Free Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 by Dianna Love

least, he did not know the real reason why she had to follow him to America .
    Once again, she led the way through a tunnel that zigzagged back and forth as the floor constantly rose. They stopped three times for Har to catch his breath before she found a wooden ladder that climbed up to a grate access for the storm drain .
    As usual, the cowboy scaled the ladder first and unlatched the grate in the wall of the storm drain that had been re-engineered to open into the tunnel area by the people she knew. If someone looked through the grate from inside the storm drain, they would only see the dirt wall two feet away, or a black hole if they looked down.
    Jin was second to reach the opening. Once she stepped into the open space that was twice as tall as she was and just as wide across, her stomach turned at the stench of stagnant water six inches deep. She hurried out of the way as the other men came up next.
    Pang needed help dragging his bulk through the narrow space.
    She shouldn’t have enjoyed his moment of panic at possibly being stuck, but even a diamond came with flaws.
    She was no diamond, but she could live with hers.
    As each member of Bo’s team emerged from the tunnels, they went into action with little said between them. One guided Pang and Har to the side where a rectangle of two-foot-thick concrete running down one side of the drain allowed a place to sit.
    The other two men set up observation points in each direction with their weapons ready.
    These men worked in sync as if they read each other’s thoughts . Even if she had not come along, she now believed they would have found a way out of this country. It was hardcoded in their DNA to never stop trying to succeed.
    But they should realize that she’d saved them time, even if they had ended up being chased by soldiers.
    Who were these men?
    She’d expected a military team to take Pang and Har safely from the DPRK to the US . The fact that this team’s leader had denied being military when Jin’s instincts were screaming that he was, gave her plenty of reason to worry.  
    What if they were private operators who had nothing to do with the US government ? What if they had intercepted the message intended for the US State Department and were here to kidnap Pang and Har to use for a trade?
    Or to use the information promised to the Americans.
    For the first time since getting grabbed in the Ryugyong Hotel, she had a moment to sort through what she’d walked into, but she couldn’t turn back now.
    She’d left damning evidence against Myong, Pang and Har’s boss, that had been located too soon, but she would not feel bad about that . Not after she’d learned the real reason a young woman, four years younger than Jin, had committed suicide last year. Myong had kept the technician late one night, saying she had made mistakes in her lab tests that had to be corrected.
    Then he’d raped her .
    The young woman could not face her husband so she’d sliced her wrists . As bad as that was, Jin had learned that Myong had a thirteen-year-old niece coming to live with him after her single mother had died in a freak accident. Jin suspected it had not been a true accident. Myong had always been mean to small children, but his eyes would turn lecherous when he saw a teenage girl.
    He would not survive interrogation to harm another girl, but Jin was not sure just how much he knew about Har and Pang’s defection .
    The real surprise had been finding soldiers outside her apartment when she’d rushed home from the lab to take what she needed to leave .  
    The only reason the DPRK would have gone hunting Jin was because someone had tipped off the soldiers that she was not attending the ceremonies, and cast suspicion on her.
    But now Jin had to consider a new possibility.
    Pang or Har could be working secretly with the DPRK to catch defectors . One of them might not be loyal to the secret organization that arranged this defection.
    Her skin chilled at the idea that