Taken by Force

by Anna Argent

  She clenched her thighs in an effort to control her traitorous body’s reaction to Radek, but it did little good.

  Stacy’s voice made her jump. “What’s got you so distracted today?”

  Ava turned to her friend, who looked even more tired today than she had yesterday, if that were possible. “Nothing. Just… stuff.”

  “Is it a man?” Stacy asked.

  “No,” Ava said a little too quickly.

  Stacy went still, except for her jaw, which dropped open about a foot. “It is a man. I was just joking, but damn, girl, I’ve never seen you turn that shade of red before.”

  Ava covered her cheeks with her hands, incriminating herself further.

  “Please tell me it was Mr. Hottie from table thirteen last night, rather than one of the local yokels.”

  “His name is Radek, and no, this has nothing to do with him.”

  “And the Worst Liar Ever Award goes to.…”

  “Are you working tonight?” Ava asked in a desperate bid to change the subject.

  “You’re not getting off that easy. Tell me everything.”

  “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “Except that you’re acting like a schoolgirl with her very first crush. I’ve never seen this side of you, but it’s kinda fun. I approve.”

  “Well, don’t. He was just passing through town. Passed, actually. I’m sure he’s long gone by now.”

  I’ll see you tomorrow, Ava.

  That’s what he’d told her last night, and she wasn’t sure whether to root for him to be a liar or not. After the dreams she’d had, she didn’t think she’d survive another round with the man and not spontaneously combust.

  The bell on the door chimed.

  “Speak of the devil,” Stacy said, grinning at someone over Ava’s shoulder.

  Ava heard the words and understood that her friend had just seen Radek walk in, but she knew it had to be a mistake. Her internal sense of doom hadn’t gone off, which meant that the sexy man who rocked her world down to its foundation couldn’t possibly be here. She would have known if that kind of danger had just walked in.

  Wouldn’t she?

  She turned around and met Radek’s gaze.

  He gave her a friendly smile, and everything south of her green apron’s belt simply melted in welcome.

  “Whew,” Stacy said. “That man is so hot, I think I just ovulated.”

  Ava slapped her friend’s arm with the back of her fingers. “Keep your eggs to yourself. He’s mine.”

  Where those words had come from, Ava had no idea. They’d simply welled up from the pit of her being and spewed from her mouth for absolutely no good reason at all.

  Stacy laughed. “Just a stranger passing through, my ass. Go get you some of that hotness before someone else sweeps it away. I’ll cover your tables for a minute.”

  Ava had no intention of approaching the man, but her body had other ideas. Before she realized what she was doing, she was halfway across the room, on her way to meet the only man who’d ever made her feel like a real woman.

  *****

  Watching Ava walk toward him was the highlight of Radek’s day. The smooth, feminine sway of her hips and the springy bounce of her hair were so alluring he almost missed the way her mouth was tight with anger. Even her pretty blue and green eyes were sending out unwelcome sparks.

  “Why are you here?” she asked.

  Because no matter how cool he wanted to play it, he hadn’t been able to wait until closer to closing time to see her again. Because not being near enough to protect her worried the hell out of him. Because no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  But rather than admitting any of that, he simply said, “We have unfinished business.”

  She took him by the arm and pulled him into the hallway leading to the restrooms. “You can’t keep showing up at my workplace like this, especially after the trouble you caused last night. I need this job.”

  “The trouble I caused? You were the one going after him with a meat cleaver. If you remember right, I was the one who held you back from being charged with murder.”

  She pulled in a deep breath that pressed her lovely breasts above the top of that ghastly apron. Radek’s gaze lingered for a moment too long, but there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it. A sight as lovely as that deserved to be appreciated.

  “Listen, Radek. I appreciate what you did last night, but it’s a small town, and everyone is talking about you.”

  “Let them talk.”

  “They’re talking about us.”

  “So?” He shrugged, enjoying the thought of being part of an us a little too much.

  Pull it together. She’s just a job. An assignment. Gone as soon as you can convince her to hop through the next window home.

  “So I need you to stop coming here.”

  “I can’t. Not until you hear me out.”

  An elderly woman hobbled down the hall to the restroom, taking her sweet time as she passed as if hoping to hear a bit of their conversation.

  Ava backed away from him as far as the space would allow. “What could you and I possibly have to discuss?”

  He almost told her that he thought she was from an alien world, but held his tongue. What if she didn’t know who she was? What if he shocked or scared her so much she never wanted to speak to him again? He couldn’t go back to Warden Trathen empty handed.

  He played it safe and said, “I’ve been sent here to find someone, and I think you might be able to help me locate them.”

  She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Are you some kind of bounty hunter?”

  “No. The person I seek hasn’t committed any crimes.”

  “Then why are you looking for them?”

  “Because it’s my job. All I need is a few minutes of your time. If you can’t help me, I swear I’ll never bother you again.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as she decided. “Fine. Swing back by after we close and I’ll try to help after my shift is over.”

  Victory coursed through him, and it was all he could do not to kiss that sweet mouth of hers. Instead, he took her hand in his and gave it a firm squeeze. “Thank you.”

  She went still at his touch, and he could feel the sudden drop in the temperature of her hand while the rest of her seemed to warm in a slow burst.

  Her throat moved as she swallowed. “Uh. Sure. No problem.”

  Radek allowed himself one slow swipe of his thumb over her soft skin before he let go of her hand. “Tonight, Ava. I’ll see you soon.”

  *****

  Ava’s double shift crawled by with excruciating slowness.

  She was both nervous and excited about meeting Radek later, and still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to do so. If not for the magnetic pull the man had on her, she probably wouldn’t have.

  But as the night wore on, her nerves drew tighter and tighter until she was a frenetic bundle of nerves. Finally, after the restaurant was clean and the staff had all gone home, Ava could finally lock up and meet Radek.

  Maybe he wouldn’t even be outside, waiting for her.

  The sudden stab of disappointment she suffered was proof enough that she was looking forward to their encounter at least as much as she was dreading it.

  The parking lot was empty. She lived only a few blocks away and always walked unless the weather was horrible. Her bedazzled baseball bat was in her yoga bag, slung over her shoulder, just in case.

  Until recently, she’d been more worried about running into a dangerous animal than a dangerous person. Since Emily’s encounter with Beau, that had all changed. Apparently even small towns were big enough to house a violent element.

  The cool air sucked away her warmth and urged her to go home. Radek had found the person he was looking for, forgotten to meet her, or he’d changed his mind about her being able to help. Whatever the case, she wasn’t going to stand out here and wait for him like some kind of infatuated schoolgirl.

  Eve
n if she kinda felt like one.

  Ava was half way home when she felt her internal warning system go off.

  Something bad was about to happen.

  She turned, expecting to see Radek, but instead, there were two men she recognized as Beau’s buddies. And these men weren’t the generally good-natured farmhands he’d been with before.

  These men were mean, rough and completely loyal to the sheriff. He was the only reason they weren’t in jail, and they knew it.

  Her Spidey sense screamed louder—the way it had the night Emily had been assaulted.

  Ava’s heart did a swooping dive. Before it was done, she started to run.

  Beau stepped out from hiding, providing an excellent roadblock. She ran right into him and bounced off, landing on her ass.

  He looked down at her, his face a mask of cold anger. “Now that your big friend isn’t around to get in the way, it seems to me we have some things to discuss, don’t we, Ava?”

  Chapter Five

  By the time Radek had been able to end his communications with Warden Trathen and get back to the Billy Hill Grill, Ava was already gone.

  He’d missed her, but not by much. The thermal trail she’d left behind was faint, but he could still sense it well enough to know she hadn’t been gone long.

  He’d go to her house and hope she wasn’t too mad at being stood up to talk to him.

  Before he got to her house on foot, he knew something was wrong. There were more thermal trails. Several of them.

  Her heat signature ended here as if someone had picked her up off the sidewalk.

  There were only a few reasons someone might do that, and none of them were good.

  Radek traced the path the others took, hoping he wasn’t too late. As he raced through the streets toward the edge of the little town, the houses became older and more rundown. A quarter mile from here the countryside started in earnest, and there were lots of places out there someone could hide.

  Had the Raide found her? Had they killed her and taken her body? Or was she being kept alive so that they could use her for their twisted experiments?

  He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight. His gut said she was Loriahan. Why the hell hadn’t he listened to it?

  As he followed the trail behind a mobile home to a rusting outbuilding, he heard male voices.

  Human voices.

  A sense of relief swept through him only to disappear as he recognized one of the voices.

  Beau. And he was angry.

  Radek had hoped Beau would have decided that Ava was too much trouble to bother, but apparently it was too much to expect a thug to behave in a civilized fashion. And Beau was definitely a thug.

  Radek eased around the building until he could see inside.

  Ava was fighting against the hold of one of three men. Her movements were weak and clumsy, as if she’d been hit in the head hard enough to stun her.

  Rage surged against his ribs and heated his skin. His fingers clenched around the shaft of his weapon, eager for a fight.

  Radek’s efforts to scare Beau away had only made things worse. He could see that now—see that the men Beau had chosen to bring with him this time were not the kind to be scared away by a little blood or broken bones.

  These men were killers. Radek had known enough of them to recognize the type when he saw them.

  He clung to the shadows made plentiful by the moonless night. Cold air swept over his naked torso, bringing with it the radiant heat of Ava’s skin. He could feel the varying temperatures around him like a map on his flesh—lingering warmth of day rising from the ground, the chill falling from the empty night sky, the heat of decay emanating from a nearby trash pile. And people. Several people were inside the house, close enough for him to detect through his sensitive skin, even though they were hidden behind walls.

  Radek closed his eyes and felt her silhouette of heat graze over his chest. He didn’t need his eyes to track her but he found it calmed his ragged nerves to see her moving and breathing.

  The trio of killers closed in around her, and it took all of Radek’s self-control not to rush out and crush them. He knew men like this—had seen more than his fair share of them in prison. They understood nothing but violence.

  Luckily, that was one language in which Radek was fluent.

  His fingers curled into fists around his maulst. The weapon’s handle vibrated in his grip as it fed off the energy flowing through his cells. The tip let out a faint blue glow as it remolded itself into a giant hammer shaped like a fist. Radek shifted his body to hide the light from the men.

  The need to wield the weapon on Ava’s behalf thrummed through him, making his muscles bunch and twitch. A pulse of urgency flickered beneath his skin, and his senses heightened as his body’s natural need for violence coursed through his veins.

  He was trained to kill. Bred to defend. He’d never considered humans his enemies, but he was an adaptable sort—another facet of his breeding.

  Doubt flickered in his mind, stilling his limbs. To kill in defense of a Loriahan was one thing, but to kill for a human… that kind of interference was forbidden.

  What if Ava wasn’t who he thought she was?

  Radek held himself back. He couldn’t act. Not unless he was sure who she was. Interfering in the lives of humans was against the rules—something that would land his ass back in prison on his home world before the blood of his enemies had time to dry.

  He couldn’t go back. Not after this taste of freedom. But he couldn’t watch an innocent woman be hurt or killed either.

  Could he?

  The last thing he wanted to do was give away his presence on this alien world. That was the sort of thing that caused riots and bloodshed. Humans were much better off thinking they were the only ones in the universe. Sleeping at night was so much easier that way—for everyone.

  The men were chuckling and grinning in anticipation of what they would do with their catch. They were certain the woman was now their plaything to do with as they pleased.

  Radek knew in that moment that they were mistaken. Rules or not, he wasn’t going to let this play out the way they wanted. Whoever Ava was—human or Loriahan—he was going to intervene. With brutal force.

  One of the men pushed her into a folding chair hard enough to send her sprawling to the ground. Radek let his hungry maulst pull more power from his cells. The blue tip brightened in eagerness as it hardened into the shape of a sharp blade.

  Now armed with a spear—far quieter than a blunt weapon—Radek moved in on the men, ready to pounce on them the second they were in reach.

  That’s when he realized that Ava wasn’t as weak or helpless as she’d pretended to be. She’d fallen from the chair on purpose. so she could retrieve the bat she carried over her shoulder.

  With the grace of an acrobat, she rolled out of the circle of men and onto her feet, wielding a baseball bat—her bejeweled weapon—in her hands. She was positioned in a relaxed fighting stance, ready to move in whatever direction necessary in the blink of an eye. The hard expression on her pretty face was both a warning and a challenge.

  “Who’s first?” she asked as she looked each man in the eyes, not even a hint of fear to be seen.

  Radek let his shock wash over him, but it didn’t leave him unaffected. He’d encountered a lot of unexpected situations in his time here on Earth, but nothing like this.

  He stopped cold and ducked back from the open doorway, out of sight. He held the glowing weapon behind him, shielding its light as much as possible. A faint blue outline of his head and shoulders landed on the ground at his feet. And while it spilled into the building, giving away his presence, he didn’t think anyone had noticed. They were all too focused on Ava.

  “You?” she asked, looking at the large man on the left.

  The thug had a red face that looked like it had been smashed flat with a hot iron. His beady eyes narrowed in anger, and his hands clenched and unclenched as he watched her.

  The man on Bea
u’s right was far more relaxed. He was smaller and more compact, but instantly set off Radek’s instincts as being the most dangerous one.

  Thug number one said, “I can’t let you go around town talking trash about my friend here.”

  Ava shifted her grip, choking up on the bat. “He hurt Emily. If he didn’t want me telling everyone what an asshole he was, he shouldn’t have forced himself on her.”

  Beau took a step forward. “She was into me. She’s wanted me for years, and we both know it.”

  She sneered at his lie. “Take one more step—any of you—and I will hurt you.”

  Thug number two grunted. “You can try, but that would make me very unhappy. I’m afraid we couldn’t be friends after that kind of insult.”

  “Don’t want to be your friend. Just go. I’d really rather not have to break any skulls tonight.” Her voice didn’t so much as quiver as she spoke, telling Radek she was confident in her ability to protect herself.

  He wished he could say the same. He was desperate to lay into these men—assholes who liked to scare women.

  Not your planet. Not your place.

  His maulst hummed in defiance, eager to be used. Ava’s gaze twitched toward Radek. The instant she made contact, looking him right in the eyes, he felt a connection.

  They were on the same team now. For the first time since his friend Talan had left Earth to return home, Radek finally felt like he was no longer alone.

  She must have felt something too because her grip loosened and the bat lowered slightly in her confusion.

  The giant on the left used her instant of distraction as an opening and charged.

  Chapter Six

  Ava had stood toe-to-toe with Beau and his dangerous friends and hadn’t felt even a slight quiver of fear, but seeing Radek come to her rescue—knowing she wasn’t alone—had the power to make her tremble.

  Whatever else happened, there was one thing she knew for a fact: this man—whoever he was—wasn’t going to leave her alone to face this danger.

  Before any of that could sink in, before she had time to get over her shock that a virtual stranger would want to help her, one of the men charged.