by Susan Grant
His eyes were unreadable behind the gold lenses. She wondered if Cavin was one of her admirers. “She’s single?”
“She has refused to take a consort, although many desire her. She almost killed one man who tried to force himself on her.”
“Sounds like she should have finished the job.”
“She could have. She’s an accomplished swordswoman.” Cavin slid into the right lane—narrowly missing a van—then veered back to the left. “My guess is she felt killing him would have been an act of mercy after she sliced off his male parts. He lives on as a palace eunuch as a warning to all other like-minded suitors.”
That’s one way of dealing with man trouble. Jana felt a certain kinship with the queen.
“You said a fleet is on the way.” She took a breath. “But that we have time. How much time? Your best guess.”
“Roughly, a few Terran weeks. No more.” His mouth was a grim slash, but eyes had that look again—his whole heart visible in them.
“There’s time to plan. We’ll mediate a compromise.”
“It will not work, Jana.”
“Sides farther apart have reached agreement through diplomacy.”
“Earth has no leverage. You are no longer in the Stone Age, but your space technology is primitive. You will lose.”
Her pulse was thundering, her mind racing. “If we can’t fight them off, or talk our way out of this, what does that leave?”
“Me. My plan.”
“Your leadership can’t be in favor of you helping us.” She’d never been in the military, but she understood the concept of chain of command.
“They do not know, and I do not intend for them to find out.” He stared straight ahead. “So far as my superiors know, I have taken two weeks of vacation. It is best they keep thinking that. Treason is a capital crime.”
She took a few deep breaths. Cavin could be put to death for this—for helping Earth. She’d always considered the men in her family heroes, but Cavin defined the word.
“Earth deserves a say in its destiny. Your people do. You do, Jana. No, I would never do anything to adversely affect my people. My efforts will not make or break the Coalition’s ability to survive the Drakken onslaught.”
The truck wove in and out of slower cars, making them look as if they were standing still, and this time they weren’t. She saw no more than a few car lengths ahead, a few reflector lights, and she knew they were going eighty, at least.
They were driving almost completely blind. On the plus side, if she couldn’t see anyone then no one could see them. Except the assassin. She glanced at his cuff computer. “Where is the REEF now? I just want to be able to brace myself.”
“The REEF no longer registers on my sensors.”
She shot him an outraged look. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“I meant to. But I had to immediately continue our evasive maneuvers. Law enforcement vehicles are attempting to intercept us.”
Her heart tumbled. “What?”
“Your local wardens are in pursuit.”
“Oh, God.” She sagged against the seat. ‘Sorry officer—are ray guns illegal in California?’
Cavin jerked the wheel, swerving into the left lane but not before almost clipping a highway patrol car. By the time she’d had the chance to flinch, the patrol car’s flashing lights had disappeared in the fog, its two occupants’ startled faces burned in her mind.
“I will exit the highway now. The wardens have formed a roadblock ahead. I do not want the spikes they have thrown in the road to tear apart the tires and cripple the vehicle.”
“Patrol cars have dash cameras though. They probably have pictures of us. They’ll trace the truck. Set up more road blocks.” The gee-whiz tech Cavin had on him would get the military involved, and the FBI, CIA, CDC, DHS…pretty much the entire alphabet.
“The wardens will not find us,” he assured her. “My armor’s AI will blur the return images. Like my ship, this suit is capable of enhanced invisibility.”
Her heart somersaulted as she remembered where he’d parked his spaceship. Fear slithered down her spine. “Your ship is at the ranch. What if the REEF goes there to look for you? My family is home, my mother and grandfather—”
“No. They are safe, Jana. Basic invisibility will prevent Terrans from discovering it, and its advanced age will keep the REEF from detecting it—as long as I keep certain functions powered down. More, the REEF is malfunctioning. It has failed twice to kill me. I have deployed REEFs on missions in the past. I know their ways. It will now retreat to isolate itself and use nanotech to fix its bio-hardware and weapons.”
Like a diabolical Roomba returning to the charging station. She let out a shaky breath. “How long does that take?”
“A maintenance cycle can take up to forty-eight hours. Even if it is not in full combat mode, a REEF is still dangerous. But it will not hunt us again tonight.” He coasted down an offramp. “I must return to my ship and continue repairs. My vehicle is at the marketplace. I will retrieve it.”
“And return to the scene of the crime? No.”
“I will summon another car then.”
“You mean like Lyft?”
“Any car. I prefer self-driving vehicles. I locate one, and then I summon it. I can commandeer any vehicle, land, air, or sea. Your Terran systems are still very basic. Easily accessed.”
A flicker of dread coursed through her. “Dare I say that includes our military defense systems?”
“Yes. Those too. I will help your people with that when the time comes.”
When the time comes…
“No, let’s stick together. We’ll drop you off at your ship. I can stay over at the ranch tonight.” She caught a glimpse of herself in the windshield—her ruined suit, stained blouse. Her feet were dirty, blistered, and she had only one shoe. If she’d ever wondered how she’d look sporting dreadlocks, she no longer had to guess. She wiped away smudged mascara with her thumbs. “I can’t show up looking like this—in the middle of the night. I’ve got to get cleaned up. My apartment won’t work either. My doorman will ask questions.” Must avoid questions. “Then she snapped her fingers. “Evie’s house. My sister. She’s not home, but she wouldn’t mind us stopping by for a pit stop.”
“What is this ‘pit stop?’”
So, there were some limits to his language program. Except for his accent, which was improving over time, she’d almost forgotten he wasn’t a native speaker. “It means I’ll shower and change clothes.” She gave him the address. Cavin spun the steering wheel, executing the tightest U-turn she’d ever seen in the truck. Beast hadn’t seen this much excitement since junior prom.
She pulled her suit around her and hunkered down, trying to pretend her phone wasn’t vibrating with unanswered messages in her purse. Then she felt Cavin’s gaze on her.
“Nothing has gone as I planned,” he said. “I am sorry for the trouble I brought you tonight.”
She shook her head. “Trouble found me before you did. Today I learned my father is fighting charges that he misreported the funds used to finance an election campaign. A lie, a horrible lie. My brother’s in hot water too. It’s awful. I promised my family I’d keep a low profile. How am I doing, huh?”
“We have people like that—those who thrive on achieving success at the expense of others.” He frowned. “It is why I avoid the palace. I admire your family’s impressive record of accomplishments—and yours. I hope the Jaspers will prevail.”
“Me too.” She rolled her head sideways and scrutinized him. “How do you know so much about us?”
“The Coalition collected data on Earth’s leadership in advance of our fleet’s arrival. We know the identity of all leaders, and where to find them.”
The back of her neck prickled. “Even a state senator? I’m a minor player in the grand scheme of things.”
“We know everyone. From tribal leaders to kings.”
Obviously, plans for the takeover had been a long time in the making.
Maybe as long as twenty-three years ago.
She pushed upright. “Did you know about this when you came here the first time? Did you know this would happen?”
He clenched and unclenched his grip on the wheel, revealing his discomfort. “My father was a researcher. A scientist. It was his job was to investigate the suitability of worlds for acquisition.”
“Acquisition,” she sneered. “Call it what it is—an invasion!”
“For what it is worth, that is the same thing I told my father.”
“We played, we laughed, all summer, and the whole the time you knew your people planned to invade Earth.”
“I did not understand the real purpose of our visit—not at first! Not until after I saw you for the last time.”
“I believed you were magic.” Her magic boy from the stars. “Like Peter Pan. He was a character in a children’s story. A magical boy who flew and never grew old.”
“I grew older.”
“Not to me. I look at you and I see that boy. I see someone I never forgot.”
“Never?” His mouth seemed to want to form a grin that he wouldn’t allow. “That was not the case at your event with the fish.”
“You expected me to remember you on the spot after twenty-three years?”
“Yes.”
“And if I’d walked onto your flying saucer—”
“Spacecraft.”
“—no notice, and said I needed to talk to you, you would have remembered me?”
“Yes,” he said with conviction.
She huffed in disbelief. “You never said goodbye.”
“We left suddenly. My father’s mission was complete. He forbid me to leave the ship, and I was unable to see you one last time as I had wanted. As soon as I reached minimum age, I left home—I enlisted. I think he was relieved. It wasn’t the same as what you have with your family. My mother died when I was small. I have no siblings. It was just me and him. We weren’t close—and now he’s gone. He died last month.”
“I’m sorry.” She sighed and bowed her head.
He scrubbed a hand over his short brown hair and seemed to stare at the headlights drilling through the fog. “I resented our nomadic life, traveling from planet to planet. Yet if not for being dragged along on those missions, I wouldn’t have met you. The incredible alien girl.”
Her heart swelled. “You were my best friend. My first friend.”
“You were my first kiss.” He removed his glasses, his eyes going all soft again, that look that melted her, that had always melted her.
He came back. For me.
For Earth.
She bit her lip. It choked her up what a sacrifice and huge personal risk he had taken in coming here. She’d heard of guardian angels. Cavin was her guardian alien.
She sucked in a breath, turning to look out the window.
“Jana?”
“One second. I’m having a moment here, and until it passes, if I look at you, if I steal one tiny peek at those eyes of yours, I’m afraid I’ll do something stupid like kiss you, because I’ve missed you, I never stopped missing you, that’s why I can’t look at you. And anyway you’re driving and—”
Cavin looped his arm over her shoulder, digging his fingers into her hair at the back of her neck to sweep her close. Before she could say anything more, he’d sealed his mouth over hers, a full-on, openmouthed kiss, hungry and wet.
A shudder ran through her body, and she forgot all about the highway, driving, and everything else normally hardwired to the basic instinct for survival.
Magic.
Yes, that’s what it was, magic, pure and consuming, what she’d searched for all her life and never found with anyone else—
A horn blared. She and Cavin flew apart.
“Goddess,” he said hoarsely and jerked the wheel expertly to the right to avoid hitting the truck they’d veered toward and almost hit.
She didn’t even twitch. She was still thinking about the kiss, the heart-stopping, head-spinning kiss. “You improved a bit since you were a kid.”
He peered over his glasses. “So have you.”
“Eyes on the road, soldier.”
“Marine,” he corrected with a faint smile.
She could feel his body heat burning from across the car. It was terribly distracting. It was all she could do to not demand he pull over, drag him to the back seat and…
“Me too,” he said huskily.
She gulped. “You can mind read?”
“No, but I was hoping my thoughts were the same as yours, based on the look on your face.”
He pulled her hand to his mouth and brushed his lips over her knuckles, a feather touch that made her tremble. More magic.
She tugged her hand away. “No more of that, by the way.”
“Ah,” he said. “I didn’t stop to think you might have a lover, someone important to you. I am sorry.” And he sounded it too. “When I read your background data, I didn’t see anything about a mate—a spouse—or a serious romantic interest.”
Great. Not only did people she’d never met know the sordid details of her social life, aliens she’d never met did too. “I’m not seeing anyone. No boyfriends. No husbands, past or present.”
“If you had been involved with someone, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I still would have come. I would have helped you, your family.”
She shot him a grateful smile, her heart squeezing. It was exactly what she’d expect a hero to say. It drove home why he’d come to Earth. If what Cavin claimed was true, the fate of the planet hinged on his help. Somehow, she would have to convince the world to believe her story about an alien takeover so Cavin could stop it—and she’d have to do it without jeopardizing his life.
Chapter Five
They sped up Evie’s quiet street and into her empty garage. She parked and shut off the engine. The garage door rolled down, sealing them off from the street. And then it was quiet. Jana was acutely aware of Cavin’s presence next to her in the car—his quiet breathing, his body heat, his scent. The memory of that explosive kiss. He, too, sat silently, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. Her. Cavin. Alone together. Ay yi yi. What about that man-vacation? Hadn’t she sworn off men for a while?
No, you swore off dating.
Same thing, Jana thought. Or did former childhood imaginary friends count?
She shook her head. No. Cavin was a friend. If he came with benefits, well, she didn’t want to know about them.
Before jumping down from the truck, she collected her purse, her shoe, and a sticky grocery bag. At the bottom was a puddle of thick melted ice cream and the little chocolate fish she’d never get to eat. Good bye, Phish Food, she thought mournfully and dropped the bag in the trash.
She limped to the interior garage door that led into the house.
“I will go first.” Cavin slid past her, his body in a protective stance. Muffled yipping echoed from the other side. Cavin tipped his head, his hand going to his weapons belt. “What is that noise?”
“Don’t shoot. That’s Sadie. Well, sometimes we feel like shooting her, but really, she grows on you.” Jana unlocked the house. “After you, sir. You’re the one packing heat.”
“Heat?” He glanced down at his body.
The man had good instincts, if not perfect translation. “Heat as in a weapon. If REEF is waiting for us, I might fare better if you’re the one to say hello first.”
He gave her a slightly dismayed, trust-me-not-to-lead-you-into-danger look. “The REEF is not here.”
“He’s charging, I know. But the way my night is going…” At the entry panel, Jana flipped on all the lights until the house was blazing bright. “There, I feel safer now. Even if it’s an illusion, I’ll take it. My nerves are shot.”
But Evie’s house was the perfect antidote for stress.
Just for a moment, Jana let herself breathe it all in: the photos everywhere; the houseplants and flowers; the candles in scents like vanilla and pumpkin pie, cinna
mon and apple, which, in Evie’s absence, replaced the usual sweet aroma of her baking. Evie was the most amazing cook. Candy was her specialty. Chocolate, in particular. She’d been selling some of her creations on the side. Jana kept urging her to ramp up her business, but Evie was still a bit down after the divorce. Maybe in time. She wanted to see Evie happy again.
A pair of old tennis shoes sat by the door leading to the garage. A dust bunny took up space in another corner. On the railing by the stairs, someone had tossed a Stanford sweatshirt. Upstairs, the three cats slept on a furry quilt. It all cried out that a family lived here, one held together with love.
“When my sister’s not here, it’s like the house is missing its heart,” she said.
Cavin’s green eyes had gone very dark and soft. It was a look she felt all the way from the butterflies in her stomach to her bare feet. “Since we parted, it is as if I am missing my heart. I lost my best friend.”
All she could do was sigh. If she were a candle, she’d have spontaneously melted into a puddle of wax. And if he weren’t wearing platform boots that put his mouth safely out of easy reach, she’d have spontaneously kissed him too.
More yipping. “Sadie, it’s me—Aunt Jana. Where’s my little sweet girl?” Jana let go of Cavin and hobbled on her sore feet to the kitchen in search of Evie’s dog. Locked behind a baby gate in the kitchen, a little tan dog jumped up on spindly legs. “There you are!”
A full bowl of water and an empty one for food reassured her that the pet sitter had been by earlier.
The little pooch reminded her of a dog on ice skates, slipping and skidding in her frenzy to greet Jana and simultaneously shred Cavin. Her huge watery brown eyes looked downright mean. Foam dripped from her tiny muzzle. Nails clattered on the wood floor, tapping out a deadly warning to the alien intruder.
Cavin stopped and stared at Sadie, “Is it a pet?”
“Yes. She’s a Chihuahua, and her name is Sadie.” Jana lifted up the wriggling dog, cooing and kissing her. Sadie wanted no part of any soothing ploy; she wanted Cavin with a fanged, descended-from-wolves viciousness that transcended her tiny barrel-chested body. “I’m going to let her go free. Is your armor pretty secure? No weak points?”