskegon a little visit, huh? I want to havesomething fresh for her to watch while I fuck the ever living shitout of her.”

“Will do,” Scott said, already prepared withhis phone.

“And get Hagen on the phone,” I ordered.

“Alreadydialinghim,” Scott replied as he held the phone up onspeaker.

Hagen answered on the first ring.

“Hey, buddy, what’s goin’ on?” he said,sounding slightly distracted.

“You pick up my little runner yet?” I askedhim harshly.

“Not yet, but we’re hot on her heels. Igotta hand it to her. Your girl is fast on that thing.”

I almost groaned out loud thinking aboutJaden riding around on my bike at high speeds and without a helmet.I knew she knew what she was doing, especially since she was on thesame bike she used to own herself, but mine was modified, and ifshe crashed I would absolutely fucking lose it.

“Apprehend her carefully, Hagen. I don’tneed her crashing and getting herself killed, you hear me?”

“Yeah, I hear ya. She’ll be fine. What doyou want me to do with her when we get her?”

“Just keep her in a secluded holding cell.I’ll pick her up when I get back.”

“You got it.”

“I want a full report when she’s safe, gotit?”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, I gotta go. I’ll call yawhen we have her.” And he hung up.

“Pull up her security tapes,” I told Scottas I began to slowly pace again.

He opened the laptop nearby and fiddledaround with it until he turned it toward me to reveal the last hourbefore she escaped. I sat down and watched intently on how shefigured out exactly what would enable her to escape. I saw her goto sleep, woke up in the middle of the night, and basically createda Molotov cocktail with the shit in her own bathroom. How the fuckhad I let this happen? But what really blew my mind was when shetook what looked like rubber shoe soles, glued them together, andwrapped them around her throat under the collar.

“Son of a bitch …” I muttered under mybreath.

She then changed her clothes and bolted thefuck right out, bypassing all my fuck-up guards and taking off onmy blacked out Panigale. I slammed my fists down on the table androse from my chair so fast that it slammed down to the floor behindme.

“Fuck!” I roared. I paced back and forth,trying to contain my rage until I finally started laughing at theaudacity of it all. I guess Jaden was right. I really hadunderestimated her.

“Call Moross,” I told Scott. “Tell him Iwant to meet an hour earlier so we can wrap this shit up. We have aflight to catch.”