Rogue Alien's Secret

by Kate Rudolph

  Rogue Alien’s Secret

  Alien Outlaws Book Three

  Kate Rudolph

  Want more sci-fi romance from Kate Rudolph? You can get a free, full length novel by joining her reader club. Download Ruwen today!

  More by Kate Rudolph

  Alien Outlaws

  Rogue Alien’s Escape

  Rogue Alien’s Woman

  Rogue Alien’s Secret

  Rogue Alien’s Legacy

  Detyen Warriors

  Also available in audio!

  Soulless

  Ruthless

  Heartless

  Faultless

  Endless

  Rogue Alien’s Secret © Kate Rudolph 2019.

  Cover design by Kate Rudolph.

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Kate Rudolph.

  www.katerudolph.net

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  About Kate Rudolph

  Preview Soulless: Detyen Warriors Book One

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ANDIE SPRINTED DOWN the hallway and past the towering windows without sparing a glance for the expertly rendered paintings and sculptures that oozed money at anyone who stopped to admire them. Her neck ached from the weight of the necklace she wore and she counted down in her head, knowing she had less than a minute before her window closed and everything went to shit.

  A jewel heist had sounded a lot more fun in the planning stage when she was still building up her nerves. Life as an interstellar outlaw wasn’t for the faint of heart and she was sure that she was going to call it quits any day. Her paychecks were adding up, the money saved since most of what she needed was provided by the crew. She had more than enough to book a room on a ship heading back towards Earth.

  She’d been away six years, but could the place have changed that much? It certainly hadn’t changed as much as she had.

  A security door was descending from the ceiling, the thick steel dense enough to crush anyone who got caught. Andie dove for it, sliding under and curling her feet up at the last instant before she got crushed. Her lungs heaved and she wanted to take a breath, but this thing was planned down to the second.

  She wasn’t going to let Xandr fuck up his first job back in the captain’s chair. And, surprisingly, he’d given her a pivotal role in the entire thing.

  Though maybe the rest of the crew wasn’t that shocked, knowing where she spent her nights. Not that she thought Xandr was playing favorites. Their relationship was still way too new for her to be asking for special treatment, not that she ever would, and even if she did, she doubted he’d give it to her. The man was the definition of running hot and cold, a sensual lover who saw to her every need in bed and a hardened captain who could look at her like nothing but the newest member of his crew the moment they stepped out of his room.

  But she wasn’t dwelling on relationship issues at the moment, not when the blasters were liable to start shooting at any moment.

  She wished she wasn’t wearing a dress, but the only way to get to where the jewels were being displayed was to play the part of a wealthy human socialite, and the profile they had of the woman showed she favored flowing garments and shiny stones. Andie had always been a more practical girl, but the silk belt that wrapped around her like a rope had given her a few ideas, ideas she wouldn’t think about until she was out of harm’s way.

  “Are you reading me?” Kiran, their Detyen head of security came over the comms she wore. “You should be outside of the signal jammer’s range by now.”

  Talking was not at the top of Andie’s list of things to do, but staying quiet wasn’t an option. “I’m reading,” she wheezed. Her side cramped with pain and she clutched it as she picked up the pace. Maybe she needed to up her workout regimen, or start a workout regimen. It felt like she’d taken a blaster shot to the side, but it was only her body protesting the pace she was setting.

  “Detour to the secondary evac location, we’ve got a disturbance.” He cut off the line before Andie could ask more, not that she was going to waste the breath.

  Shouldn’t there be guards? She had a necklace worth nearly a million Oscavian credits around her neck and the rest of the jewelry in the collection was being routed to the crew. When all was said and done, they’d have more than fifteen million credits’ worth of precious metals and gems and bragging rights at all the outlaw hotspots.

  Not that they’d actually brag. That was how idiots got caught.

  But someone should have been on her ass by now. Her part of this job didn’t exactly involve subtlety. She was there to act as a distraction and to snatch the easiest item while the rest of the crew got everything else. There were dozens of moving parts to this job, many of which Andie knew in only the faintest detail, but one thing she was sure of was that she’d been promised she’d have to outrun at least two guards. They didn’t have a big enough crew to make a bigger distraction and hacking the security systems only went so far.

  Andie wasn’t about to take this treat for granted. She sent up a silent thanks to whatever god or benevolent being was watching over her and took the detour to where Kiran was waiting.

  She’d never worked closely with the Detyen before; she hadn’t even known he was Detyen until they started talking, not that it mattered. But he exuded competence and had a quiet humor that had made the last two days less nerve wracking then they could have been. But he was no Xandr. A part of her wished she was working closely with her lover on this mission, but he was the captain and his part was bigger than what she could manage. She’d only done a handful of jobs with the crew of the Seventh and she was still learning. Xandr had ten years of experience as an outlaw.

  Kiran had procured a hoverbike from somewhere and Andie hopped on the back as they sped away. Sitting down didn’t help much with the way her heart was racing and her lungs still wanted to burst out of her chest, but she held on tight to Kiran and watched the city around them fly by. The stone of the necklace was cold where it lay on her chest, but it was a comfort to know that she’d done her part perfectly and this job had gone off without a hitch.

  She couldn’t wait to celebrate with the rest of the crew.

  “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING me.” Xandr cursed as the new players arrived on the scene and interrupted a perfectly planned operation. His team knew what they were supposed to be doing down to the second. And now these amateurs showed up and thought they could steal the job out from under his crew? Not happening. He engaged his comm to get Sayevi on the line. “We’ve got company. They’ve diverted the guards but it won’t last for long. Switch to plan C.”

  “Affirmative,” was Sayevi’s reply. She didn’t let the excitement she was sure to be feeling leak into her voice, but Xandr knew his pilot and she had to be dancing for joy at the prospect of some fancy flying.

  “Kiran, report.” Xandr hadn’t been spotted by the new players or the guards, and if
he had, there was no reason for them to pay him any attention, but awareness was prickling its way down his spine and he wanted out of there as soon as possible. And he wanted to call Andie up and see how her end of this was going, but Kiran was the primary contact, and Xandr wasn’t going to circumvent protocol just because his... crew mate had the most visible part of the job.

  “We’re diverting to the secondary location. We have the package.” He was all business as he replied, and that at least loosened one knot of worry. Kiran would have said if something had gone wrong, if Andie was hurt.

  Xandr clenched his jaw and put his mind back to the task. He needed to get a grip. Andie had proved herself more than capable thus far and he had no reason to doubt her now. They’d given her as clear a shot to the diamond as anyone could offer and she promised she could make the run. She’d already proved that she had nerves of titanium. Xandr shouldn’t be worried.

  But now there were players he hadn’t accounted for and the plan could fall apart at any moment.

  “Keana?” She was the last member of the crew doing her bit and the one Xandr trusted implicitly to get things done. They’d been working together for more than a decade and had known each other for even longer, which made jobs go by easy. Until they disagreed on something.

  But that was something else he wasn’t thinking about at the moment.

  “Done. Heading out.” She didn’t bother with pleasantries, but that was only to be expected.

  Xandr pulled out of his station and went to the trash chute he’d been monitoring for the last ten minutes. Right on time, he heard it engage. He placed the magnet on the wall and counted to three before opening the chute and sliding the magnet down. A small bag plopped right into his hand and he tried not to flinch at the goo that covered one corner of it. That was the problem with using the trash as an exit point. It was also why they’d invented soap.

  He turned and cursed again when an unfamiliar Oscavian trained a blaster on him. They weren’t in the empire. Xandr didn’t take jobs back home, no matter how lucrative they could be. But this end of the solar system was positively crawling with Oscavians, whether they were innocent ex-pats or fellow outlaws. Xandr knew a fair number of established outlaws on sight, but this guy was new. Though his skin was as purple as Xandr’s, he practically glowed green with inexperience. But that didn’t mean Xandr had much advantage. After all, it didn’t take much know how to fire a blaster.

  “Hand it over and I’ll let you go,” he said. “No lie.”

  “Now I know you’re lying,” Xandr retorted. He let the bag roll around in his hand, the gems inside it a reassuring weight.

  “I’m not!” the outlaw insisted. His blaster wavered for a moment but he quickly steadied it. “I just need the bag. We don’t need to fight for it. Come on. Let’s just make this easy.”

  Xandr shot a glance over the outlaw’s shoulder and calculated the distance to the nearest exit. There was no way he made it without getting shot, not if he kept the gems. And he bet this outlaw was trigger happy, all of them were on the first few missions out. “You with Nevys?” There were too many outlaw crews to name, but only a few who would try this job. Nevys cycled through crew like Xandr used to go through lovers, so it was no surprise that he might have hired this boy.

  “How’d you—I mean...” That tripped the kid up and he blasted a warning shot into the wall beside Xandr. If he’d made the shot on purpose he had a hell of a career as a sharpshooter in his future; if it was an accident, Xandr was thankful to keep half his face. “Now give me the damn bag!”

  Xandr shrugged, his time up. He reared back and threw the bag as far as he could manage, satisfied when it clanked against the far wall. He ran before the kid could decide to shoot him and was out the nearest door in seconds.

  Fucking Nevys. This was Xandr’s job, one he’d claimed fair and square. Nevys had no business poaching, but he’d never been one for honor among thieves.

  Keana caught up to him as he rounded off the path from the ballroom and down the main drive. They made it to their bike at the same time and Xandr was thankful when the thing started. Given how badly the job had gone he almost would have expected a disabled bike and no way back to the ship.

  “What happened back there?” she asked as he revved the engine and they sped away.

  “Interlopers. Had to sacrifice the score to get out.” It wasn’t all that they’d come for. Keana should have a part of the loot and he knew that Andie had gotten out with her necklace, but it rankled to know that he’d had to give up nearly a third of what they’d come here for.

  “We’ll regroup,” Keana said with practiced calm. Things had returned almost to normal between them since his semi-hostile takeover a few weeks before. While Xandr worked on escaping a prison sentence, Keana had taken over as captain of his ship. And once he’d returned, she’d remained in that spot. Xandr had wanted to see what she could do, and a part of him had suffered from guilt at the thought of holding her back from a leadership position. She had the skills to be running her own crew.

  But he’d been born for leadership, and being second in command rankled. When a mission of Keana’s had almost seen Xandr captured by the Duke of Mebion he’d seized control of his ship, stripping her of her rank in front of the crew. It had strained their relationship. But he’d apologized and been forgiven. He and Keana had been best friends since childhood. If she couldn’t withstand his entitled idiocy from time to time she would have been long gone. That didn’t mean everything was perfect. But it was okay.

  It would have been better if Xandr had a trove of jewels in his pocket, but that was life. Things didn’t go to plan.

  He sped the bike to the waiting ship and was relieved to see Kiran and Andie already there. He called for a final check to make sure all the crew was accounted for and once he had it, they were off. Two thirds of a score was better than nothing. But Xandr wasn’t ready to leave it at that.

  “Let’s get what we’ve got to Station 163,” he said to Keana. “And then let’s see about teaching Nevys a lesson about poaching.”

  Keana smiled. “Aye, aye, captain.” And for the first time since he’d taken his position back, he thought she might actually mean it.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ANDIE NEEDED TO EITHER move all of her shit to Xandr’s room or start remembering that she didn’t have enough clothes in there. Xandr and Keana had gone off to talk about Nevys, whoever that was, while the rest of the crew kicked into gear to make sure they weren’t followed away from the heist. Celebrations had been muted after Xandr announced that his portion of their loot had been taken from him, but with the necklace she’d retrieved and the gems that Malax had absconded with, they were temporarily much richer.

  A lot of that money would go to a fence, and even more would go into ship repair and supplies, but she and the rest of the crew could still expect a nice payday. Not the extravagant one they’d been promised, but nice.

  Nice enough to buy a small trunk to store her things in Xandr’s room, certainly.

  With everyone busy, it was the perfect time to take a shower. Whatever weirdness Andie occasionally felt about sleeping in the captain’s quarters didn’t extend to his bathroom. He had a private shower. The rest of the crew had to share a large communal bathroom. It was nice enough, but she’d once walked in on Malax and Taryn going at it and she’d needed eye bleach before that image went away. She was glad the quartermaster and the engineer were in love, but she hadn’t needed to know exactly which of Malax’s tentacles went where.

  So she used Xandr’s shower. And she slept beside him in his bed. But her things were still safely ensconced in her quarters on the other end of the ship. Xandr hadn’t suggested that she move them in and she hadn’t asked. She didn’t think he’d have a problem with it. She wasn’t sure if he’d even notice for awhile. But on the off chance he objected, Andie didn’t want to push. They’d only just admitted they had feelings for each other that went beyond sex. Not that they were in love or anyt
hing. But. They were something. Something that involved kissing and snuggling in Xandr’s quarters and smiling at each other when they were out among the crew.

  The crew said they’d never seen Xandr happier, but if that was the case, Andie dreaded to think of what he’d been like before. Yes, he smiled now, but they were still rare and hard won.

  But his smiles were the least of her issues at the moment. She’d cast off the dirty clothes she’d worn for the job and put them down the laundry chute before checking to see if she had anything else to wear, which meant that when Andie came out of the shower she only had her towel for clothing. Her room wasn’t exactly close, so she didn’t want to make a run for it to find clothes, and if felt weird to grab one of Xandr’s shirts and borrow it for long enough to get something of her own.

  Sure, she could have his dick buried inside her every night, but wearing his shirt crossed a line. She was messed up. Xandr might have been a hard man, but he was logical. If she didn’t have a shirt, he’d expect her to use one of his and return it when she was done. He’d do it for anybody on the crew. So why did reaching into his drawer feel like something forbidden?

  She was so occupied with the task that she didn’t hear the door open, and when two large hands landed on her hips, she jumped in place before relaxing with a nervous laugh.

  “Were you expecting someone else?” Xandr nuzzled against her, his lips ghosting over her pulse.

  And that pulse was picking up as it always did when she was alone with Xandr. She loved the feel of his hard muscles, loved knowing that this man had chosen to spend his time with her. She knew he usually didn’t stick with a single partner, preferring casual interactions on random space stations between jobs. But this thing between them, whatever it was, was exclusive. For as long as they were together, she was the only one who got to see him like this, feel him like this.

  “Like anyone would be brave enough to come into your quarters.” She sank into his touch, luxuriating in the press of hot muscles against her. Anytime he was close her body went on high alert, ready for the pleasure he could bring her. She’d had lovers before, but Xandr blew them all out of the water without even trying. Even when it had only been sex between them, the sex had been worth all the confusion that came with it. Now that things were real she could grow addicted to his touch.