“Hive dead. Sister safe. With mate.” Kai’s short answers were not good enough. I turned to agent Jennifer—which three letter agency she supposedly worked for, I had no idea—and glared. She looked young, early thirties at most. Her long hair was pulled back in a tight twist. Her suit was black and could be worn to a nice dinner or a work conference. She was made to blend in. Might pull it off, too, if she weren’t so pretty.
I held her gaze. “Where is my sister? These Hive things were at my apartment, too? Did she get hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, god. How bad is it? Is she going to be okay?”
Kai growled as if I’d insulted him. “Safe. With mate.”
Like that explanation was even close to good enough. “My sister is on another planet? Right now? With some crazy Atlan beast claiming she’s his mate?” Was I yelling? Yes. Yep. Yelling at the pretty secret agent whose only job appeared to be to clean up alien guts. “What did they want? Why were they at the apartment? This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Want you.” Kai’s free hand came to rest on my back like a large heating pad. I wanted to sink into his warmth and pretend none of this was happening. I ignored the fact that at least three more full size Atlan warlords in their ‘beast’ forms paced the perimeter, that the human teams wearing black were hauling loaded body bags past me, out to their waiting, unmarked vehicles. This was all insane. Totally, completely nuts.
“Me? Why do they want me?”
Jennifer lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Apparently, you have some pictures that both the Hive and the Coalition Fleet are willing to kill to get their hands on. So, where are the pictures you took at the fight club? The ones with Warlord Maxus on the floor, fighting their mind control. Bunch of beasts, one dead human male, and two Prillon warriors who’ve been integrated and turned into Hive cyborgs? You know, Miss Linton, the images you’ve been trying to sell for the last few months?”
“How do you know about them?” Was she the reason no one would buy the images? Did she put some kind of black mark on me? Warn people off?
She rolled her eyes. “Really? Did you see the badge?”
“Not really.” When I realized my free arm was now draped across Kai’s chest and my fingers wrapped around the side of his neck, I pulled away. Kai grabbed my hand and put my palm flat against his skin again before I registered the movement. Damn. He was freaking fast. My body shouldn’t be melting just because he locked my hand in place like he wanted me to touch him. Needed it. I had to admit, the skin to skin contact was the only thing keeping me from launching into hysterics. That and the fact that one of the biggest, scariest, strongest creatures I’d ever seen held me like a precious gift, like he would never let anything happen to me, like he would kill to protect me.
No, not would. He did. He ripped that Hive guy in half right in front of me. I should probably be terrified. Instead, I felt safe. I never felt safe. Especially not after three aliens just tried to kidnap me. “He said their Nexus wanted to talk to me. What does that mean? What’s a Nexus?”
“Leader.” Kai’s hand wrapped around my fingers and squeezed, gently, as if he wanted to reassure me. How could someone so immense, intimidating and covered in debris be so… sweet?
Did he really think I was his mate? That would be crazy. I’d never even seen him before. When the insta-love between an Atlan and his mate happened on TV, to someone else, the Atlans’ love-at-first-sight thing seemed so romantic. Now I wasn’t so sure. How could he know he would ever fall in love with me, when he didn’t know me at all? Not one bit.
“Miss Linton, where are the full size images? Not the cropped graphics you’ve been circulating.” How did Jennifer, the federal agent, know the images were cropped?
“Why does anyone want those images? You’ve already seen what was on them.” She’d described the scene perfectly. Knew who was in the pictures. What was on them.
“The why is irrelevant. Where are the original files?” Before I could answer, one of her men approached.
“Ma’am, the locals will be here in five. We need the aliens out of here before they arrive.”
Jennifer leaned around Kai’s large form and shouted. “Warlord Bahre, we need you to clear out.” She glanced at me and Kai. “That goes for you, too.”
Her agent cleared his throat. “What cover story do you want to go with? Gas line?”
Jennifer studied the destruction I knew was behind me. “No. Drug deal gone wrong. No sense burning the place down. They make great breakfast.”
“Bullets over pancakes. On it.” He turned on his heel and walked toward one of their vehicles.
She looked at me. “You have a vehicle here, I assume?”
“No. I walked.”
She lifted her hand to her mouth and blew a shrill whistle. Her minion jogged back over. “Carmichael, take these two back to Miss Linton’s apartment.” Her suspicious gaze focused on me. “Get what you need and get out of there. I’ll have one of my people standby to take you wherever you need to go… after you get me those pictures.”
I sputtered a protest. “I don’t have them at the apartment. They’re?—"
The sound of police sirens cut me off. They were close.
“I don’t have time to argue.” With a shake of her head, she turned to Kai. “Get her out of here. And Carmichael!” Her agent, already on his way back to the black SUV, glanced over his shoulder.
“Yeah, boss?”
