Red Hot BOX SET: Complete Series 1-4: A Patrick & Steeves Suspense (10 page)

A
mid the cacti
and rocky outcrops, Emily paced in a tight circle around Jack careful to stay out of his reach. The pale moon bathed everything in silver light reminiscent of black and white movies. The only thing missing was the flickering of the projector. From her position, she watched the barn. She’d tracked Dal until she’d lost visual contact when he rounded the front of the building. Hearing the vehicle start and drive through the barn, it had taken all of her training to hold her ground. She paced, anxious to know what was going on inside.

Jack’s eyes followed her every step. He mumbled behind the gag. She knew taking it off could spell trouble, but she needed answers. Standing over him, anger rolling through her, she said, “If I take this gag off, do you promise not to yell?”

Jack shook his head.

“I won’t hesitate to hurt you if you do,” she said. “Nod if you understand.” He nodded, and she slid the gag down over his neck.

“Emily,” Jack pleaded, “you’ve got this whole thing completely wrong. Like I told you earlier, those men were under orders from me to protect you.”

“Look Jack, I’m no longer a little girl you can bounce on your knee while you tell fairy tales.”

“You’re right. I’m your boss.” Even sprawled on the ground, he managed to imbue his voice with authority.

Anger flared within her, giving her new understanding of what it meant to see red. “We’ll see about that.”

“There’s a lot you don’t understand, Emily. How the hell could you? First day on the job and you end up in this shit storm.” He squinted up at her. “The three of us need to get out of here. Untie me and I’ll explain everything to you and Steeves on the way to the border.”

Taking a deep breath, she checked the barn. No movement, no noise. Her foot tapped against the desert floor. Dal had been gone almost ten minutes.

“What about your men? The ones down the shaft who you sent to save us?” If they were his men, he wouldn’t want to leave them behind.

“We can’t help them now,” he said. “We’ll call someone when we get to town.”

“And if it’s too late?”

He shrugged. “We’ll have to take that chance. If we stay here much longer, we won’t have the chance to get out … and then we’ll all die.”

She swung her head sharply back in his direction. “What do you mean? Are there others coming?”

“There are always others coming,” he sighed. “The cartel will keep looking for him. It won’t be long until they figure out where you are.”

“And how would they figure that out? We shut our phones off long before we got here. Did they track you?” This had to be bullshit. She’d love to catch him in the lie.

“It’s possible,” he lied, gaze slanting to the left.

“They know where you are Jack because you’re one of them.” Disgusted, she shook her head. “If you were clean, you’d have known enough to cover your tracks getting up here.”

“You’re wrong—”

She kicked at his bare foot. “Shut up. Stop telling me I’m wrong. Pretty clear cut, if you ask me.”

Emily spotted Dal as he came around the corner of the barn. Staying in the open, he strode along the side of the barn, past the SUV parked there, and started back up the slope toward them. Jack watched him, too.

“Look, Emily, you’ve known me almost all of your life. You need to trust me on this. Convince Dal to untie me and we’ll make a run for the border together. It’s our only chance.”

“Only chance at what?” Dal’s breathing was uneven. “He still trying to convince you he’s on our side?”

Dal was back, unhurt. Puffing out a sigh of relief, Emily rolled her eyes. “Yes - still. You were gone a while, I was starting to worry.”

“I’m back now.” Dal kicked at Jack’s bare feet. “Get up, asshole. Let’s go visit your friend in the barn.”

“There’s someone in the barn?” She reached out to touch Dal’s arm. “I told you to come get me if there was anyone there. It was reckless to go in alone.” When he met her gaze, she stepped back involuntarily. A combination of raw fear and fury danced in his eyes.

He jerked his head toward the barn. “Let’s get down there.” Reaching down, he grabbed Jack’s arm, stood him upright and pulled him down the hill.

Emily collected Jack’s boots and caught up. “What the hell, Dal—”

“Throw those away, he won’t be needing them.”

She dropped the boots and struggled to keep his pace. Jack stumbled over the rough ground, complaining about the thorns and stones. “Hold up, Dal. It’ll be faster if he just puts his boots on.”

He turned on her. “There’s a man dying in that barn. We’re not wasting time.”

A chill ran up her spine. “You fought with someone?” She hadn’t heard a thing from the barn. How could that be possible?

Shaking his head, he turned away from her and quickened his descent, eliciting more complaints from Jack. Emily doubled her strides to keep up with him. Jack shot her a pleading glance. She ignored him. As they rounded the end of the barn, she shielded her eyes from the glaring overhead spotlights.

Dal’s body shook, his mouth a thin tight line. “You better stay here.”

“I don’t think so. What is it?”

“There’s a man in the torture room.”

“He was tortured?” Her mouth went dry as she grasped for words. Her breathing grew shallow. She felt faint and reached out to steady herself.

“He’s pretty banged up. Maybe your friend Jack can tell you what’s going on.” He still had hold of Jack’s upper arm, and shook him like a rag doll. “Who’s the guy in the room?”

Jack glared at him defiantly and shrugged his shoulders. Dal dragged him kicking and cursing down the middle of the barn. Emily followed, but slowed as they came to the open doorway. She struggled to regain her normal breathing, breathing in through the nose, holding her breath, then releasing it to a count of eight as her therapist had taught her. Even empty the torture room had evoked horrible memories, images she wished she could blank out of her life forever. She wasn’t sure she had the fortitude to see the room in action. It had taken a long time before she’d been able to return to work, to keep her mind clear so she could function in the world. Now here she was, two days into her new job and faced with it all again.

Dal shot her a warning glance. “He’s badly beaten. You don’t have to see this.”

She met his eyes and stood her ground while he dragged Jack into the small room. She saw a pair of cowboy boots, but nothing else.

Dal threw Jack in the corner, where he crumpled against the wall. “Keep your gun on him.”

Emily did as he asked, grateful for a place to focus both her eyes and her mind.

“Who is this and why did your goons smash his face in?” Dal’s voice wavered as he stepped toe to toe with the boots. He was silent for several seconds. “Jesus.”

“What is it? Is he all right?”

“He’s alive. Barely. His breathing is shallow, his pulse very weak.”

Emily took a step forward and turned toward Dal’s voice. Before her, tied to a chair, was a large man, lips split open, nose splayed awkwardly to one side, face and hair a mask of blood. Her gut flipped. She’d seen worse but it never got easy. “Will he make it?”

“I don’t know.” Dal met her eyes then turned back to Jack. “Who is this?”

“You’re the wise guy - you tell me.”

Emily hurried out of the room and into the weapons room next door. One shelf held supplies. Grabbing a bottle of water and one of the cleaning cloths, she hurried back to the man. She held the bottle to his lips and tried to tilt his head back.

“He’s unconscious.”

“We have to do something.” She moistened the cloth and gently scrubbed it over his face. “Pass me that bucket in the corner.” Dal brought it to her. She dumped some of the water in the bucket and rinsed the cloth. Moving from his forehead down, she cleaned the blood off his face. When she’d finished, Dal sucked in his breath beside her.

“What is it?”

The man stirred and tried to speak. She lifted the bottle to his lips and he drank.

“I know him.” Dal’s voice was strangely quiet. “He’s the man who helped me last night.”

Cold reckoning gripped Emily’s heart. “The man at the accident?”

D
al nodded
, casting a look of pure hate in Jack’s direction. “You better hope he lives through this, you evil fuck.”

“You don’t understand anything,” Jacked yelled. “Jesus, you’re both idiots. What we need to do is get out of here - now - and get him to a hospital.”

The man’s lids fluttered and Emily tilted the bottle to his mouth again. He took small sips then opened his eyes. Recognition flared as he focused on Dal.

Dal stepped forward and put his hand on his shoulder. “Do you recognize that man?” He pointed at Jack. “Blink your eyes - once for yes, twice for no.”

The man blinked once.

“Did he do this to you?”

Again he blinked once.

“We’re taking you to the hospital,” Dal said.

The man made the smallest of movements with his head. Then he blinked twice.

“No hospital?”

He blinked once.

“Let me ask him a yes or no question,” Emily said. “You want the hospital?”

He blinked twice.

“We need to get him somewhere safe,” Emily said. “They already found him once.”

Dal paced, then met her eyes. “Where will that be? He needs a doctor.”

“We’ll have to figure it out on the way. There might be others coming.”

“What about the men down the shaft?” They sure as hell weren’t his responsibility, but if they were left in the gas, they could die.

“Will the gas kill them?”

He nodded. “Maybe already has.” His instinct was to bring them out.

“Think it through,” Emily said. “How would we bring them up?”

“I’d have to go down for them.” There was no other way around it.

“What if you pass out?”

Damn it she was right. He couldn’t go down without oxygen. He’d almost certainly succumb to the gases and then she’d be here on her own. He couldn’t risk it.

“We can send help once we get back to town.” Her eyes pleaded with him to see reason.

Dal nodded his agreement, then turned his attention to Jack and kicked out at his scraped and bleeding feet. “I’m not taking this asshole.”

“Fine with me,” she said.

Pulling a knife out of his pocket, he slashed the ropes holding the man to the chair. Before he could slump all the way forward, Dal hoisted him over his shoulder, carried him to the SUV in the barn and laid him in the back seat.

Turning back to the torture room, he found Emily beside Jack, enclosing his wrists in the handcuffs that dangled from the chains on the wall. She glanced over her shoulder. “This will hold him.”

Jack pleaded with her. “You’re making a mistake. If you leave me, I’ll be dead by morning.”

She cinched the chain tight and stood, towering over him for several seconds.

Dal tested the chains and stuffed the bloody rag in his mouth. Taking Emily’s arm, he hustled her out of the room.

“Morning’s a long ways off.” Emily shot her boss a look of total disdain before kicking the door closed.

E
mily shifted
the SUV into reverse and backed up to the barn door. Dal shut down the generator, unhooked the gas tank and brought it over to the truck through the glare of the headlights. He lifted the hatch, stowed the tank in the cargo area, then opened the back door. Emily leaned around the seat. In the glare of the dome light, their passenger looked green. Dal put his hand an inch in front of his mouth.

He looked up to meet her eyes. “He’s dead.”

“No…,” she felt sick.

“Afraid so. We’ll have to leave him here.” He reached under his arms and pulled his body out of the vehicle.

Emily jumped out and circled the SUV to reach Dal. “We can’t just dump him. We should take him —”

“Where?” Dal leaned in, his face close to hers. “It made sense to get him to a doctor, but now he’s only a liability. How the hell will we explain a dead body in the back seat? Especially one as beat up as he is.” He dragged the man’s body to the closest inside corner of the barn and carefully laid him out on the ground. He crossed himself and turned away.

“But —”

“You know I’m right.”

“Then we should take my car.” She turned away into the yard.

He stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “No, Emily. They’re already looking for a white Toyota with U.S. plates. In the SUV, we have a better chance of staying under the radar.”

“I love my car,” she said, pulling away from him. “If I leave it here, I may never see it again.”

“If they find us, seeing your car again will be the least of your worries. You know I’m right on this.” He stepped in front of her, his body a wall of muscle between her and the open yard. He looked down at her until she turned away.

Resigned, she climbed back in the SUV, slamming the door behind her. She drove it out of the barn and turned toward the second SUV parked outside, flicking the headlights on high. Dal grabbed the keys out of the ignition, popped the hood, and removed something before crossing the yard to her Toyota. She knew it was only a car, but she hadn’t had much to hang onto recently and the car meant something to her. Worse, it felt like only yesterday that she’d driven it off the lot.

She backed up to give Dal light at the Toyota. A few seconds later, he was done. She rolled forward and he came to the window. “Want me to drive?”

“No thanks.” She needed to keep her mind focused and driving would help. “Get in.”

Dal crossed in front of the SUV and slid into the passenger seat. What was a climb for her, was barely a step up for him. He threw both sets of keys into a cup holder in the center console and met her eyes. “It’s just a car. I’ll help you get another one, if it comes to that.”

Dropping the truck into drive, she started down the driveway and into the arroyo. It was slow going, but easier with the higher clearance of the SUV. In a few minutes, they were across. She put the pedal to the metal and raced down the dirt road.

When they were in sight of the gate, she slowed. Dal rifled through her backpack. “We should make some calls,” he said. “Before we move out of this area.”

“Good thinking.” She reached for Jack’s phone. He passed it to her, along with the battery, and started to put his own cell together.

“I’ll check with Kris.”

She turned Jack’s phone on. The screen displayed five unread texts and ten missed calls. None of the numbers looked familiar. She read through the texts. They were in Spanish but she knew enough to piece together their meaning. Someone, somewhere, wanted to know if he’d cleaned things up, and was he on his way back. She shuddered. If they didn’t hear back from him, they could send more men. In fact, they might already be on their way. She opened the last text, hit reply and typed “Si, todo bien.” Almost immediately the phone rang. She ripped the battery out and threw it on the dash.

Dal had his call on speaker. His brow furrowed with each passing ring.

“Dal?”

“Kris.”

“Jesus, Dal, where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”

“Yeah, long story. Look, where are you?”

“Near the pier.”

“We’re on our way, but I need you to get away from that pier. And if anyone asks, you don’t know me.”

“Bro, what the hell is going on? This morning they were towing away a burnt-out truck. You know any—”

Dal cut his friend off. “I’ll tell you when we get there. Can you go anchor somewhere off coast?”

“I’m here now, small island about three miles north.”

“Good. We’ll meet you at the next pier to the north from where we were last night. Don’t come in until we get there, Kris. When we arrive we’ll flash the headlights. We should be there …” he glanced over at Emily.

She checked the clock on the dash and did some quick math. “Give us an hour,” she said.

“Ah, you scoundrel. Now I see what’s going on —”

“Trust me, Kris, you don’t. Be careful, we’re in danger. I’m shutting off my phone now - you should do the same. I’ll see you in an hour. Watch for the lights.”

“But —”

Dal pried the battery out of his phone and jumped out of the truck to open the gate. Emily pulled through, Dal locked the gate, returned to the truck and they drove away into the night.