Hawkeye: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides #9 (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Tasha Black

  Trinity gave Veronica a little shove.

  Then Veronica began asking Brooke about her upcoming meeting with Jade St. Vincent. They were supposed to get together to figure out if Jade was really going to invest in the gym. Veronica, who often did fundraising to support the K-9 program, seemed very interested in each tiny adjustment in the calculations surrounding the difference between partnering with Jade and just paying her a private mortgage against the building.

  Trinity listened as best she could, but she was grateful to her friends for not faulting her wandering mind.

  Although maybe wandering wasn’t the right word, since it always went straight back to Hawkeye.

  They were right. He did seem to like her a lot. And of course she was attracted to him.

  But she had finally gotten out on her own - out from under the responsibility of helping her stretched-thin parents care for all those baby brothers. She could finally follow her own passion and do something meaningful.

  Trinity had spent most of her life feeling invisible. The ten-year old changing her brothers’ diapers. The twenty-year old sloughing through IT classes. And the lifeless adult work of digitizing endless yellowed files.

  Her computer had always been her outlet.

  And the pro bono work she was doing now made her feel important and unique. With her particular skill set, and her desire to help those who didn’t have a voice, Trinity was finally becoming a person in her own right - not just a daughter or a sister or an employee.

  If she let her body make her decisions, she would soon find herself babysitting an immature alien.

  Although her friends were right about that too. He sure didn’t look like a baby.

  His arms were like tree trunks, and those dreamy eyes…

  But Trinity was too experienced to think he could be dreamy for long. She knew how guys who looked like Hawkeye acted when they weren’t trying to make a good impression.

  Best case they were goofy and hapless, like her brothers.

  But too many times they wound up just like the jocks in school, the ones that made fun of her, but still tried to look down her shirt.

  Guys with muscles like Hawkeye’s were trouble. As soon as he assimilated to life on Earth, he’d get the message that his fame and good looks meant he didn’t have to be on good behavior. And then he would change.

  Plus, most of the online work she did required strict anonymity. That would be pretty much impossible if she married an alien. Veronica’s friend, Georgia, said the government was likely tapping their lines and watching their communications.

  And even if the government didn’t take an interest, the media would.

  As soon as it came out that the guys at the academy were aliens, which was only a matter of time, she’d be plastered all over the net with the rest of them.

  No. She would not get involved with Hawkeye.

  No matter how pretty his eyes were. Or how good his triceps looked when he lifted those heavy file boxes.

  Or how many times he looked at her like that, like she was his whole world…

  “I’m going back to bed,” Brooke said, rousing Trinity from her own thoughts.

  “Yeah, there’s still time to catch a few Z’s,” Veronica agreed.

  Trinity got up too and followed her friends back inside. But instead of heading to bed, she decided to try getting a little work done.

  If she wasn’t going to sleep, she might as well pack up a few file boxes.

  6

  Hawkeye

  Hawkeye tossed and turned in his bed.

  The curtains drifted across his pillow, stirred by the breeze from the open window. Outside, the sky was dark as the cliffs of Aerie, studded with tiny faraway stars.

  He was tired, but his mind was moving too quickly for sleep to catch it. Back in the lab, Dr. Bhimani had taught them about meditation as a way to calm the body and mind if they ever found themselves overwhelmed. He decided to give it a try.

  Closing his eyes and opening his other senses, Hawkeye took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  Breathe in your surroundings.

  He tasted the jasmine in the damp night air.

  Listen to your heartbeat.

  He listened as hard as he could, but couldn’t hear the reassuring thud of his heart.

  He did, however, hear the sound of someone trying not to make a sound.

  It was coming from the hallway.

  Two sets of footsteps tiptoed up the stairs and disappeared. It must have been Veronica and Brooke going back upstairs to their mates after a visit with Trinity.

  That meant she must be awake too.

  He considered going to see her, though he was sure that was not what she would want.

  He went to the door and placed a hand against it.

  Trinity, do you need me?

  A moment later he heard someone going downstairs.

  Anxious as he was to follow, he didn’t want to annoy her.

  Reluctantly, he went back to his bed and lay, staring at the ceiling, picturing her as she had been that afternoon - smiling up at him with the warm sunlight behind her.

  He felt his body respond to the stimulus more eagerly than it had with any of the videos the scientists had asked him to watch.

  But what they had asked from him was an empty pleasure. He would rather restrain himself, refine his suffering in order to deserve Trinity’s attention - the real Trinity, not the one he imagined with her lush lips pressed to his, her breasts warm and heavy in his palms…

  He tried to distract himself by remembering the fairy tale of one of the films he had watched on Aerie. A simple farm boy had assisted his mistress, much as Hawkeye assisted Trinity, and with his faithful service, won her heart.

  The story was most exciting, but as Hawkeye and his brothers had viewed that film many, many times, he was able to remain calm as he recounted it to himself.

  He had nearly slowed his breathing and pulse back to resting levels when he heard the terrified scream.

  It was coming from downstairs.

  Trinity.

  7

  Hawkeye

  Hawkeye exploded out of bed and was halfway to the door before the sound stopped.

  There was movement upstairs, as if the others were also stirring, but he didn’t wait for them. Trinity was downstairs alone. He couldn’t get to her fast enough.

  He took the stairs two at a time, pounded through the center hall back past the kitchen to the admin office where Trinity had likely gone to work.

  It was quiet now, and the silence was somehow worse than the scream.

  “Trinity,” he called.

  “Someone is in here,” she said from somewhere in the darkness of the adjoining storage room, her voice low.

  Her tone sent ice water through his veins as he walked to the threshold of the room.

  “Come out with your hands up,” Hawkeye said, letting his voice go deep and commanding, as he had seen the cadets do in their training.

  There was no response.

  Those were the proper words to use when addressing a burglar - he was sure of it. The movies were very clear on this subject.

  But when no one emerged, he moved into the room at once.

  His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. He could see the shape that was Trinity a few steps away. The neat stacks of boxes that usually formed aisles in the room had been pushed and shoved until the space was more like a moonlit labyrinth.

  “Trinity, wait in the hallway, please,” he whispered to her.

  “Like hell,” she whispered back.

  He ground his teeth but didn’t ask again.

  Hawkeye was beginning to realize that real Earth women were a lot fiercer than the movies would have led him to believe.

  He focused on the far aisle, which was less disheveled than the others. Trinity had doubtlessly interrupted the intruder before he could complete his rummaging in that section.

  He could see Trinity in his periphery, circling around as if to be re
ady to cut off the suspect on the other end of the aisle.

  He managed to restrain his fury that she would put herself at risk in this way and took another cautious step.

  There were footsteps on the stairs from above - the others must have been on the way. A loud thump drew his attention as someone - most likely his enormous brother Conan - jumped from the last landing and thudded to the oak floor of the center hall.

  Half a second later there was a rush of movement at the center of the aisle next to the one they were searching.

  The intruder must have taken advantage of their momentary distraction and tried to escape.

  Quick as a flash, Trinity moved toward the sound.

  Hawkeye followed.

  “Trinity,” Brooke’s voice yelled from the hallway.

  “Shit,” Trinity said.

  Hawkeye moved to her and saw what she was looking at.

  At the end of the aisle there was a broken window. He approached slowly, wary of his bare feet. But there didn’t seem to be any glass on the floor.

  Suddenly the overheads were buzzing. They flickered once and then the room was filled with blinding light.

  “What happened?” Brooke asked from the doorway, her hand still on the switch.

  “Is everyone okay?” Conan asked.

  Lobo and Veronica appeared in the threshold behind them.

  “We’re fine,” Trinity said. “Someone broke in, but whoever it was is long gone now.”

  Hawkeye looked to where they had heard the noise.

  An overturned box was on the floor, papers spilling out.

  “It must have teetered over when everyone came thundering down the stairs,” Trinity said, indicating the box.

  “Is there anything valuable stored here?” Lobo asked, looking around at the stacks.

  Trinity shook her head. “No, nothing.”

  “Maybe they were trying to get to the martial arts studio,” Conan suggested.

  “Sorry, big guy,” Brooke said. “But there’s not much worth stealing there either.”

  “Is there anything in here besides really old records?” Veronica asked.

  “Really, really old records,” Trinity joked.

  But Hawkeye could hear the tension in her voice. She had been frightened.

  Somehow, that made him feel better, even though he didn’t like for her to be upset. At least she had some sense of self-preservation.

  He went to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder before realizing that she might not want him to.

  But she leaned into him, and he felt a measure of peace return to him with her warm little body pressed to his.

  “Well, let’s get something to seal the window,” Brooke suggested, ever practical. “Do you want to call Henderson?”

  “We can probably wait until morning,” Trinity said. “There really wasn’t anything here to take besides a bunch of old papers. I don’t think they’re coming back.”

  Hawkeye understood, but he didn’t agree. Breaking into a building where so many people lived was risky - especially when that building was part of the police academy. And breaking glass was very dangerous.

  Hawkeye doubted that anyone would do such a thing unless they were fairly certain something precious was on the other side.

  8

  Hawkeye

  Hawkeye made sure to wake up early the next morning so that he could walk Trinity to the monastery.

  He hadn’t really slept at all - it had been all he could do not to beg her to let him sleep on the floor of her room. It pained him to leave her alone when danger could be looming.

  He’d spent the night in the darkness of the hallway between their suites, going on high alert with every creak of the old building.

  Now the sun was rising bright, sparkling in the dew on the lush grass of the field. The world seemed fresh and new.

  Trinity walked beside him, looking lost in thought.

  He had hoped the way she leaned on him last night might mean she was feeling more open to him.

  But if so, she wasn’t showing it right now.

  “Who did Brooke inform about the break-in?” he asked. “What will be done?”

  Trinity shook her head. “We’re not going to report it.”

  “What?” Hawkeye asked. “Why not?”

  “Brooke is buying the building next week,” Trinity explained. “We don’t want to do anything that could impact that. Reporting the break-in might mean she can’t get insurance.”

  Hawkeye didn’t want to argue as he didn’t understand the complexities of Earth’s commerce, but privately he felt their safety was more important than the timing on buying the building.

  “Who do you think it was?” he asked.

  “Probably just kids,” Trinity said unconvincingly. “Veronica said she might bring one of the dogs by today and have a sniff around.”

  “Why would children want to break into a file room?” He was astonished at the thought.

  “Can we talk about something else?” she asked.

  “Sure,” Hawkeye said.

  But he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to think about anything else.

  “Thanks for helping me,” she said, as if it were a peace offering.

  “It’s my pleasure to help you,” he said. “Do you enjoy your work?”

  He didn’t really know of another way to ask without indicating that he thought her work was boring. Trinity seemed too smart to spend so much time on such a repetitive task. But maybe there was something about it he had missed, a subtlety that made it more difficult than what she had shown him so far.

  “Ha,” she laughed mirthlessly. “It’s tedious, isn’t it? This is hardly the work I enjoy.”

  “What kind of work do you enjoy?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer right away and he studied her face. She was smirking slightly, her lips buttoned.

  “Let’s just say it’s classified,” she said at last.

  “I’m good at keeping secrets,” he replied.

  But she only walked on.

  They rounded the corner behind the monastery and he tried to distract himself by admiring the labyrinth made of bushes that filled the square between the chapel that came off the northern side of the back of the building and the admin offices that came off the southern side.

  He turned back and caught Trinity looking at him with an odd expression.

  “It’s cool, isn’t it?” Trinity asked.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Why was it built? To confound those who wished to intrude on the monastery’s peace?”

  Trinity laughed for a moment.

  “Have I said something wrong?” he asked.

  “No, actually,” she said. “You would think that a labyrinth would be built for that reason, I just never thought about it. But in this case it was decorative. Probably in most cases.”

  “I see,” he said, studying the overgrowth.

  “At one time it was decorative,” Trinity amended. “Now it’s just spooky.”

  Hawkeye thought it was beautiful, but they were already entering the chapel and Trinity was moving ahead of him to turn on the lights.

  Not that they needed them. The room was already filled with soft early light.

  They laid out the morning’s work in friendly silence. Something about the stillness of the room seemed to encourage quiet voices and peace.

  They had just begun scanning when Trinity’s phone rang.

  “Weird,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  Hawkeye was puzzled at the state of telephones on this strange planet. From all he had learned on Aerie, Earth’s many telephones were plugged into the wall and answered with alacrity when they rang, especially by women, who longed to speak into them for long amounts of time while twisting their cords.

  Once he arrived, however, he found that modern telephones were tiny in comparison to their predecessors, except in cost. And they had no cords at all except during times when their batteries were charging. These phones were carried on
the person at all times, but never used for speaking except under great duress. Instead, they were used as tiny computers or text messaging machines.

  The few times he had seen Trinity’s phone repeatedly make what she called a “ring tone” she had looked down on it and “rejected” the call scornfully.

  This time she picked it up.

  “Hello?” she said breathlessly.

  Hawkeye could just hear a high-pitched murmur on the other end.

  “Shit,” Trinity replied.

  More squeaking on the other end.

  “Mm hmm,” Trinity agreed. “Okay, don’t worry.”

  Quieter squeaking.

  “No, don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Trinity said with finality.

  She shoved the phone into her pocket angrily, then slid her stool up to the table and began tapping furiously on the keyboard.

  “What’s wrong?” Hawkeye asked, moving toward her.

  He saw the indecision in her eyes - she wasn’t sure if she trusted him.

  He waited, holding his breath, willing her to believe in him.

  “You said you were good at secrets,” she said at last. “Come see what kind of work I enjoy.”

  He joined her behind the screen before she could change her mind.

  “This just hit the social news sites,” she said, tapping the screen.

  ALIEN IN LAKE

  Submitted 45min ago by DaddysSweetCar69

  213 comments - like - report

  Next to the words was an image with a triangle at its center that told him it was a video.

  The image showed Hawkeye’s brother, Remington, coming out of a lake.

  “Oh, no,” he breathed. “That’s my brother.”

  “Damned skippy that’s your brother,” Trinity said. “And he’s going to be at the top of the first page if this goes on for another hour.”

  Hawkeye felt the blood drain from his face.

  “This is terrible,” he said. “The women at Stargazer could go to jail.”

  “Not on my watch they won’t,” Trinity said.

  Her fingers were moving on the screen so fast he could hardly see them. She had left the page with Remington’s video on it.