Free Red Hot BOX SET: Complete Series 1-4: A Patrick & Steeves Suspense by Kate Fargo Page A

scrambled back to the table beside the couch to retrieve her weapon.
    “We need to get out of the house before they see my car.” She shone a path to the kitchen, grabbed her pack, Dal picked up the rifle he’d left on the counter, and they ran out the back door. Dal grabbed the dust cover they’d left on the porch stairs. She led the way around the barn and behind the store.
    “What’s with the blanket?”
    He shrugged. “Don’t know - instinct.”
    “I don’t see headlights… Shouldn’t they be around that corner by now?”
    “Sounds like they’re coming in with the lights off.”
    “That’s not a good sign.” She peered through the darkness. The crunch of rough gravel under tires rumbled through the still night as the vehicle rolled toward them. The moon, rising over the hill behind them, flashed off a piece of chrome. A tiny flash, like a minnow in sunlight. “Shit.”
    “Shit is right. I don’t think this is your boss.”
    Below them the vehicle slowed at the back of the house, where she’d left her car. It looked like the same SUV they’d seen near the hotel - same signature abundance of chrome - but impossible to tell. Her eyes adjusted to the dark, but all she could make out were silhouettes in the pale moonlight.
    Dal nudged her. “What’s our plan?”
    “Let’s see what happens. We can stand our ground and take them out, or we can hide.”
    “Take them out?” He turned to her in the dark. “Who are you? Sure as hell not an Embassy clerk.”
    Believe it or not, it’s my first day on the job. She’d keep that to herself for now. “I’m supposed to have a nice cushy Embassy job,” she grunted. “You’re the one who got me into this.”
    “Look, Em,” he grabbed her shoulder. “I know we had a disagreement earlier, but we need to be together on this. Whatever shit is about to go down, we need to be a team. So don’t blame me for shit I had no control over.”
    She lowered her head, chastened. She’d forgotten about his injuries, forgotten that he’d been in an explosion less than twenty-four hours ago. She dragged him out of a hospital bed for fuck sakes, and he was not blaming her for any of it. “You’re right. We’ll get out of this together.”
    Her eyes were glued to the SUV. Two men, heavily armed, got out and crept toward the back door of the house. It was several minutes before they came back out onto the porch. The short fat one skulked off down the left side of the barn, the taller one down the right. They met at the back and checked the back door, which they hadn’t bothered to lock. Emily touched Dal’s arm. They needed to be ready to go. He shook his head and jutted his chin back in their direction. They were heading back to the front of the barn. A few minutes later, the tall one drove the vehicle into the barn, using the headlights in their search.
    “They have keys.” Her stomach dropped. “Why would they have keys to the barn?” The realization that they needed a key to come in the gate hit her. “Do you think they had the combination to the gate, too?”
    Dal shrugged. “They could have broken that lock,” he said. “For all we know, they broke the one on the barn, but they sure look like they know their way around.”
    The voices of the men carried through the night air. Doors slammed as they made their way down the hallway she and Dal had looked through earlier in the day.
    She swallowed in an effort to clear her head. “Once they realize we’re not there, they’re going to come this way. We better head for the mine.”
    Grabbing her hand and moving toward the trail that cut through the hills was Dal’s response. Once they rounded the first hill and knew they were out of sight, she turned on the flashlight. They hurried down the trail as she mulled this new information over in her mind.
    What the hell was going on here?

Chapter 5
    D al held fast to Emily’s hand, they moved as quickly as possible over the uneven ground. He scraped his arm on