10 Things Aliens Hate About You (Alienn, Arkansas Book 4)

by Fiona Roarke

  Diesel nodded. “That’s a good way to think about things.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, signaling a text. He looked at the screen. A 9-1-1 message from Aunt Dixie. Heaven help him, even though she’d been on a trip for nearly two weeks, he still didn’t feel like dealing with any of her shenanigans.

  Wyatt laughed. “I just have to figure out a way to pay back all that money I owe.”

  Before Diesel or Cam could comment, Wyatt’s receptionist came to the open door and leaned her head in to let the sheriff know there was someone to see him.

  Cam stood up. “We’ll get out of your hair, Wyatt. Good to see you and hear that you’re on the mend.”

  Wyatt came around his desk and shook their hands again. “Thanks for stopping by. It was good to see you both.”

  Diesel looked out the window at his vehicle. “Could we slip out the back door? We’re parked right there.”

  “Sure. It’s around the corner and down the hallway.” Wyatt turned to his receptionist and asked, “Who is here to see me? I don’t have any appointments today, do I?”

  “No, sir, you don’t have any appointments today. This woman said she just wanted to stop in and say hi.” The receptionist looked at Diesel and Cam for a long spell and added, “She said her name is Valene Grey.”

  “Your sister is here?” Wyatt looked at them, eyes scrunching in confusion. “That’s strange. I wonder why.”

  Oh, I know exactly why. The phone in his pocket buzzed yet again. It was another text from Aunt Dixie, telling him she needed to see him pronto about some earth-shattering news. Which didn’t move him, as that was what she always said about everything they discussed. From a price increase on any product at the local grocery store to every single money-making plan she told him about for the old folks’ home, it was all an emergency.

  Space potatoes.

  Chapter Seventeen

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  Valene was not supposed to be here. She had sworn on her life she would stay away from Wyatt after his memory wipe. She was playing with fire. No, she was playing with a glob of lava.

  She paced in front of the reception desk, trying to decide whether to run out before he showed up or keep playing with the melted rock.

  Valene kept playing. She had to see Wyatt with her own eyes. She had to know he was okay. If he was as interested as he was last time they met for the first time and asked her out, she’d say no and invent a fake boyfriend.

  If any of her brothers found out about this little foray into Skeeter Bite to visit the sheriff, they’d probably blow a gasket. Even so, she needed to see him with her own eyes. Needed to assure herself he was okay. Needed to see him one last time. She pushed out a mental sigh. She was lying to herself.

  This was such a bad idea. Valene turned to leave. Her hand touched the doorknob the same instant Wyatt said, “Hello. Valene, is it?”

  She spun around and saw Wyatt, followed closely by a perturbed-looking Diesel and an equally unhappy Cam.

  Valene stuck out her hand as if introducing herself. Wyatt took it, but seemed puzzled. She looked deeply into his eyes, but his expression remained quizzical.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked politely. Oh my. You can do so much. Stop it. He gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “Your brothers were kind enough to stop by and check out my auspicious return to work after my accident. I’m sorry, but if we’ve met in the last year…I forgot.” There was a terrible silence for what seemed like forever before Wyatt cracked a smile and laughed.

  He was making a joke. He didn’t know her. He didn’t remember them being together.

  She was both relieved and devastated. Valene also laughed, but it was forced and had the dual function of keeping her from wailing in despair over the loss of Wyatt’s love with his year-long memory wipe. She was in trouble and now she’d confirmed the fact he didn’t wake up two weeks ago and remember a single thing about her. If he had, he would have tracked her down.

  Diesel rolled his eyes behind Wyatt’s back and moved toward her. Time was up. She was about to pay the piper for her foolish field trip.

  “Let’s not take up any more of the sheriff’s time, Valene. We need to let the man get back to work.”

  “Right,” she said as Diesel took her arm and pulled her a couple of steps toward the door. Cam grabbed her other arm and pushed her toward the door, too.

  “Nice to meet you,” Wyatt said.

  “Likewise,” Valene said, her eyes foolishly filling with unshed tears. They’d be falling just as soon as she got out of Wyatt’s presence.

  Her brothers pushed and pulled her toward the front door. Wyatt stepped closer, looked deeply into her eyes and said in a low tone, “Hope to see you again soon, Vee.”

  Valene stiffened, resisting the manhandling by her brothers. Wyatt snapped his mouth shut as if he suddenly realized he’d just made a horrible gaffe, but wasn’t certain what he’d said that was so awful.

  “Did you just call her Vee? Why would you do that?” Cam asked. He stopped pulling on Valene’s arm. Diesel stopped pushing.

  The receptionist walked back into the room, but no one said another word.

  Wyatt glanced over one shoulder as the receptionist seated herself at her desk. He gave the three Grey siblings a rather sheepish look that said he remembered everything. How was that possible?

  “Let me walk you outside,” Wyatt said.

  Diesel and Cam released Valene, but spun her around to head out the door frontward facing instead of being dragged out backward.

  Out in the humid heat, Valene turned to face Wyatt. “You remember,” she accused.

  “Does a bear poop in the woods?” Valene giggled and leapt into his arms. He caught her and pushed his face into her throat, smelling her hair, kissing her cheek. “I’ve missed you so much, Vee.”

  “This is bad,” Cam said. “This is really bad.”

  Diesel didn’t say anything. He just cleared his throat several times until Valene let Wyatt go.

  Wyatt put a finger up, opened the door and told his receptionist, “I’m going to go on patrol. I’ll be back in a couple of hours or so.”

  “Sure thing, Sheriff.”

  He closed the door and turned to Diesel, putting his arm around Valene. “I assume Cam will be riding shotgun as usual, on the way to the basement of the Big Bang Truck Stop.”

  “You got that right.” Cam looked like his mind had been blown. Maybe he was trying to figure out how Wyatt had gone through his invasive memory wipe program, but still had his memories. She wanted to know that, too. She also wanted to know what this meant for them. Would Wyatt be sent to Alpha-Prime? Would they experiment on him to discover why he was resistant to the memory wipe?

  Gage was already trying to figure out why Wyatt had suffered such a terrible headache from the treatment.

  Diesel didn’t say anything as he climbed into the driver’s seat. When everyone else was inside, he drove all the way to Alienn without speaking a word. Cam asked a couple of questions, but Diesel remained silent.

  Valene held hands with Wyatt all the way there, wondering what would happen next.

  Once they were ensconced in the basement conference room behind locked doors, Diesel said, “Okay. Let’s hear it. How do you remember?”

  “I’m not sure how I remember.” Wyatt shrugged. “When I woke up at my folks’ house after being found unconscious, I remembered almost everything I’d learned about your Big Bang Truck Stop operation in the basement, but my head hurt so much that I spent a few days in the hospital. As the pain lessened, I remembered more. Now, I think I remember everything.”

  “Why didn’t you contact us?” Cam asked.

  “I wasn’t sure what you’d do to me if the memory erase didn’t work. I don’t think you understand the gut-clenching pain of that headache. I pretended it was all a dream and didn’t speak about it. By the time I was back home from the hospital, I remembered the whole year that was supposed to have been erased, not just the alien parts.”

>   Diesel’s phone buzzed. Aunt Dixie, with another urgent message, complete with lots of exclamation marks, demanding that he hurry his butt up and meet her in Gage’s lab in the truck stop’s basement. Right now, Diesel! I mean it!! What was that woman up to?

  Wyatt fidgeted like he was uneasy about his declaration. He eyed Valene more than once, making Diesel think about Juliana, his wife. She’d ultimately been immune to the Defender after a while because she had a touch of Alpha blood in her system.

  His phone buzzed again. Aunt Dixie…again. Are you on your way? Why not?

  “Who is sending you messages?” Cam asked. “The endless buzzing is making me want to hurl your cell phone far, far away.”

  “Aunt Dixie is back from her Lost Colony road trip adventure and wants to have a chat right now about all the things she learned. You know, because everything she’s involved in is scare-me-speechless important.”

  “You’d better just bite the bullet and go talk to her, Diesel.” Valene laughed when he made a face. “You know she won’t stop until she hunts you down. Better just go get it over with.”

  “I don’t think we are finished talking here yet.”

  Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

  Cam held his hand out with a look on his face that said he planned to destroy Diesel’s phone with his bare hands. “Let me have it.”

  “Nope. I need my phone. I know. Let’s all go to see Aunt Dixie together.”

  “What?”

  “I say everyone gets to come with me and enjoy the show.”

  “That’s mean.” Cam stood anyway. “Where are we going?”

  “Not far. Just Gage’s lab.”

  As if his brother sensed he was being talked about, the next buzz was from Gage.

  “Let me guess—Aunt Dixie again?” Cam asked sarcastically, moving toward the conference door.

  “Nope. This time it’s Gage. He says it really is important.”

  “Him I believe,” Valene said. “We’d better get there, pronto.” She grabbed Wyatt’s hand and they all headed for Gage’s lab.

  Valene didn’t know exactly what they were in store for, but Wyatt remembering everything made her joyful that maybe somehow something would work out for them. The last time she talked to Aunt Dixie, she’d said she was on the case to find a solution for Valene to be with Wyatt. Maybe her aunt was about to be her salvation.

  Chapter Eighteen

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  Dixie Lou was so excited she was practically jumping up and down. It had taken nearly two weeks to track down and discover all the awesome information they’d found. Luckily, they’d been in her boyfriend Ed’s RV. They found a nice RV park, paid in advance for ten days, knowing they had to get what they needed by then in order to get back to Alienn for the open house party. Besides, having a time limit always made things so much more exciting. They almost didn’t get what they needed in time.

  The three days they allowed for travel back home was extended by two days so she could prove all of her suppositions. It was great to be right all the time.

  Miss Penny sat quietly at the table with Gage, watching him read the incredible information they’d found. After all they’d learned in Suspicion, she insisted, and Miss Penny agreed, on driving straight through from Minnesota for seventeen hours to get here and tell everyone. And to attend the open house garden party tonight. They weren’t about to give that up.

  The only problem was Diesel was somewhere away from the truck stop and wasn’t answering her text messages. Drat that boy!

  Gage was reading through all the paperwork and information she’d found. His eyes were as big as saucers and every so often he’d mumble, “Wow. I can’t believe it.” Then he’d turn another page, read it and repeat what he’d said.

  After waiting the longest hour of her life, Diesel and Cam finally entered the lab, followed by Valene and her sheriff, Wyatt.

  “Oh, good. I’m glad you brought Valene and her beau.”

  “What’s this about, Aunt Dixie? And if you tell me you need to discuss a new plan to make more money for the old folks’ home using Lost Colony information, I will break you in half.”

  “No need to be grumpy, Diesel. That’s not why I called you here. Although that might be a genius idea one of these days.” She made a mental note to consider what fund-raising could be generated by the Lost Colony Legend.

  Gage stood up. “This is amazing, Diesel. You will not believe what she found in Minnesota.”

  “More aliens,” Aunt Dixie said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “There is a whole town filled with folks descended from a member of that fateful Lost Colony Legend trip.”

  “Who? I thought everyone died.”

  “The guard that everyone thought was dead because he never came back to the landing site where Miss Penny and her mom waited? Well, he survived.”

  Diesel’s eyes narrowed in the same way they always did when she came to him with a grand money-making scheme for the old folks’ home. “If he survived, why didn’t he go back to the landing site?”

  Dixie Lou couldn’t contain herself. It was the best story she’d ever heard. Like a TV movie, only better, because it was true.

  “He had an accident, hit his head and lost his memory.”

  “What? I don’t believe it.” Diesel had another familiar look, the skeptical one. He’d mastered it.

  “It’s true. He made it almost to the location of the supplies, but got hit in the head by a falling rock slide during some bad weather and lost his memory. Someone found him, took him into Suspicion, Minnesota and nursed him back to health. He couldn’t remember who he was so he made a life there as a wheat farmer named Delvin Miller, and then later he had a mill that ground wheat into flour. Isn’t that amazing?”

  “Amazing? Okay. Sure.” Diesel was the opposite of amazed. He was wary. “Suspicion, Minnesota. I remember that name.” Diesel’s gaze went up for a moment as if he tried to recall what he’d heard. “There were rumors of people with mind-reading skills or something seventy or eighty years ago. Didn’t Alpha-Prime send a Guardsman there several decades ago to investigate?”

  Dixie Lou rocked from one foot to the other, her speed increasing as she revealed the details of her investigation. “Yes. They did. Seventy-seven years ago. Her name was Constance Brickwood and she sent a report back that said the guard wasn’t there and she couldn’t locate the supplies sent ahead in the harsh terrain where they were supposed to have landed, which then closed down any further action there.”

  “Okay.” Diesel’s brow-furrowing scowl was back.

  “Then do you know what happened, Diesel?”

  “I’m certain you’re about to tell me no matter what I say.”

  She gave him a scolding look, but he was right. Dixie Lou was fairly bursting to tell them all about what she’d discovered. “It’s so exciting. Anyway, after Constance submitted her, well, interpretation of events regarding no Alpha activity, it was reported that she was accidentally killed. She had no family or friends on Alpha-Prime to return to anyway.”

  “That’s too bad,” Diesel said.

  “But guess what?”

  “What?” Diesel played her game. He didn’t smile, exactly, but he didn’t seem as unhappy as usual.

  “She was laid to rest in Suspicion by a local minister instead of being sent back to Alpha-Prime.”

  “Interesting. I’m surprised they didn’t send a Guardsmen contingent to retrieve her.”

  “Yes. But way back then, they weren’t as careful as they are now. Progress, right? But I also looked up the Alpha history of that particular time period and they were definitely not as strict as nowadays. Plus, there was lots of brouhaha going on about alien contact and whether the program of colonization should be scrapped. The powers in charge finally decided to move forward, but in all the ruckus, Constance’s Earth burial was forgotten or deemed unimportant.”

  “Right. So she died and was buried in Suspicion. Why is that relevant now?” />
  Dixie Lou grinned wide. “Because…” Dixie quickly looked around to ensure everyone was listening closely when she said dramatically, “Get this! Constance faked her death.”

  More than one person gasped.

  “Faked her death? I don’t believe it,” Diesel said.

  Dixie Lou’s feet were practically dancing a jig by now. “I know. Isn’t it awesome? I didn’t believe it either. So that’s why Miss Penny and I took a road trip up there to investigate. We spent almost two weeks on the trail of this Lost Colony investigation to learn the truth.”

  “Is that where you went? To track down information on the Lost Colony Legend in Minnesota?”

  “Yep. Good thing I did, too. After scouring my scrapbooks for historical information, I remembered Constance.”

  “You remembered her?”

  “She was sent to Suspicion, Minnesota on the day I was born. Isn’t that cool?”

  “Very cool,” Diesel agreed.

  “Anyway, I found her sad story about ten years later when I started clipping interesting stories about Earth and Colonization. Way back then Alphas coming to Earth was big news. When I moved to Earth, I brought all my scrapbooks with me. I had to dig the articles out of my attic from my bargain sea trunk.

  “Anyway, then I looked on the internet machine for any recent information and found a picture of Constance in the local newspaper with her husband from two years before. They had been married for seventy-five years, and she still looked great. I thought she might have had some work done, because no one can look that good, right? But then again, Alpha genes are really awesome…”

  “Anyway,” Diesel prompted.

  “Anyway, her husband was a grandson of Lukas Marek, the Guardsman who never returned from his surveillance trip, a.k.a. Delvin Miller. Miss Penny said the grandson, Lukas Marek the Third, a.k.a. Delvin Miller the Third, was the spitting image of his grandfather. And she would know.”

  There was silence in the room as everyone seemed to digest her fantastical information.