Read Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 for Free Online

There is a tall shelf on the other side to camouflage the panel. It must be pushed forward.”  She was telling secrets given to her during the past three years, but those secrets had been shared for the explicit purpose of aiding her escape at some point.
    “How can I be sure there isn’t someone on the other side?”
    There shouldn’t be since this area had not been used in many years, but she’d stopped depending on the way things should be from the minute she and her sister were sold as children.
    Jin aimed her penlight at a narrow vertical opening between the panel and an eroded section of the wall on the left . “Look for yourself and decide.”
    He stuck his face up to the slot for a moment then stood away from the wall . “What does that room open into?”
    “Another tunnel. This area has not been active in many years according to my ... sources.” It grated to share so much in front of Pang, but as long as he did not know who her sources were, those friends were safe .
    The cowboy ordered, “Stand back.”
    Only an arrogant man would not listen to her when she was the one with the information. But she understood inflated male egos. Had suffered years of them.
    Stepping back, she crossed her arms and waited. The panel was one-and-a-half meters tall by one meter wide and bolted into the concrete wall .
    He rammed his shoulder and the steel gave a little bit. That had to hurt.
    One of his men asked, “You want to blow it, Bo?”
    He shook his head . “No, let’s save the explosives until we have to use them.”
    Two more shoves and he jarred the panel .
    Jin grudgingly admitted he was stronger than she’d thought and that was saying something for someone she considered the size of a mountain .
    He peeked into the opening then stepped back, lifted his boot and rammed it into the bottom of the panel that was knee-high off the ground. The right corner shot forward then he kicked the left corner . By the time he finished attacking the panel, it hung from the only bolt still in place at the top right corner.
    But that allowed enough room to force his big body through so he could shove the shelf out of the way .
    Once inside, he called back, “Clear.”
    She took that as the signal to move and stepped through the opening he made by holding the metal back. He took her arm as she entered the storage room, guiding her to the side as if he thought she’d fall on the debris piled on the floor. She sneezed at the dust and suffered a deep breath of mildew.
    The room wasn’t spacious to begin with and six men filled it quickly even if two were Pang and Har.
    She reached for the door and got yanked back.
    “Hold it, Jin.”
    Swinging around, she stabbed his chest with a sharp forefinger. “Do not grab me again, cowboy.”
    One of his men stifled a chuckle.
    “No one moves until I say so.”  In the tiny bit of light from her penlight, she could see Bo stare at her with that single night vision eyepiece. His uncovered eye gave her a fierce glare. Then he put his hand on the finger she poked against his chest and moved it away, but without harming her. That one eye held her gaze the whole time, warning her she was stepping dangerously close to an invisible line that marked the limit of his patience.
    She kept her voice calm in spite of her own limited patience. “I know what is on the other side of that door. I know where we have to go to find a stairway . I know what to avoid. You should do as I say.”
    “That’s not going to happen.”  He set her aside and took the lead at the door, opening it to look out . He called quietly over his shoulder, “Which direction are the steps and where do they lead?”
    When she didn’t answer, he turned around. “Jin.”
    “So now you need me? Again?”
    Someone snorted and she was sure it was the taller of the two men who had watched outside the warehouse.
    Bo glowered at her.
    She answered only because her silence would slow them down . “The steps are to the right, a