10 Things Aliens Hate About You (Alienn, Arkansas Book 4)

by Fiona Roarke

  Fatigue sent her back to sit on the foot of the bed where she’d started. Maybe she’d take a nap while she waited to figure out what to do next. It seemed like she should do something, but the need for more sleep blocked almost everything else out.

  Valene gave in to the seeming need for more rest, scooting back to put her head on the pillow. Her eyes closed, but the nagging wish to remember where she was kept her from falling into slumber.

  Why was she here? Where had she been before the Cosmos Café? At the truck stop? Yes. She’d been upstairs about to talk to Daphne Charlene. Oh! That woman.

  But Diesel showed up unexpectedly and sent her to Cam’s office. Wyatt had been there, but Cam entered soon after and shot him with a Defender. He’d crumpled at her feet.

  Her troubling memories seeped in one by one, each seemingly more disturbing than the last. The insinuation that Wyatt and Daphne Charlene had been intimate in Wyatt’s kitchen while Valene was asleep in his bedroom thumped the loudest in her mind. The further implication that Wyatt had tattled to the odious woman about aliens living in plain sight at the truck stop made Valene’s thoughts come to a full stop. He wouldn’t do that.

  Valene knew Wyatt. She’d followed him for nearly two years before making accidental contact. Not every day, though. She wasn’t a psycho, but she’d kept tabs on him and his life. He was a good guy liked by most everyone. He put a monthly rundown of what was going on in Skeeter Bite on the official Skeeter Bite Sheriff’s Office website and also covered what was to come in the next month. Each and every month she looked forward to the rundowns. She found his monthly “Activities in Skeeter Bite” entries charming. She also found Wyatt very charming.

  For all intents and purposes, Wyatt Campbell was a stand-up sheriff, an honorable man, a crack shot with a rifle and he was the sweetest boyfriend she’d ever had. True, he was the only boyfriend she’d ever had, but why look elsewhere once you’ve found perfection?

  Valene must have drifted off and slept for quite a while because when she woke up, it was dark and shadowy in the room. The little sunlight from the windows had faded dramatically to a few orange lines along one wall.

  A loud hollow bang, like the sound of a dead bolt being thrown, echoed through the room, shaking Valene awake. She sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the bed. She felt light-headed, sure that if she stood up, she’d end up on the floor. She straightened her back and remained seated.

  The blond man from the car came into the room. He closed the door behind him, grabbed the chair from a desk across the room, placed it in front of her and seated himself next to the bed.

  “Good evening, sleepyhead,” he said with a soothing smile.

  “Where are we?” Valene asked, feeling a rise of panic. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be with any man but Wyatt, especially in a bedroom.

  This was wrong. This was all wrong. Her lips pressed flat as she considered how she could get past him and out the now unbolted bedroom door.

  The man, obviously seeing her trepidation, leaned forward and pegged her with his intense stare as if beseeching her to remain calm. His gaze was intensely focused on her eyes, but he didn’t speak. He simply smiled.

  Valene’s alarm melted like ice cubes plunged into boiling water. No worries here.

  Her posture relaxed and the fuzzy fog came back, filling her with a lack of urgency. Why had she been so worked up? She couldn’t remember. It must not matter.

  Valene smiled. “What are we going to do now? Take another car ride?”

  “Yes. And we’ll have to leave very soon,” he said quietly.

  Valene didn’t even know where she was right now and, truthfully, she didn’t care. One place was as good as another. “Where are we going for our car ride?”

  “To the lovers’ lane by the bauxite mine. We’ll meet some friends there.”

  Valene nodded. She knew where that was. She’d been there with Wyatt once a while back when her brother Axel’s wedding was being planned.

  The abrupt and distinct memory of passionately kissing Wyatt in his patrol car at that very location slid clearly past whatever fog filled her brain. The fog began to dissipate slowly and other memories began to appear.

  After only a few seconds, she remembered exactly who this man was.

  Indigo Smith. Space potatoes. Why am I in this strange bedroom with him?

  Her brothers had thought the escaped convict might already be in another country by now.

  Valene wanted to run like a maddened sand-claw beast was seconds from clutching her in its steely sharp-nailed grasp, but she forced herself to be calm. She mentally took a deep breath, put a serene smile in place and nodded. “Good. I’d like to meet some friends.”

  The blond man stopped staring at her and the last of the mental fog dissipated like sunlight burning directly through the morning mist, giving her a clear mind once more.

  Indigo Smith had some sort of mental power and the unique ability to wield it over Alphas. Valene had never heard of any alien able to do that. Miss Penny could change her form, but didn’t have any mental abilities that Valene knew of.

  His unique skill at putting suggestible fog into people’s minds to make them trust him had likely been very handy for a criminal. It also must be why he’d been able to escape from every place he’d ever been locked up. Indigo looked away and reached into his pocket, retrieving a cell phone.

  Valene searched the room for a fixed focal point to keep her wits about her. She found and stared at the bathroom doorknob, keeping her features serene. It was difficult, but she didn’t want the fog machine to start up again. Thinking about Wyatt kept her mind clear. The recent memories of Daphne Charlene and her lies reared up to make Valene mad at herself. Of course Wyatt would never tell anyone about aliens living in plain sight. Of course he would never slink off and spend time with Daphne Charlene in his kitchen while Valene slept in his bed. How could she have ever been so foolish?

  Because it was easier to let him go with fake and foolish anger, even though deep down inside she didn’t believe it. That’s what she’d been pondering as she sucked down the better part of three large sweet tea drinks before Indigo Smith showed up to put a mental fog spell into her mind.

  “First, though, we need to make a phone call,” he told her.

  “Okay.”

  Indigo Smith dialed the number and pushed the button for the speakerphone feature as Valene watched him, wondering why she’d ever fallen for this man. She forced herself not to think about it, and instead considered bashing this wily criminal over the head with the nearby lamp and running for her life.

  She didn’t know where she was. It was better to go along until she had some sort of plan.

  The other party picked up and Valene heard a sleepy Daphne Charlene answer, “Hello?”

  “Hello,” Indigo said in a slightly different voice than he’d used with Valene. “It’s Rowan. It’s time to meet like we talked about. I’d like to pick up that special item we discussed as well as the package I left on your desk. Is my ID ready?”

  “Rowan who?” Valene’s archnemesis asked. Subtly, Valene tried to search her surroundings. If she saw a way to get away safely, she’d take it.

  “I don’t know anybody named Rowan,” Daphne Charlene said.

  Indigo frowned. His voice changed to a melodic tone. Valene closed her eyes and listened to the soothing cadence of his voice. It was mesmerizing. “Daphne, it’s me, Rowan. Don’t you remember who I am? We spent some lovely time together. You helped me change my looks. I pretended to be someone you cared about and you did me a favor. Do you remember?”

  Valene’s mind filled with mist as he spoke, but this time she was aware of what was happening. This time she didn’t lose her recent realization. The fog didn’t take any of her precious memories of Wyatt.

  There was a silence for several seconds before Daphne Charlene said, “Nope.” There was a loud click as she disconnected the call.

  Indigo said a vile Alpha curse a
nd shoved his cell phone back into his pocket. He stood and paced. Valene sat quietly staring at the bathroom doorknob.

  Keep it together. Don’t let him know you aren’t under his spell. Valene forced herself to relax and keep a smile in place. “Is it time to go meet those friends?”

  He stopped pacing. “Yes. But we need to make a stop first.”

  Valene stood up, her stupid goofy smile held firm. Keep it together. I can do this.

  Indigo stared then gave her a new sort of smile.

  The same kind of smile that Wyatt had given her many times before. A smile of love. Oh no.

  Indigo Smith stepped closer, leaning in as if he planned to kiss her. Not happening, dude.

  The moment his lips brushed her cheek, she flinched. Space potatoes.

  Indigo frowned and drew away. In his mesmerizing gaze, she saw that he knew.

  Cue the fog machine.

  Chapter Fourteen

  <^> <^> <^>

  Wyatt thought hard about recent events all the way to the Big Bang Truck Stop basement. Something didn’t add up. Well, lots of things didn’t add up, starting with aliens living in plain sight in Arkansas for the past umpteen years without him noticing, but something else had been nagging at him.

  Nova’s bombshell announcement regarding wanting proof of Indigo Smith still being in his cryo-pod had spooked the others.

  Diesel barked orders like a field marshal, sending Cam to Gage’s lab for an update. He then sent Axel, Bubba and Luther off to the gulag ship for additional information and an expressed wish they return soon with answers. No one even knew what answers to look for, but everyone did what their Fearless Leader ordered them to do.

  “Wyatt,” Diesel said, obviously about to send him on a task.

  “Wait. Before you send me off, hear me out. Something has been bothering me.”

  “Only one thing?” Diesel said sarcastically.

  Wyatt couldn’t help the grin. “Yes. I’m wondering about the timeline.”

  “Timeline?”

  “You sent Valene home. If she got there or not, there was a note pasted there, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Indigo Smith left the note that he wanted something we had to make a trade for Valene.”

  “Yes. So?”

  “So we only just now got the ID and altered Defender. He already had Valene by then. The question is, what didn’t he have that we are supposed to bring for the trade?”

  “That’s a good question.” Diesel’s eyes narrowed. “You’re right. I’ve been so freaked out about Smith being loose, and kidnapping my sister that I’m losing my ability to think clearly.”

  “Maybe I just have a unique perspective.”

  “Maybe you do.”

  “What could he want, keeping in mind he likely planned to stop off at Daphne Charlene’s to pick those things up before meeting us on the lovers’ lane?”

  “I wish I knew.”

  Diesel’s phone buzzed. “Bubba? What’s up?” He pushed the speaker button so Wyatt could hear, too.

  “Gage found something interesting in the computer files from the gulag ship and sent us a message to check it out.”

  “Okay.”

  “We found something truly, well, unexpected on the prisoner ship. I think you need to get over here to see it with your own eyes. In fact, we found more than one thing.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I don’t think you’ll believe what I’m about to tell you unless you see if for yourself.”

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “You know the five prisoners that didn’t make it out of their pods during the solar flare incident.”

  “Sure. Those were five we didn’t have to go out and find wandering on Earth. I was grateful.”

  “Well, it turns out that they are not prisoners.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Each of the five pods had a special computer simulation card embedded in the controls so it looked like a prisoner was in there. Not anymore. Gage was able to disrupt the sim card to reveal what is really in the cryo-pods.”

  “What in the space potato farm is in there if not prisoners?”

  “Ingots.”

  Diesel frowned like he didn’t understand the word. “Say that again.” The only ingots Wyatt knew about were gold ingots.

  “Alpha-Prime grade A gold ingots, ten pounds each, stamped with the symbol from the main branch of the largest depository in Alpha-Prime’s premium sphere. Each of the five cryo-pods is filled to the top with carefully stacked ingots.”

  “Gold ingots?” Wyatt asked. “You all have gold on your planet, too? Is it a treasure like here on Earth?”

  “Yes, sort of a treasure. But it’s used very differently on Alpha-Prime.”

  “What do you use gold for?”

  “Alternate fuel source.”

  <^> <^> <^>

  Valene was caught. Indigo overpowered her, pushed her to the bed, smashed her face into the soft surface and had her in Alpha handcuffs bound behind her back before she even realized he’d moved.

  So frustrating.

  “I don’t understand why you are immune to my charms, Valene. Even the weak humans here on this lovely planet bend to my will as easily as the Alphas back home.”

  She didn’t know, either, but wondered how she could ever have fallen for him in the first place. Wyatt was her love. Her only love.

  Indigo Smith, devious and infamous Alpha criminal, didn’t hold a candle to the honorable, sweet human sheriff Wyatt Campbell, who had captured her heart long ago. How was she ever swayed by this dastardly gulag-bound alien?

  “Maybe you aren’t as charming as you think you are,” she said, adopting a new attitude. He pulled her off the bed, but she struggled, doing her best to gain her freedom.

  “Stop it!” Indigo yanked her up, grabbed both arms and squeezed. “Don’t fight me or you’ll be riding in the trunk of the car.”

  “I don’t know why you think I should help you. You’re a gulag-bound criminal illegally loose on planet Earth. They aren’t going to let you free.”

  “I have you to help me with that.”

  “I’m not helping you.”

  “Oh, but they will. You’re the only sister in your family and the youngest.” He grinned with certainty that he was accurate. Valene didn’t know how he knew so much about her, but suspected Daphne Charlene had something to do with it. Or perhaps he’d been given the information on Alpha-Prime before leaving. His ability to fog the minds of Alphas had likely given him all sorts of advantages over the years.

  Valene dropped her head. He also had a point. Her brothers might do any number of things to ensure she was returned to them safely. “You’ll be free as soon as your brother brings me what I want.”

  “Even so, Royal Magistrate Guardsmen will spend the rest of eternity hunting you down until you’re caught.”

  He grinned. “Let them try. This planet is a wonder. Around every corner is a new hiding place and with my singular skills I’m not worried at all. I knew if I could get to Earth, I’d find a way to be free forever. This planet is spectacularly more perfect than I envisioned.”

  Indigo opened the door. Valene yanked free of his hold and ran down a hallway toward the sound of a television. Maybe someone was here who could help her.

  “Help!” Valene heard Indigo gaining on her as she took a sharp right-hand turn into a large area like a living room. Two people, an older man and woman, sat on a sofa watching a large flat-screen television.

  “Help!” Neither of them even looked in Valene’s direction. The television show looked like a war movie and the sound was turned up rather loud.

  “Help me!” she screamed again, making it into their field of view. They looked stoned. Wait. Were they even alive? She screamed again at the thought that he’d killed these poor old folks.

  “Stop screaming.” Indigo put a hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear, “Settle down.”

  “Did you kill them? A
re they dead?”

  “No. They are simply under my spell. For some reason you became immune after the first time I used my unique power on you. I still don’t know why.”

  Valene straightened. She frowned and turned to him. “I don’t know what you have planned, but I will fight you every step of the way. You kidnapped me. Why would I help you?”

  “Because if you don’t, these folks are expendable.”

  “No.”

  “You’re lucky I’m out of shackle stickers, Valene, or else I’d slap one on you again and make my permanent escape so much easier.” Ah-ha! She’d been shackled to bend her to his whims. That made sense. At least she hadn’t fallen for his charms. Had she?

  “Permanent escape? How do you expect to do that?”

  “No comment. Just because you are a part of my genius plan doesn’t mean I will let you in on all the specifics.”

  “Genius plan?” Valene almost scoffed, but thought better of it. She was the one in handcuffs, not him. Maybe she should go along and try to thwart him later. That would be the smart plan.

  “That’s right. I’m so much smarter than everyone I meet. A burden I alone must bear, but I figure that living the rest of my life here on Earth will be much easier than on Alpha-Prime and certainly a large step up from the most notorious gulag in three galaxies.”

  “You’re really planning to stay on Earth?”

  He opened his mouth as if to tell her, then paused. “You don’t really want to know my plan, do you?”

  Valene frowned. “Maybe. Why?”

  “If you know my plan, then either you’ll have to come with me willingly or I’ll have to use my unique skill on you to make you forget.” He snapped his fingers. “Wait. You’re immune to my skill.”

  He stared at her. What might he do to keep her quiet? Maybe she didn’t want to find out.

  “Fine. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know anyway.” Valene planned to pretend indifference. She would look for an opportunity to ruin his carefully laid plans.

  “Are you going to cooperate?”