Page 78 of The Diamond Thief

He laughs. “I think you can do anything.”

“Well, I can’t.” I laugh and stick the bobby pin in his hair. I pull a piece of what appears to be cellophane out of my bra. I slide it down to one shackle to stick it to the surface. Then I take another one and put it on the other. The cameras can watch that all day, but they won’t catch the subtlety of this technology.

I wiggle down his back, my tongue leaving a trail down his spine.

“Like that?” I ask, nice and loud for the cameras.

“Maybe,” he says.

I leave the robe on him as I move down and behind him. I bite one of his butt cheeks.

“Hey!” he says, and I laugh.

While I’m low, I place two more rectangles of the cellophane on his ankle shackles. Now all four are ready.

I go over his back, crawling under the silk robe.

“This is going to be a little painful for you,” I say, lifting the flogger.

“I can take it,” he says.

I kiss his shoulder, close to his ear. “If we get separated, the car that was in the rock at your bunker is one block due east. Meet me there.”

“You found it?”

“I did.”

“Damn.”

“I wasn’t supposed to?”

“I figured you’d set out on foot.”

“Antony left behind four guards as a parting gift.”

“Bloody hell.”

“We’ll talk later,” I say. “Time to get out of here.”

“I’m ready,” he says.

I bring the flogger down hard onto the floor, making a sharp, loud, and very distinct noise to set off the cellophane devices.

All four shackles burn bright for just a moment. Jacob sucks in a breath as each ones goespop pop pop pop. I bring down the flogger repeatedly to mix up the sound.

“I’ll treat those burns later. We gotta go.”

I leap off him and toss him the robe. I shove my feet into the boots and rush to the door. I have to act fast, before the people monitoring the video can figure out what we’ve done and alert the guards.

I knock four times, the signal that I’m ready to leave.

The guard opens the door. “Finished so soon?” he asks.

Jacob smacks the door into the guard’s head. He stumbles back.

I open it wide, hurrying out to shove the other guard at Jacob. He clocks him with his elbow, sending him down.

Jacob grabs my hand, and we dash down the hallway. “Did you bring any weapons?” he asks. The other two guards have started running our way.