by KD Jones
“Her name is Lucinda Stamos. Her uncle is Senator Jon Stamos of the Eastern Quarter of the Omega Region. She went missing a little over two months ago,” Marks informed her.
“What does her disappearance have to do with the GCFA?” Rachel asked as she studied the image of the young woman.
“She was celebrating her college graduation with friends. They went to one of the GCFA matches and according to her friends, she started an affair with one of the fighters. She followed him on their circuit tour, but somewhere along the way, she just disappeared. Her friends and family haven’t heard anything from her and the GCFA released a statement saying she left the spaceport hotel on her own.”
Rachel looked again at the image of Rage. Was he involved somehow? Could he be the boyfriend? A part of her hoped that he wasn’t as she asked the question, “Who was the fighter she was involved with?”
“Talon, according to the friends’ reports, but this is bigger than just her. She’s the eighth human woman to go missing in the last six months. They were women of different ethnicities, from all over the eight regions. The one common thread linking them is that they were all last seen at a GCFA match before they were reported missing. I’ve downloaded a report on each woman for you,” Marks stated.
She quickly scrolled through the summaries of each case. Each woman had last been seen in one of the regions on the GCFA circuit. The circuit covered eight regions—Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omega, Delta, Kappa, Theta, and Zeta. Each region was also separated in four quarters—Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern, with each quarter containing a million galaxies. That was a lot of ground to cover, and it was only a small piece of the enormous universe.
The young women had gone missing from almost every region on the GCFA circuit. The first girl, Lauren Crabtree, was reported missing from the Alpha Region. Then two girls, Sandra Tate and Melissa Dearling, went missing from the Delta Region. Barbie Vent went missing from the Beta Region. Two more, Robin Teros and Vanna Jones, were from the Theta Region. Candy Simmons had gone missing from the Gamma Region. The final girl, Lindy Stamos, went missing from the Zeta Region.
As Marks was explaining the disappearances of the other women, Rachel looked at their images on her PED, one right after another. They were all young and beautiful. “Did you question the fighter, Talon?”
“We tried, but the GCFA lawyers have been giving us grief about harassing their fighters. It’s been hard to get answers from him or anyone associated with the GCFA. The statement their publicity team released stated that each of the women in question left of their own accord.”
“So you want me to question them?” asked Rachel as she continued to stare at the girls pictures on the PED.
“Not directly. We want you to go undercover as a new female fighter for the GCFA,” Marks continued to explain. “They’ve been off the circuit for two months. They’re about to re-start their GCFA tour again in about six weeks. We want you to pose as a new fighter and go with them on their circuit to investigate from the inside. We believe they may talk to you as a fellow fighter. I have to warn you―if you accept this assignment, you’ll be going in solo.”
“Okay, I’m in,” she said without hesitation.
“Good. Once your training is complete, we’ll set you up with an identity,” Marks told her.
“Training? I’m already trained to fight in multiple disciplines,” Rachel responded.
The other man in the fancy suit had been silent until now. “Not for this type of fighting.”
“And you are?” Rachel asked as she raised her eyebrow up at him.
“I am called Lesak. I have trained many fighters for the GCFA. I am well known within the fighting circuit. I will be your in, but I must make sure you can fight well enough to be accepted at the tryouts. The fights won’t be fixed. They will be real.”
“I’m one of the best fighters in the agency. The best female fighter for sure,” she said with confidence.
“It won’t be good enough. You are pure human. You have only fought other pure humans. The GCFA fighters are mixed species, halfsies as they are called. They have to be, in order to sometimes fight full-blooded aliens as their opponents. A halfsies alien DNA ensures that they will have superior strength and speed.”
“I think I just got insulted.” Rachel looked ready to knock this guy on his ass.
EXCERPT: Desolation
“Mmm . . . oh God, yes.” Her head tilted back and she felt the ice cream and chocolate slide down her throat.
“I like the sounds you make,” Liam said. He was fighting every instinct he had to take her in his arms and claim her. The sounds she was making reminded him too much of the noises he imagined she would make during sex. Every moan seemed to stroke his shaft. He moved closer, taking the spoon so that he could feed her the cake and ice cream. “Do you like that, Maggie?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want more? You have to ask me.”
“Please, give me more Liam.” Her eyes seemed to glaze over.
“Take it from me, Maggie.” Liam put a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth and leaned over to kiss her.
The flavor combination of Maggie and sweet ice cream was his undoing, and hers.
“Liam, I want more.”
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