by Zara Zenia
Shit! Don’t panic. If I hadn’t been so busy scouring the internet to solve the puzzle of Nora Morse, I might have remembered that Lortnam was always early and never sent anyone to collect me.
His long, thick index finger hovered over the buzzer. A heartwarming smile came to his lips as our eyes met.
Without warning, Lortnam swept me into his arms and off my feet. His lips touched mine hungrily, his tongue gently brushing across the curve of my bottom lip. I barely managed to bite back a whimper of disappointment as he pulled away.
"My apologies, Kelly," he whispered breathlessly as his thumb caressed my cheek. "I couldn’t let official duties leave your lips before mine properly greeted them."
The grin that came to my lips was genuine. "No business before kissing hello. Seems like a good policy to me. Do you have many others?"
"About you, Kelly, never. About architecture and interior design… several." Lortnam ducked beneath the doorframe and stepped into my hallway.
From there, you could see every part of my apartment except for the bedroom and bathroom. Lortnam’s eyes combed over everything from the bare white walls to the grove on my couch before settling on the cartoon fly of Mr. Mustache on the refrigerator.
I knew my place wasn’t much, but for the first time, I saw it the way a rich person— like Lortnam and Nora— might.
A fine layer of dust covered the back of the television, the blinds, the bookshelf, and every other flat surface that didn’t get regular use. The couch had clearly been a vibrant shade of blue at some point in its life, but that had been years before I picked it up at a resale shop. Everything about the place said a poor Human woman lived here.
I cleared my throat, forcing the feelings of inadequacy away. Lortnam thought I was a reporter for an online news website named for a cracked out punctuation mark. He wasn’t expecting to pick Kelly Fillmore up anywhere fancy.
"Do you know how long I’ll have to interview Corbin?" I asked.
"No more than ten minutes. The staff insisted." The warm expression slowly melted from his face. "I cannot say I would be comfortable with longer, either."
Before I could respond, Mei spoke from the screen in the living room. "The man has a point, Kelly."
Lortnam’s brow furrowed. "I didn’t realize there was anyone else here. Your roommate?"
"Damn it, hold that thought." I went back into the living room, with Lortnam’s footsteps following behind. Thankfully, Mei knew my cover story by heart, since she had written it for me. "Prince Lortnam, this is my friend Mei Ishikawa."
She watched Lortnam for a second. I knew Mei well enough to know her mind was combining the dossier she had compiled on Lortnam with the impressions she got from seeing the man in the flesh. Data trails only told so much about a person.
Whatever Mei saw in Lortnam, it must have reassured her. The look of worry on her face shifted to a smile which revealed her oversized front teeth.
Mei bowed, saying a quick introduction in her native tongue before switching back to English. "Nice to meet you. Is it your Highness?"
Lortnam shook his head. "I insist my friends call me Lortnam, and I consider any friend of Kelly’s to be one of mine." He bowed his head and shoulders briefly.
"I’ll check in the second I get home," I said. "Until then go do something fun. Mata ne, Usagi."
"Take your own advice, Kelly," she said with a wink and a wave before ending the call.
I rolled my eyes. After hearing about our lakeside dinner, Mei assumed Lortnam and I had already had sex. I hadn’t the heart to tell her that— after we finally managed to wolf down some of the delicious stew— I spent the rest of the evening in his arms, but fully clothed against the cold.
Sometimes when he looked at me, I was sure he wanted more, but it was as if something held him back. There were definitely things holding me back, things like my real job and real last name.
Switching off the messenger app, I took a deep breath and gave my apartment a last glance. It wasn’t photoshoot-ready, but it looked better for the half hour of manic cleaning I’d done that morning.
Suddenly, I felt vulnerable, exposed. I stepped away from him and grabbed my coat from the prong on the wall.
"It doesn’t look like much compared to a palace, I know. But it’s home." I walked back to the door and into the hall, praying Lortnam would follow.
He did, but as the door closed behind him, he took my hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles.
"Has my presence made you uncomfortable?" he asked simply.
"This isn’t exactly a palace or a fancy hotel." My building didn’t even have an elevator. Thankfully, I was only on the third floor.
"I would have preferred to stay where we were rather than go where we mean to." His heavy footsteps trailed my down the stairs. He didn’t speak again until we were in his transport and in the air.
“What does Usagi mean?” he asked. “Why do you call your friend that?”
Mei flashed in my head. There were so many ways the next few hours could blow up in my face. So many reasons I could fail to keep my promise to call her back.
“It is my nickname for her,” I said. “It means rabbit.”
Lortnam squeezed my hand, a hint of a smile teasing his lips as if he couldn’t believe I would do something so whimsical.
"I know you cannot be talked out of this, so I will not try,” he whispered. “What I will ask is that you remember you will be in the room with a man who tried to kill not just me, but more than a dozen other Humans."
I forced a smile to my face and injected levity into my voice, hoping it would calm both of us.
"Talking to dangerous people goes with the territory," I said. "Believe it or not, I’ll probably be twice as comfortable in the room with him as I was on our first date."
"I remember every detail of our first date, and I certainly would believe it." Lortnam hooked an arm around my waist and slid our bodies closer together. "You were convinced I was a conquering Prince from another planet."
He leaned down, pressing his lips to my forehead. With the sudden movement, I was suddenly aware of Lortnam’s body in an entirely different way. A warmth radiated from his that soothed my anxiety as soon as it started to build, leaving me room to enjoy the gentle wave of pleasure that followed.
"I’m still not convinced you aren’t," I whispered into his chest. He sure won me over fast.
He leaned back, gently tipping my chin up so my eyes met his. The blue burned with a need I knew he wouldn’t try to fill.
"You’ve conquered me just as thoroughly, Kelly Fillmore," he said.
Tell him. Now!
I pushed the thought away, simply because I didn’t have the bandwidth to focus on it and everything else, too. The urge to melt into Lortnam’s arms almost overpowered me, but I knew if I gave in too much to the pleasure of his touch, I wouldn’t be ready for my showdown with Jake Corbin.
"It’s not too late to change your mind," he said, as if he could feel my growing nerves.
As the words left his mouth, the transport touched down in the parking lot of a squat, brick building.
I gazed up at him, quirking an eyebrow. "You were saying?"
He shrugged. "My point stands. Until we are inside and I’ve sent you into the room with that monster, it is not too late, Kelly."
"You aren’t sending me anywhere, Lortnam," I said, sliding away from him. I pressed the button on the side panel and the door slid open, filling the cabin with a blessed rush of mind clearing air.
On the other side of the transport’s tinted windows, the bricks of the holding facility were brighter, but still a cold shade of gray. There were no windows. A barbed wire fence and guard post stood between the street and us.
I felt Lortnam’s presence as he crossed to my side of the car and stood beside me.
"I want to do this," I insisted as much to myself as to him.
The kicker was I didn’t know why I felt so compelled to talk to Jake Corbin. I don’t know what
the hell made me think that I could get information the UEG and Lortnam himself couldn’t get, but once the idea popped into my head, I couldn’t shake it.
"And all I will ever want is for you to be safe and happy," Lortnam whispered. "I did not expect those two ideas to come so quickly into conflict."
I stifled a snort. "We only met because someone tried to kill you."
Lortnam tilted his head and flashed a hint of a smile. He took my hand and we started toward the holding facility. We were halfway there when a tall man with tanned skin and the largest handlebar mustache I’d ever seen walked out to meet us.
He dipped his head in a slight nod as he came into speaking distance. But the gesture was aimed at Lortnam, not me.
"Corbin is in an interview room, sir," he said. "But I have to say, I don’t know what you hope to accomplish here. There’s no reason to think the suspect will be any more forthcoming in a repeat interview."
"Maybe not with either of us, but perhaps with someone who he didn’t assume was against him?" Lortnam gestured to me. "The associate I mentioned in my note."
"Kelly Fillmore, Interrobang News," I said.
The man’s gray eyes slid to me. A smile faker than a designer knock-off sprang to his lips as he extended his hand toward me.
I couldn’t know for sure, but I had the distinct impression he was on to me. I took his hand and shook it.
My last chance to ditch the lie was gone the second I stepped out of the transport. I knew I still had to come clean to Lortnam, but standing in front of a Federal lock up wasn’t the best place to do it. Definitely not the safest place.
"Special Agent David Yadav," he said, before looking back to Lortnam. "You… didn’t mention you were bringing a reporter, sir. We don’t normally allow the media to talk with suspects in active investigations."
The sharp clip to the words ‘reporter’ and ‘media’ told me exactly what David Yadav thought of them. Lortnam must have caught it, too.
"I’m off the clock, Agent Yadav." I smiled. "And my boss doesn’t know I’m here. Just consider me a concerned citizen."
Yadav didn’t blink. "We don’t usually let them in either."
"Then consider her a close friend of the Trilyn Empire who has agreed to intercede on our behalf." Lortnam let a deep growl filter into his voice.
I had never heard it before, and the sound almost made me shiver. His stern expression dared Yadav to disagree with him.
From the way his lips skewed to the side, it definitely looked like Agent Yadav wanted to argue. But his shoulders relaxed and he sighed.
"I’ll have to do some talking to get her in without proper credentials," Yadav said, defeated.
"If your powers of persuasion do not suffice, then perhaps mine will," Lortnam said.
The agent turned and walked toward the entrance without another word. I looked up at Lortnam just in time to see his face relax.
"Thanks for that," I whispered as we followed. "Sticking up for me."
He muttered something guttural in a language I didn’t understand. "You wanted me to get you into a room with him. Just come back to me the way you enter it."
I swallowed hard, the implications of Lortnam’s words weighing on me as we walked through the door. Lortnam motioned for me to wait there while he joined Yadav at the front desk. I couldn’t hear them, but as the conversation dragged on, Lortnam’s expression shifted from determination to dismay to horror.
Finally, he turned and motioned for me to join them. The color had drained from his face, dulling his usually tanned complexion. When his eyes met mine, I knew something was wrong.
"I need to speak with my representative alone," he said. "Where can that be arranged?"
Agent Yadav motioned for us to follow him down the brightly lit corridor on our right. He led us to an empty room, flipped on the lights, and shut the door behind him firmly.
When he was gone, Lortnam released a breath and turned toward me. He took my hands in his, pressing them together gently and pressing a kiss to my fingertips. His lips trembled.
"What happened?" I whispered, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.
"Jake Corbin has agreed to speak with you, but only if you are the only two in the room," Lortnam breathed.
"You and Yadav both said the last meeting went poorly," I said. "He probably doesn’t want to see either of you again and sees this as a chance to exert some control over things. It doesn't mean anything."
"The hell it doesn't," he said firmly. "It means I'm sending the woman I love into the room alone with a terrorist."
I blinked, my mouth falling open in pure shock at how easily he said the words. Lortnam didn't notice. He had turned his attention to his inner coat pocket. He pulled out a silver tube slightly longer than my hand and thin enough to be concealed in a fist.
He tucked it into my palm and gently pressed my fingers closed around it.
"If he gets close, use this," he said. "It won't kill him, though for the crime of touching you, he would deserve no less."
Lortnam leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. By now, he'd pushed his fear back beneath the surface, but I could still feel the desperation behind his kiss. It terrified him to send me into that room without him, because if he weren't there, the miracle couldn't happen again. He couldn't thwart whatever Jake Corbin might have had planned, and that thought terrified him.
But not so much that he would ignore my decision. Not so much that he would renege on our agreement. I had demanded a chance to act on my stake in all this, and Lortnam was going to give me what I wanted. What we both agreed would be my future if everything worked out.
A chill rushed over me as I realized I didn't want to be separated from Lortnam either. I didn't want to go into that room and be hurt or killed by Jake Corbin. I didn't want to get on a plane to Japan. I didn't want to be anywhere Lortnam couldn't be and the man didn't even know my real name.
I wanted to tell him. Everything. My real name. What I did. That I loved him, too. But I couldn't say any of it yet. Not until the problem of Jake Corbin had been solved. Not until I had Nora Morse off my back.
"Are you ready?" he asked, pulling away to look down into my eyes.
Not trusting my voice, I nodded.
We went back into the hall, where Agent Yadav waited for us. He led us further down the hallway, to a set of doors with an armed guard on either side. As we walked, Yadav gave me instructions, but I didn't hear them. I was too focused on trying to center myself against the wave of emotions raging in my head. Then the door opened and I stepped across the threshold. When it closed again, I was on the other side. Alone.
Jake Corbin sat chained to a chair behind a table in the middle of the room. He slumped down with his shackled hands folded on the surface. The day glow orange jumpsuit that hung from his scrawny body and the angry purple bruises on his face were the only splashes of color in the room.
"You the hot shit reporter they were telling me about?" He looked me up and down, a sneer coming to his lips. "Don't look so hot to me."
I forced a smile to my face and shrugged, as if I hadn't a care in the world. Certainly not being in the room with a trained killer.
"I'm sorry I don't meet your standards, Mr. Corbin," I said, striding over to the table and taking the seat opposite Corbin. "But I'm usually not one to make a fuss. And you don't strike me like a man who cares for bullshit."
Corbin furrowed his brown in mingled surprise and amusement. "What the hell makes you think you know a damn thing about me?"
"I don't know the first thing about you, Mr. Corbin. That's why I came here, to learn. Don't you want to tell your side of the story?"
Corbin sniffed and snorted, launching a wad of spit at the floor. "My side. If the press gave a shit about the truth, the seven dip shits would never have been allowed to set up shop and steal our women. Now there's blood in the water you want to switch sides?"
Go slow, Kelly. Ease him into it. "How can I choose a side when I don't know what t
he other stands for?" I asked gently. "How can anyone, Mr. Corbin?"
Jake sniffed. "Lady if you can't see what's in front of your eyes and in the fuckin' sky, then you're dumber than dog shit."
Mei and I couldn't find or fill the conspicuous holes in Nora Morse's life, but Jake was a different story. His life was an open book— every sordid detail punctuated by an existence spent in the shadows. A man who'd lived a life like Jake Corbin's would see through any lie I told. Which meant everything out of my mouth had to be close enough to the truth for me to believe it.
"Well, I did end up spending my afternoon with an attempted terrorist. Most people wouldn't call that smart." I reached into my pocket and pulled out my digital recorder, setting it on the table. "But I don't think you agreed to come in here just for the chance to insult me."
Jake narrowed his steely gray eyes, tilting his head to the side. "You came with Prince Whatsitsname? The majestic asshole? Why does a slaver talk to a tall drink like you if she's not his spy?"
"If they were going to spy on you, it'd be faster to monitor your conversations with your lawyer. I don't suppose the Trilyn have a thing like attorney-client privilege. You do have an attorney, don't you, Mr. Corbin?"
That twist of logic seemed to give him pause. He looked down and to the side, as if considering whether I might be right.
"You think you're so smart, huh?" he snapped. "If you're so smart, how the fuck did you end up in here with me?"
Damn it. I'd hoped he wouldn't ask that question because it was impossible to give an answer. Nora insisted I stay on the case, but I couldn't admit to that with Lortnam, Agent Yadav, and who knew who else listening. I wanted to give Lortnam and myself peace of mind— or maybe permission —to continue as we had been, despite growing fears on Earth. But I couldn't admit to that without turning Jake Corbin against me. It had to be close to the truth, or Jake would see right through it.
So I started talking, hoping that the scramble of words would make the whole thing seem more honest.
"For the same reason I interviewed Prince Lortnam. There's the story, then there's the reality. The reality is, I live in the shadow of the Trilyn's fortress. I've been staring at it for years, wondering if any of this means anything, and I've finally decided I don't care. There's a ticket out of town and a futon across the ocean with my name on it. All I want to know before I go is the part I've been having trouble figuring out."