Heat: An Alpha Male Criminal Romance (A Hotter Than Hell Novel Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

I’m done with the game. Sometimes you need to take what little information you have and stop there.
    My refusal to comment turns the rest of the ride to long and boring.
    My apartment is in the northwest valley by an old high school that once had two acres of rolling grass where students sat and ate lunch. A few years ago, the grass was changed to the customary desert landscaping—rocks—and now high fences separate the school from the road. Passing through a metal detector is also required to enter the building. I never worked this district as a cop. In Phoenix, you don’t live where you work. You travel as far as possible. The last thing you want is to run into someone undesirable when off duty. Home should be your sanctuary. I, like most city officers, varied my route when leaving the department and heading home. You always check to be sure you aren’t followed. It’s the life of a cop and these lessons begin at the academy.
    Gomez pulls into my apartment complex, which is kitty-corner from the school. He travels toward the back and I wonder if he helped return my car. The clock on the dash shows it’s been more than five hours since I took dick pics of Mr. Dandridge. We turn toward the back corner of the parking lot and I see my car in its spot. Sally is a 2008 white Nissan Sentra. I picked her up so I had an unassuming vehicle for surveillance. Or at least that’s what I told myself. She has more than one hundred and fifty thousand miles on her, a few small glitches in the upholstery, a dent on the back right fender, and an air conditioner that barely cools the car ten degrees less than the outside temperature. This means ninety plus degrees on a mild summer day. Bottom line: the price was right.
    I bite my lip to hide a smile as I think of Gomez driving Sally in his full suit. He deserves the buckets of sweat that likely came with that ride. Though, unless he changed into another spectacular thug suit, I see little evidence of an adventure in my car. I open the door before we stop rolling. My driver growls, which is kind of comical in a big man-bear kind of way. At least the knock to my head didn’t ruin my sense of humor.
    “Are you forgetting something?” he says before I can run off and enter the safety of my apartment where thugs and crime bosses don’t invade.
    My magazine. I stand and wait as he walks around the Caddy and reaches into his pocket. I’m surprised when three items land in my palm—the magazine, my beat up iPhone, and a shiny new iPhone. What the hell?
    “Moon wants you to have the phone so he’s able to contact you.”
    “What the hell?” I say it out loud this time and get another pompous smirk as my answer.
    Gomez closes my door and heads back around to the driver’s side as I stand looking down at my hand. Over the top of the car he stares in my direction and says, “Go to your apartment, Miss Kinlock. I won’t leave until you’re inside.”
    “I don’t want calls from Moon,” I say in a voice that’s gone embarrassingly whiny.
    He’s silent and his dark shades give nothing away. My headache moves to a medium throb as so many things roll through my brain— what and why being at the top. So, like the good little PI I always try to be, I walk away, cell phones and magazine in hand, and head to my first floor apartment. At the door, I realize I have no keys. I try the knob and it turns. I’m in too much turmoil to scream when another tall thug is standing inside. He tips his chin, and I should add his face displays a fine sheen of sweat. He hands me my keys and exits the front door. I stand to the side in stunned silence.
    The fucking assholes have invaded my home.

Chapter Five

     
    I CHECK EVERYTHING. THERE’S not so much as a mail-order catalog out of place. It doesn’t matter; I feel victimized while more than one scenario runs through my head. Did he or they search my private papers? God, did they go through my underwear drawer? What about planting a hidden camera