“Love you, too, Valene. I always will. No matter what.” He didn’t whisper. He said it loud enough for Diesel and several others who lingered in the meeting room to hear—although the kiss and the engagement ring might already have clued them in. Even so, no one made any disparaging remarks as they loaded into the vans for the trip north.
Valene sent Wyatt a woeful little finger wave as they pulled away from the Big Bang Truck Stop.
Wyatt quelled the urge to leap from the van, wiggling through the tiny window if necessary, so he could grab Valene up in a tight, bear hug and never let her go. Instead, he smiled, looking away from the most ardent temptation he’d ever known.
Flashes of memory from the night before with Valene tortured his mind for a few miles, but he quelled those thoughts and forced sports statistics into his head. Cam rode shotgun two rows ahead of his seat in the van.
Wyatt didn’t see any need to invite a butt-kicking from a justifiably angry older brother who might be privy to what had gone on between Wyatt and his little sister last night. He’d already been kicking himself since dawn’s early light for not being strong enough to resist her.
Then again, he didn’t have any true regrets where Valene was concerned and what few he did harbor didn’t last long. He’d come to a decision regarding their future.
Once they captured all of the escaped criminals, Wyatt would tell them all that he wanted to marry Valene even if they had to move two galaxies away to be together.
Valene watched the van with Wyatt pull away and thought about how unfair her life was in general. Then again, she would have been useless as a searcher of anything but her own feelings regarding a certain sheriff who made her heart go pitter-patter whenever he was nearby, especially when he was in scent range. He always smelled so amazingly good. Like starch, from his pressed uniform, mixed with the crisp scent of his soap and shampoo all comingled with his unique manly scent. Thinking about it made her cheeks heat up.
She shook off the memory and put her focus back on the task at hand. It was important to find the prisoners to maintain their secret here on Earth. Worse in her mind than even her horrid choice regarding a relationship with Wyatt was having the whole operation discovered, being unable to fix it easily and then being forced to move everyone back to Alpha-Prime overnight as a Defender bomb was lobbed toward three counties to erase as much of their alien existence from the minds of any humans left behind as possible. The doomsday scenario Alpha-Prime had recently introduced as a just in case setup was never far from her mind.
Gage tapped her on the shoulder, gave her an understanding smile and together they went back to his lab. He was working on another way to track the escaped aliens, using some sort of trajectory theory based on the other escapees and where they’d been found to possibly predict where the others might have gone.
Valene monitored the communications with the vans as Gage tapped away at his computer, occasionally mumbling to himself as he worked. Of all her brothers, Gage was definitely the science nerd of the bunch. He’d attended the prestigious XYZ Academy of Science and Medicine on Alpha-Prime for two years. The day he turned sixteen he’d been eligible to apply. He had his paperwork filled out a year before. It was a great honor to be chosen and Gage was the first colony student ever granted the opportunity to attend.
Of course, the family had to explain his absence to their human neighbors while he was gone. Their parents told anyone who asked, being as vague as possible, that he’d gone to help some elderly relatives far, far away. Then he’d come back two years later, having graduated and received a diploma fromfar, far awayhigh school.
No one batted an eye, never guessing he’d been two galaxies away immersed and learning all manner of Alpha-alien science and medical things with a special emphasis on all things known and presumed regarding planet Earth and the earthlings residing there.
Their efforts to hide in plain sight in Arkansas had always been well-managed by each Fearless Leader in charge of the colony as well as the elder council, but trips back to Alpha-Prime, even for a lengthier time frame, seemed in Valene’s opinion easy to accomplish.
Diesel, as the current Fearless Leader, mentioned on occasion that it was not easy, but rather a big pain in the patootie, quoting a favorite saying of their wily aunt Dixie.
The radio crackled and Diesel’s voice came through. “Base Station, this is the NW group. We’ve gone as far as we can in the van. We’re about to head out on foot. Do you copy?”
“Roger that. We copy,” Valene said. She wanted Diesel to put Wyatt on the radio so she could hear his voice, but forced herself not to say those words.
“We’ll check in on the hour. Has the NE team checked in yet?”
“Negative. The NE group has not checked in, but they had further to drive.”
“Roger that. NW group out.”
“Copy. Base Station out.”
Valene pushed out a long sigh and put the radio transmitter with the gray push to talk button in the center back in its holder.
“What are you going to do about Wyatt?” Gage asked from right behind her, startling her out of her melancholy and into an immediate poor attitude.
“What do you mean?” Her tone bordered on irritable.
“It is obvious you love each other, given the kiss I saw earlier in the conference room, the ring gracing your third finger right now and the fact he told everyone in hearing range that he loved you, too.”
She wiggled her finger and glanced down at the sparkly center diamond. “So?” She’d made it all the way up to a belligerent tenor.
Gage was unfazed by her insolence. “Are you going to marry him and leave Earth?”
Valene scowled. “I don’t know yet. Why do you ask?”
Gage shrugged. “I would miss you if you left.”
