Maybe Cam should get a carefully worded message ready to send to the ship, warning the crew to be on the lookout for any wide-eyed earthlings found aboard ogling all the aliens. Then again, if it wasn’t an earthling, he didn’t want to stir up trouble.
Cam noticed Axel’s rare serious expression and stopped his mental speculation.
“What is wrong with you, Bro?” Axel asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.” He turned to go.
“Your tense face alone could worry the horns off a billy goat.”
Cam rolled his eyes. He was not tense. He was the exact opposite after spending the night with Ria. “No. Wrong. I’m not tense, just tired. You called me out of a sound sleep on my day off to look for someone who came back on her own without me being involved at all. If you’d never called me, I’d likely still be asleep. I should be the one perturbed, not you.”
“Oh, a thousand pardons for disturbing you, my liege,” Axel said with extra sarcasm. “Next time there’s a problem, I’ll let chaos run rampant before disturbing your beauty sleep. I can see you need every second. Your attitude is fairly crappy when you don’t get enough shut-eye.”
“Funny.” Cam blew out a short breath. “Keep in mind I’ll also remember this the next timeyouhave a day off.”
“Whatever. Go. I promise I won’t bother you again.”
“Thanks. Much appreciated.” Cam walked away with several thoughts zipping through his head. The only one worth worrying about was whether an earthling was aboard theRoyal Caldera Forte. The ship would return in ten days. No matter how much he wanted it to, his invention wouldn’t be able to wipe that much time from an earthling’s memory. The max range of a Defender was thirty minutes. He’d have to employ an older method of removing the earthling’s memories.
Once the ship returned to Earth, he’d simply corner the impersonator and ensure she got either a mega zap from an experimental deluxe Defender that erased several days’ worth of memories, or they’d have to use the memory serum and a hypodermic needle to ensure no memories of the trip through space remained in the human’s brain.
Cam’s overriding concern had more to do with how many others might discover an earthling had been loose on an alien ship for ten days, while the way station’s security chief entertained an AWOL Alpha without alerting anyone.
That would set off a space potato storm of epic proportions.
Chapter Six
Cam left the basement facility more confused and definitely more concerned than he’d been upon his entrance. He didn’t know who’d boarded the ship, but it wasn’t Ria. The ship would return in ten days. The only true concern was whether the imposter was an Alpha or an earthling.
After only a few minutes of thought, he dismissed the idea of sending a formal message to the ship. He couldn’t trust it would only be read by the onboard law enforcement officer. There was a real danger it would be leaked or read by the entire ship during the course of the trip.
Wide knowledge of an imposter would likely end up biting him in the butt if he admitted knowledge about the phony passenger aboard at this early stage. If a horrific issue with an earthling aboard developed, he’d hear about it before much longer.
He mulled over what problems he’d have to deal with if he waited for the ship’s return without sending a heads up in advance. If the fake passenger was quiet about her excursion and behaved with the goal of simply wanting to enjoy a deluxe vacation, he might not have to admit anything. Calling attention to the mix-up now might open a can of worms he’d just as soon stayed closed.
If this had happened to Axel, he probably wouldn’t worry about it at all. His carefree brother would skip to work singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, smile through every worrisome difficulty and sleep like a coma patient. Maybe Cam would try Axel’s carefree-lifestyle for the next ten days and see what happened. He’d keep his ear to the ground for any communications, messages or issues from the ship, and hope the notion of out of sight, out of mind might work in this situation.
He wasn’t going to lie. As much angst as this caused one part of his mind, another part was wildly elated. With an imposter on board and no one actively looking for Ria, it meant he’d have her to himself for the next ten days. Another part of him was troubled when he remembered the future fiancé aboard the ship. It sounded like she’d be better off without him. If the guy looked at other women and couldn’t see how perfect Ria was, he was an idiot.
Because one look at Ria had Cam besotted beyond all reason.
Was her future fiancé blind or simply a rich, elitist, womanizing, jerk, dirt bag as she’d stated?
While they hadn’t formalized their arranged marriage agreement, Ria didn’t seem as excited about the prospect of marrying a Technician’s son as her mother was. Still, perhaps Cam should tread carefully while they were together. Maybe he shouldn’t spend the next week and a half in bed with her, as much as that thought appealed.
Maybe they could just spend the time hanging out like very good friends, getting to know each other. He could show her Earth and all the things he loved about it. That would be fun. Seeing his life-long home through the eyes of someone from Alpha-Prime would be interesting. Up to now, he’d only dated earthlings. Perhaps he’d subconsciously waited for Ria. Too bad she was spoken for.
He shook off the melancholy and retrieved his new happy-go-lucky attitude, the one he would copy from Axel.
Alphas typically fell into two camps with regard to sightseeing on this planet. They either loved Earth because it was so different from Alpha-Prime or hated it for the exact same reason. The one thing everyone remarked on was the tall trees.
There was one other risk he’d have to keep in mind. If he squired Ria around town, he’d have to be careful not to let Axel see her. He’d recognize her almost instantly. If anyone else saw them together, Cam would simply say she was an earthling he was seeing. Wouldn’t Diesel love that, given all the times Cam had neutralized Juliana’s memories when they started dating?
Okay, maybe he’d avoid both Axel and Diesel for the next ten days.
The other thing he needed to do was extend his long weekend into a full-fledged ten-day vacation. That stunning news, and the resulting shift in workload to cover for him, might keep both Axel and Diesel too busy at the Big Bang Truck Stop to keep track of what Cam was doing. That would free him to spend as much quality time as he could with Ria until she had to leave.
