Free Night Moves: A Shadow Force Novel by Stephanie Tyler

They’d come for him, and now he and Reid needed to figure out why. But he wouldn’t discuss any of this in front of her, and so he willed himself to calm down and focused on their brand-new stolen vehicle, a big pickup with a double cab.
    While Teddie curled into a corner of the back and closed her eyes, he leaned into the front seat. “Maybe we could be more conspicuous.”
    “You want safe and reliable, it’s going to be conspicuous.” Reid said. “But Cruz bought a shitload of these last month. We’ll fit right in.”
    “Except theirs are bulletproof,” Kell grumbled.
    “We can do the phone book trick, but hell, we barely had enough time for me to grab this. We do have OnStar, though. And Sirius.”
    “You do realize this isn’t our car, right?”
    “Kinda is. Consider it a business expense,” Reidsaid, and Kell decided not to question him further, mainly because Reid had bought bags of food too—empanadas and tacos and burritos and chips—and Kell was starving.
    He grabbed some of the wrapped tacos and handed them back to Teddie, was surprised when she accepted them readily.
    “Did she really save your ass?” Reid asked, his voice low. Kell just snorted his response and Reid said, “I told you I liked her.”
    Kell wanted to say,
Then you deal with her
, but Reid would and
he
wouldn’t have stopped with a strip search.
    “Shut up,” he said, unable to control the irritation radiating through his body and shoved a taco in his mouth. For now, it was safer to let her eat in the comfort of this luxury truck while Reid brought them to their new safe house, which Kell hoped he hadn’t somehow purchased too.
    Dylan would skin Reid’s ass—and Kell’s, by association.
    “Dylan would have to catch us first.” Reid said, reading Kell’s mind and his reaction as he pulled up to a driveway with elaborate gates and punched in a security code. “Besides, I got tired of living in a hovel.”
    Fuck it. Kell was officially done arguing and trying to rein Reid in. He just hoped this mansion had actual beds and wasn’t simply an empty shell.
    He let Reid deal with getting Teddie inside, slid out of the truck and walked into the house and stared up at the huge chandelier as Reid passed by and said, “It was some movie star’s place. Couldn’t get out of itfast enough after that swine flu scare. It’s been empty for a year—caretaker comes once a week. He was here yesterday, so we’re set for now.”
    Teddie brushed by Kell and he made the mistake of glancing at her, noted that her arm was bleeding and her cheek was bruised and, shit, he’d forgotten that one of the men had gotten a stranglehold on her.
    “You okay?” he asked, his voice much harsher than he’d intended.
    She nodded, took a few steps away from him. “I’m just, ah, tired. Think I’ll rest for a little while.”
    She was lying, but it would suit his purpose. Reid came up next to her and guided her into a den right off the kitchen, got her settled on the couch with a blanket and then he came back into the kitchen.
    Kell spread the IDs he’d taken off the men in the alley onto the kitchen table while Reid scrolled through the GPS Kell grabbed from their truck conveniently parked beside the alley, for no other reason than it had been there and might come in handy. It would.
    Teddie was in Kell’s line of sight, pretending to be asleep on the couch. That was good, because she’d be trying hard to listen, which meant she’d stay put. Even so, he still had the urge to handcuff her to something. Like himself.
    Yeah, way to get your head in the game, Kell
.
    The first ID was for a man named Juan Feliz. Arizona driver’s license. The second was Gavin Slater. No license, but rather a military issue ID card.
    Another vet. Shit. The third man had no identification on his person.
    “I don’t recognize these names,” Reid said after staring at the IDs, and Kell agreed.
    “DMH?”
    “Could be, but that’s pretty quick for them to