Valene must have drifted off and slept for quite a while because when she woke up, it was dark and shadowy in the room. The little sunlight from the windows had faded dramatically to a few orange lines along one wall.
A loud hollow bang, like the sound of a dead bolt being thrown, echoed through the room, shaking Valene awake. She sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the bed. She felt light-headed, sure that if she stood up, she’d end up on the floor. She straightened her back and remained seated.
The blond man from the car came into the room. He closed the door behind him, grabbed the chair from a desk across the room, placed it in front of her and seated himself next to the bed.
“Good evening, sleepyhead,” he said with a soothing smile.
“Where are we?” Valene asked, feeling a rise of panic. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be with any man but Wyatt, especially in a bedroom.
This was wrong. This wasallwrong. Her lips pressed flat as she considered how she could get past him and out the now unbolted bedroom door.
The man, obviously seeing her trepidation, leaned forward and pegged her with his intense stare as if beseeching her to remain calm. His gaze was intensely focused on her eyes, but he didn’t speak. He simply smiled.
Valene’s alarm melted like ice cubes plunged into boiling water. No worries here.
Her posture relaxed and the fuzzy fog came back, filling her with a lack of urgency. Why had she been so worked up? She couldn’t remember. It must not matter.
Valene smiled. “What are we going to do now? Take another car ride?”
“Yes. And we’ll have to leave very soon,” he said quietly.
Valene didn’t even know where she was right now and, truthfully, she didn’t care. One place was as good as another. “Where are we going for our car ride?”
“To the lovers’ lane by the bauxite mine. We’ll meet some friends there.”
Valene nodded. She knew where that was. She’d been there with Wyatt once a while back when her brother Axel’s wedding was being planned.
The abrupt and distinct memory of passionately kissing Wyatt in his patrol car at that very location slid clearly past whatever fog filled her brain. The fog began to dissipate slowly and other memories began to appear.
After only a few seconds, she rememberedexactlywho this man was.
Indigo Smith.Space potatoes.Why am I in this strange bedroom with him?
Her brothers had thought the escaped convict might already be in another country by now.
Valene wanted to run like a maddened sand-claw beast was seconds from clutching her in its steely sharp-nailed grasp, but she forced herself to be calm. She mentally took a deep breath, put a serene smile in place and nodded. “Good. I’d like to meet some friends.”
The blond man stopped staring at her and the last of the mental fog dissipated like sunlight burning directly through the morning mist, giving her a clear mind once more.
Indigo Smith had some sort of mental power and the unique ability to wield it over Alphas. Valene had never heard of any alien able to do that. Miss Penny could change her form, but didn’t have any mental abilities that Valene knew of.
His unique skill at putting suggestible fog into people’s minds to make them trust him had likely been very handy for a criminal. It also must be why he’d been able to escape from every place he’d ever been locked up. Indigo looked away and reached into his pocket, retrieving a cell phone.
Valene searched the room for a fixed focal point to keep her wits about her. She found and stared at the bathroom doorknob, keeping her features serene. It was difficult, but she didn’t want the fog machine to start up again. Thinking about Wyatt kept her mind clear. The recent memories of Daphne Charlene and her lies reared up to make Valene mad at herself. Of course Wyatt would never tell anyone about aliens living in plain sight. Of course he would never slink off and spend time with Daphne Charlene in his kitchen while Valene slept in his bed. How could she have ever been so foolish?
Because it was easier to let him go with fake and foolish anger, even though deep down inside she didn’t believe it. That’s what she’d been pondering as she sucked down the better part of three large sweet tea drinks before Indigo Smith showed up to put a mental fog spell into her mind.
“First, though, we need to make a phone call,” he told her.
“Okay.”
Indigo Smith dialed the number and pushed the button for the speakerphone feature as Valene watched him, wondering why she’d ever fallen for this man. She forced herself not to think about it, and instead considered bashing this wily criminal over the head with the nearby lamp and running for her life.
She didn’t know where she was. It was better to go along until she had some sort of plan.
The other party picked up and Valene heard a sleepy Daphne Charlene answer, “Hello?”
“Hello,” Indigo said in a slightly different voice than he’d used with Valene. “It’s Rowan. It’s time to meet like we talked about. I’d like to pick up that special item we discussed as well as the package I left on your desk. Is my ID ready?”
