She pushed out a sigh, snuggled her face into his pillow and said, “Okay. I’ll just wait here, then.”
Ria was asleep by the time he whispered, “Good, because I’m not nearly finished with you yet.” He kissed her temple, breathing in her delectable scent once more. Biting back a groan of delight and the urge to climb back in bed, Cam exited his room, pausing in the doorway for one last look at the sexy woman. He hated to leave. Every fiber of his being wanted to ignore Axel and crawl back into bed, snuggle up and get more sleep.
He frowned. When hadthatever happened before? Well, there was that one other time. He dismissed the bad memory and all the baggage that accompanied it. He truly was over his last disastrous relationship. Heknewhe was over it, because he desperately wanted to wake Ria up, kiss her senseless and repeat every moment of last night. It was a sensation resurrected from the timebeforehe’d been hurt, and he liked that quite a lot. Maybe Ria and her blue-streaked hair and lust for life had cured him of his forlorn outlook on love with earthlings. He took a step toward the bed.
Cam remembered the extreme tone of Axel’s worry. He needed to go. If he didn’t leave now, he wouldn’t. Pushing out a resigned sigh, he turned on his heel and exited his home. He’d take care of this problem quickly and return to Ria. It was likely a passenger miscount. It had happened before.
Axel didn’t typically take care of the passenger manifests. As head of security, that was Cam’s job. He cut his brother some slack and quickened his pace. His house wasn’t far from the Big Bang Truck Stop and the underground facility that housed all of their secret alien technology and served as a way station for passing cruise ships and other spacecraft from Alpha-Prime.
Cam parked his SUV haphazardly in the employee lot and strode through the secret underground entrance, quickly making his way to the passenger lounge. His brother stood with the annoying director and a woman from the cruise liner’s elite First Class deck. He’d seen her the day before when the passengers disembarked upon their arrival. She looked at their simple way station like she wasn’t certain she wanted any of Earth’s air to taint her expensive clothing or her person.
Axel appeared to be more than relieved when he saw Cam. He raced to his side, talking a mile a minute. “Good to see you, Bro. What took you so long?”
Cam opened his mouth, but Axel interrupted. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. You’re here now.” He didn’t take a breath, just continued, “So I’ve done two tallies and Director Patmore did his own secondary count after his initial discovery of the discrepancy. All four of the totals say we are missing one person.
“The director’s count was obviously more detailed, so he actually came up with a name while you were on your way here. Turns out it’s a missing girl. The lady next to the director is the mother.”
Cam immediately felt sick he hadn’t rushed to get here. “Are you telling me a child is missing? Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“Because she’s not a child, she’s an adult. But she’s the daughter of a former Governor and her widowed mother isverydistraught.”
Cam relaxed a notch. He was less concerned the person in question was the daughter of the Earth equivalent of a wealthy VIP, and more concerned she was actually missing. “Okay. What’s the name of the missingadultgirl?”
Axel looked at a piece of gray paper in his hand. “Her name is Alexandria Latham Borne, which sounds like the name of a princess to me, but her mother is about to come right off the rails and the director is threatening all sorts of dire things if we don’t find her pronto and—”
“Right, I got it. Relax, Axel. Take a breath. She can’t be too far away. The cruise liner only docked yesterday afternoon.”
His brother inhaled deeply and let out a long exhalation. “Okay. Yes. Only yesterday. You’re right. What’s next? What should we do?”
Axel must be extremely rattled if he didn’t immediately grasp the most obvious next step. “Do they have a picture of her?”
His brother nodded. “The mother said she brought one, but I haven’t seen it yet. She was waiting for the ‘actual’ man in charge of security, not the fill-in guy.” He rolled his eyes and Cam got a much clearer picture of the person he was about to deal with. He sighed internally and bore up to hate this coming conversation.
Cam and Axel joined the director and the Governor’s wife.
“Are you the oneactuallyin charge of security here? Are you here to find my baby?” the woman demanded, managing in one short exchange to sound stricken and dress him down for not working twenty-four seven. “I’m so worried about her. We must find Alexandria. Her future fiancé, Douglass Barnard FitzOsbern—who is a Technician’s son, by the way—is beside himself with worry.” Given that Douglass Barnard FitzOsbern wasn’t in attendance, Cam wondered if that was the truth. Not that it mattered. An Alpha-Prime Technician was at the top of the social tier, definitely wealthy, and deference was always accorded to such VIPs and their associates.
Director Patmore broke in to make the formal introductions. “This is Governess Ruth Latham Borne, wife of the late former Governor Robert Borne.
“Governess Latham Borne, this is Cam Grey, the primary security officer for this Alpha colony way station facility.”
Cam was typically good at reading people. He couldn’t read the minds of Alphas like he could humans, but he had a better-than-average feeling for what motivated people. This situation was no different. He took one look at the mother of the missing girl and had her figured out before she spoke another word.
Ruth Latham Borne was obviously upset. And while she said one thing, she was worried about something else entirely. He needed to figure out what, but suspected he understoodexactlywhat was going on here.
She was a Governor’s widow, part of the upper middle class, while her daughter’s fiancé was a part of the elite Archetech class.
A Technician was as good as lower-end royalty, after Planner and Designer, but royalty nonetheless. Cam had the rest of the story figured out in about two seconds.
The Governor’s daughter didn’t want to marry the Technician’s son—surely a lucrative arranged marriage, from her mother’s point of view—and she’d run off in protest or to escape a less-than-appealing fiancé. This wasn’t the first time an arranged marriage had been thwarted, but the event was rare.
The old traditions—popular or not—held firm sway with many folks, and he guessed Governess Latham Borne was no different.
Cam didn’t blame her, nor did he plan to lose any sleep or any more personal time dealing with what he considered manufactured drama. Alas, protocol dictated he couldn’t say what wasreallyon his mind. Instead he took a more disciplined attitude. “Everything that can be done will be done to find your daughter, Governess Latham Borne. Do you knowwhyshe might have run off?”
“What makes you think she ran off?” The woman’s acidic tone came very fast on the heels of herI’m a heart-wrenched, worried motherattitude of a few moments ago.
The director’s eyebrows went straight to his hairline. “Madam, did you have knowledge that your daughter might have disappeared on purpose?”
