“Where are we going, Daria?” I asked while thumbing the hidden sub-dermal switch along my finger so Callum could listen in. She didn’t reply immediately, still tensely scanning behind us for any sign of danger. My handler had informed me that they had closed a search grid several blocks wide around the area, andthey were going door to door to find us. They didn’t know where we were right now, but we couldn’t exit their perimeter without getting caught.
“We could either circle back to my car, but I suspect that’s a lost cause. Or we could duck into the nearby safe house and hide out for a while. My toes are getting a bit too crispy to keep up with this much longer.” I did not know what she meant with crispy toes, but I was pretty certain it was bad news. Safe house it was, even if Callum was warning me not to trust the CIA spy, and ordering me to return to the ship.
“Lead the way, Tally,” I said, allowing Callum to hear that all-important word. It instantly shut him up, a deep silence filling the communication channel at last. I took that moment to sever the connection entirely. Callum wouldn’t like that I’d gone dark, but he wouldn’t interfere, and he wouldn’t report my behavior to High Command either. We all knew how important a Tally was, a true mate.
She muttered her instructions quietly, and with each obedient step I took, I could tell she started to relax a little more. Then she started trembling, and I clutched her tighter to me, worried that the cool night air was getting to her. I knew enough about humans to know that they were very easily too cold or too hot.
When she bade me duck into a small alley tucked between two storefronts, I was relieved we were off the street. The city was bright and alive tonight, celebrating the new year with much noise and laughter. Still, we stood out, dressed as we were, and with my mate shoeless.
The safe house was not what I expected, but that was probably a very good thing. If Callum was right, Earth’s military and police forces were out amass to knock on every door and search every room for us. They were causing a media storm while they were at it, but that seemed a price they were willing to pay. The data we stole was that important.
Daria had me duck down near a grate set low in a wall. It stank of urine, of dead things, and garbage. Many of the walls had been covered with stains or paint marks; symbols I could not decipher. I made sure to hold her tightly so that no part of her had to touch the dirty ground, scattered with broken glass and other unrecognizable filth.
The grate popped open with a click and revealed beyond it a narrow passage. It was a straight drop with rusted metal handholds set into the brick wall. I didn’t know where it led, but Daria was willing to crawl into that dark space, which meant I’d follow. It would certainly not be a space the hunters would search, it didn’t look like therewasa space.
I didn’t like letting her go in first, but I liked leaving her unprotected in that nasty alley even less. She was biting her lip and trying to contain the trembling in her limbs as she swung herself out of my arms and through the small opening. “Close the grate after yourself. Hurry.”
That was all the prompting I needed. As her crown of pretty, dark brown curls descended into the dark, I followed after her. Contorting myself awkwardly to fit through the grate’s small opening, it was such a tight fit that my jacket tore on the sharp metal edge. I had to spend a precious moment freeing the fabric to hide my tracks before I could close the grate.
It felt final, ominous as it shut us into this hole, but I couldn’t worry about it. I had to follow my Tally into the dark and trust that she felt the bond between us as I did. But she was a spy, just like me… I couldn’t know what she was thinking, not yet.
Chapter 11
Daria
This particular safe house was off the grid,wayoff the grid. I had set it up myself, paid in cash for anything it needed so it could not be traced, and I had never reported its location to any of my handlers. Nobody should know about this spot, one of several I kept throughout the city, but I still felt uneasy as I stared at the limited supplies available.
This basement had been bricked up, it no longer connected to the house above it, and it was not on any blueprints: safe. But it didn’t offer a lot, just room for a weapons cache, a cot, and medical supplies. With Killian ducking from the passage into the single room, that space suddenly became positively tiny.
He couldn’t straighten to his full height, and his golden hair brushed the dusty wooden ceiling above him. He didn’t complain but shrugged out of his jacket casually before closing the metal-reinforced door behind him with a soft, but very final sounding thud.
I swallowed roughly, my fear and worry morphing into a sharp, immediate desire. When he started rolling up the white sleeves of his dress shirt, I was done for. No man had any right to look that sexy while doing something so mundane.
Forcing myself to focus on the more immediate issues, I turned my back on his tempting presence and yanked open the old wooden closet to access my supplies. My toes were so cold they’d gone numb, and I wiggled them madly to help the bloodcirculate. When I found my warm socks, I pulled them on with a sigh of relief.
Jeans and a shirt were next, but I hesitated to put them on, as it would involveundressingfirst. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea… It would give Killian ideas. Just a glance over my shoulder to meet his gray eyes was enough to know that they were smoldering with a barely restrained desire. If I gave him so much as an inch right now, he’d pounce. I shivered thinking about that, it seemed inevitable that I’d end up beneath him on that cot. Why fight it?
The pinch of the data chip I held told me why. I had to get that data out there right now. Sami would know what to do with it as soon as she received it, and the longer I sat on it, the longer they had to find a way to stop that news from getting out some other way.
I yanked out the laptop, ignoring the warm clothes for now, and with trembling fingers, worked to upload the data and distribute it safely. I had it all set to go when a blanket settled around my shoulders. “When you press send, will they be able to track the signal?” Killian asked me, and I froze. Yes, they would, and I’d always decided I couldn’t care about that part. But I wasn’t alone like I thought I’d be…
When I turned to look at him, I was a little lost for words. Did I tell him he was along for the ride? That I was risking his life for this? Did I hold off? I couldn’t read the expression in his eyes, but it seemed tender.
His fingers were just as tender as his eyes when he gently nudged my arm and picked up the strange gun that I’d taken from himto cover our escape. He casually slipped it back into the leather holster against his ribs, and that gesture made my belly clench with another burst of sharp desire. He really had to stop looking so sexy, it was terrible for my sanity.
“How about…” he started when the silence stretched, but he paused, his gray eyes growing brighter than should humanly be possible. It didn’t take much for him to approach, just a small step and he was at my side, his thigh against my shoulder, where I sat on the cot. Then his agile hands were on the keyboard of my laptop and he started confidently navigating its settings. “Clever, no outside connections until you turn it on, untraceable.”
He sank on the cot at my side when I didn’t block him from touching the precious machine. I should, but I didn’t have it in me to distrust him anymore. He’d shielded my body with his own from a literal hail of bullets, for example. That was a bit much if all he was doing was maintaining his cover or playing a game. He’d even disobeyed his handler to come with me.
Ah, I was going to listen to my own advice, wasn’t I? If Stella knew about this, she’d be laughing so hard. The use-them-and-lose-them Daria, finally taking the plunge. My breath stalled in my chest, my heart clenched painfully. What did I just think? What the hell… Take the plunge? That was a little more than allowing myself a fling with a sexy alien man.
“I got it,” the man in question announced. “I can disseminate this information to your contacts by hitching a ride onmycommunication signals. Callum will know where we are, but nobody else should be able to trace it.”
Callum, I had to assume that was his handler, who was probably on the spaceship that Killian had wanted to take me to. I still didn’t know why he had wanted to take me with him, why he was so blasé about showing me what he was. I felt like asking that question might net me an answer I wasn’t quite ready to hear yet, so I refrained.
“Do it,” I said, giving him a nod that almost made the blanket slip from my shoulders. The hideout was barely warmer than the outside; it had no heating, but it was out of the wind. I clung to the thick wool because if I didn’t, I’d lean into Killian, who seemed blissfully warm. He gave me a long piercing look, probably to gauge if I was okay with his handler knowing my location, and then he pressed enter with a confident flick of his finger.
It was done. The data was uploaded in a flash, vanishing into the ether so it could wing its way to Sami and several others across the globe. Mission complete. I realized that I had never thought beyond this point. I knew what the data contained now, and Killian was right, it wouldn’t be enough. It was proof the aliens were among us, and that the government was in bed with them, but not that their plan was evil. So now what?
