Diesel turned to Cam. “I’m not good at it, but Cam is.”
Wyatt tilted his head to one side and eyed Cam. The other man seemed preoccupied, as though studying something complex.
Wyatt was about to tell them to let him in on the joke when Cam said, “The only thing on your mind beyond what we’ve just told you…is Valene. For almost a year now.”
Wyatt lifted one shoulder in half a shrug. “I like her. That’s not a secret, is it?”
Diesel didn’t smile as Cam continued, “When you are alone together, you call her Vee.”
Wyatt’s eyes widened.
“Cam! Stop it.” Valene sent Wyatt a miserable, wounded and betrayed gaze.
“No. He needs to understand, Valene.”
Valene crossed her arms and looked forsaken.
Wyatt took a single step closer to Cam, staring him in the eyes with a particular thought in his head. “What am I thinking right now?”
A half smile shaped one side of Cam’s mouth. “Daphne Charlene Dumont makes your skin crawl every time she talks to you and especially when she touches you.”
“That’s right,” Wyatt said. “And it’s the truth, too.”
Cam looked at his sister. “You asked Valene to marry you, but she turned you down and broke your heart, right in front of Daphne Charlene, and now the woman who makes your skin crawl won’t leave you alone.”
“Cam!” Valene warned.
Wyatt nodded. “True again.”
“I’m so sorry, Wyatt.” Valene’s soft tone hit him at a visceral level. He took a step in her direction.
“Now that I know the truth, will you say yes?”
Diesel inserted himself between them. “No.”
Cam continued, “You also want more proof. You want to see a spaceship or a slimy creature with tentacles.”
Wyatt nodded. “Very good. I’ll definitely have to guard my thoughts around you.”
Diesel said, “You’re taking this pretty well, Wyatt.”
“Not really. I’ll wake up in a minute. I’m probably asleep in my chair in front of the television after watching the SYFY channel.”But this doesn’t feel like a dream.
“It’s all true, Wyatt. It’s why I can’t marry you,” Valene said. “If I say yes to your proposal—and I really want to—then we’d have to move to Alpha-Prime and live there for the rest of our days. Your family would never be told where you were. They would have to live with your unexplained disappearance forever.”
Valene sent him such a look of longing, he took another step in her direction. Diesel also took a step closer. He looked grim about the whole situation. Whether the escaped prisoners or Wyatt and Valene’s heartfelt relationship was his primary concern remained a mystery.
“This is all really charming and everything,” Axel said in an uncharacteristically snarky tone. “But we have fifteen escaped prisoners on the loose as we speak and we need to go after them!”
Diesel grabbed Wyatt’s arm, keeping him from moving any closer to Valene, and asked, “Will you help us?”
“Of course. What do you want me to do?”
Cam and Axel shared a look.Can they talk telepathically?
“No. We can’t talk telepathically,” Cam said. “We’re just brothers.”
I still haven’t seen the spaceship. If there really is one, Wyatt thought hard as he stared at Cam.
