by KD Jones
Liam didn’t say a word to Dusty as he grabbed the man’s right hand. His attempts to pull away were useless.
“What are you going to do?”
Liam gave him an evil smile as he pulled the man’s pinky finger backward until they heard a snap.
“Fucker!” Dusty screamed out in pain.
“Where is my cousin?” Liam asked with an angry voice.
Dusty didn’t say anything, but tried harder than ever to get his hand away. Liam broke the next finger. After the man’s yells quieted, Liam asked him again. “Where is my cousin?”
Dusty still refused to answer, even when Liam had broken all five fingers on the man’s one hand. He then walked over and took the man’s other hand. He was about to break the pinky, but Dusty broke down into painful sobs.
“Stop. Please stop. I’ll tell you if you treat my wounds and give me pain meds. I know you have advanced stuff here. Just fix my hand and I’ll tell you everything.”
The commander stepped forward. “No, you will get no treatment until you have told us where my nephew is and we have him back safely. After that, I will grant treatment. The longer you take, the longer you suffer.”
“Okay, okay. I have some people holding him in an empty storage unit in Dome 23. They were going to meet me once I had the girl dead and ready to go. Let me go and I will call them to bring him to you.”
The Great Commander looked at Lieutenant Colonel James. “Do you know the leader for that dome?”
“I do. It’s General Pepper. I don’t think he had anything to do with this. Especially not my daughter’s kidnapping. I will contact him immediately.”
Liam held up his hand. “Just contact him and tell him there is a security matter and that I will be coming with a team to sort it out. Tell him the fewer people who know, the better. Once I arrive, I will let the general know in private why I am there and will have him help locate the storage area.”
The commander nodded his head. “Liam’s right. If the guys holding Quinn think we are after them, they may kill Quinn to try to get rid of the evidence.” He looked at Liam. “I need you to leave within the hour. Let’s not waste any time here.”
“What about the information on who the Drastan connection might be?” Liam asked.
“I think the lieutenant colonel and I can handle that from here. You go get your cousin.”
“Yes, sir.” Liam left in a hurry to get home and tell Maggie what was going on. He didn’t want her to worry too much about him.
Halfway to his suite, Liam caught sight of Kyle in a chair, heading down the corridor. “Kyle! What the hell are you doing?”
“I need to see Rachel.” Kyle didn’t stop. “I’m not letting anyone keep me from my woman.”
Liam sighed. “Fine, I’ll walk with you. I have to tell Maggie I’m leaving to search for Quinn.”
“What about Quinn?” Kyle asked.
“He was taken by the male, Dusty. They had planned to kill Rachel and then leave Quinn’s unconscious body next to her.”
Kyle stopped to stare up at Liam in horror. “What? Did you find out where Quinn is?”
“Not from the two prisoners we had brought on board. They were useless. But the man named Dusty — we believe he engineered all of this. We were able to get some information on Quinn’s location. I’m leaving in about an hour. I wanted to let Maggie know and to make sure security is in place here. We still don’t know if we have a traitor in our midst. Father and Lieutenant Colonel James are going to continue to interrogate the prisoner.”
They arrived at the suite and Liam nodded at the security guards stationed outside the room. “Has anyone tried to come by?”
“No, sir.”
“You two are our most trusted security guards. You will guard my wife and child with your lives.”
“Yes, sir.”
Liam let Kyle enter first. They found Maggie in the kitchen, trying to cook something. She turned and gave Liam a big smile as she waddled over to him.
“Where’s Rachel?” Kyle asked.
“She was tired, so I put her in your bedroom so she could get some rest. Are you supposed to be out of the medical facility already?”
“No, but I needed to see Rachel. Excuse me.” Kyle maneuvered the chair down the hallway.
Liam took Maggie in his arms. “I have to leave in fifty minutes to search for Quinn.”
“You’ll be careful?”
“Yes. I need you to stay here in the suite. I have hand-chosen the guards outside. They will protect you. Plus, I don’t think Kyle will be leaving for a while either. So you should be safe.”
“I wish we had more time.”
Liam walked her over to the couch and sat down, then placed her on his lap. He held her securely so that she wouldn’t fall. “I just need to hold you for a little bit. That will calm me and motivate me at the same time to come back as soon as possible.”
Maggie wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, Liam.”
“I love you too, my Maggie.”
Chapter 19
Kyle could hear his brother and Maggie talking quietly to one another. They had such a deep connection with one another. He wanted to have that with Rachel.
He opened the door to his bedroom and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. There she was. Rachel was lying right in the center of his bed right. She had half the covers over her and the other half uncovered. She was clutching his pillow to her face. Damn if she didn’t look perfect like that.
He entered the room and closed the door behind him quietly, so as not to disturb her. He came as close to the bed as the chair would allow. He lifted himself up and managed to take the two steps needed to the bed. He sat down on it and crawled up next to her. He pulled her into his arms. She squirmed until her head rested on his arm.
He inhaled her sweet fragrance and sighed with contentment. This was where he belonged, with Rachel in his arms. He lowered his hand and rubbed her flat stomach. His child grew there, in her womb. What a miracle to first have Rachel and then a child that they created. But how would she feel about that? He pushed his worry aside as he closed his eyes and rested.
*****
Rachel snuggled closer to the warm blanket that seemed to wrap itself around her. This was wonderful. But did Kyle have a heating blanket? It felt much warmer than when she had originally got in. Much warmer. Bordering on hot.
“Easy, honey, I’m still sore,” Kyle groaned.
Her eyes popped open. “Kyle? What the hell are you doing? You should be in the medical facility, recovering.”
Kyle released her and rolled to his back. “I am recovering, just here with you instead of the medical facility.”
She sat up and looked him over. “You’re really pale.”
“Why, thank you. And you are looking as lovely as ever,” he told her.
“Are you sure it’s okay for you to be here?”
“Absolutely. The best thing for me is to rest, and I can do that better with you safe in my arms.”
He pulled her down to him and held her close to his chest. He felt her tremble and heard her weeping. “Shh. What’s wrong, baby?”
“I thought I had lost you. I saw you get stabbed and it was like I was being stabbed in my heart. Maggie says that you had crashed twice and almost died. I hadn’t even had a chance to tell you...”
“Tell me what, sweetheart?” he asked softly.
“That I love you.”
He felt his heart swell in his chest. “Say it again.”
“I love you, Kyle. I am totally loony-tunes crazy in love with you.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know this loony-tunes, but I do know that my heart stops and beats with yours. You are my one and only and I will never let you go. I love you, Rachel James.”
He hugged her to him and kissed the top of her head. Their lips came together in a marriage of two bodies and souls at that one locked location. Everything they felt was in that kiss.
When they broke ap
art, they both sighed. She lightly tapped him on the chest. “Don’t ever scare me like that again. I thought I had lost you.”
“Hey, I’m stubborn, okay? I’m not going anywhere. Not when I have to still marry you so that we don’t have this baby out of wedlock.”
She froze next to him and it took a few seconds before she started breathing. “What baby?”
“Jared said that you are carrying my child.”
“How does he know this so soon?”
“Our technology is really advanced, I guess. Are you okay with that?” He suddenly worried that she might not be ready to have a child yet. They were barely a complete couple.
She leaned up on her elbow and reached to rub her stomach. “I would love nothing more than to have your baby. It’s just a shock and it’s really fast.”
“I know, but I wouldn’t change a thing. We’ll just have to get married earlier than I had anticipated.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You were planning our wedding? Since when?”
“Since the first day I saw you. I knew right then and there I wanted to make you mine forever.”
She teared up and reached over to kiss him several more times. “You are the most amazing man. Did I tell you that?”
“No, but you can tell as much as you like. A lifetime if you want. So where do you want to get married? Do you want a big wedding like Maggie’s?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t want it to be televised and so public. But I would like it to be at the dome I grew up in. I have so many friends that it would be too hard to bring them all up to the command ship. What about you? What kind of wedding do you want?”
“I don’t care as long as, at the end of the day, you are my wife. When do you want to tell your family about the baby?”
She bit her bottom lip. He noticed she did that when she was nervous or unsure. “Do we have to tell them?”
He laughed. “Honey, it will be kind of obvious when you start to get large like Maggie, then pop out a baby.”
She nodded her head. “I guess you’re right. But I want a little time before we tell them. I mean, telling Liam and my sister would be fine. Obviously, Jared knows. I think I just want everyone to get used to the idea of us together first before we say, ‘By the way, I’m preggers.’”
“Whatever you want is fine. But I would love to tell Liam. I am closest to him. I would also like to wait until Quinn is retrieved.”
She frowned at him. “What about Quinn?”
“The Drastan that Dusty had kidnapped ― it was Quinn.”
She paled. “Are you sure?”
“Liam is pretty sure. He will be leaving, or maybe he has already left, to go search for him.”
“Do they have an idea of where he might be?”
“At Dusty’s dome. At least he told Liam that. If he’s there, Liam will find him.”
“I pray to God that he will be found safe and sound.”
“Me too, babe, me too.” He wanted to keep their minds off of what was going on with Quinn. They needed a distraction, and he really wanted to make love to her in an actual bed. His bed.
He moved over top of her, kissing her sweet lips. He tried to keep most of his weight off of her so that he wouldn’t crush her. Kyle smiled when he saw that she was wearing one of his shirts. He could tell from their clothed bodies touching that she had nothing on underneath it. He started to lift her shirt over her head, but his body had a different idea.
“Ow! Damn it!”
“Kyle, you’re still hurt. You need to go back to medical.” Rachel tried to gently move him off of her but he refused to budge.
“No, I’m not leaving you.”
“I’ll go back with you to medical and stay there until Jared says you can leave,” she offered.
He shook his head. “I can recover just as quickly here as there. Besides, the view is much better.” He stared down at the buttons he had undone from the shirt she was wearing. He used her distraction to unbutton the shirt all the way to her navel. He spread the edges of the shirt apart and revealed her luscious breasts.
“Kyle.”
“See, I’m feeling better already.” He lowered his head and took a tip in his mouth and sucked hard.
“Oh God,” Rachel moaned.
His other hand was busy removing the final buttons and he teased her feminine folds. That’s when the door to his bedroom was kicked in and he turned to find Rachel’s very angry father standing in the doorway.
“Get your damn hands off of her!”
Rachel looked past Kyle’s shoulder and cringed. “Dad!”
*****
“Leave!” Kyle growled, refusing to move and expose her.
She was grateful that Kyle was blocking her and covering most of her body. This had to be the most embarrassing moment of her entire life. Worse than when she had tried out for junior cheerleading and couldn’t do a split. It couldn’t get any worse than this.
“What is going on? I could hear you yelling from down the hallway!” Maggie asked, storming up behind her father. Then her mother was there, along with Great Commander Estro and, lastly, Jared. They all seemed to pile into the bedroom.
Maggie giggled but her mother was nearly speechless. All she said was, “Oh my.”
Rachel ducked her head to hide. “Kill me now.”
“This is highly uncomfortable. And Kyle you need to be back in medical.” Jared said. His face was flushed red and his eyes were staring at the corner of the ceiling.
“Everyone needs to leave this room right now!” Kyle ordered, glaring at them all over his shoulder.
God bless her mother, who also was in agreement. “Yes, everyone leave right now.” She started shooing people out of the room, even the commander, who seemed to find the whole situation funny, but at least he didn’t openly laugh like her sister Maggie.
“I want to laugh so hard right now, but as it is I have to pee again. Rachel, I want details later!” she yelled as she waddled out, heading back to her bedroom.
Just her dad, her mom, she and Kyle remained in the room. Her mom was currently in a staring match with her father. She hated that they were arguing over her. “Please don’t fight. Leave and let us get dressed and then you can come back in and talk.”
Her father crossed his arms stubbornly. “I will wait for you outside to get dressed and then we are leaving. We are all going back to the dome immediately.” He stormed out of the room.
Her mother sighed, followed behind him and closed the door. Rachel looked up at Kyle’s angry face. “I know my father is stubborn and opinionated, but try not to argue with him. It won’t do any good anyway.”
“I’m not letting him take you away from me.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t leave you. I learned a long time ago that arguing with him does nothing but waste time and energy. I let him say what he wants to say and I say what I want to say, but in the end, I will do what is right for me, regardless. Like Maggie. She simply refused to leave Liam.”
He bent down and kissed her and lingered in the moment. She felt the heat rising inside her for him again. “Oh no, we don’t have time for that right now. Let’s get dressed and get things settled.”
“If we have to.”
Rachel insisted that Kyle use the wheelchair despite his arguments. Everyone was waiting for them in the living room. She sat next to Maggie, who patted her on the back to show her support.
“You are leaving with your mother and I for the dome,” her father stated stubbornly.
“No,” Rachel responded calmly.
Her father wasn’t expecting her calm attitude. “What do you mean ‘no’? You will do as I say, young lady.”
“No. I am no longer a little girl to be ordered around. I am a grown woman who makes her own decisions. I am staying here with Kyle, whom I will be marrying as soon as Quinn is found.”
Maggie patted her knee and nodded her agreement with Rachel’s decision. It was good that someone backed her up in addition to K
yle.
Her father glared at Kyle. But Rachel wasn’t about to let either of them say things they would regret later. “This is my decision. Respect it, or I’ll have to limit my contact with you.”
“I agree with you, honey. Of course you’ll stay with Kyle. It’s obvious that you love him,” her mother said, smiling warmly at her.
“Does no one see that associating with these Drastans has put us in danger?” her father asked.
The commander stepped forward, glaring at the lieutenant colonel. “Maggie was attacked by humans and was saved by Drastans. Rachel was also kidnapped and almost killed by humans. Humans injured my son. It seems to me that it’s the other way around. We Drastans are in constant danger from associating with you humans. Perhaps we should pull out and leave you to your own devices. It worked so well the first time when you tried to kill each other with your nuclear weapons.”
“Umm…” Rachel didn’t know what to do. This was not how she thought the conversation would go.
“We all need to calm down. Let’s not make rash decisions. Most of us humans are grateful for the Drastans’ assistance. Don’t let a handful of idiots ruin our work together.” Her mother tried to step in and mediate.
Her father looked unsure of what to do. She needed to settle this one matter once and for all.
“I’m pregnant.”
The reaction was not what she had expected. Her mother gasped and turned white. Maggie began hugging her. Kyle rubbed his hair in irritation.
“What the hell?” her father and the commander bellowed in unison.
“You two are too young to have children yet.” Her father was speaking, but the commander was nodding in agreement.
Maggie interrupted them. “Young or not, there is a baby on the way. Another family member for us all to love and care for; and another mixed species that will be targeted by these assholes. Let’s focus our attention on getting these people who would want to harm an innocent life just to prove a point.”
For once, everyone in the room was in agreement, proving to Rachel that miracles could, in fact, happen.