Free Stolen Heat by Elisabeth Naughton Page A

were still there. We surprised them.”
    “Who?”
    “Two men. One was at the auction tonight. The other—I never saw his face. Sawil, he…” She swallowed around the lump that formed in her throat. “He didn’t make it out.”
    Pete’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t say anything, and it was impossible to read his expression.
    “Somehow I made it back into Cairo,” she went on, refusing to think about the details or what she’d heard from the shadows of the tomb. “I was afraid to go home. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to call Shannon, to warn her not to go back to our apartment. I got worried so I…” She took a breath. “I called Marty.”
    Pete’s cup paused halfway to his mouth. It was no secret he hadn’t liked her ex, Martin Slade, who worked for the CIA. Of course, she hadn’t put two and two together as to why until after everything had gone down and she’d realized what Pete had really been into.
    It was obvious Pete liked Marty less now than he had back then. That should make all this easier considering the circumstances, right? Only for some insane reason, it didn’t.
    “Marty…he told me they would have her picked up. That they’d protect her. But they couldn’t.”
    Kat glanced toward the radiator and focused on the tarnished metal. To this day, she still couldn’t let herself think of the horrible things those two men had done to her roommate.
    “Whoever they worked for was so important,” she said, “they were willing to kill anyone who got in their way. That SCA agent. Sawil. Shannon. Me. They used Shannon to get to me.”
    “So why the bomb?”
    “Because I was in over my head. I was the last one tosee Sawil alive. I didn’t have an alibi for being gone that night, and people at the tomb had heard me arguing with him earlier in the day.” They’d been arguing about Pete and his possible involvement, though she didn’t say that now. “Several of the missing artifacts were found in my apartment, along with Shannon’s body. Shannon and Sawil were practically a couple by that point. And they both died on the same night. According to Marty, I was already under watch because of my job and my association with you.”
    He glanced away, but she stiffened her spine and went on. “And then I heard from them. They knew everything about me—about my mother, where I lived, where I worked, what route I drove to the university when I was home. They threatened…my family, and after everything…I knew they’d make good on it.”
    When he looked at her with blank eyes, she knew he didn’t believe her, and that treacherous heart of hers dropped. Did she expect his sympathy? She really was more pathetic than she realized.
    “So, let me guess,” he said. “Good old Marty faked the car bomb.”
    She nodded.
    “And Shannon’s body was in the rubble, not yours.”
    Sickness welled in her stomach again just like it had that day. “Not Shannon’s. But someone else’s. I don’t know the details, but Marty handled it. He figured an Egyptian investigation would just raise too many questions. Whoever it was…He made sure the dental records matched.”
    “Jesus Christ.” Pete looked away in disgust.
    Kat squared her shoulders, lifted her chin. There wasn’t anything she could do about the past. All that mattered—all that ever mattered—was what she did now.
    “Look, I don’t expect you to understand. You asked. I answered. I did what I had to do to stay alive.”
    He stood, wobbled and reached out to grip the chair. She quickly rose to help him, but the fire in his eyes had her thinking twice about touching him. She pulled her hand back.
    “No, I don’t understand, and I don’t want to. Sounds to me like everything that happened was a result of you being too stubborn and impulsive to listen to reason.”
    “Wait a minute—”
    “No, I’m done waiting,” he snapped. “Why the hell am I here now? Not because you need anything from me. I’m here because you fucked