Read White Hot: A Patrick & Steeves Suspense for Free Online Page B

frustration.
    “You sure you don’t want to stay with me tonight?” He grinned as he pulled onto her street. “We have to be up in a few hours anyway.”
    She swiveled toward him. “How could you say that when you’re so angry?”
    “I’m not angry, I’m —”
    “You’re angry, Dal.”
    He reached his hand toward her, but she pulled back. “I’m frustrated,” he said. “With the situation. Not with you.”
    “We have to be able to separate things, Dal.” She chose her words carefully. “I like what we have together, but it’s new. We can’t let it get in the way of our work.”
    “So is that a no?” His grin tugged his lip up.
    “Yes, it’s a no. I need to throw some things together, and…” She let the thought trail off. What she needed was space. Time to regroup and prepare herself for the task that lay ahead of them. This time tomorrow they’d be at the ranch in Mexico in the thick of things.
    He slowed the truck to a crawl.
    “Going slower won’t make me change my mind,” she teased, trying to lessen the sting of her rejection.
    “Did you leave your apartment door open this morning?” He jutted his chin toward her apartment. She turned to see the door standing open. Through the window facing the lot, she could make out the beam of a flashlight weaving through the living room.
    Dal pulled the truck to the side ready to leap out. She grabbed his arm and shook her head. “No,” she said, “keep going. We’ll drive by. It’s probably Jack’s men.”
    He nodded and rolled steadily through the lot past the open door into her suite. A black SUV was parked at the far curb. Emily slid down in her seat.
    “Looks like Jack’s men for sure,” he said, pulling back into the road and keeping an even speed to avoid notice. “Should we call someone?”
    “We can’t call the San Diego Police, if that’s what you mean. We’ll be filling out reports all night.”
    “Should I pull around?”
    “No.” She pulled out her cell phone and captured a shot of the license plate. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

11
    E m pressed her fingers against the tender skin behind her ear.
    “Don’t touch that,” Dal said, swiping her hand away from her head.
    “It tingles. I keep imagining the little Martian from Bugs Bunny scuttling around under my skin.” She lifted her hand again to the bump where they’d inserted the microchip, but he grabbed her fingers and held her hand. “Keep your eyes on the road,” she joked. They were sitting in the Nexus line at the border, moving steadily forward but not as quickly as usual.
    “Try not to think about it,” he said.
    “Easier said than done,” she replied. Flipping the visor down, she looked at the spot again in the mirror. “It looks like a mosquito bite.”
    “I do have one, too,” he reminded her with a grin, stretching back against the seat of the tan SUV they’d been issued. “Did you believe that they’re not going to track us all the time? I mean, even when we’re not on assignment?”
    Emily shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll consider us ‘assets’, but not infringe on our privacy more than necessary.”
    “The NSA not infringe on our privacy?” Dal barked out a laugh. “I meant what I said this morning when they implanted the damn thing. The minute I get back, I want this thing removed.”
    Last night, they’d decided there wasn’t anything to do about the break-in at her apartment until morning and had gone to Dal’s. Fortunately, they’d been so exhausted that after a few minutes of passionate kissing, they’d drifted into sleep in a jumble of limbs until the alarm went off a few short hours later.
    This morning, they’d driven past her apartment on the way to be chipped to find the door closed but the black SUV still in the lot with two men in the front seats.
    “How are you feeling about your house?”
    “Jill said they’d keep surveillance on it. I have to trust that they do.”
    “Do you think they found