Conan: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides #8 (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Tasha Black

  “You had another rough night,” Veronica said, confirming Brooke’s suspicion.

  Brooke nodded. She didn’t want to talk about it.

  “I’m glad we’ve got a day off,” Veronica said.

  They worked in friendly silence and within a few minutes, the air was rich with the scents of coffee and cinnamon pancakes.

  Quick footsteps on the stairs alerted them to Trinity’s presence.

  “Oh man, are you cooking?” Trinity asked, flying around the corner and skidding on her socks.

  “She lives,” Veronica teased.

  “Hey, it’s not that late,” Trinity retorted.

  “Kidding, darling,” Veronica said. “You want coffee?”

  “Yes, please,” Trinity said cheerfully, all apparently forgiven with the offer of caffeine.

  Veronica poured out three steaming mugs as Brooke flipped pancakes onto plates.

  A few minutes later they were all seated at the table. It was a cheap Formica thing, but Trinity had found a beautiful tablecloth on one of her Goodwill trips and it transformed the little corner of the kitchen into what looked like the setting for a child’s tea party.

  The three women had spent many rainy afternoons drinking coffee and sitting around the table beside the window.

  “Oh-my-gosh-eees-are-gweat,” Trinity enthused through a big bite of pancakes. “What’s in it? Honey?”

  “Cinnamon,” Brooke told her. “And a banana.”

  “Nice,” Veronica said. “Trying to sneak her nutrients in, eh?”

  “Ha, ha,” Trinity said mirthlessly. “I like fruit.”

  Trinity wasn’t the healthiest eater among them, though she was the most slender, to Veronica’s endless dismay.

  Brooke personally thought Veronica’s curves were fantastic. She herself had always been the athletic type, bigger than the average woman and grateful for her strength. Although with Conan around she was beginning to feel practically dainty. Frankly, even Captain Henderson was dainty compared to Conan and his brothers.

  She remembered that she had sent him away from her last night and the heavy weight that had lifted when Veronica arrived sank back onto her chest.

  “Are you okay?” Trinity asked.

  Brooke nodded.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Brooke gazed into her roommate’s compassionate brown eyes and surprised herself.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I do want to talk about it.”

  There was an audible clink as Veronica put her coffee cup down, presumably in surprise.

  Trinity waited, the expression on her soft brown face telling Brooke that she would wait there patiently for as long as it took.

  “I’m not doing the tournament,” Brooke said, starting with the easy part.

  “Okay,” Trinity said. “I know you were reluctant at first.”

  “Is it your shoulder?” Veronica asked.

  “No,” Brooke shook her head. “Well, yes and no. It’s complicated. But the long and short of it is that I’m not doing it and we’ll have to look for another apartment. I’m sorry, guys. It was always a long shot that I would win anyway, it’s probably smarter to figure out an exit strategy sooner rather than later.”

  “That’s fine,” Trinity said with a little smile. “I’ve been keeping up with rentals anyway. I’ve got a list of decent ones in our price range.”

  “Nice,” Veronica said.

  “Nothing with a basement, Brooke,” Trinity added. “But a year’s lease will give us a year to find another perfect place.”

  “That’s fine,” Brooke said, tamping down her pain. “Thank you for doing that. Maybe we can go see some of them this afternoon if the rain lets up.”

  “That will be fun,” Veronica said encouragingly.

  Brooke wanted to cry. Though she had the most to lose because of her gym, Veronica already had to be up at five to get to the dogs. If she added a commute between her bed and the kennels, her lifestyle was about to get much, much more unpleasant.

  But Veronica only smiled and squeezed Brooke’s hand.

  “He makes you happy, doesn’t he?” Brooke asked, referring to Veronica’s boyfriend Lobo.

  “Yeah,” Veronica said. “He really does.”

  “That’s so cool,” Trinity said softly.

  “How are things going with Conan?” Veronica asked.

  Brooke winced at the hope in her friend’s voice.

  “That’s the other thing,” she said, looking down at her coffee. “I let him know that it’s not going to happen with us.”

  “How did he take it?” Trinity asked.

  “He was an angel, of course,” Brooke said, her voice breaking on the last word.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Veronica asked.

  “You’re not letting your feelings about Conan get mixed up with how you feel about the big fight, are you?” Trinity asked.

  “I- I don’t know,” Brooke replied. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Since both of them seem to be important to you, maybe it’s worth thinking about,” Trinity said. “You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

  “Heavy,” Veronica said admiringly. “Which one is supposed to be the bath water?”

  Brooke laughed and suddenly everything seemed brighter.

  “Honestly, if she keeps making pancakes like this she can throw all the rest of it out,” Trinity remarked, and took another big bite.

  19

  Brooke

  Brooke pushed the door open, her hands shaking.

  She’d spent the last few days going through the motions at work all day, and seeing apartments with Trinity and Veronica in the evenings.

  The apartments were all terrible, and it was torture knowing that her favorite students were with Conan, training for the fight she wasn’t participating in. If it weren’t for the steadfast support of her friends, she would be a basket case.

  They had both been great about giving her some time to figure things out, but she had still been replaying Trinity’s words over and over in her head.

  You’re not letting your feelings about Conan get mixed up with how you feel about the big fight, are you?

  And the more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that Trinity had been absolutely correct.

  She’d been so afraid to let Conan get close, that she’d ended up pushing away almost everyone. Her students and friends deserved better than that. And she knew just what she needed to do about it.

  She probably owed them all a big, sappy apology. But the time for talking was done.

  Today was the weigh-in for the fight.

  And she was going to be there.

  She’d made a career, two careers really, out of convincing other people to go for what they wanted, to never give up.

  Now she was going to take her own advice.

  Invigorated by this epiphany, she’d showered and thrown her gear in a bag, taking off before she could change her mind.

  But now that she was here…

  The reality of her reflection staring back at her from the glass door, the feel of the metal pull in her hand, it all felt so immediate.

  “You okay?” a voice said from behind her.

  Another woman with a gym bag was waiting patiently out on the hot sidewalk.

  “Yeah, sorry,” Brooke replied, and went on in.

  The ceiling of the lobby soared over her head. The floors were marble. Several guards and assistants scurried around behind a huge walnut desk area.

  She tried not to let herself get psyched out by the setting and focused on finding her friends.

  She didn’t have to go far. The team was gathered in a small group at one end of the lobby. Hal caught sight of her first.

  “Sarge,” he yelled, his deep voice booming off the marble floors.

  A security guard looked up disapprovingly from her post at the main desk, but didn’t reprimand him.

  Brooke rushed over and gave him a hug
.

  “You came,” Keisha squeaked.

  “Yeah,” Brooke said. “I woke up and realized something.”

  “What was that?” Hal asked.

  “Not showing up is the only way to guarantee I won’t win,” she said.

  “That checks out,” Hal said, nodding and winking.

  “Where’s Conan?” she asked.

  “Oh my gosh,” Keisha gasped. “We need to catch him.”

  She dashed off to a corner of the lobby without explaining herself and Brooke followed more slowly.

  Conan was leaning over a folding table where a woman sat, shaking her head and pointing at something.

  “I don’t care if her birthday is tomorrow,” the woman said loudly. “If she’s not eighteen she can’t compete in an adult division.”

  Conan turned, looking woebegone.

  “Conan,” Keisha squealed.

  “I’m sorry,” he told her. “You can’t compete in her place, you’re too—”

  “—No,” Keisha said. “I don’t want to! Brooke is here.”

  He looked up and spotted Brooke.

  She died a little at the spark of hope in his puppy dog eyes.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hi,” he replied.

  “I’m sorry I bailed on you guys,” she said.

  He gazed down at her with the smoldering expression that made her want to peel her clothes off.

  You’re just here to fight - you’re not here to mate, she tried to remind herself. But her pounding heart wasn’t listening.

  “No biggie,” Keisha said, oblivious to their chemistry. “We’re glad you’re here now. Come on, let’s go get changed. It’s almost time.”

  Brooke allowed herself to be dragged across the lobby to a staircase, Keisha chattering the whole time about the weigh-in, the first match, and her relief when Brooke had arrived.

  The next thing Brooke knew, she was changed and back upstairs in a huge auditorium, waiting in line for the weigh-in with Keisha right behind her.

  Thankfully, Brooke had always fought at her natural weight, so she wasn’t too worried about making the cutoff. A few pieces of pizza over the last week was hardly enough for that. Once she was approved, she went over to stand against the wall and eye up the competition.

  “Oh my gosh,” Keisha whispered reverently, elbowing Brooke and gesturing at the woman who was up next to be weighed.

  It was Jade St. Vincent.

  Jade wore simple warm-up clothes over her fight gear, and her hair was up in a sloppy ponytail. She jogged in place, stretching out her arms. She would have looked like any other competitor if not for the muscular legs that had obviously come from a lifetime dedicated to full-time sports and the trademark liveliness in her green eyes.

  “Wow,” Keisha sighed.

  Brooke looked away before the other woman could catch her staring.

  A monitor with a clipboard came around handing out match information. There were four women that Brooke had identified as being in her weight class.

  She and Jade were the first two, of course. She knew the two others a bit from other local tournaments. Ellen Gray was a stunning beauty who looked more like a model than a fighter. She was fine in the ring, but not great. The other, Noreen Brighton, was a workhorse and plenty tough.

  Brooke’s only wish was that her first match would not be with Jade.

  “Name?” the woman with the clipboard asked.

  “Brooke Singleton,” Brooke replied.

  The woman consulted her clipboard. “Your match is with Noreen Brighton, good luck.”

  Brooke nodded and accepted her fate. Not the best opening match, but not the worst.

  Keisha gave her a friendly shove, as if to congratulate her. Then she began chatting with the clipboard lady about her own match.

  Brooke scanned the small crowd that had already formed in the stands. Her eyes immediately went to Conan, as if by magnetic force.

  And based on what she saw, she wasn’t the only one who found him magnetic.

  Conan was surrounded by a swarm of women, all of whom seemed to be smiling too hard and fluffing their already fluffy hair.

  Please let them just be flirting because he’s hot. And not because they’ve figured out that he’s an alien.

  She kept an eye on the scene for another minute, but when no one pulled out a phone for a selfie, she was greatly relieved.

  Jealousy peeked its head into her brain and was just looking for a good place to settle in, when Conan looked down at her and smiled at her, oblivious to the attentions of the gaggle of other women.

  Brooke grinned back, and jealousy backed out the way it had come in. He really, really liked her. She had nothing to worry about.

  Satisfied, she focused on warming up. She worked her shoulder carefully, but there was no trace of pain.

  The next thing she knew she was being called up.

  She trotted up to the ring and climbed in as Noreen did the same on the other side.

  They got in the center, the ref gave the usual rules and they touched gloves. The tunnel vision kicked in, as it always did for Brooke when she was competing, and the sounds and sight of the crowd faded away until only her opponent was left.

  The two women circled each other, each looking for an opening. Brooke knew that even a single mistake at this level could cost her the match, so she didn’t want to rush in.

  Noreen moved first, with an attack that Brooke defended easily, building her confidence. After a few more exchanges, Brooke was starting to loosen up. She parried and dodged Noreen’s attacks like they were coming at her in slow motion, seeing each strike before it became a danger.

  Until she didn’t.

  The blow caught her completely off guard, rattling her and giving her opponent the perfect opening to move in for the kill.

  I’m not even going to make it out of the first round.

  She turned her head to roll with a punch as the other woman, sensing her chance, quickly closed the distance.

  Brooke was stunned. Time seemed to freeze. She spotted Conan in the crowd, hands cupped around his mouth as he shouted some encouragement she couldn’t hear. Her best friends stood beside him, along with his brothers.

  They must have come in as the fight was starting. She knew they didn’t like this type of thing. And she could hardly blame them. She wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to sit by and watch one of them get the stuffing knocked out of them.

  But they’d shown up. For her.

  She wasn’t about to let them see her give up.

  Not today.

  She might lose. But she wasn’t going to make it easy.

  She slipped her arm under an incoming punch and dropped her body to the mat, praying her shoulder would stand up to the strain.

  By some miracle, it held.

  And Noreen’s momentum carried her off her feet. She sailed over Brooke and hit the mat, hard.

  Brooke kept control of the woman’s arm, and during the scramble on the ground, managed to secure a dominant position on her opponent’s back.

  She was still fuzzy from the shots she’d taken, but her training kicked in, and her limbs seemed to move on their own. Her legs locked in a triangle around Noreen’s waist while her arms snaked in for the choke.

  Before she even realized what was happening, the other woman was slapping her hand on the mat in surrender.

  She leaped to her feet to the cheers of the crowd, none louder than the screams coming from her friends. The ref lifted Brooke’s hand as she grinned tears sliding down her cheeks. She had done it.

  Unless Ellen Gray fought the match of her lifetime five minutes from now, Brooke would be facing off with Jade St. Vincent tomorrow.

  Noreen strode over and offered up her glove.

  Brooke tapped it, and pulled her opponent in for a quick hug.

  Then she climbed out of the ring and headed up to where Conan and her friends were waiting.

  “That was epic,” Trinity cried.

  “Tr
uly, you are a most fierce warrior,” Hawkeye commended her.

  “Oh, er, thanks,” Brooke said, blushing.

  “Nice one,” Veronica murmured, pulling her into a big hug. Over Veronica’s shoulder, Lobo smiled and patted Brooke’s arm.

  “Wow,” Conan said as Brooke finally passed her friends and got next to him.

  She squeezed his hand.

  Before she could say anything at all, there was a murmur in the crowd.

  She sat and looked down to see Jade in the ring already.

  A group of local reporters had arrived and were filming her.

  Beside the reporters, Keisha held her iPhone aloft, making her own video.

  Ellen Gray joined Jade in the ring, tossing her auburn braid over her shoulder and staring Jade down, her sapphire eyes meeting Jade’s emerald ones.

  Brooke could see right away why the powers that be had set the matches up this way. Gray might not be the best local fighter but she would look fabulous on TV.

  The ref spoke with them. They nodded, touched gloves and the fight was on.

  If you could consider seventeen seconds a fight, that was.

  Ellen Gray didn’t waste any time. She charged in at Jade as the sound of the opening bell still hung in the air. Ellen was bigger, and caught Jade unprepared. They tumbled to the ground with Ellen on top.

  She placed a hand on Jade’s chest to steady herself, and pulled the other one back to deliver a fight-ending blow.

  Brooke saw the mistake. She knew what would happen next as surely as if she’d been watching a video of the fight after the fact. But even still, her eyes barely tracked Jade’s movement.

  The smaller fighter pivoted her hips as she locked on the arm Ellen had foolishly used to brace herself. As she turned, Jade threw a leg over Ellen’s head and straightened her body.

  The other woman let out a muffled cry as Jade forced her onto her back, hyperextending her arm along the way.

  Brooke heard the joint pop from where she stood.

  Jade didn’t even wait for the bell. She just rolled away, leaving her opponent incapacitated in the middle of the ring.

  The referee signaled for the bell as the crowd went wild. Jade leapt onto the ropes, shaking her fists in the air.