Page 71 of The Big Fix

“So my job at Sutter’s has basically been one big setup.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, leaning against him. It was nice to be close to him, talking like we used to. “Were you mad all this time because you were pissed I didn’t see you as a man?”

“Interesting subject change, but since I know this is your fever at work, I’m going to say yes, that’s exactly why I was mad.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I asked without turning to look at him, enjoying his touch as he carefully took my other scraped, bloody-knuckled hand in his.

“Because I knew you’d do exactly what you did—try to keep me in the box where you put me, which, in your mind, is that I’m too young for you. For whatever reason, even though it’s ridiculous, you think of me as your ward.”

I snorted. “Like Batman and Robin without the bodysuits.”

“Oh dear God,” he groaned, turning to kiss my cheek. “If I didn’t know your blood was boiling, I’d think you were drunk.”

I closed my eyes when he kissed my temple next. It was nice.

“Jared…I am not now, or have ever been, your ward.”

“I know,” I agreed, because it was true.

“All right, so if what we’re thinking is true and this whole thing has been a long con, that means the contract Sutter has with Chanthara Holdings is bogus?”

“Not bogus.” I opened my eyes, scared that if I didn’t, I’d fall asleep, and I wanted to be awake when Fang and his goons came back. “I think Chanthara is a real builder, and they’re in business with Sutter to make their real-estate venture happen, but they made sure, or someone within that organization did, that you were in the mix to come to Thailand.”

“And you have no clue who’s behind all this?”

“It could be a lot of people, and that’s sad, but I’ll bet you this is old CIA business.”

He took a breath. “How much more of this can your body take?”

“As much as I have to. I didn’t come in here without a plan. I have reinforcements ready to charge in over the hill,” I said for Owen’s benefit. Because yes, my friends would come for us, but the question of me being alive or dead when they reached us was a real one.

“Oh yeah? Any idea of their timeline?” He was worried about me. I could hear it in the cracks in his voice.

“Well, normally, if you weren’t in the mix, the way we did it in the past was no one intervened unless death was imminent. We gave ourselves over to torture by an enemy to extract information, so we had to hold on as long as possible.”

“Uh-huh,” Owen choked out, clearly horrified.

“That’s how we figured out who was behind something, and why.”

“But this time is different.”

“Because of you, yeah. So as soon as Dante and Darius figure out where I am—and how to breach this place and not get themselves or us killed in the process—they’ll be here. My guess is that they know where we are, but given the remote location, and that we’re underground with lots of guys outside, they’re having trouble figuring out how to get to us. It’s also possible they need more people with them. I mean, there’s only five of them here. Darius is in Ankara.”

“What else did Suwan say to you?”

I was not about to share that his plan was to slowly kill me. That information was not designed to put Owen at ease. “Just that he was going to torture me a bit.”

“Don’t lie,” he warned me. “I know every nuance in your voice.”

I turned my head to see his face. “Fine. He said his objective was to make me suffer until I was dead. That’s his entire agenda when it comes to me.”

Owen sucked in his breath and doubled over, head between his knees.

Gently, I rubbed his back. “We’re gonna get out of here,” I promised him. “And you know I can take a beating. You’ve heard all those stories.”

He sat up sharply. “I know you have a high tolerance for pain, but—”

“I’ve been captured behind enemy lines more than once in my career with the Army and found myself in the hands of sadistic assholes. Suwan and Fang are not going to be the guys who break me. That’s not gonna happen.”