by Gini Koch
Martini’s expression softened. “Oh, baby, I’m sorry.” He reached for me, and the tears came. He pulled me into his arms, and I buried my face in his neck and let the hysterics come. My legs were tired, but I couldn’t be sure that an alligator wasn’t coming by, so I wrapped them around his waist. I didn’t care about the ick on his clothes, I just wanted to be safe, and I knew I was safe if he was holding me.
He turned around so he could see down the hall, and he rocked me. “Kitty, baby, why’d you open the door?” He stroked my back.
“I wanted to help you.” This came out like a wail.
“Why didn’t you scream when you first saw the alligator? I could have gotten to you a whole lot sooner if I’d realized you were in danger.”
“You couldn’t feel how scared I was?” I felt hurt and a little bit betrayed. He was the super empath and he didn’t notice?
He kissed the side of my head. “Baby, you were scared already, everyone else was radiating some form of fear or terror, and my blocks are going haywire, so my filtering isn’t working well. We had to secure the room, Lorraine went ballistic and sprayed me down while giving me the big lecture about overdoing it, I had to convince ACE to put the hostages down, things were hectic. By the time I felt your fear move up to terror, you were nowhere in sight. I tried to follow you, but you were moving so much that it was an erratic trail.” His arms tightened around me. “It had you cornered twice, didn’t it?”
I nodded, my face still buried in his neck. “I hurdled it the first time.” Memory tickled. “There are some people locked in a room wherever I was cornered first.”
“We found them. You left a strong signature there.”
“You make it sound like I lifted my leg against the wall.”
He laughed. “No. Emotions leave a trail like scent does. Normally it’s fairly easy to hone in on terror, but you were moving so much and so fast, it was confusing the trail.”
“I’m sorry.” My tears were slowing down, but I was still a long way from calm.
“Screaming was a good idea. Wish you’d done it sooner.”
“I’m sorry.”
Martini sighed. “Baby, stop apologizing. You were just . . . being you.” He moved me so I was looking at his face. “I love you, Kitty, and I don’t want anything to hurt or frighten you.”
“Is everyone okay?”
He smiled. “Yeah, baby, everyone’s fine. Our human guys are a little beaten up, but they’re okay. Oh, by the way . . . sugartits?” I was still crying but I started to giggle. Martini shook his head. “And, walrus-boy? What the hell were you doing calling James walrus-boy?” He gave me a beady look. “You’re not really interested in his walrus, are you?”
I burst into laughter. “No, Jeff, only yours.”
He grinned. “Good to know.” He bent and kissed me, and my body started to relax.
Our kiss lasted a good long time, and he ended it slowly. I leaned my head against his collarbone. “I’m still hungry.”
“I know. You ready to go back with the others?”
“Maybe. Where’re the alligators?”
“Being wrangled. Not sure if they’re still in the building or not.”
“I can stay right here.”
He laughed and put me down. I didn’t want to be down, and I tried to crawl back up. Martini tried to get me onto the ground, but I wasn’t having any of it. He wrapped his arms around me but I kept on attempting to get back up. He kissed me as, I was sure, a distraction, but even this didn’t make me stop. Alliflash wanted to eat me.
Somehow, his hands stopped trying to get me to stay on the ground, and instead one was wrapped in my hair and the other was pushing my pelvis into his. My hands imitated his, one running through his hair and the other clutching his back. He removed my purse and dropped it on the ground, then moved us into a corner, his body grinding against mine. My tears were gone, wiped away by his mouth and body.
Surviving death was a major turn on. Making out with the man who’d saved me from being alligator bait was more of one. Martini moved his mouth to my neck, and I moaned as my legs tightened around him.
He jerked, just a little, and it wasn’t a sexual kind of movement.
Even though we were in a hallway, we were both ready to go for it. But there were alligators on the loose, not to mention a lot of people. And Martini was still hurt. That jerk had been from pain, and I knew it, even if I also knew he wasn’t going to admit it.
I let my legs drop. “Jeff, we shouldn’t. Someone could come by any time.”
He sighed. “You’re probably right.” He set me down, and this time I didn’t protest because that had been too easy and I was too worried about him.
“How do you feel? Did Lorraine give you something?”
“I’m okay, and you mean other than a tongue-lashing? Yeah. I got another shot. In my arm, not adrenaline,” he added quickly due to, I assumed, the look of horror on my face. “She said I could take some aspirin if I needed it.”
“I have some in my purse if you want it.”
“You have everything in there.” He pulled away from me and grinned. “Anything you don’t carry in the magic suitcase?”
“It’s not quite that big.” I stroked him. “Not nearly as big as this.”
He gave a low growl and kissed me, strongly. “Have I mentioned I’m glad you’re such a bad girl?” He knelt down and rummaged in my purse.
“Once or twice. Have I mentioned I like how you punish me for it?”
“Once or twice.” He sighed. “I can never find anything in here. I don’t feel that bad, baby. I can probably wait.”
I gave him a once over. Okay, a twice over. I never got tired of looking at him. “Well, you look terrible, but if you think you can make it, we could wait and get aspirin from Lorraine.”
“Wow, you say the nicest things.” Martini looked up at me, and his expression changed. It was the same as he’d had in the maintenance closet at Saguaro International—he looked like he wanted to tell me or ask me something important. My mouth went dry, and my chest felt tight all of a sudden. “Kitty . . . I—”
“What in the world’s been taking the two of you so long?” Alfred’s voice came from down the hall.
Just as in the maintenance closet, Martini’s eyes closed, and his expression changed. Disappointment washed over his face; then he looked back down at my purse—whatever moment we were about to have was gone again. I tried to keep the disappointment from washing over me. For all I knew, he wasn’t really trying to do what I sort of thought he was. Maybe he was just planning to tell me he wanted me to change deodorants or something.
“Just trying to get Kitty calmed down, Dad,” Martini said, still rummaging in my purse. “Thought someone else might be able to handle the situation now that the danger was past.”
Alfred was nearer to us. I saw his eyes go back and forth between me and Martini. He gave me a gentle smile. “How are you doing? I heard one of the alligators tried to get you.”
“Okay. Better due to Jeff saving me from being Alliflash-food.”
“Alliflash?” Alfred sounded confused.
Martini looked over his shoulder. “Trust me, Dad. She named it.” He looked up at me. “What’d you call the other one?”
I felt my cheeks get hot. “Gigantagator.”
He grinned at me. “I love you.” He said it softly, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t want any more of this particular moment ruined than had already been.
Alfred looked shocked for a moment, then he burst into laughter. “It was pretty huge. Might have been our biggest one out there.”
“Have been?” Guilt flitted through me. The alligators were protected. Sure, one had tried to chow down on me, but I’d been the one who’d insisted on bringing them inside in the first place.
“Oh, they’re both fine. Both seriously angry, but fine. Doing a great job of anti-alien menacing.”
“They’re still in the building?” I resisted the urge to leap onto Martini’s sho
ulders.
He stood up and handed my purse to me. “I won’t let them hurt you.” He said it quietly again. I didn’t care that his father was there. I flung myself into Martini’s arms and buried my face in his chest. He stroked my head and back. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here.” He kissed the top of my head. “We have to swing back into action, baby.”
I heaved a sigh. “Okay.” I looked up at him. “But I don’t want to.”
“I don’t either. We don’t get the luxury.”
“I know.” He shifted me to his side. I kept my arm around his waist, and he kept his around my shoulders. “Oh, before I forget, I want my Glock back.” Might as well have it, even if I couldn’t shoot the alligators.
“No argument. I wish I’d let you keep it.” Martini pulled it out from the back of his pants. I dropped it into my purse.
“It’s okay. You saved me, so it all worked out.”
“So, what’ve we got?” Martini asked as we joined Alfred, back to all business.
“The men locked up were the rest of the Security team, the ones who aren’t anti-alien. We confiscated all cell phones, pagers, and other handheld electronics. Christopher and Paul are going through them right now, to see what we’ve got.”
“What about Brian and the Security guys he was covering?”
“Brian’s fine, his charges are with the others.” Alfred chuckled. “I have to admit, I love the way you think. Alligators. They fired at them but missed every time, and you should have seen their expressions. Priceless.”
“Any hostages hurt?”
“Not by the alligators, no. ACE did a great job.” Alfred shook his head. “I’m amazed, and I don’t know how you did it, but it may be the single most important thing that’s happened for our race since we got here.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. “No problem” was far too flippant and also inaccurate. “Happy to” didn’t seem to cover it. “I’m awesome that way” seemed a bit conceited, particularly if I was saying it to Martini’s father. “I’m glad, but I still would have rather spent the time being ravaged by your son” was by far the most accurate, but was definitely a no-no. And, “Will this make your wife like me?” was probably not a great response, either.
“I’m just here to help.”
“You did.”
“She always does.” Martini hugged me. “Dad, I need to get some food into Kitty. She’s close to fainting.” This was true, but I was trying to play it cool.
“No problem, son. Your mother will have dinner ready for everyone in our group.”
CHAPTER 46
MARTINI STOPPED DEAD. “What do you mean? I thought the big family dinner would be after we finished up here.”
“We are finished.” Alfred chuckled. “That federal agent friend of yours, Kevin, he’s efficient. Smart boy.” He looked at me and winked. “You could do worse.”
“He’s married, happily. And I’m already doing better.” Martini’s body was so tense I wondered if he was going to need adrenaline. I squeezed his waist.
Alfred shrugged. “Maybe he has a brother. Anyway, Kevin called in his antiterrorism team. They’re taking the conspirators into custody. Paul and Christopher altered human perception of what happened. And Christopher altered the images of what the astronauts did. I think we’re good to go.”
“I have to be back here at dawn.”
“Why?”
“I have a catfight planned.” This was true, after all.
“The stalker,” Martini said, through clenched teeth. “The one who wants to kill Kitty over Brian.”
“Now, there’s a nice boy,” Alfred said. “You two used to be an item, too, didn’t you?” My head was near enough to Martini’s chest—his hearts were pounding so loudly I could hear them. He was going to lose it, any moment now.
“Key phrase is ‘used to be.’ No strong interest on my side to renew.” I gave Alfred a close look. Yep, there was definitely a twinkle in his eyes that was familiar. “Alfred, Jeff’s not really up to the kidding right now. Can you please stop?”
“What are you talking about?” Alfred asked. I could see he was trying not to grin.
I sighed. “Look, the ribbing, it’s hilarious. But it’s hurting him. He doesn’t get that you’re kidding. He thinks you want me to run off with some human. Maybe you do, at that, but Jeff doesn’t really need you pointing out options to his girlfriend in front of him.”
Alfred shook his head. “The super empath and he can’t pick up when I’m joking.” He gave Martini an amused look. “You’d think you could spot it by now.”
I thought about what ACE had told me. “He can’t. He’s too close to you.” I managed not to add that Martini had said he had some major blocks up against his parents. I doubted he wanted to admit it, but the reactions he and Christopher had around Alfred told me both of them felt like the redheaded stepchildren.
Alfred took a closer look at Martini. “I’m sorry, son.” He reached over and patted Martini’s cheek. “I was teasing. You could use a sense of humor.”
Martini’s father didn’t think he had a sense of humor? Oh, this was illuminating. And dread-worthy, since it was likely the entire Martini clan didn’t think he had a sense of humor. Meaning he was so miserable around them he was in his Commander-mode at all times. Or worse.
“Whatever,” Martini muttered. We all started walking again. “I don’t think tonight is a good idea. We have more operatives here now.”
“Claudia and Lorraine should go back to Dulce,” Alfred said sternly.
“Oh, so sorry, but they report to me. And I don’t want them going back.” Unlike Martini and Christopher, who were used to doing it, I loved to pull rank.
“What do you mean, they report to you?” Alfred looked shocked.
“Head of Airborne, remember? All five pilots, Tim, and the girls report in to my unit. And, considering how much activity we’ve had, the fact that all my humans are the worse for wear, and the fact I have to deal with Psycho Chick at dawn, I want my medical team and my flyboys here.”
“Seven additional members,” Martini added.
“Oh, and I want Michael, Brian, and Daniel with us, too, because I think we need to keep the astronauts under observation for a while. No idea if Daniel and his wife have kids, but that’s at least four more people. Now, if Daniel insists, I’d be okay with some A-Cs going home with him to keep him under observation, but they would be A-Cs not directly reporting to me.”
“So, way too many for dinner, let alone sleeping arrangements,” Martini said, trying to sound businesslike and not panicked. “We’ll settle into a hotel nearby or go up to East Base.”
“How many rooms do you think you’ll need?”
“Over twenty,” Martini said quickly.
Alfred gave him a long look. “I’m sure some can bunk together.”
“Yes, and I’ll be happy to tell you who’ll be bunking up.” Alfred looked at me with his eyebrow raised. “Lorraine and Claudia will be with Joe and Randy. I’ll be sleeping with Jeff, James will be with Paul. Tim, Jerry, Matt, and Chip can bunk together in one room for four or two rooms for two. Michael and Brian, same thing, and Kevin can bunk with Christopher.” I sort of figured this was letting him have it with both barrels, but, oh, well. “So, eight rooms, give or take. However, we’re all fine with going to a hotel somewhere. None of us want to put your family out for this.”
“No, it’ll be fine.” Alfred pulled out his cell phone and dialed. “Hello, dear. Yes, all’s well. Several close calls. Yes, we should be home in a short while. We have more operatives than originally estimated, though. Oh? You plan so well. Yes, the guesthouse needs to be ready, too. We’ll need every available room.” He was quiet for a bit. “Yes, they do plan that. I’ll ask.” He looked at me. “My wife would like to request that the, ah, couples sleep separately.”
I gave him a very nice smile. “We’ll be at a local hotel.” I started walking again, dragging Martini with me.
Alfred caught up. “You�
��ll be safer at our house.” He still had the phone open. I had a feeling Martini’s mother was listening in.
I kept on walking. “We’re all adults. The youngest person who’s in a couple situation is Lorraine, and she’s twenty-four. We just saved your asses at least three times over, we’ve had multiple attempts on our lives, I had to outrun the fastest alligator on the planet, we’re hurt, tired, cranky, and starving.”
I stopped and looked right at him. “If we were going to my parent’s house, they wouldn’t argue the sleeping arrangements. They’re clear that every person sleeping romantically with every other person is in a committed relationship and that we’re all adults. Now, if you can’t manage to grasp or accept that, that’s fine. No arguments or complaints on our side. We’ll just go to a hotel and eat and sleep there.” I leaned up so my voice would be clear in the phone as well. “We don’t want to be a problem, but we’re also not going to be treated like children. We happen to be grown up and in charge, whether you like it or not.”
I backed away and started walking again. I found myself wishing my parents were here, because while they liked to pretend to Martini that they didn’t think he was quite good enough, in truth they’d be angrier about this than I was.
“I wish they were here, too,” Martini said quietly to me.
“How do you do that?”
“You broadcast your emotions.”
“So you say. I still don’t understand it.”
He sighed. “You started longing for your parents. It’s a clear emotion for an empath. It’s almost impossible to explain to a nonempath. But I could tell you wanted them here. We could call them in,” he added, sounding as though he wanted to but didn’t think we should.
“Mom’s with the President. I doubt Kevin wants to call her in to help clean up.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t.” Martini looked over his shoulder and stopped walking. “My father’s arguing with my mother.” He sounded beyond depressed.
“Jeff, no matter what, you’re the baby of the family. They probably still think of you and Christopher as little boys. It took Operation Fugly for my parents to realize I was a full grown-up. It’s probably something similar.”
