Blake nodded. “I agree. We should vacate them as soon as possible, and then we’ll wait to hear from Holly. When we have more details, we’ll put together a plan of action.”
Annis cleared her throat, a small smile playing on her lips. “You’re all fools if you think the females will leave here.”
Noah shook his head. “They don’t have a choice. This could mean the difference between life and death.”
Annis said nothing, just looked at him with an arched eyebrow.
Twenty minutes later, everyone in the silo had gathered in the Great Room as Noah explained his plan.
When he finished, Blake looked around the room. Sophia stared at him as she worked her lower lip between her teeth. Damn, she looked sexy when she did that, but he could see she thought hard about Noah’s proposition.
Abby glanced around. “I don’t know about any of the other females here, but I’m not going anywhere.”
“Me, neither,” Beverly interjected.
Noah sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “This could mean your life, Abby. Please try to be reasonable.”
She stood and walked over to him. “Noah, I am being reasonable. I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. The only way you’re going to get me to leave is to physically remove me.”
“Honey, I—”
“No, and that’s my final answer. I’m not taking Phoenix and running away from here. You are my mate, and I will stay with you, regardless of the circumstances. Besides, I have faith in Roman to keep quiet, and I have faith in you and all the other warriors to bring him home safely.”
“What if something happens, Abby, and Roman spills information on where we are? What if the military descends on us like flies on shit?”
“We’ll come up with an exit plan, but it’s not going to come to that, Noah. Right now, we’ve got nothing more to discuss.” She turned and looked at everyone else. “Dinner should be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
As she walked out of the room, Beverly followed, as did the rest of the females in the house, a united front against the warriors.
“Well, that didn’t go well,” Kade mumbled.
Noah sighed. “No, it didn’t.”
Annis chuckled. “I told you it wouldn’t.”
Chapter 23
Olivia paced her quarters, her stress level off the charts. She had visited Eden after seeing Roman, but her mind had become a mishmash of thoughts and emotions, and she’d accomplished nothing. Eden had talked a little bit, but Olivia hadn’t heard a word she’d said, her written conversation with Roman burned in her mind. She’d also forgotten to turn on her recorder. After fifteen minutes of being with Eden, she’d excused herself and returned to her room, trying to sort everything out.
Why did Roman think that the government wanted to eradicate his people? How had he come up with that idea? His answers told her nothing, but also told her a lot. She’d bet there were others just like him, Benedict, and Eden. Where were they? Were they criminals, or did they live here unknown to the humans? She would think they’d want to assimilate into the human race. They looked like humans, walked, talked, and acted like humans; the only difference she could find was that their eyes lit up at night.
What color were Roman’s? Did his turn yellow like Benedict and Eden’s?
She fell back on the bed and closed her eyes.
She’d slept with an alien.
How had she not known? How had he hidden his glowing eyes? They had been together all night, and his eyes had been dark.
The reason she hadn’t figured it out was because he’d acted human—everything about him from his skin, the way he talked and laughed, the way he had sex—it had been very … human.
Except the sex. Honestly, the sex had been too amazing. So, was that how the aliens differed? Their eyes lit up at night and they knew how to really, really please a woman?
She needed to talk to Roman, to understand why he felt like being here was detrimental to him. They needed to understand the aliens, to make sure they wouldn’t pose any harm or threat to the humans.
But Eden and her brother had been here for over a hundred years and had lived quietly, albeit illegally, without incident. They’d never threatened anyone. Besides, Eden seemed too sweet to even consider hurting anything.
Taking a deep breath, she stood and looked at the clock. It read just after nine p.m. It should be fairly quiet around the facility as the day wound down. She could get into Roman’s room easily enough and they could communicate via pen and paper. She picked up both and headed out the door.
When the elevator landed on the floor with her office and the secured area where Roman, Eden, and Benedict had been housed, she walked quietly, the click of her heels against the tile sounding like cannons to her ears. She realized she knew very little about the security here. Before, it hadn’t really mattered, but now that she would be literally trying to break in to see Roman, she knew she had to take that tour of the Control Room that Beth had offered.
A small closet stood outside the main door leading into the protected area. She didn’t know if the microphones had been placed all over the facility, or just in with the aliens. Taking a chance, she slipped off her shoes and placed them in the closet, then laid her hand on the pad. A second later, the door slid open.
Eden’s and Benedict’s rooms were both dark, and she quickly tiptoed past them. When she reached Roman’s, she found him sitting on the bed, staring into space. She opened the door and slipped in. When he looked at her, she gasped at his sky-blue, fluorescent eyes, but then quickly placed her finger over her mouth, signaling him to keep quiet.
She sat down on the chair he hadn’t moved from her visit beforehand and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and the crackling seemed so loud.
He coughed to cover the noise.
I’m coming back tomorrow to ask you some other questions, but for now, I want to talk about what happened between us.
He nodded.
Are you sure you didn’t have ulterior motives by sleeping with me?
He furrowed his brow at her, as if he truly didn’t understand what she meant, and he took the pen and paper from her.
Like what? I saw you. I thought you were pretty. You were nice. You like jazz. I wanted to be with you. Those were my motives.
She bit her lip as she took the paper from him, the sound once again seeming very loud. This wouldn’t work, and she glanced over at him, wishing they could just talk. She’d get her answers a lot faster that way.
Standing, he motioned to her to follow him.
She trailed him around the corner to the bathroom, which consisted of a toilet and a shower big enough for one person to stand in. Reaching in, he turned the water on, and she wondered if the spray would drown out their murmurs if they spoke.
He leaned in to whisper to her, which startled her, and she took a step back. Taking the pen and paper, he scribbled, I’m not going to hurt you, Olivia. I would never hurt a female—especially you.
She read it and stared at him a moment, then nodded. Placing his mouth next to her ear, his breath tickled her neck, and her cheeks flushed at his closeness. Shutting her eyes, she chastised herself for becoming aroused. If she was caught, she’d be in big trouble. She’d been hired to do a job, and she had to focus on that.
“How long have you been working for the government in this capacity?”
She gazed at him a moment, then whispered in his ear. “In this facility, since the morning I left you.”
“Why did you send the ape after me?”
Shaking her head, she whispered, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. How come your eyes weren’t glowing that night?”
“I’m not telling you anything about me, Olivia. I just don’t trust you. The ape—the guy who showed up and beat the crap out of me. He said it wasn’t your apartment.”
What the hell? “That was my apartment, and I didn’t send anyone after you.”
She studied his face, and won
dered who this ape person was he referred to. If he told the truth, it didn’t make any sense.
She leaned in. “How did you get here?”
“After the ape beat me up, he called the cops. I was taken to jail, and they found out by my eye glowing. Then, they gassed me, and I woke up here.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She glanced around the small space for a moment, and he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. The steam had made it hot in the closed area.
“How long have you been on Earth, Roman?”
She knew she’d already asked the question, but she did so again to see if he’d lie.
“I told you earlier—a couple of years. That’s the truth.”
“Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why are you here, and how do you survive?”
She truly was interested in his answers, but she could also tell he wouldn’t be very forthcoming.
“I can’t answer that.”
“I know there are others. The Major running this place told me about the last time a facility like this had been built, and how the person in charge didn’t do things the right way. Do you know where the others are who were in that facility?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Is your species here for nefarious reasons?”
He sighed. “No. And please don’t ask me anymore about it, okay?”
Frustration boiled in her, and she felt like stamping her feet as a child would. “You have to give me something, Roman, something that I put in a report that shows that I’m doing my job.”
He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. “No, I don’t. By you working here, you have effectively been classified as a danger to me.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not a danger to you, Roman. My job is to profile you, to get to know you, to understand why you’re here. Then, once we have a good idea of you and the others, we will help you to integrate into our society.”
He chuckled and shook his head, as if she’d just said the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.
“Don’t laugh. It’s the truth. I never would have signed up for crude experiments like the other facility ran.”
His smile faded as he glared at her. “You aren’t stupid, Olivia. One day, the curtain will be pulled back and you’ll see what you’ve signed up for, if you already don’t know. Is that what this is? All part of the game to make me trust you?”
She didn’t answer, just stared at his battered face.
“No matter how attractive I find you, no matter what you do to me, I’m not going to say anything about my race.”
She tilted her head to the side, studying the glowing, blue eyes. “Why do your eyes glow like that at night?”
He shook his head and looked away.
She tried to think of a way to make him trust her, but couldn’t come up with anything. Right now, they simply went around and around in circles with her asking questions, and him being very clear he wouldn’t answer them. “I should go.”
“Thank you for coming back.”
She stared at him a moment, then nodded.
He followed her out of the bathroom and to the door. His gaze seemed to torch her as she walked down the hallway, and a shiver rolled up her spine as she the echoes of the shower pounding against the tile still rang in her head.
More determined than ever, somehow, someway, she’d get Roman to trust her.
Chapter 24
Roman turned the shower off and rubbed his face on a towel as he still sweated from the steam. He lay back down on the bed and considered his conversation with Olivia.
How he wanted to tell her all about himself and what remained of his race, but he couldn’t put the others in jeopardy. Besides, he didn’t know if he bought into her little spiel that she really believed nothing horrible would come out of his stay here, that the government truly wanted to help him and that they wished to integrate him into society.
Hell, the Saviors had been integrated into society longer than these people had been alive, and they did just fine. His race didn’t need anyone’s help.
He wished he had Jovan or Liberty here to lay their hands on Olivia and see if she told the truth. Either she really did believe that, or she had been saying it to make him trust her. The thought of her trying to dupe him hurt and made him angry, so he hoped for naivety on her part.
However, he did know she was an intelligent woman. How could she buy into that load of crap?
Despite his dire situation and his upcoming death, he couldn’t deny he still found Olivia attractive. Perhaps, just maybe, he’d be able to convince her that she had been wrong, and she could be his ticket out of here. His door had opened and closed via her palm print. Maybe he should just manhandle her and take her all the way to the front door. He’d probably end up shot as he didn’t know much about security around this place, but at least, he’d die knowing he’d made an effort to escape.
The idea didn’t sit well with him, so he went back to thinking of ways he could convince Olivia that he would die here, and there wouldn’t be any kumbaya between his race and hers—at least, not one facilitated by the damn government.
Chapter 25
The next day, Olivia rolled out of bed, her body aching, her head swimming. She hadn’t slept much between going over her conversation with Roman and the nightmares of seeing Eden lying on a table with her intestines in a bowl next to her.
Yes, it had only been a dream, but she couldn’t help but feel it foreshadowed something, but she’d never put much faith or thought into dreams or their meanings. As far as she was concerned, dreams were nothing but firings from the subconscious mind. They didn’t contain messages.
As she showered, she considered her off-the-record conversation with Roman yet again. She’d been over every word, as if they’d been burned onto her brain.
He had to know others of his kind, because she’d looked out his room, and he couldn’t see into either Eden’s or Benedict’s room. Maybe if Benedict stood at the very far corner and trained his gaze on Roman’s place, then they’d be able to see each other. Therefore, he didn’t know about the twins, yet he talked as if he had been aware of others of his race.
Fact: he’d alluded to others, when he didn’t know about Eden and Benedict.
Fact: he’d heard about the other facility, indicating that one of the others who had been there had survived.
Fact: he believed this place to be exactly like the previous one.
Fact: his fluorescent blue eyes reminded her of the sky or a pristine ocean in an exotic place, mesmerizing her, as did his sexy smile, the one where one side of his mouth curled.
Fact: no matter what the circumstances, she found him very attractive.
Fact: he had to be wrong about everything.
Well, maybe the last one wasn’t a fact, but until she had solid, concrete proof, she’d go with that.
Stepping out from the mist, she sat down on her bed again. It always amazed her when the mind tired the body. Her corporeal being did nothing but lie there like a rag doll, but her mind exhausted itself like she’d just forced it to run ten miles.
Standing, she went to her computer, an email from the Major catching her eye.
Olivia, I didn’t see any reports from yesterday. Please upload today.
“Sweet Jesus, please take this wheel.”
Yesterday, she’d been so shocked to see Roman, she hadn’t been able to concentrate on Eden, or Benedict. But today, she needed to post something.
Today, she would go down there, and she would interview both. She would continue to build her trust with Eden, and she would gain it with Benedict.
Although Roman had scrambled her mind and she’d lost her focus, today, she’d regain it and continue to do the important work she had been hired to perform.
She slipped on a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a T-shirt, grabbed her recorder, and headed for the door. It almost closed behind her, but then she remembered she had forgotten Eden’s
lotion. Turning around, she went into the bathroom and found a small tube of Shea butter and hoped Eden would like it.
Chapter 26
“Hello, Eden.”
“Olivia! Please, come in.” Eden beamed as Olivia entered her room. “I have to admit, I was hoping you’d come by today. I’ve started to look forward to our chats.”
She smiled, realizing that Eden reminded her a lot of her sister, Vicky, who had been sweet and kind, and somewhat naïve, just like Eden. “I brought you some lotion. I hope you like it.”
Eden’s dark eyes lit up as Olivia handed her the small tube. She unscrewed it and brought it to her nose. “Oh, I love the smell!”
“Go ahead and try a little bit. You don’t need a lot.”
She did, and Olivia marveled at the grin on her face, and the fact that something she took for granted everyday gave Eden such pleasure. It almost seemed childlike, and in some ways, she supposed it could be considered an accurate description. For over a century, Eden had existed on the fringes of society, basically living off the land. When she would be ready to leave this place, Olivia hoped she would integrate into society instead of head for the hills again, so to speak.
“Can we sit down?”
“Of course. Where is the guard?”
Olivia glanced over her shoulder. She hadn’t bothered to call one, hoping that the lack of security and firepower would show that she trusted the aliens. “No guard today, just you and me.”
Eden perched on the edge of her bed gripping her small tube of lotion while Olivia took the chair by the desk. She reached into her pocket and turned on the recorder.
“What shall we talk about today?” Eden asked.
“I was wondering where you’d like to go when you leave here.”
“Well, I’d like to go home to our cabin.”
“You wouldn’t want to visit anywhere else? Maybe see the rest of the country? Live in a big city for a bit?”
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