by Dena Christy
They got in the vehicle, and Synn instructed it to go back to Evie’s compound. Cynric kept a careful watch through the rear window, but there was no one following them. He breathed an easy sigh once they got into the city proper and the car easily blended in with all the other vehicles on the road.
“Finally something is going our way. I told you it was a good idea.” Ryce turned to him, with a big grin on his face. Cynric nodded in acknowledgement. “We will be back on Latroth before we know it.”
Ryce turned back around, and as soon as his friend wasn’t looking at him, a frown pulled at the corners of Cynric’s mouth. They still weren’t off this planet, and until he was safely back home, he would not celebrate. Both Synn and Ryce had cause to be happy since they would go home with mates. Cynric would go home alone, and before coming on this mission he’d been happy with his solitary life. A mate and a child hadn’t seemed to be in the cards for him.
An image of Evie came into his mind, and he pushed it away. He was attracted to her, there was no denying it. But she wasn't for him. She had built a life for herself here and had helped them all at great risk.
The car pulled into the parking lot of Evie’s compound and they got out. They’d made it back safely, they had the tracking device, and that was something to celebrate. There was still the huge task of getting off the planet, but today had been a victory for them, however small.
They walked into the compound and went down the stairs. As they stepped into the hall, Cynric looked up as Evie came running down the corridor. His heart pounded, and his body went on high alert. Had something happened while they were gone?
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He strode forward and put his hands on her upper arms. His eyes swept the hall but he couldn’t see the threat.
Synn and Ryce were right beside him and he could see that they were as alert as he was.
“Nothing’s wrong, the opposite in fact. Come into the communication room. We think Rebecca found your ship.”
Cynric let go of Evie as Synn let out a whoop and raced down the hall to the communication room. Was it possible? Had Rebecca really found the ship?
With his heart pounding, scarcely daring to believe that they could be this lucky, Cynric followed the others into the communication room. He looked at the large screen at the back of the room. There, on a huge map, was a large red dot that pulsed like a heartbeat.
“It’s her.” Synn clutched Miranda to him, and Cynric heard the relief in his voice. Synn’s attachment to the ship was well known to them, Hylda was like his baby. Cynric had no choice but to force him off the ship when it became obvious that they would have to abandon her. At least now there was a possibility that they would get her back.
“Is she here?” Cynric looked at Rebecca, and she shook her head.
“No, she’s not in Leemore Station. It will take a while for me to figure out where this is, but if you leave it with me, I’ll have an answer for you by tomorrow at the latest.”
Cynric stared at the red dot that offered hope for them. There were still a lot of unknowns. They didn't know if Hylda was flyable, and if she was, there was still the problem of getting to her and getting her off the planet. But finally things were going right for them.
A hand slipped in his and gave it a squeeze. He looked over at Evie, who stood close beside him. He tightened his fingers around her hand and enjoyed the victory.
Commander Clancy slammed his phone down and growled in frustration. The aliens had thwarted them again. A perfect trap had been set when he’d sent three of his best men out to guard the third pod. After weeks of patience, when it looked like it was a futile effort, the aliens had finally shown themselves at the pod’s location. Unfortunately the aliens had overpowered his men, and now the chance to capture them had been lost.
He drummed his fingers on the top of his desk. What to do now? They had no leads, and Sinclair had yet to deliver the video footage from the lab fire.
There was a knock on his closed office door, and he blew out a slow breath. This had better be good news.
“Enter.” His voice came out in a harsh bark, and the door eased open. Sinclair stepped over the threshold, and Roland glared at him. He needed someone to bare the brunt of his frustrations, and Sinclair was the perfect target. If he didn’t have what Roland wanted, he was going to feel the wrath he couldn’t spend upon the aliens. “You better have that footage for me.”
“I have it right here.” Sinclair stepped forward and placed a small plastic rectangle on Roland’s desk.
“Have you looked at it?” Had Sinclair at least saved him some time by looking through the footage first?
“No sir. I thought perhaps you would like to do that. Should I have looked at it?” Sinclair’s Adam’s apple bobbed and Roland made a sound of disgust. What was the military coming to? If this timid bedwetter was the best of the best, it was no wonder that the aliens were continually eluding them. Back when he’d been a young soldier, he and his comrades would never have failed like his men had failed him today.
“Just get out of my office.” Roland swiped the drive up off his desk and inserted it in the slot in his computer. The door closed behind Sinclair as he touched his screen to bring up the footage.
The date stamp told him that at least they’d given him the footage from the day the fire had happened. He supposed it would have been too much to ask for Sinclair to review it so he wouldn't have to wade through footage of an empty parking lot. That would have required thinking and Sinclair had proven that he hadn’t had an original thought in his head.
He had two views of the lab, one of the front and one of the parking lot in the back. He fast forwarded until he saw a car pull up in front of the building. He slowed the video down and watched at Dawson dragged Collette Beauleau out of his car.
Seeing the Colonel again only enraged him. The alien they’d had in custody would not now be lost to them if Dawson hadn’t so wrapped up in bettering himself and keeping his dick wet. It was just as well that he was dead, otherwise Roland would have had to kill him, and he wasn’t in the mood to rig an accident. Dawson wasn’t an old man like the unfortunate Reginald Carstairs, who’d passed away in his sleep only a few days ago. A fit young man like Dawson was much harder to kill and have it look like an accident. At least the aliens had done him one favor.
With Dawson and the chippy in the lab, Roland focused his attention on the parking lot at the back of the building. It remained empty for several minutes and he was about to lose his patience when a car pulled up behind the building.
“Interesting.” The car belonged to Dr. Avery. He’d wondered where it had gone, since it hadn’t been at the lab when he’d gone to take care of the drunken scientist. So the aliens had stolen it and were using it to transport themselves. This might work to his advantage. There was a possibility that he could trace the car. He couldn’t see the driver, since they weren’t getting out, but it had to be the aliens. Who else could it be? Apart from Dr. Avery’s assistant and the chippy, the aliens were friendless. Logically, only the two women would be helping them, and the chippy was in the laboratory with Dawson. He didn’t think that Avery’s assistant was going to go charging in to rescue the chippy, so it had to be the aliens.
It stumped him, how the aliens could keep themselves hidden so well when they had no resources. He had a hunch that someone with connections was helping them, but was at a loss over who it could be. The door of the car opened, and a woman stepped out. She was facing away, and Roland couldn’t see her face. This woman was a brunette, so it couldn’t be Avery’s assistant, since she was a redhead.
“Turn around for fuck’s sake.” As if she’d heard his order, the woman turned around and faced him. Roland paused the footage and used his fingers to manipulate the screen so he could get a closer look at her face. Ice spread from the center of his body outward when he got a good look at her.
Evangeline. If he was not in the habit of trusting what he could see, hear and touch, he would s
wear that this was some colossal joke. Evangeline Valencia, the woman he’d coveted, the woman who the government said was his, the woman he intended to make his wife. She was also the woman he thought was dead. Not only was she alive and well, she was helping enemies of this planet, and the ones responsible for the increased destruction of his career.
He played the footage and his anger built in the pit of his stomach. She was there. She was helping the aliens. How else would she possess Dr. Avery’s car, how else would she know that Colonel Dawson was holding Reginald Carstairs' chippy hostage?
With a sound of disgust he shut off the footage and turned away. He was still no closer to learning where the aliens were hiding, but Evangeline was a big clue he couldn’t ignore. If he found her, he would find the aliens, he was sure of it.
He scrolled through his contacts and came to the number to the one person who could tell him exactly where Evangeline was. He pulled in a deep breath and waited until the hard hot ball in his stomach was replaced by the cold calculation he was used to operating with. He pushed the call button on his communication screen and waited like a shark circling a body in the water. His contact’s face came on the screen with a surprised look on their face.
“We aren’t scheduled to have a conference for a few days yet. I don’t have all the figures prepared to show you how well the growth of our market is going.”
“You lied to me.” Roland stared at the screen, a curl pulling back his upper lip. If Serena wasn’t making him a lot of money, he would be tempted to eliminate her for having the nerve to hide something so monumental from him. He had been deprived of what he wanted, which was Evangeline, and now he was going to find out why.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” There was a nervous edge to the indignation in her tone, and he wondered if perhaps he was being lied to about other things.
“Evangeline Valencia is not dead.” The silence stretched out between them as Roland lobbed that verbal bomb into their conversation. He could see the blood draining from Serena's face, and he was certain that this was the last thing she expected him to have learned. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Evangeline is dead, and no wishing on your part will bring her back.” Serena ran her tongue nervously over her lips and shook her silver hair back from her face. There was possibility that she’d been under the mistaken impression that Evangeline was dead, but he didn't think so. The look on her face made a lie out of it. He suspected that not only did she know that Evangeline was alive, Serena also knew where she was.
“I finished watching video footage that was taken very recently that says she is not dead. Where is she?” Roland had little patience at the best of times, and it was wearing thin with her denials. “You can deny that she’s alive all you want. If you do, I will make it my mission to ruin you and the little operation you’ve got going. Tell me where she is.”
“You seem to forget that by exposing me, you will also expose yourself. I’ve made you a lot of money over the years. I have clients who would hate to see my business fold.”
“I’m certain they would be disappointed if your clients could no longer avail themselves of the services you provide, but there is one thing you forget. You can be replaced. Your only connection to protection and safety is me. You have no friends, you have no influence, and if you think for one second that the clients you serve will come forward to protect you, you are very wrong. The clients you serve would have to have their dirty little secrets exposed, and they will do whatever it takes to bury the truth, to bury you. As for exposing myself, I’m a member of the military elite, I have friends in high places, and I know things about people that they would like me to forget. I’ll weather any storm your exposure would stir up. So tell me where I can find Evangeline.”
A mutinous expression crossed her face. His gaze remained steady as if he was daring her to call his bluff. He hadn’t made it as far as he had without having nerves of steel and the ability to find weakness and vulnerability and exploit it. He’d collected more secrets than he had enemies, and no matter what he was forced to do, he would come out on top. Serena’s shoulders sagged, and he could read defeat in every line of her body.
“I’ll send a message with the address with the same encryption I use for the financial reports. I don’t understand what you could want with Evangeline. You’ve moved on, haven’t you? You have a beautiful young wife who caters to your every whim, don’t you?” The bitterness in her voice at the mention of his wife made him roll his eyes. She never could let things go. She was the one who hadn't moved on.
He’d moved on, he had a beautiful young wife the government had chosen for him. But that didn’t excuse this. He’d been tricked, denied what he wanted through deceit. He’d wanted Evangeline Valencia, and he hadn’t gotten her. And now she was involved in the most crucial event in his career. He would not let this go, he was not going to just forget about it. He was going to find Evangeline, and he was going to capture the fugitive aliens at the same time.
“It is not your concern what I want with Evangeline. You give me the information I need, otherwise I will destroy you. Be grateful that I’m more interested in finding Evangeline than I am in crushing you.”
“I’ll send you the information.”
Roland ended the call. There would be a new name added to his list of enemies that he was going to destroy. Evangeline had to pay not only for thwarting his plan to make her his wife and enjoying her father’s money and influence. She’d betrayed her country, her planet, hell she’d betrayed the human race by siding with his enemies. It was time she paid for it all.
Chapter Five
Evie sat in her office staring at her computer without seeing what was in front of her. She could now call Serena and tell her to process the women who needed to come here. She could take them. Her friends were leaving within the next day. It hadn’t taken Rebecca long to discover Hylda’s location, and now there was no reason for Cynric and the others to be here.
She shut off her computer. She wouldn’t call Serena just yet. There might be a complication, an impediment of some sort that prevented them from going on schedule.
Who was she trying to fool? There would be nothing to stop them from leaving. Things would go to the way they were, with her and Rebecca helping untold amounts of women to start new lives.
Her life would go back to normal, and that was exactly the way she wanted it. She hadn’t wanted to take the aliens in, because of the disruption it would cause in her smooth operation, and her predictable life. It was because she wanted to help her friend Miranda that all this started. Miranda would now move on, into a new life with Synn, and she was glad. She would miss both Collette and Miranda, but she was glad to get her life back.
She pushed away from her desk with a sound of frustration. Why was she dwelling on this? They were leaving and she would move on with her life without them. It was what she wanted. She did good work; she helped a lot of women and it was what she wanted to do with her life. Her friends would take a different path, a path filled with love and children, but that wasn’t what she was meant to do with her life. She’d tried to have that once and failed.
Evie turned toward the door and let out a startled gasp. Cynric stood in the doorway, watching her. How long had he been there? She was usually aware of him the instant he walked in a room, but with so much on her mind she must not have noticed him.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” He looked from her to the sleeping computer and raised his eyebrow.
“No it’s fine. Come in.” Evie pushed a smile on her face as her eyes memorized him. She wouldn’t be seeing him for much longer.
Cynric stepped into her office and closed the door behind him. Evie’s heart picked up its pace. She hadn’t been alone with him behind a closed door before now.
“I wanted to talk to you about the plan we’ve come up with regarding Hylda. You’ll be happy to know that we will be out of your hair tomorr
ow. Now that Rebecca has located the ship, there is no need for us to stay and disrupt your business any longer. There is one thing I need to ask of you.”
What could he want to ask her? The possibilities raced through Evie’s mind with the speed of lightning. Did he want her to go with them? She had a life built here. Could she really throw it all away and go with him?
“What is it?” She tried to read what it was in his face, but it told her nothing. She stood still in anticipation as she waited to hear what he said.
“We’ll need to get there, so I’m hoping that you could give up Dr. Avery’s vehicle? I know it’s asking a lot, since you’ve done so much for us already. If I had a way to compensate you for all you’ve done I would.”
That was what he wanted? They needed to get to Hylda, and they needed a car. So now she didn’t need to decide to leave this place, and she was glad. She was happy with her life the way it was.
“You can take the car. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself. Is there anything else you need?” She turned away and moved toward her desk. She couldn’t look at him right now. His asking for the car made it all real for her. He would leave, her friends would leave, and apart from Rebecca, she would be alone.
“Thank you. Are you sure you don’t need it?” His deep voice rumbled behind her, and she closed her eyes for a second. She could admit it now that he would leave soon that she loved the sound of his voice. It was so deep, and it triggered a deeply buried feminine instinct inside her.
“No I don’t need it. You’re more than welcome to it.” She waved her hand as she kept her back to him. What was wrong with her? She should be happy about this. She would finally get her life back and do what she devoted her life to. It wasn’t like there was anything between them. He was a stranger that she’d helped rescue, and she shouldn’t feel any different about him than she did about the other strangers she rescued. The pit in her stomach would go away once she buried herself in her work again. It had been work that had saved her when Adam had died, and it would do the same this time.
