Red Hot BOX SET: Complete Series 1-4: A Patrick & Steeves Suspense (9 page)

A
n industrial flashlight
, propped on its side, threw shadows on the surrounding walls. Jack’s head poked out of the hole, his head lowered as he peered down. He started and glanced up as Dal’s shoe scraped against loose gravel. His eyes widened when he saw Dal’s gun, but he recovered quickly as his eyes met Emily’s. “Emily, thank God, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Dal strode across the room, closing the space between them. “Don’t even think about it,” he growled, as Jack reached for a weapon. He stomped his foot over Jack’s hands to hold them in place on the steel rung.

“Jesus, Emily,” Jack said, “call this goon off me.”

Emily tilted her head and looked closely at Jack, as if seeing him for the first time. She struggled to reconcile what she’d just learned with the man she’d known most of her life. She stooped and picked up the flashlight, shining it in his eyes. He blinked and turned his head. “You think we didn’t hear you, Jack? Sounds to me like you sent those clowns down the hole to kill us.”

“Emily, you’re confused. I’m your father’s best friend … tell Mr. Steeves here to let me up. I can explain everything.”

She glanced over at Dal. He held her eyes. “I think you’re in the perfect position right now to explain yourself,” she said. “Start talking.”

“I sent those guys to protect you,” he said.

“You sent those two cartel thugs to protect us?” Dal laughed out loud. “Jesus, now I’ve heard it all.”

“Look, Mr. Steeves,” Jack said, twisting Dal’s name so it sounded like Jack had a mouthful of shit, “stay out of this. You can’t possibly understand the workings of the American Embassy, of which I’m a high-ranking officer, or the intricacies of the mess you’ve put us in.”

“I put you in?” He shifted his weight, twisting his foot until Jack winced. “Looks like you’re in bed with the cartel. Unless you’re prepared to start telling the truth about what’s going on, I’m about done with you.”

“Ah, Mr. Hero Firefighter rushes in to the save the day,” spat Jack. “We had to send a girl to save you.”

“Jesus,” huffed Emily, stepping forward. She hunched down so her face was close to Jack’s. “You sent a girl to save him?” She sneered. “The girl you consider family?” She turned to Dal. “Let him up.”

He raised a brow, but stepped back so Jack could climb out. Once his waist was visible, Dal reached down and grabbed his weapon from the back of his pants. “Any other weapons?” Jack shook his head. “Stand up,” Dal ordered. He patted him down while Emily kept her gun trained on him. The last twenty-four hours had seemed like a bad dream. In the last few minutes, the situation had taken a swift slide into nightmare status.

Dal removed a knife from a holder on Jack’s shin. “Take your jacket off,” he said. “Slowly, and put it down on the ground.”

Stepping forward, Emily lifted the jacket from the ground, patting the pockets and checking the inside lining. From an inside chest pocket, she pulled a cell phone.

“Check his pants pockets.”

She shook her head. “You.” She tilted her chin in Jack’s direction and trained her gun on his chest. Shrugging, Dal patted the back pockets of Jack’s pants.

Jack had changed out of the clothes he normally wore during the week - white shirt, gray flannel trousers, navy blazer - what she’d always considered his Embassy uniform. Tonight he wore Levis, snake skin cowboy boots, a black shirt with white embroidery and a turquoise bolo tie. With the black cowboy hat he’d discarded near the shaft, no one would give him a second look this side of the border.

“Pull your front pockets out,” Dal said, eyes narrowed. “Slowly.” Jack reached into his front pockets and pulled the material out, proving them empty. “Take off that bolo tie.” He lifted the tie off his neck and held it out to Dal, who snatched it from him.

“What are you doing with that?” Emily kept the gun trained on Jack.

“Improvising,” he grunted, moving behind Jack and twisting his hands behind his back. He used the strand of leather to bind his wrists together. “What should we do with this asshole?”

Emily needed time to think. She paced to the hole. “Are you sure they’re passed out?”

Dal nodded. “If they’re not back by now, they’re definitely unconscious.”

She looked around, but there was nothing but a couple of jackets. “Let’s tie him up in the barn. Should we try to cover this hole somehow?”

“Not much we can do about that,” Dal said. “They’ll probably be out for a while.”

The left corner of his mouth twitched and Emily wondered what he was not saying. Right now, she didn’t have time to find out but at least she now knew one of his tells. “Let’s go.”

“You heard the girl,” Dal said. “Let’s go.” He pushed Jack ahead of him, gun in his ribs, while Emily followed behind lighting the way. She breathed in, held her breath and then let it out slowly. Damn, it had been a hell of a day. Her mind raced ahead. They could take him with them, drive to the border, and turn him in. But what if no one believed her? She was brand new, why would they? Better if they lock him in one of the rooms in the barn, or in the house.

Ahead of her, Dal kept Jack moving forward as they came out of the tunnel into the night. The moon was higher in the sky, lending a ghostly light to the forest of cacti around them. Emily picked her way along the trail, keeping an eye on Dal’s wide shoulders. If she didn’t know better, she would think Dal had done this type of thing before. He was handling himself well.

A
drenalin surged
through Dal’s body. He burst out of the tunnel into the night and gulped in fresh air. His body needed as much oxygen as he could force in. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew his body still ached from last night’s blast but his focus kept those pains away. He was starting to feel like he was in a damn gangster movie. How this would have played out if he hadn’t been subjected to hundreds of hours of gangster and cop movies at the fire house? As easy as it looked on the screen, it was a hell of a lot different up close and personal. Thank God Kris had constantly dragged him to the rifle range.

Emily came up beside him and he caught her eye. “To the barn?” She nodded and they moved forward, Emily guiding the way with the light on the path. He kept a good distance between Emily and Jack in case the weasel got any ideas, pulling him forward with the leather tie cutting into his wrists.

“Emily,” Jack began.

“Shut up, Jack,” he growled.

“Look, Steeves—”

Dal kicked him in the calf and was rewarded by Jack’s sharp intake of breath.

“Fuck off.”

“Just give me a reason to do it again,” he said, leaning forward so he could keep his voice low.

Jack shot an acid look over his shoulder but kept his mouth shut and his feet moving forward.

Emily continued to surprise him. She kept her cool under pressure even though she had to be reeling by the turn of events. He looked around Jack to her silhouette ahead of them. She took measured steps along the trail, her legs long and lean. Attraction surged through him. His mind drifted to the kiss they’d shared in the house. He shook his head, as his cock reacted to the memory of her lips on his. Damn it. He needed to think with his big head right now, not his little head. In fact, all he had to do was think about how this idiot had betrayed her, hurt her, and put her in danger. He grimaced and kicked Jack’s other calf.

“Jesus—” Jack turned and shot him a dark look.

Dal pushed him so hard he almost lost his balance. “Shut up and keep moving, asshole.”

* * *

A
s they came
around the last hill, the house and outbuildings came into view. Emily’s car was still parked behind the house. The SUV was in the barn, and a second SUV was parked at the side. Lights blazed inside the barn, the unsteady thrum of a generator floated across the night air. Dal hissed and Emily turned back toward him. He put a hand up to indicate she stop. She retraced her steps and stood before them.

She addressed her boss. “Did you bring anyone else with you?”

He spat at her feet and shook his head, eyes narrow. “Besides the guy down the mine shaft?”

Holding her gun under his chin, she repeated her question. “Did you bring anyone else with you?”

“No.”

Emily glanced over at Dal.

Dal shrugged. “We can’t trust this lying sack of shit. You stay with him. I’ll go down and check things out.” Turning to Jack, he pointed at the ground. “Sit down.”

Jack sat and Dal yanked off both of his boots and his socks. Tying the socks together at one end, he stretched them over Jack’s mouth and tied them behind his head. “Now he’ll keep quiet.” He kicked the boots out of Jack’s reach and stepped backwards pulling Emily with him.

He lowered his voice. “Would there be anyone else with him?”

She shook her head. “No idea. Be careful and don’t try anything. If there’s anyone there, come back and get me.”

“You’ll be okay here?” He touched her arm, a tingle shooting up his at the contact.

“I’ll be fine.”

Resisting the urge to lean in and kiss her, he shot a warning look in Jack’s direction, then moved toward the barn, careful to stay in the shadows.

* * *

T
he barn was
lit up like a carnival on the fourth of July. With the drone of the generator in the background, he wasn’t worried about being heard and was able to make good time. In a few minutes, he was at the back door. The hum of the motor drowned out all other noise. He leaned in, his eye close to the slats in the door, but they were too narrow to provide him a view inside.

Heart pounding, he slunk down the side of the barn. He stopped at Jack’s SUV, peered in the window. The keys were in the ignition, a jacket and brown paper bag thrown on the back seat.

He tried to remember how many jackets were on the ground of the room in the tunnel. Jack had been wearing a jacket. There were three men down the hole. How many jackets had he seen on the ground? He’d counted two for certain.

He crept farther along the side of the barn and leaned forward, peering around the corner toward the large open door. He strained to pick out sounds over the generator, but heard nothing. No voices, no music - nothing. He edged toward the opening, finger on the trigger. He peeked around the door. Large spotlights that hung from the ceiling every four feet flooded the cavernous space. The second SUV was parked just inside the door. He scuttled behind the vehicle and waited.

On the left side of the barn, two doors stood open. The weapons room and the little shop of horrors. Dal’s stomach clenched and he steeled his resolve. Moving along the side of the SUV, he looked into the interior. Nothing. The seats were empty. He had no idea who he might be up against. Maybe no one at all or maybe there were a couple of guys down the hall. One thing for sure, there was nowhere to hide if he tried to walk down through the center of the barn.

The keys were in the ignition. He lifted the handle of the door, released the catch, carefully pulled the door open and slid into the driver’s seat. Taking a deep breath, he turned over the ignition... and waited. Nobody came out of the open doors. Shoving the car into drive, he let it roll farther into the barn until he had a view into the weapons room. There was no one there. He backed up to be sure he could see all corners of the small space. Reassured, he drove forward a few yards.

In the torture room, the bare bulb in the center of the room was lit. It looked almost as it had a few hours ago. Chains on the wall, that shelf of other tools, but there was something out of place. His heart pounded. He strained to see in the door, grasping for the image of the room as he’d seen it earlier.

The chair. There had been a chair next to the bucket against the far wall.

Whoever was in there presented a threat to him, otherwise they’d have stepped out into the open when he rolled up in the SUV. He climbed across the console and over the passenger seat. He’d rather not be shot in the face if he could avoid it. Emily’s words came back to him, but it was too late. He opened the door as quietly as possible, dropped onto the floor and duck walked around the back of the vehicle. He had a partial view and spied a pair of men’s boots.

“Show yourself, Dal shouted. “We have you surrounded.”

The boots moved slightly.

Dal rocked back on his heels, gun aimed into the doorway.

“Come out,” he said again. “Come out with your hands up and I won’t shoot you.”

The boots moved again and there was a crack against the wall. Dal sprung into action and charged through the doorway, gun hand steady in front of him.

“Holy shit,” he said under his breath. He lowered the gun to his side.