Free The Chosen by Theresa Meyers Page A

cleavage and focused instead on her intense gray eyes.
    “Do you think you could hitch a ride up the ladder and check things out to make sure the vampires aren’t just setting a trap for my brothers?” Winn asked.
    China shrugged. “I could,” she said, then made a show of inspecting her nails on her long, slim fingers. Remington was already familiar enough with the gesture to know she wanted something. Everything China did came at a price. Exactly how much did he have in the safe upstairs that he could easily part with? “But I don’t see what’s in it for me,” she continued.
    “How about two hundred dollars?” Remington offered, trying to stay one step ahead of her. Keeping her off-balance seemed to be the best way of dealing with her.
    “And half of whatever we find off Diego’s map?” she countered. Damn she was good.
    “Half of everything but the Book,” he countered.
    China reached out her hand. “Shake on it, Jackson.”
    Remington grabbed her hand and locked gazes with her. There was something more than just a keen intelligence in those silver eyes. A shower of sparks and a wave of heat ran up his arm like an electrical connection from the point where they touched. He might need her to get to whatever Diego’s map led to, but he would be damned if he was going to let his guard down around her.
    China glanced at Winn and gave him a very cat-like, self-satisfied smile. “Seems I’ll be going along for a ride on your vampire’s dirigible as well.”
    “She’s not my vampire.”
    Remington chuckled.
    “That funny to you, boy?” Winn shot back.
    “Yeah. Never seen you so agitated about a woman before.”
    “You haven’t met her,” Winn grumbled.
    “Uppity?”
    “Yep.”
    “Know-it-all?”
    “Yep.”
    “Sounds like a typical vampire to me.”
    Winchester ignored his last statement and focused on China. “Look, I want you to wait until Colt and that demon are at least halfway up the ladder before you try to get on board the airship.”
    China nodded. “That’s easy enough.”
    “Can you change into something inconspicuous?”
    China sighed in exasperation. “Would a mouse do?”
    Winn smiled. “Perfect. Colt won’t suspect a thing. Much better if he doesn’t see you.”
    “Can’t handle being looked after by his big brothers?” she jibed.
    “Yep,” Winn and Remington said in unison.
    Colt and Miss Arliss came out the double glass doors and stepped out from under the shaded walkway into the bright Arizona sunshine. Even though Remy gave one last look at the succubus’s truly exceptional form, he didn’t miss the heated gaze Colt gave China or the deep throaty growl that rumbled behind China’s pursed lips, even though now she’d transformed back into her human female form. He was treading a dangerous path with China, because while she professed what happened between her and Colt was in the past, Remington wondered if she were simply lying to herself.
    Winn had snapped the dark goggles back into place, the brass edges of them glinting in the afternoon sun. He dug deep in the pockets of his duster and fished out two pairs of similar goggles, handing one to Colt and the other to Miss Arliss. “You’ll want those once we get up in the air. The sun seems even brighter up there, and there’s some dust.”
    Lilly and Colt dutifully pulled the goggles on, and Colt made sure his hat was down good and firm on his head before all three of them ascended the rope ladder.
    Remington speared China with a glance. “You don’t like that succubus much, do you?”
    Her lips twitched. “What gave it away?”
    He didn’t bother to answer; he wanted to get to the point of the matter at hand. “Is it because Colt’s taken with her?”
    China glared at him. “You seem to spend a lot of time worried about your little brother’s love life.”
    “I watch my brother’s back no matter what the situation.”
    China snorted and turned her gaze upward as the froth of Miss Arliss’s petticoats