Page 1 of Treasured By the Alien Rogue

Chapter 1

Amanda

Ajob shouldn’t cause a girl’s death.

But when I needed the capital to start my own tea shop, an old high school friend offered to loan me the cash. In exchange, he needed a bookkeeper to work in his office for a few months. All I had to do was add the expenses and income to a spreadsheet, and he’d take care of the rest.

That’s when I learned my old friend, Tito, might be seen as a savvy businessman in the community, but he skirted around the law.

It hadn’t taken me more than a week after starting the job to discover that Tito kept two sets of books. One for himself, the other for the IRS.

I had no choice but to abandon my business dream and run.

See, I’d tipped off the cops.

Tito found out someone squealed, though he didn’t yet know that person was me.

If I didn’t escape his grasp and flee the city, I’d wind up in the river with a cement block tied to my ankle. Fortunately, I was fleeing tonight.

At the end of the day, I grabbed my purse from my desk and locked the drawer, trying to act nonchalant.

“See you Monday?” I said to Dimitri, the accountant with a desk in the same office as me. Today was Friday. If my luck held out, I’d be halfway to Seattle before Sunday was through.

Dimitri didn’t look up from his computer. “Yup.”

I flashed him a smile and hurried toward the door.

Before I could reach it, it crashed open, the metal panel clanging when it hit the far wall. Three robocops swarmed in, their metal bodies reflecting the late-day sunlight leaking in through the hazy curtain covering the room’s only window.

AI robocops had been introduced by a billionaire entrepreneur about a year ago, and they now ran city police protection units all over the world. They were relatively cheap to buy, they didn’t need a lot of maintenance, and they worked every day of the week. No weekends off or vacation days for them.

Crime had fallen to almost nothing. Who’d challenge a robot who could outrun, outthink, and outsmart you before you could finish committing the crime?

The big question was: why were they inside Tito’s accounting office?

As I reeled away from them, a red dot appeared on my chest, generated by the lead robocop’s eyes.

“Target identified,” it said in a mechanical voice.

Damn. I should’ve headed for Seattle last night.

I backed into my desk. “Are you here to . . . solicit a donation for the fallen robocop fund?” I blubbered, my hands lifting. Growing up in foster care in a big city meant I’d learned how to defend myself quickly. I’d taken every self-defense class offered at the YMCA, but none of the classes showed us how to defend ourselves against robocops.

Dimitri’s rolling chair screeched backward across the plastic pad, and he dumped himself off it, scooting beneath his desk.

The robocops swarmed all over me. I kicked out and shoved my palm into the face of the closest cop, but I might as well hit a brick wall. They knocked me backward. My feet went up into the air. The computer toppled off the desk, and they pinned me to my tidy green blotter. When my cup full of pens started to tilt, silly me grabbed it and clutched it to my chest.

“Please,” I said. “I didn’t do anything wrong.” I had a tea shop to open. Customers to serve.

And I hadn’t had the chance to fall in love.

Something pricked my arm and . . .

“Wake,” a cheery voice said by my ear. “Your new life is about to begin.”

What new life? Had I somehow escaped Tito and was on my way to witness protection? They’d helped me set up a new tea shop. I just didn’t remember all the fine details.

Wait.

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