Page 34 of Alien Knight Blind Date Disaster

“I don’t know. I think he was afraid you would interfere in his search for his brother.”

“I would have. The safety of the many comes before the needs of the one. I must protect my warriors and this planet. He had no right.”

“I know. I understand. You would have tried to stop us.” She looked up at Falden, hiding nothing. She needed him. She was in pain. She felt weak and scared and nothing was going the way she had planned. Which would have been fine, she could deal, but the migraine was literally making her see spots. And flames. Blue, dancing flames teasing her vision like mystical sprites. “I really need to talk to the prisoner. If I can talk to him, I might be able to get him to talk.”

“No.” The king was adamant.

“You won’t even know what to ask him. Neither one of you. You live here, on the inside, in your little bubble. You don’t know how to exist on the outside.” She looked at Falden, an apology in her gaze as she spoke the truth. “Your warriors don’t know how to blend in, how to shop, how to drive a car. We can spot you guys a mile away. You need me. I can get answers for you.”

“It’s too dangerous, Bella. No.” Falden understood her desire, but he didn’t like it. No fucking way was she getting anywhere near their prisoner. The thought of Isabella putting herself in such a precarious situation made him want to kill something. Fear gripped him with cold, hard talons. Only centuries of self-control kept him from throwing her over his shoulder, taking her off planet where she would be safer and pounding his cock inside her until she couldn’t remember her own name. How had his small, fearless female managed to discover an intergalactic Blood Market? She had no idea how much danger she was in. None.

Falden took her hand and began pulling her out of the room, his need to protect her boiling over into anger. “Dagan. Sasha. We’ll get back to you. Isabella and I need to talk.”

“Certainly,” the queen responded, her blue eyes filled with worry. “It was nice to make your acquaintance, Isabella. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“Thank you,” Isabella shouted to make sure the queen heard, cringing at the volume. Falden had whisked her out of there so fast she felt winded.

Chapter Eight

Fury wasn’t the correct word for the simmering heat hiding just beneath her overheated skin as Faldenescortedher to anothersafe areaof the base.

She knew a prison when she saw one. Even if it was a very nice prison, with a fluffy sofa, a large—very large—bed and a television screen on a swivel mount so she could watch mindless fluff while seated on either piece of furniture.

Falden stood behind her as she looked her fill of the room. It was about the size of a large hotel room, and there was one door, behind which she assumed she would find a bathroom with all the necessary facilities.

“So I’m to wait like a good little girl while you go talk to the bad guy?”

“You will be safe here.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“You will not—”

She was too angry to allow him to finish. “The bad guy you only caught because of me, I might add. I would bet anything he was there that night to find me, not you. I lured them out of hiding. I did the months of work to find him. To make them trust me. I am the one who risked everything to help Sevron track down those assholes.”

“And if I had not been there, they would have killed you and your friend, Jessica.”

That stopped her cold and made her shiver. She wasn’t an idiot. He was right. She’d probably be dead if not for him. But why keep her from talking to a prisoner? The bad guy had to be surrounded by guards. How dangerous could it be? “I never thanked you for that. I would be dead if not for you. It’s true.”

“Isabella.”

She didn’t turn around at the entreaty in his voice, sensing him behind her. Closer than he’d been before, his heat at her back. The fact that she ached for him to wrap his arms around her and make her feel safe, cared for, protected, just made her angrier. She’d been a fool. The sex had been good. Great, actually. But now that he’d betrayed her trust at the first opportunity, she realized that she’d just been a job to him. A stopover on his mission. He didn’t care what she wanted. He didn’t care about her story, her investigation into this Blood Market, or her desire to protect her friends. People were disappearing off the streets. Good people. But that was irrelevant in the world of Falden and his king. The truth was, if he hadn’t been injured, he never would have stayed with her. Never spoken to her.

Never touched her.

Why did that thought hurt so much?

The room spun for a moment, and she swayed on her feet, hiding her weakness by grabbing the back of the sofa.

“I want to talk to him.” Her chest ached from breathing too hard, too fast, and her head was spinning its way down to her stomach. With every breath she took, nausea rose and fell like a tide with the moon. “You won’t know what to ask him. You don’t even know who he is.”

The headache she’d been holding at bay settled into a pounding hum in the background of her mind as she fought back the wavy lights that her rage had brought to life in her vision. Curling her free hand into a fist, she pressed it to her temple and took a deep breath. “He won’t talk to you. He won’t talk to any of you.”

“He will.” The grim determination in Falden’s deep voice made her tremble. There was resolve in his tone. “I promise you, he will tell me everything.”

Spinning to face him, she lifted her chin to stare up into his ice-blue eyes with every ounce of fire she could muster. She would not back down. Not about this. “Did you know about the Blood Market?”

“On other worlds, yes. But not here.”

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