Saffron Read Online Free PDF

minimum of staff.
    “I can’t say for sure. I’ve not seen everything I—”
    “Boss!” The radio at his side squawked. “We got trouble up here!” The sound of an explosion and gunfire rippled through the speaker.
    “Kuami! Damn it, answer me!”
    He spun around and ran back towards the lift, all the while shouting out for the men below. The amount of relief he felt when he turned around and saw Saffron on his heels couldn’t be measured.
    He paused at the lift and faced her. “Stay down here, away from the shaft. I don’t know what’s up there and I don’t need you in danger. Cole, stay with her.”
    His man nodded. Her agreement came immediately and he grabbed her by the waist, hauled her in close and kissed her like his life depended on it. Her eyes were hazy with desire when he pulled back and winked. “Be right back, darlin’.”
    The elevator lurched and headed up, with the men checking their weapons before they were plunged into darkness. He watched her until he could no longer see her, then he, too, readied his weapon, not needing any light to do that.
    Topside was a mess. Men lay dead and dying and he ran over to Kuami and knelt by his body. His friend’s dark skin was covered in blood and his eyes stared sightlessly up at the sky. Rage grew within the pit of his stomach. He was tired of them coming and picking off his men like this.
    “Goodbye, my friend,” he whispered, as he gently closed the unseeing eyes.
    “Boss, come look at this.”
    He swallowed his anger and headed to where Shade knelt. “Whaddya got?”
    Shade held up a book and Kenric frowned. “Call your brother and have them come out and get these men. They deserve better than lying here and cooking in the afternoon sun. I’m going back down. Cole and I will finish up for the day—then we need to figure something else out.”
    “I should go with you,” Shade protested.
    “We won’t be long. Then we’ll take care of the families these men had.”
    Shade nodded, his dislike of the situation obvious, but he didn’t argue further. Soon Kenric was alone in the lift heading back down and when he got to the bottom he was relieved to find Cole there, weapon ready, peering from around a corner. Saffron was behind him. She hung back as he explained what had transpired above ground.
    The three of them walked back down the tunnel, to where they had been drilling most recently. “I’m sorry for your losses,” she said simply.
    “It happens,” he replied, more gruffly than he’d intended.
    “Death is common.” She walked in silence a little bit farther. “Do you know who did it?”
    “Muslim extremists.”
    “What?”
    “We found a Qur’an on one of the dead men.” He shrugged. “Perhaps the rumour of us having found emeralds, sapphires and garnets started up again.”
    “I doubt it.”
    He paused and looked at her in the low light from their flashlights. “Why do you say that?”
    “Well, the gems mentioned most in the Holy Qur’an are pearls, rubies and coral. So I find it doubtful they would want the stones you speak of, especially if the size of the mine wasn’t yet determined. It’s well known you are looking for deposits of petroleum and natural gas—maybe they want that. I would guess the book was left to throw you off. Just because someone carries the Qur’an doesn’t make them a Muslim extremist.”
    He thought about that for a moment. “How do you know so much about the Qur’an?”
    “I read, Mr Annson, I study, and I learn.” She gave him a small smile before pressing closer to the wall and staring as they progressed.
    The rest of the afternoon he laid charges for blasting, after the sexy doc double-checked and ensured him it was okay to place them there. They were all hot and sweaty at the end of the day when they dragged themselves back to the lift waiting to take them topside.
    He stood near her in the lift, chatting easily with Cole as they ascended. She still managed to smell so clean, he