Free Stolen Heat by Elisabeth Naughton

watch her back. “And I think I have a right to know. You owe me that much at least.”
    Her resistance wavered. She didn’t owe him a thing, not as far as she could see, but some small part of her knew he wouldn’t let up until he had at least a smattering of the truth. She decided giving him the basics wouldn’t hurt.
    “I’m sure you remember Dr. Sawil Ramirez.”
    He thought for a moment, took a sip from the mug. “Dark-haired guy. Brazilian, wasn’t he?”
    “Yes.” He’d lived in the apartment above her and Shannon, and Pete had met him several times. “I talked to him about the relics I suspected were taken from the tomb. He was surprised I’d kept such a close eye on it all. But in the end he was thankful.”
    Tension seeped back into the room with just those few sentences. His hand tightened around the mug.
    Kat crossed her arms over her chest. She would not feel guilty about this again. If he didn’t want to hear the truth then he shouldn’t have asked.
    “One night while you were away on one of your ‘business trips,’ Sawil showed up at my apartment. He said he had the proof I needed and that I wouldn’t believe who was involved.”
    Pete’s jaw clenched and unclenched. Kat knew what he was thinking, but he wasn’t denying it, so she went on.
    “He’d taken what I’d told him to the Supreme Council of Antiquities himself. Filed his own report. The man he’d filed the report with, Amon Bakhum, was conveniently killed in a car accident the following day.”
    The Supreme Council of Antiquities was the government body that oversaw all archaeological excavation in Egypt. They were supposed to keep Egypt’s treasures safe. In this case, they’d let the ball drop. Big-time.
    She paused, thought back to Sawil’s wary eyes the night he’d come pounding on her door. He’d been a quiet man, and his crush on Shannon had endeared him to Kat. Repeatedly he’d tried to talk her into leaving things alone, told her it was none of her business. But when she hadn’t, when she’d persisted in looking for answers, he’d tried to warn her. He’d seen her coming and going with Pete, and he’d been worried their association would eventually cost her her life.
    It had, but not in the way Sawil had predicted.
    She bit her lip, debated how much else to say, then figured, what the hell? Pete already knew most of this. He’d been privy to it from the other side.
    “One of the men I saw at the auction tonight ran stolen artifacts on the black market in Egypt.”
    “Let me guess,” Pete said calmly. Too calmly. “Ramirez told you I knew the guy.”
    A knot formed in her stomach as she remembered back. At the time, she hadn’t wanted to believe what Sawil had told her. The man she’d fallen in love with couldn’t possibly be involved in an artifact-smuggling operation. She’d told Sawil that much.
    But that was before she’d seen the proof herself.
    The betrayal that cut through her now was as sharp as the day she’d realized she’d been duped. Played, from the very start.
    “He didn’t need to tell me,” she snapped.
    Pete’s gaze shifted her way, not a flicker of emotion anywhere on his face. No, that wasn’t true. There was boredom in his flat eyes. Boredom and indifference.
    And it cut her. Just as much as his reaction had that day.
    “Move on,” he said. “What happened next?”
    She drew a deep breath. “Sawil had an idea. A way we could get the last bit of evidence we needed, and I, well…I was curious. He asked me to go back to the tomb with him that night.” Her stomach pitched as memories of that night flooded her mind.
    “Kat?”
    She flinched at Pete’s voice. His brows lowered as he watched her. Was that concern in his eyes? Concern or just mere curiosity at her silence?
    She didn’t know. But ultimately, she’d been in that tomb that night because she’d wanted some kind of proof Sawil was wrong and Pete was innocent. She hadn’t found it.
    “We didn’t know they