He spoke, but I understood only one word, Lyra’s name. What language was he speaking? Nothing I’d heard before. The low, rumbling voice made me clench my teeth as realization dawned.
He was an alien. A huge fucking alien.
So thiswas an Atlan Warlord in the flesh. Fuck me, these guys were massive. Not just tall but built like tanks. The guy looked like he could bench press five hundred pounds without breaking a sweat. I’d only ever seen them in videos or on television. How many other aliens were on the property? Were they all Atlans, or were there soldiers from other planets here as well?
“Not too late to back out and make a few calls,” Jenkins suggested, his quiet words spoken just a few inches from my ear. “We have the location of that building. We don’t need these guys. We have friends of our own.”
He wasn’t wrong. I didn’t need to be here to ensure the assholes that murdered Doctor Pearson were caught. Thanks to Jenkins’ solid detective work, we had their probable location as well as images we could use to track and identify all three of the bad guys I’d encountered at the morgue. We could call our new friends and arrange a raid of our own. No aliens. No more cloak and dagger bullshit from the CIA. No secret meeting with Atlan Warlords in what looked like a fortified stronghold hidden on Earth. Leaving now would be the smart thing to do.
Since meeting Lyra, my head had been losing one logic battle after another with various other parts of my anatomy. At first, my dick had been in charge. The way I felt about leaving Lyra to deal with these Atlans on her own wasn’t coming from him but somewhere far more dangerous, a place that could get me killed.
I caught Jenkins’ eye and gave a slight shake of my head. No. I couldn’t leave. Not because I cared about meeting with the Atlans or using them to help with our investigation. There was only one reason. “I can’t leave her alone with them.”
“All right.” Jenkins’ lifted an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
The gigantic non-human male spoke again, pointing as if giving Lyra directions on what to do farther inside. She nodded along like she understood perfectly.
“Thank you. I have two Miami police officers with me. I sent a message to the commander that they would be attending this meeting.” Lyra spoke in clear, concise English, presumably for mine and Jenkins’ benefit. I couldn’t lie, had to admit a bit of tension drained from my shoulders. Not all, but enough to keep me from yanking Lyra away from the brute, climbing into the driver’s seat and getting us the hell out of here.
The giant looked at each of us in turn, then gave a brief nod of his chin before stepping away from the vehicle and returning to his guardhouse. Moments later, the gate slid to one side and the tire spikes retracted into the smooth concrete driveway.
Lyra said nothing, just rolled up her window and drove us all deeper into the viper’s nest.
“How did you know what the Atlan was saying?” I asked.
Lyra glanced at me from the corner of her eye. “I have an NPU. It’s called a Neural Processing Unit. A small piece of technology the Coalition places in the bone just below your ear. All volunteer soldiers and brides get one when they leave the planet.”
“And CIA officers?” Jenkins asked.
Lyra ignored him and stared straight out the windshield as she navigated the tree-lined, curved drive. “The NPU translates every known language, from every planet in the Coalition, in real time, and transmits the new signal directly to your auditory nerves.”
“Damn, that would come in handy. I could stop feeling guilty for not practicing my Spanish,” Jenkins said.
“You don’t feel guilty,” I grumbled the joke in a lame attempt to break the tension I knew we were both feeling.
If the silence was any indication, my attempt at levity did nothing. We were both watching out the windows looking for the boogey-man to jump out at us at any time. Lyra’s shoulders were tense, her lips pressed together and her knuckles nearly white where they wrapped around the steering wheel. Her agitation did nothing to soothe my nerves. I didn’t like one fucking thing about this situation. Not one.
Hell. That was a lie. I liked the fact that I was with her. Which was a whole different kind of messed-up after two days together.
Didn’t take long to break through the dense foliage. We emerged onto a circular drive, in front of a massive, plantation style home hidden away. I could swear we were a full mile from the entrance. I quickly took note of two well-armed guards on the rooftops as well as two more at the gigantic, double entry doors.
Lyra pulled right up to the stone steps in front of the entrance and parked the SUV. Fingers draped over the door handle, she turned to look at me, spared a quick glance at Jenkins, then held my gaze like her life depended on not blinking. “Let me do the talking, okay? These guys don’t mess around. They’re all Coalition veterans. Most of them were Hive prisoners and, even though I sent a message ahead, you two were not part of the plan. They’re making a concession because I asked.”
I had to know. “Why did you ask?”
Her breath hitched and her dark eyes grew stormy with an emotion I knew all too well… grief. “I did it for Eddie.” She turned to look Jenkins. “And Charlene and Maddy. I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. To crave justice.”
Jenkins cleared his throat and opened his door. Not one for sitting around crying when there were bad guys to chase. The chase is what had kept us both going the last couple years. “Don’t worry, pretty lady. We know how to behave when we need to. Don’t we, Detective?” He slapped me on the shoulder and got out of the car before Lyra could say anything else. Instead, she turned back to me when his door slammed.
“Ethan, I don’t want you to get hurt. That’s all I’m worried about. I don’t know these guys. I’ve never met them in person. I know they are tough fighters. I trust them to help with the Scion raid, but I—” She bit her bottom lip in a way that made me want to kiss it. She was worried about me? “I know you don’t like Atlans. And I’m afraid?—”
I grabbed her chin with one hand, kissed her quickly, and held her face in front of mine. “You are not going in there without me. Not happening.” I kissed her again when she opened those luscious lips to utter what I assumed would be another concern. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know. I just don’t want this to change anything between us.” She rested her forehead against mine, shared my air. I drank her in for long seconds and waited because I could practically feel the weight of whatever she wanted to say to me. “We need to talk. After this, we need to talk. Okay?”
“I don’t know why I’m here. Nothing about us makes sense. I hardly know you.” She tried to pull back as I spoke, create distance between us, but I wrapped my hand around the back of her head and held her in place. Safe. Secure. Mine. “But I need to be here with you. I need to make sure you’re okay. I can’t walkaway from you. I don’t care who you are, or who you work for. It doesn’t matter to me. I can’t let you do this alone.” Every word was the truth. I was entering an alien stronghold with a woman I’d known barely two days, a woman who was a professional liar, a god damn CIA officer.
Didn’t matter. My head wasn’t allowed to make decisions when it came to her, not since the moment she’d tackled me in the morgue, determined to save my life. Everything that had happened since, from her crawling into my lap to kiss me, to the hours we’d spent in bed, were, by all logic, stupid decisions.
