Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

you in the woods behind your home. Scoped it out before I came to get you. It’s actually outside the city. Not an approved zone, but I’ll chance it. It will take less time to unload on the ground than it would if we used the winch to lower each box.”
    She thought about the logistics of carrying the twenty or so boxes through thick woods to her house. It would take hours. “Can I get the other three to help? They’re strong enough. In fact, two are well enough to leave—if there were anywhere for them to go.”
    “It would be best if you kept them hidden. All you really need for tonight are a couple of boxes. You can bring the rest inside over the next few days.”
    “If no one finds them.”
    “There’s always that,” he agreed. “I’m starting down. Hang onto something since you’re not strapped in.”
    “Earlier, you said I wasn’t safe anymore.”
    His hands moved over the controls and the hovercraft banked sharply. “It’s that new task force. They may know who you are. We’re not certain, though. Your best bet is to keep to your normal routine.”
    “Why? So they can find me.”
    “No, so you don’t look suspicious.”
    “What if I don’t agree with that strategy?” Her stomach clenched. The thought of capture and imprisonment made her want to jump out of her skin. Those like her did not do well in prison. The guards passed them around just as freely as they did with hookers. Apparently they hadn’t heard about the part of the two-year-old law forbidding sexual congress with shifters.
    The pilot ignored her question. “Landing in T minus ten, nine, eight…”
    She gripped an aluminum strut and prepared for impact. Without wings or rotors, landings were jarring. The craft hit, bounced, and hit again. “Ooph.” She groaned and rubbed her tailbone.
    The whirr of the pilot’s seatbelt as it retracted rang in her ears. He stood over her, hands extended. “Sorry about that. Let me help you up.”
    “Nah, I’m okay.” She scrambled to her feet and draped the strap of her bag over one shoulder. “Let’s get this stuff unloaded.”
    It didn’t take all that long. The biggest time-guzzler was unshackling the boxes from where they’d been secured against the body of the hovercraft. She stood and watched the craft float into the air, then turned and looked at the stacks of crates. The woods were thick here. It was possible the food would stay hidden long enough to move it to her basement. She hefted a box. Not bad. If she were careful, she could stack them and take two at a time.
    Kate turned in a circle. Everything looked the same. Crap, which way is home? Logic dictated downhill, but she wasn’t certain. She sniffed, but all she smelled were trees and small rodents. She clicked the display of her wrist computer, activated a map program, and told it to find her address. It was sluggish because of the tree cover. Eventually, an arrow pointed to her left with the information beneath that she was eight tenths of a mile from her target location. She slid the computer into a pocket, picked up two boxes, and started walking.
    She marked her route so she could find the boxes again. It was extra insurance. Her feline sense of smell would probably have been fine without physical symbols. Every time she stopped to notch a tree branch with her pocketknife or scratch something in the dirt, her skin crawled with apprehension, but it was nothing compared with her anxiety once she traded the forest canopy for open streets. It was only about a block to her house, but still…
    Cat senses on high alert, shifter magic fanned about her, she crept forward. It would be impossible to explain why she’d emerged from the woods with two crates of black market food. If anyone so much as showed their head, she’d dump the boxes, shift, and make a run for it. She was fast as a mountain lion. Nothing human could catch her.
    By the time she came around to her back door, Kate dripped sweat. The next nine trips would