“Right,” Valene said.
“Pronto, right?”
“We’ll see,” she said. Diesel expression said he was displeased, but he didn’t say anything. He hopped into the van’s shotgun seat.
The back doors of the van slammed shut, Gage and Axel inside, and Cam drove the van back toward the highway a quarter mile away.
The moment the van was out of sight, Valene threw her arms around Wyatt’s neck and kissed him like they’d never get to kiss ever again. That might be true, so he hugged her tight, and kissed her back with a lot of enthusiasm.
He didn’t know how long they kissed, but they both came up for air suddenly when they were startled by a loud sound, like someone or something crashing through the woods at a high rate of speed. Wyatt put Valene behind him and raised the alien gun, ready to shoot.
The noise died down, stopped and started up again. After listening for a few seconds, it was clear that whatever was crashing around out there was now headed in the opposite direction.
“Should we follow it?” he asked Valene. Hereallywanted to follow it.
“No. Let’s go back and get my brothers. I don’t want you to go it alone with dangerous alien criminals.”
“Are you sure? I’m not a shy flower, you know.” He didn’t lower the gun, keeping it pointed in the direction of the receding noise.
“I know, but even you would agree that chasing a strange noise in the woods at night all on your lonesome is not the best use of your time.”
“Maybe.” He could barely hear the crashing now anyway, so he lowered his alien purple goo splatter gun and noted the direction of where he lost the sound. When they came out later with the group, they could start there.
“Please, let’s go back.” Valene pressed close. He kissed the top of her head. She tilted her face toward his and he kissed her mouth gently.
“Okay.”
Wyatt was in love with an alien girl. He kissed her again a little longer, but decided they should get out of here before their incandescent emotions ran rampant. He took her hand and they walked slowly back to Diesel’s SUV. He glanced around as he walked, searching for any sign of more aliens hiding and possibly watching them from the tree line.
Maybe the smart ones had scurried away, or perhaps they watched to ensure he and Valene were really leaving the area.
Either way, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or something, kept track of them as they departed.
Wyatt raced Diesel’s SUV back to the truck stop as fast as possible, a little unsettled that they weren’t done with their search for escaped alien criminals, wishing he’d gone ahead and chased after the noise crashing through the woods.
A glance at Valene made him reconsider. He was thrilled to be finally in on Valene’s big secret. It was a doozy, but oddly not disquieting. Nowhere near some of the guesses he’d pondered, for example: mob-like criminal enterprise or witness protection family a discovery away from being moved to another city. Aliens from another planet had not been on his list of possibilities.
Alien or not, Wyatt loved Valene and the idea of moving two galaxies away to be with her forever was growing on him.
Chapter Seven
Valene and Wyatt made it back to the truck stop in record time. She didn’t know what had been crashing around in the woods, but was grateful Wyatt didn’t want to discover what or who it was all on his lonesome.
He’d barely parked the truck before hopping out to tell her brothers what they’d heard.
Wyatt sounded uncertain as his tale wound down. “Should I have chased the unseen someone?”
“No,” Diesel and Cam said at the same time.
“Too dangerous all alone,” Cam explained. “We need to operate like we did earlier in groups of no less than five. Trust me, you did the right thing. We’ll start there when we go out again if we don’t get any better information as to where they are.”
Cam held up his digital tablet. “We’ve reviewed the bios of the final five escapees. Indigo Smith and two of his favorite lackeys are still loose, along with two more like the hairy alien we captured earlier. It’s likely they’ve gone north, as it’s the least viable path, but also the one without people. We don’t know if they are all traveling together, but it’s possible.”
Diesel huffed. “We aren’t that lucky. I’d be willing to bet a paycheck that Indigo Smith and his minions are nowhere near the two hairy beasts from Galdaren.”
“Indigo Smith doesn’t have anyone on Earth to help him, does he?” Axel asked as if just now coming up with that odd query.
