by Fall, Carly
“Those people out there count on me to keep them safe. I never asked to be the ringmaster, but this is his seat.” Noah pounded on the back of the chair with his fists. “I don’t have room in my tent for another circus act. I’m sorry Holly’s brother is dead. Maybe she did it; maybe she didn’t. It doesn’t matter. If you were using your brain instead of your cock on this one, you’d run as far and fast away from that mess as you could.”
Anger rolled through his body, tensing his muscles. Although Noah was in charge, he certainly wouldn’t be talking to Justice like that again. “Excuse me? What exactly does that mean?”
“Which part? The part about your cock or getting away from Holly?”
“My cock has nothing to do with me wanting to help her, Noah, and for you to say otherwise is rude and condescending. It’s also—”
“Oh, bullshit, Justice. I could see it in your face when we met her at the bunker. You’ve got it bad for the little blonde.”
Certainly, his brain would explode at any moment. Who did Noah think he was? Justice had been very high up in the SR44 military. No one talked to him the way Noah did.
“You’re out of line, Noah,” he whispered, standing.
“No, I’m not. And if what I said didn’t hold a ring of truth to you, it wouldn’t upset you. That little girl has you by the short and curlies and you don’t even know it yet.”
Justice lost his cool and lunged at Noah, taking him down to the ground. He landed a fist in Noah’s gut, but received one in return to his jaw.
Noah grabbed him around the neck and squeezed, forcing Justice off of him. Faster than he could track, Noah now straddled him. As Noah pulled back his arm to hit Justice again, their gazes locked. Justice could see the anger in Noah’s dark look, and his own rage swelled within him. He’d kept his emotions so tightly wrapped for so long, they all seemed to be surfacing in this instant. Fury he’d been sent on a bogus mission and hadn’t been home to help fight off the Miladrids; that he’d basically been living off those crappy MREs for two years while the Saviors lived in comfortable opulence. His temper exploded at the fact that he’d had his life on hold since landing on this rock, and that he no longer had any men to lead. Noah and the Saviors had been the cause of it all, if not directly, then indirectly.
Mostly, Noah’s words rang true, and he hated that Noah may be right and he may be blinded by Holly and it would get all of them killed, or taken by the government. Yes, he cared for her. He was attracted to her, and it pissed him off it was so damn obvious.
He prepared to take the punch, but then Blake appeared above Noah’s shoulder. As he grabbed Noah’s arm, he pulled him off Justice.
As he sat up, Kade entered the room and stood in between Noah and him. “Everyone stay exactly where they are,” he murmured. “If either one of you tries to get at the other, I will personally knock you the fuck out.”
Justice got to his feet, feeling the pain for the first time in his jaw as his adrenaline ebbed.
Noah shook off Blake.
“What the hell was all that about?” Blake asked.
His breath sawed in and out of his burning lungs as he eyed Noah, waiting for him to give an explanation.
“Justice has stepped in a pile of shit, and he really needs to clean off his shoes before he gets any dirtier and tracks it into my house.”
He shook his head and sat down at the table. Maybe Noah was right. Maybe helping Holly would prove to be a huge mistake, and he’d find himself locked up in some bunker under Army control. However, he didn’t have it in him to walk away from her. He cared about her, and he wanted to help.
“Let’s just sit down and discuss this, okay?” Blake said. “No need to beat each other over it.”
Noah sat down, as did Blake and Kade.
“So, let’s hear it,” Blake said.
Chapter 25
Blake could barely hear the thud over Killian. Sometimes, he swore the kid had some type of personality disorder. One minute, he screamed bloody murder over something completely stupid; the next, he screeched and laughed as if the previous moment had been completely forgotten. Today, he’d been very angry they’d run out of his favorite cereal and had thrown a temper tantrum. After Hudson had calmed him down and given him a cookie, which had made Beverly angry, the kid had taken off down the hallway again, yelling and laughing.
As Bev and Hudson argued, Hudson had gone to chase after Killian again. Faith and Liberty chatted away as he waited for another pot of coffee to brew and tried to ignore it all.
Then, he thought he’d heard a thump. Then another one, and he’d decided to check it out.
Man, he’d been happy he did. With both Noah and Justice standing close to six-foot-five and weighing in around two-sixty, it could have been a brutal battle. Thankfully, Kade had come to investigate the noise as well. At least, between the two of them, they could keep Justice and Noah separated until things cooled down.
“So, what’s this shit you’ve gotten yourself into?” Blake asked.
“Remember the girl in the bunker? Holly? Who showed up and Justice and I needed to go up and make sure she didn’t go down below?”
Blake nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, Justice went there last night for a little quiet time. Guess who was there?”
“Holly?”
“Very good, Blake,” Noah said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “And she was also covered in blood. Says her brother was murdered and she was framed for it.”
Uh-oh. He didn’t like where this seemed to be leading. “And?”
“And Justice decided to pull on his Superman tights and save the day. He wants to help her. He wants us to help him help her.”
He sighed. Justice proved to be a moralistic do-gooder, and Blake didn’t see anything wrong with that. However, involving the rest of them didn’t seem like a good idea. They had mates and babies to worry about now—it wasn’t just a bunch of guys with nothing better to do.
If Holly found out that a bunch of aliens and a guy on the FBI’s most wanted list was helping her, there’d most likely be big bucks in it for her to turn them in. He had no intention of spending the rest of his life behind bars in some jail cell that no one knew about. He’d been there when they’d broken out Micah and Annis, and he wanted no part of the stuff that went down in secret government hideaways.
“Justice, that’s a little dangerous for us,” he ventured.
Justice ran his hand over his head. “It’s not. She thinks I’m her superior. There’s nothing indicating anything else.”
“And how’s that going to work out when you finally realize you have feelings for her and you need to walk away from her?” Noah asked.
Oh, man. He didn’t see that one coming. Justice and Holly? Or, just Justice crushing on Holly?
A long stretch of silence filled the room, and Justice sat up straight in his chair. “Look. I feel that I know Holly as we’ve been watching her and listening to her at the bunker for so long. Yes, I do like her. However, once I help her, I won’t have any trouble leaving her.”
Blake snorted. Yeah, he’d seen this one play out before, and it never turned out that way, despite the best of intentions. “That probably won’t happen.”
Justice stood and began pacing the room. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?” he yelled. “I have someone who needs help! She’s been framed for a murder and will spend the rest of her life in jail unless we help her find the real killer!”
“There are a lot of people who need help, Justice,” Blake tried to reason. “But we can’t help everyone. We have to protect ourselves.”
Justice slammed his hand against the back of his chair, his breathing heavy. “What if I told you that I think a Colonist offspring was involved? Does that make any difference? That he slit her brother’s throat open?”
Blake’s heart pounded in his chest as his excitement grew. Justice had a lead on a Colonist offspring?
“Tell us more about it,” Noah said, his voice wary.
As Justice relayed Holly’s tale, Blake’s senses came alive. They were on to something—he could feel it as the words sank into his bones. This could be it; their big break. If they could get this guy, they might be able to find the Colonist, Daniel.
“He kept talking about his ‘master,’ which sounds like something a Colonist would demand to be addressed as. She says the guy lives in her apartment building. We can just go over there and look for him,” Justice continued.
Blake shook his head as he stood and walked over to the bank of computers against the wall.
“Waste of time.” His knee bobbed as he fired up the computer. “What’s her address?”
Justice gave it to him.
It definitely wouldn’t win any prizes in any magazine for the best part of town to live in, but it wasn’t terrible.
His fingers flew over the keyboard as he tapped into the United States Post Office website. Honestly, he would have thought that the fucking government would have better protection on its websites, but no. The Post Office had been an easy hack, and Talin had even been able to get into the FBI. No wonder the Russians could get into just about everything.
After waiting a moment, a list of all the people occupying the building—forty-two in all—appeared, but he guessed there would probably be more as some people just kept a post office box at their local branch. Of course, there could be some who didn’t have their mail forwarded if they’d moved.
To double check, he found the company that managed the building and unearthed their list of tenants as well. At a quick glance, most names matched. He also grabbed a screen shot of the layout of the building.
He put everything up on the big white screen and dimmed the lights in the room for better viewing.
“There’s Holly and her brother in apartment 2K,” he murmured as he stood and pointed at the building layout. “You said Holly thought the guy lived close enough to hear the argument, right?”
“Yes,” Justice answered, sitting back down.
“Okay, so I’ve lived in places similar to this. Sometimes, you can hear your neighbors through the air vents, so let’s run a check on not only the people living directly next to her, but also the ones above and below her.”
He bent over the computer and quickly drew a red square around the apartments that interested him, a total of nine, with his mouse. Holly's stood in the middle.
Pulling out a pad of paper, he tossed it over to Noah. “Make some notes.”
As he glanced at the screen, his body hummed. Yes, they had definitely latched onto something here. He could sense it, like a hunting dog catching a sense of its prey. You’re going down, fucker.
As he rattled off the apartments and their corresponding inhabitants, Noah wrote it all down.
Turning to Kade and Justice, he grinned. “Now the fun begins.”
“What’s that?” Kade asked.
“We have a program where we can trace the heritage of humans. Talin built it, and it works. So, for instance, I’m going to run these nine names. It will track their family lineage. If it comes to abrupt end on a known Colonist, then we know we’ve got an offspring. Then, we simply need to figure out if the good genes outweighed the bad ones.”
“Fascinating,” Justice said.
“Yeah, well, it’s going to take a while—probably a few hours, maybe even a day or so.”
“In the meantime, we should probably find a place for you to stay, Justice,” Noah said.
“And Holly. She’s in danger, Noah. I can’t just leave her out there to fend for herself.”
The room grew quiet again, and he agreed with Justice. Although Holly could be considered the enemy to the Saviors and him, sometimes, it seemed best to keep them close.
“You can’t stay here,” Noah said. “Not with her.”
Yeah, they were pretty maxed out. They should probably hang a No Vacancy sign.
“What about the safe house?” Blake asked. “They’d be somewhat close, closer than the bunker, and it’s secure.”
‘That’s a good idea, Blake. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you aren’t as smart as me.”
Noah rolled his eyes.
“Or as handsome. Definitely not as handsome.”
Noah glared at him.
“Or as well-hung as me.”
“Don’t make me whip it out to prove you wrong, half-breed.”
Noah and Blake burst out laughing, and Justice and Kade looked on with confusion.
“It’s called a joke, boys,” he said after a moment. “Damn, you guys need to lighten up.”
“We’re just not used to a subordinate speaking to his superior that way,” Kade said.
Blake shook his head. “Man, Noah may be in charge, but in the end, we’re a team. All of us. You guys need to get that through your heads.”
Blake glanced at the computer and saw the program had begun to work, but it would be quite a long time before he saw any results.
“Justice, I could take you over and introduce you to your new digs,” he said.
“What about the program?”
“It’ll be a while. I can show you the house, then you can actually take a phone this time. I’ll show you how to work it when we get there. You’ve got navigation, email, texting … all sorts of cool shit.”
Justice nodded. “Sounds good, Blake. Thank you. And thank you, Noah, for helping Holly.”
Noah nodded absently, staring at the white screen that still held all the information Blake had pulled up. “It’s just going to be you and Holly in that house, Justice. Make sure your crew knows that they aren’t invited.”
“I will.”
“Holly’s also pretty close in size to Faith or Liberty. See if you can get some clothes from them for her.”
Blake made his way to the door and turned around to see Justice gazing at Noah.
“I’m sorry for the fight,” he said, his voice quiet.
Noah turned to him and smiled. “No sweat. I’ve had worse. Sometimes, as males, that’s what we need to do.”
Justice nodded.
“But you need to get your head on straight, my friend,” Noah continued. “You need to figure out your place on this rock and what your future looks like, but it can’t include Holly.”
Justice glared at him for a moment, the anger evident on his features. Then he glanced at Blake. “I’ll pack clothes for Holly and me, then let’s go.”
Blake nodded and headed out of the War Room.
Chapter 26
It felt odd riding with Blake. He glanced over at the male and found it hard to believe he held the same genes as the man who’d killed Holly’s brother so brutally. Yet, Blake did seem like good people.
Jovan followed behind them so that he could drive Blake back to the silo and leave the Escalade with Justice.
“So, what do you think the deal is with Titus?” Blake asked as they cruised down the highway.
Damn. He’d been so wrapped up in his own shit, he hadn’t even checked on the male. After the incident in the War Room, he’d gone and packed some clothes, then taken out his contacts, rinsed them, then put them back in. If worn too long, they burned as if his eyes had caught on fire. Yet, he wouldn’t take the chance of Holly seeing his eyes glow. Then, he’d left.
He felt awful for not even speaking to Titus.
“He’s still just lying there like a sack of crap,” Blake said. “At some point, he’s got to get up and start earning his keep.”
He rubbed his face, tired of the drama that seemed to be constant with the Saviors. Or maybe it wasn’t drama, but just life on Earth? Or perhaps he had become so accustomed to military life, he didn’t even recognize a ‘real’ existence any longer.
“But something tells me there’s more to his story than he’s letting on,” Blake continued. “What do you know about it?”
He didn’t feel comfortable discussing Titus, especially when he didn’t have any hard facts to back up his theory. However, he couldn
’t leave Blake hanging.
“I have a guess, but that’s all it is. I don’t have anything to prove it.”
“What’s that?”
He exhaled heavily. “I feel like Titus is a male without his mate.”
Blake nodded. “I can see that. But, who was it?”
Here’s where things got dicey for him. He didn’t want to be the birthplace of gossip. “I don’t know.”
“Well, you have to have some idea.”
“No, I don’t.”
They rode in silence for a long time, then Blake spoke. “I’ve talked to Nico. He doesn’t know of a time where Titus was with a woman.”
Justice shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“I think you do.”
Sighing, he decided to change the subject. “So I understand you’re to be mated soon?”
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”
“A typical SR44ian mating, I assume?”
“Yes. Nice dodge and deflect, by the way.”
Justice chuckled and returned to the original conversation. “I don’t know for sure, and I don’t like to speculate on things.”
“Not a gossip-monger, huh?”
“I guess not. I prefer to deal in facts.”
Blake grinned. “But gossip can be a lot more fun.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sure it can, but for right now, I won’t indulge.”
“How about if you call it an educated guess instead of gossip?”
“Shut up, Blake.”
They merged onto another highway.
“You know, Justice, telling us what you think may be the problem can actually help us help Titus. Right now, we’re going on theories as he’s not talking to anyone.”
He sighed. He wanted to help Titus, but at the moment, Holly needed him more. Titus was most likely in mourning, but Holly’s life sat on the precipice of disaster. However, maybe the Saviors would find a little sympathy for the male and try to assist him to get back to wanting to live this life.
“I think his mate was Simon,” he said, his voice quiet.
Blake remained quiet for a moment, then let out a slow whistle. “Wow. I didn’t see that one coming.”