“Settle down. I don’t think I was almost kidnapped.”
Frederick said, “I’m worried only because we know so little about your past before you came here. I never got the idea that you were hiding out from anyone, but what if I was mistaken? Maybe you did come here to Alienn, Arkansas, to lay low. What if someone from your forgotten past has found you?”
Jake wanted to argue but he couldn’t. Frederick was right. He had no earthly idea about his past or if anyone from it might be after him. “I’ll do my best to be careful. I promise.”
A customer came in and Jake retreated to his workspace. Even though he tried to work on a project that was due next week, his mind was alive with possibilities, both good and bad.
Good were the possibilities of a coming relationship with Beryl. Bad was the idea that someone from his forgotten past might be after him for an equally unknown reason.
The Incident that had caused his memory loss was never far out of his mind. He could play the what-if game all the live-long day, but the truth was, he didn’t know if anyone was after him or why.
Jake didn’t want to endanger anyone around him. Not Frederick and certainly not Beryl. He was left with what heconsidered no good options. He didn’t want to stop seeing Beryl. He didn’t want to stop working in his shop.
Without any further meaningful information, Jake decided to be more aware of his surroundings and not mindlessly walk through his life without a care.
The memory of what that man had said, or thought or whatever, chilled him to the bone. “Finally, that redhead is gone and he’s alone. Now we can get him, put him in the car and deliver him.”
Who were they going to deliver him to? Was it connected to the break-in at his home?
His biggest concern was involving Beryl in whatever this might be.
Jake would never let anything happen to her. Ever.
His opiniated gut agreed with him.
The entity seethed with a frustration he had never felt before. Having failed to procure his prey at the man’s domicile, he’d hired locals to acquire him, thinking they would have an advantage. The entity had trusted them to bring his prey to a neutral location.
Not thefinaldestination, of course.
Not where his machinery was located.
The entity didn’t want any locals to see where his camp was or, more specifically, what was inside it. His tools and equipment would be difficult to explain even to the aliens living on this planet.
To his fury, even the local muscle had failed. The man he needed to do a special procedure on had proven much more difficult to reacquire than he’d believed possible. The capture at the human’s house had been happenstance. The entity pushedthat failure out of his mind. He needed to resolve this problem and return home. He’d been gone too long. This final failure before heading back to his planet was difficult enough.
The entity’s anger was useless, but profound. He was going to have to ponder a different strategy to bring this man to his encampment for the procedure.
Jake Jones would not be able to evade him forever.
The entity would secure him, hook him up to his equipment, perform the necessary procedure and then leave Earth behind as soon as he was able, vowing never to return to this infuriating planet, no matter how fruitful the place had seemed at the outset.
The entity had foolishly counted the seemingly endless possible currency he could earn before realizing the limitless problems the population of this planet brought as a terrible bonus.
Earth was bad luck and more trouble than it was worth.
Chapter Twelve
Beryl snuck into the Supernova Supermarket through the stockroom, planning to sequester herself in her office. She pushed her office door closed with her hip, balancing her purse and the paper sack with the leftovers from the picnic in her hands.
The lingering distraction of Jake Jones’s smile was never far from her mind.
Which wasridiculous.
It had been one date.
One very nice, very unexpectedly comfortable, very dangerously promising date.
