Page 33 of Gravel and Grit

No no. We are sure of it. We love her.

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MIRA

Mira couldn’t stop thinking about what they’d overheard. The beautiful nighttime scenery passed by unnoticed beneath her as she clung to Zaek, aided by a harness he’d fashioned from torn strips of jeans. It made the flight infinitely more comfortable, but not having the distraction of screaming muscles and the fear of falling to her death meant she had room to think of other things. Like what the hell she was going to do at the end of this impromptu adventure, whenever that end might be.

She hadn’t asked Zaek what his plans were, yet, but she couldn’t imagine they fortuitously included a feasible solution to the predicament in which she found herself. So, how was she going to convince the powers that be that she wasn’t a traitor, not to kill her, and—just in case that wasn’t asking enough—

could they also give her her job back?

Maybe I can convince Zaek to let me take the device back when he’s donewith it. He seems pretty attached to it, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. Might helpconvince General Harrison, the murderous asshole, I’m not a traitor, if I alsohave a record of observations about an extraterrestrial. I could ask Zaek toshare details of his physiology and society that wouldn’t compromise him orput his people at a disadvantage or risk their safety.

Mira knew there was no way they would just take her word for it. She would have to return with information they would want. Otherwise, it would be more convenient to kill her. There was no one to miss her or alert the authorities if she disappeared and no one to care if she showed up dead, not

that they were sloppy enough to allow her death to look like anything other than an accident.

Going into hiding in another country was a brief and quickly dismissed idea. Growing up as an orphan made her street smart, but she didn’t have the resources, contacts, or funds needed to create a new identity or live off the grid.

That meant her best chance at living through this was returning to Area 51 with evidence that she’d been held against her will.

That felt like a betrayal to Zaek, but she couldn’t think of anything better.

She hated the thought of painting him as the bad guy and didn’t particularly want to go back to work with people who thought so little of her and were so damn quick to order her killed. But, she had to at least get them to remove her criminal status before she could quit, move far, far away, and never work for the government ever again.

Watching him from the corner of her eye, she decided she would bring it up when they stopped for the night.

They’d walked for hours through the woods with minimal breaks to rest, bypassing any towns and people, until night fell and they could fly without being spotted. That was at least two hours ago.

She hoped he found something suitably safe and secluded soon, because harness or not, her neck was sore and her ass and the backs of her thighs had taken more than a few lashes from the tops of the trees since he had to fly so low to avoid being spotted on radar. Every time that happened, he yelled profuse apologies and tried to wipe the hurt away. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that vigorously brushing his huge hand over her butt and thighs, after being whipped by a tree branch, wasn’t actually effective. Besides, those touches in conjunction with the intimate position in which she was strapped to his chest made it exceedingly difficult to keep herself from thinking of sex.

Mira had come to the conclusion that Zaek was a little kooky. Thankfully, what she’d seen so far was cute crazy, instead of back-away-slowly-without-making-eye-contact crazy. She got the sense he hadn’t had much in the way of social interaction in a while, and more than once now, she caught him talking to himself. That, in and of itself, wasn’t all that alarming or even odd since she had a habit of that, as well, but she was pretty sure he outright argued with himself.

Potential insanity aside, he came across as very capable. He had a way about him that reminded her of someone with a military background, but

without the coldness in his eyes that most of the soldiers she’d met had.

She thought it was in part because of his quirks that she liked him. He was kind, had a protective streak two miles wide, and was sexy as hell in an alien lumberjack sort of way. He was also smart and funny which were crucial qualities in her opinion, but it was the little hints of crazy that drew her in and made her want to get to know him better. What was his life like?

Why was he on Earth? Where did he come from? Who was he?

Is he single?

At that, Mira turned her head and eyed him surreptitiously, which was when she realized she wasn’t the only one lost in her thoughts. He looked like he was trying to solve a complex math equation in his head. His brow was furrowed and his lips were set in a contemplative frown. It didn’t occur to her that she might be the focus of his thoughts until he snuck a peek at her while she was watching him. They had a hand-in-the-cookie-jar moment when they caught each other staring and started speaking at the same time, voicing shouted, unintelligible excuses before they both fell silent.

“Apologies. Did you want to say something?” Zaek asked loudly to be heard over the wind.

“Oh, no! Did you want to say something?”

“I, uhh, was just going to ask if you were in need of a rest.”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask, too.”

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Zaek frowned. “I thought you said… ”

“Right. Ha ha. You’re silly.”

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