Page 67 of What Makes an Alien a Dad?

Chapter 22

Maya

Aside from the landing platform, the glass dome covered the entire rooftop terrace, with only a thin ledge running along its circumference on the outside. It was barely wide enough to place my foot on.

Arching my back to press as much of my body as possible to the glass of the dome behind me, I shifted along the ledge away from the opening into the parking platform.

“Maya!” Egus shouted, leaning around the frame and stretching his arm to me.

I shuffled farther along the ledge and out of his reach. The wind blew stronger up here, tearing at the skirt of my long dress and tossing the strands of my hair into my face.

“You’ll fall, stupid woman,” Hezer warned, peeking from around Egus’s shoulder. “And you’ll die, splattered on the pavement stones below.”

It’d be a long fall down from this height.

My pregnant belly considerably shifted my point of balance. I didn’t dare bend forward to look down. Instead, I leaned back, pressing my shoulder blades into the glass of the dome behind me.

“My fall would mess up your plans, wouldn’t it?” I willed my voice not to shake, screaming over the wind. “Scraping my dead body off the pavement in public view would make it harder to hide what you two assholes have done.”

Despite my snappy reply, horror chilled me. I couldn’t dwell on it, though. Any weakness on my part risked sending me down into the abyss. If my knees shook, if my foot slipped, I’d plummet to my death. There’d be no surviving a fall from this height.

“Maya, please.” Egus’s voice trembled with tears. Where were all these emotions when he snatched me from the assembly? “Just take my hand and come back here. We won’t harm you. I promise.”

The look on Hezer’s face told me Egus had no authority to make any promises. The moment I gave in, they would dissect me in every way possible, then discard me as a cadaver.

“Why should I believe you, Professor Egus? You’ve lied and tricked me before.”

A spasm rolled through my belly. My breath stuck in my throat. The urge to bend over in pain threatened to send me off the ledge. Instead, I splayed my arms on the dome behind me, scraping my fingernails against the glass.

Something wasn’t right with the baby, and there was only one person in the entire Universe who could reassure me. But he wasn’t here. Our call had lasted barely a second. Was it enough for Kear to realize I’d been taken against my will, brought to this tower, and was in dire need of help?

I doubted it.

Yet he was my only hope now.

* * *

KEAR

“Fuck it!” He grabbed the controls of his aircraft.

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