Page 32 of Gravel and Grit

“That is true. Damned dishonorable males,” he muttered under his breath with a scowl.

They both let it go after that, and instead of checking to see if the phone worked, he gave her time and set about making something resembling a meal while she continued tinkering with the beacon.

After they’d eaten, brushed their teeth together in an odd but enjoyable moment of intimacy, and cleaned up, there weren’t anymore excuses left to delay the inevitable. At her nod he turned it on.

It took longer than he anticipated, but once they found the correct frequency and channel for the soldiers they sat side by side and waited tensely for someone to use their radio. It took a few minutes longer for that to happen, during which time Mira fidgeted. When she started gnawing on the blunt claws tipping her little fingers, he reached over and lowered her hand from her mouth, worried she’d hurt herself. He didn’t let go, just in case she tried it again, and she didn’t pull away. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on his part, but he thought she seemed comforted by his touch.

Finally, something came through. Mira tightened her hold on his hand as they listened to the soldiers communicating with each other and with their commander back at the base. They’d found the cabin and knew he and Mira

had broken into those stores. They’d lost the trail after, but speculated they were headed north.

Zaek heard Mira’s sharp intake of breath when that calm masculine voice came over the speaker, telling the men to track them down before they made it out of Nevada. He authorized use of satellite and radar to find them and reiterated the kill and recover order.

“That will make flying difficult. We will have to fly very low or walk when necessary. If left with no other choice, we could acquire a vehicle—

assuming you know how to drive one—but they will know our exact heading when we are forced to abandon it, unless we take the time to detour and throw them off.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

There wasn’t much more to learn from them after that and he hated the look of fear and devastation on her face, so he switched channels until he found the one for the security team still at the lab.

This time they didn’t have to wait for messages to come through.

Her colleagues and the guards were going through her desk and files, commenting on the fact that she’d made more progress with the device than she’d let on. They found some written records of her discoveries, but knew she used a voice recorder to keep the majority of her notes.

There was a significant amount of cursing a few seconds later when they located that recorder in her purse only to find it had been destroyed by a stray bullet. Zaek sighed in relief at hearing that. If they had too much information on the beacon he’d be forced to go back and destroy it.

They came to the conclusion that she’d been in alliance with the extraterrestrial for some time, otherwise she would’ve reported her findings.

At that Mira snorted derisively.

“Ha! More like I didn’t want Calvin to take credit for my findings or remove me from the project and steal my notes,” she muttered angrily, but he saw her chin wobble and her bright, blue eyes were shiny with tears. “I just wanted to be taken seriously.”

There was speculation as to what she’d been offered to turn traitor and none of the ideas they threw around were things males should say about a female. Zaek growled low in his throat, appalled and revolted by the derogatory remarks.

A tear overflowed and slid down her cheek before she quickly swiped it away and raised her chin to prevent any more from falling.

Her sadness hurt something deep inside him. He wanted to protect her, to stop her from feeling betrayed by her people and to rip their tongues out for saying such despicable things about her, but he couldn’t and that made him feel helpless.

So, he did what he could and turned the fucking phone off before he yielded to the urge to hurt them in return for hurting her.

When she glanced at him he muttered in excuse, “We should not keep it on for long in case they can track us. We will turn it off and only use it for short periods. WithLar’s blessing, that will keep them unaware of our spying.”

“Good idea.”

Zaek stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm when she started to stand and offered softly, “People make up lies for what they cannot or will not understand.”

She met and held his gaze. He couldn’t quite decipher the expression on her face, but it felt both penetrating and vulnerable. It made his heart pound and his tail twitch.

“Thank you, Zaek. Despite all this, I’m glad I got to meet you.”

With that, she got to her feet, but before she moved away, she took him by surprise and leaned over to place a quick kiss on his cheek.

Reaching up, he touched the spot where her lips had been and watched her wide-eyed as she moved about packing up.

We love her.

What? Do not be absurd. We cannot possibly love her. We met her twodays ago!

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