Finally, he spoke. “Is everyone here?”
Everyone looked around. A few shrugged, a few nodded. Fuck it. They needed to get this meeting stared before a baby started crying or a kid woke from a nap.
“What’s this all about?” Noah asked.
He took a deep breath, certain he wasn’t overreacting.
“Well, I just wanted to check in with all of you at once. I’ve asked a few of you about this, but not all. Does anyone know where Roman is?”
A few exchanged glances. A couple others shook their heads.
A minute passed. “So, none of you have seen him?”
“He’s probably holed up with some hot hoochie,” Hudson said.
A few of the females rolled their eyes. Roman’s antics with the fairer race had become almost as legendary as Hudson’s, except Hudson had never had so many epic fails. Hell, the guy had landed Beverly, so Blake would consider him to be way out of Roman’s league.
“Why do you care, Blake?” Chance asked.
“Yeah, why don’t you leave him alone?” Axel commented.
“I was supposed to work out with him yesterday. He was a no-show. I’ve left numerous messages, and his phone goes directly to voice mail. And I care because it’s obvious none of you fuckers do.”
Beverly glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s uncalled for, Blake.”
Axel leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table, his angry sneer even more pronounced than usual. “It really is, half-breed. I don’t know who think you are talking to everyone like that, but you should shut the—”
Noah stood. “Enough.”
Blake glared at Axel for a moment, wishing he could punch a new attitude into the guy. He turned his attention to Noah.
“What other evidence do you have that he’s missing, Blake?”
He shrugged. “None. Just a bad feeling. Roman’s never missed a workout with me before, and he always returns my calls or finds me. I haven’t seen him in two nights.”
“This evening will be three, then?”
“Yeah.”
“And you checked his quarters?”
“Of course I did.”
Noah sat back down and rubbed his face. The guy looked as if he hadn’t slept in eons.
“Okay. Blake and Kade, work the computers and see if you can find anyone that resembles Roman being involved in an arrest or hospitalized for some reason. Hell, for all we know, he could have been stabbed again. Gather the information for the past forty-eight hours, and we’ll go over it in the morning in the War Room.”
“We have plans, though, Noah,” Nico said, rubbing Alaina’s back.
Noah glared at him. “They just got canceled. If one of our own is in trouble, then we help him.”
The room fell silent, then Hudson spoke again. “If anyone can lend an extra hand, I need some help with dinner.”
The buzz of conversation filled the room, and Sophia stood and walked over to Blake. She took his hand and kissed his cheek. “Do you really think he’s in some kind of trouble?”
He stared at his mate, and his heart swelled with love. Never could he have imagined he’d find himself with such a wonderful woman at his side. “Yeah, baby, I do. I hope I’m wrong and I have to eat crow for the next ten years. I hope everyone laughs at me and tells me I’m like an old woman for worrying so much. I hope Roman walks through that door at any second and has a good story about how he’s been held captive by two women who fucked him until he blacked out. But, I just feel it in my gut—Roman’s in trouble.”
Her brow furrowed as she studied his face. “I believe you, Blake. You’re intelligent and almost have a second sense about things, almost as if you’re gifted.”
Smiling, he took her in his arms. He still worried about Roman, but it felt good having someone by his side who didn’t doubt him.
“No, Sophia. You have been, and always will be, my greatest gift.”
Chapter 16
Olivia paced her quarters, the papers she’d written out in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. It had taken a few hours for her to complete her report on her conversation with Eden. She’d made copious notes on how she felt throughout the session, as well as transcribed their talk, word-for-word.
Afterward, she decided she needed some space from it and had gone down to the dining room. She’d met a few others working in the facility, mainly in security. It seemed she could very well be the only civilian involved in the project—everyone else that she’d met had been military.
After a delicious bowl of broccoli cheese soup and a roast beef sandwich, she’d come back to her room and now read over her notes she’d spent the afternoon on.
Looking back over it now, Eden seemed so innocent and trusting, while her brother had been the exact opposite. He had said he’d sheltered Eden from others, but that seemed nearly impossible in the time span they’d been alive. She had either been locked away, or she’d been very docile and allowed her brother to dictate her every move to her.
She’d have to ask both of them about it. She’d learned through life and her psychology studies that a story always held two sides, and somewhere in the middle laid the truth.
She set down her glass and curled up in the leather chair, thinking about how she’d approach Eden and Benedict tomorrow, and which way she wanted the conversation to go. Today had been all about their basic history, but she wanted to delve deeper. What were their daily routines like now? Did their bodies function the same as a human’s? She assumed they did, but she’d like to hear it directly from them.
A knock sounded at her door, and she startled. Taking a deep breath to calm her jitters, she stood, placed her notes on the desk, and went to the door. Major Holmes stood on the other side.
“Major! I wasn’t expecting you!”
He grinned. “Sorry to disturb you. I meant to contact you earlier, but things kept piling up on my desk. I thought I’d come down and see how your first day went.”
“Of course. Please, come in.”
She shut the door, then sat at the desk and motioned him to take the leather chair.
Once they were seated, he smiled. “So, how did it go today?”
“It was good. I think it went well.”
“What was covered?”
“Mainly, I focused on getting Eden’s trust and learning a bit about her past.”
He nodded. “Good move. Did they happen to mention what their plan was? Why they’re here?”
“No, like I said, I hoped in my meeting today to lay a foundation of trust. You know they were born here, so they’re here because this is their home.”
Glancing around her quarters, he observed a moment of silence, then looked at her again. “The aliens from the project a few years ago claimed to be from another planet. SR- something or another. Did the two say they had any contact with any others of their kind?”
“No. Eden said it’s just been her and her brother.”
“Hmm.”
“How were they found, anyway?”
He sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “A family in Virginia had some land left to them by a relative. No one had been up there in decades. When they went up to stake it out, they found the cabin. It should have been a pile of rubble by then, but it wasn’t. They realized someone had been squatting on their property, so they called the sheriff. It took a few days, but they were finally able to get the two kids and haul them in. Once they saw that their eyes glowed at night, the sheriff didn’t know what to do, so he called the FBI, figuring it may fall under domestic terrorism or something. The message went through the channels until it ended up on the right desk at the military, and here we are.”
She found it funny that he called Eden and Benedict ‘kids’ when they were over a century older than either her or the Major, but she didn’t say anything about it.
“Did you submit your report?”
She shook her head and motioned to the stack of papers on the desk. “Not quite. I was ju
st going over it one last time.”
He glanced over and frowned. “Those will need to be shredded. We are a paperless facility for security reasons.”
Her cheeks warmed as she remembered that. She should have hid them.
“I’ll make sure they’re shredded. I just wanted to be certain that I had described my meeting correctly and that my writing conveyed the emotions I felt.”
He stood and nodded. “Good. I’ll sign in later to read it.”
She rose as he walked to the door. “Eden also wanted me to ask you when they would be able to leave, when we would be assimilating them back into society.”
The Major paused with his hand on the doorknob and pursed his lips. After a moment of silence, he looked over at her. “Tell her that she needs to cooperate fully, and then we can talk about that somewhere down the road. We’re only on Day One, and we don’t have a lot of information on them yet.”
Something in his voice made her uneasy, but then he grinned and all seemed right again.
“Okay, I’ll let her know.”
“Oh! I almost forgot. We’re getting another one tonight.”
She tilted her head. “Another what?”
He laughed. “Alien, Olivia. We’re getting another alien. A male, from what I understand.”
She furrowed her brow. “Really? From where?”
“From Phoenix. Seems like they’re popping up all over the place.”
He walked out and she shut the door behind him.
Another alien? In Phoenix? A jolt of excitement ran through her, and her curiosity had been piqued as she wondered what this one had been up to.
Sighing, she couldn’t believe how her time here just kept getting stranger and stranger.
Three hours later, she couldn’t sleep. It felt like Eden and Benedict almost called to her. She rose from bed and put on some sweats and sweatshirt. As she slipped from her room, she found herself tiptoeing down the hallway, as though she were breaking the rules, or being disobedient sneaking out of the house. She had to remind herself that she was neither. Instead, she’d been hired to do an important job, and that required access to the aliens at any time.
As she took the elevator up to their floor, she watched the numbers rise. It had been just about forty-eight hours since she’d seen sunlight. She missed the warmth on her face, the way it relaxed her. She would make it a point to get out tomorrow.
What about Eden and Benedict? Did they miss the sunshine, as well?
The doors opened and she stepped out onto their floor. The lights had been dimmed so it didn’t seem so sterile. She realized she didn’t have a guard with her, and she stared at the phone the Major had told her to use to call for one. She should summon security, but then decided not to bother anyone as she wouldn’t be staying long. She placed her palm on the entry pad and walked into the secured area.
The lack of noise in the secluded space sent a shiver down her spine, and she thought about the horror movies where the woman always walked into the quiet area, only to be hacked to death. Although fear gripped her gut, she pressed on.
The rooms to her left still remained dark. With the low lighting, she couldn’t see anything in them, as if they were large, black holes. When she reached Eden’s room, a soft light emanated from the space. Glancing in, she saw Eden stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling, her black hair fanned all around her yellow pillow. Olivia knew Eden couldn’t hear her, but she found herself holding her breath as she stared the girl. She was afraid to be caught spying on her like this.
She wanted to talk more with her, to find out deeper things about her history, about the events she had witnessed on her time on Earth, as well as more about what her mother said about Eden and Benedict’s father. If her mother had been human, that meant her father had been from another world. Where was he today? Earth? His home planet? Did he know he had sired twins?
She remained still for what seemed like a long time as she contemplated Eden’s life, but she really didn’t know how long it had been when Eden rose from the bed and met her gaze, her eyes glowing a very soft yellow. Her long legs carried her toward Olivia, and she stopped. Neither made any movement as they stared at each other, and she felt guilty for looking at the girl as if she were an animal in a cage at the zoo, or the freak show at the carnival.
See the new attraction! It’s the alien!
Yet, she couldn’t tear her gaze away.
As she studied Eden, so many questions ran through her mind. Had her life been filled with fear, or had she been a free spirit? What had it been like to live for so long? Her lifespan made Olivia’s seem so short—she really didn’t have much time to live, at least, not compared to Eden. Was she wasting her precious hours here, or would it all somehow pay off? Would she be a part of something big, or, would her meticulous notes simply be filed away?
Had Eden been happy, living with just her brother? Or did she long for something else, like a family, or to travel and see the world?
If Eden had been happy with such a simple life, why couldn’t she be happy with her own? Maybe she would have found that somewhat elusive emotion if she had gone the more traditional route. She wanted to work because she loved what she did, but sometimes, she also longed for a family. She’d never find someone to share her life with stuck underground like this.
Her thoughts once again returned to Roman. Yes, it had been a one-night stand, but there had been something there besides intense physical attraction. If her life had been considered ‘normal,’ she would have liked to see where it could have led. Granted, they’d had some good talks and amazing sex, but it seemed to be as if both of them danced around the full truth of what they had said to each other. They couldn’t divulge the full facts of their lives, though, because she worked for the FBI and he worked in a branch of the military that had sworn him to secrecy. If she had stuck around, at some point, they may have been totally honest with each other.
Eden turned and went back to the bed. She flipped off the lamp on the bedside table, plunging the room into total darkness. Olivia would never know anyone was in there. At least, they were given some modicum of privacy.
She moved silently down the hallway to Benedict’s room, which was also dark, and she didn’t sense any movement within.
The Major had said there would be ‘another one’ arriving tonight—a male, if she remembered correctly. Could he be here already?
She slowly walked past Benedict’s room to the end of the hall, trying to see into the dark black abyss of each room. At the last one on the left, she stopped, sensing something—or someone—inside. She stared into the darkness for a moment, her heart thundering in her chest, but couldn’t detect any movement.
Could an alien be in there, staring back at her? Was he like Benedict and Eden, or was he a different species? If he was like them, did his eyes glow yellow? And if they did, why couldn’t she see them?
She listened to the stillness in the air, and realized all her muscles had tensed. Being down here by herself in the middle of the night had her feeling a little freaked out, a little panicked. Something had pulled her here. At first, she thought it had been her need to find out more about Benedict and Eden, but now, it seemed to be something else. However, she didn’t understand what it could be.
After a few minutes, she exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and ran down the hall, the need to leave the space overwhelming. As she rode the elevator back down to her quarters, she began to tremble as if she’d just caught the flu.
Rubbing her hands over her goose-bumped arms, she tried to calm down and figure out what had just happened. Logically, nothing had. She’d stared into a dark room for a few minutes—end of story. Then why did she feel so out of sorts?
The more space she put between her and the aliens, the sillier her fear and actions seemed.
When she finally arrived back into her quarters and locked the door, she shook her head and chuckled at herself. “You’re losing your mind, woman.”<
br />
Roman sighed in relief when the silhouette left the front of his fucking pretty, glass prison cell, the lighting making it impossible for him to make out a face. He’d already spent a couple of hours trying to break the walls, without any success. It may look like glass, but it had to be some polycarbonate shit that could hold back bullets. A few well-placed fists wouldn’t make a difference.
Fuck!
He’d woken up in here a few hours ago, his head throbbing, his body aching. Not only had the ape beat the shit out of him, he’d been gassed, and he had a feeling they’d been less than gentle during transport to this place.
What he’d do for a couple shots of whiskey and some ibuprofen.
As he paced his prison, he recalled the stories Jovan had told him regarding his stint in a government facility, which is where he assumed he’d landed. Annis had also done some time, but she’d hadn’t been as forthcoming as Jovan. Laid out on a metal operating table, naked. Needles in the eyes, blood drained, drills in his skull. The male got a very haunted look in his eye when he talked about his time in that place.
However, at least the Saviors knew where Jovan had been. No one had any idea of his whereabouts, and he didn’t know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing. Of course, he wanted to live. But if he got out of here, he didn’t know how he’d put up with the pile of shit coming his way from the people at the silo. At its core, he’d landed himself in here because of a damn female. The fairer race had not been kind to him, no matter how hard he tried with them. He’d been stabbed, spit on, laughed at, had drinks tossed his way, and now … he’d landed in what he assumed was a government facility.
Hell, he didn’t have to assume anything—the facts spoke for themselves. He did know that the police had seen his eye shining and he wasn’t back in the silo tucked away in his own bed. Yes, those two things right there pointed him in the direction that he’d been transported directly into the enemy’s arms—do not pass ‘go’ and forget about collecting the two hundred bucks.
Roman Page 8
