Page 27 of Alien Mine

“Eh, what’s a winyu runner?”

Dyuvad stifled a wince. Two slips in one day. If he stayed around much longer, he was likely to give away every secret he’d ever held. “A hoodlum.”

“If you say so.” Fate twisted the last screw out and dropped it into his pocket. “I was thinking if things got much worse, we ortahit the source at home. Take off the head, so to speak.”

“Eliminate Miguel Ramirez.”

“That’d be the one. I reckon a little mischief ain’t worth the trouble, but if things this time get as bad as the last…”

“We will not let it go that far.”

“Damn straight.”

Together, they wiggled the door off the frame and hauled it outside, and in spite of Fate’s good-natured needling, he and Dyuvad fell into the easy banter exchanged between two men of like mind and purpose, easing away Dyuvad’s anger over what had happened to Rachel. They formulated a loose plan over a long day of repairs and routine maintenance, in between a midday meal and interruptions by the womenfolk, and agreed to keep it to themselves.

“Rach’ll have a fit if she finds out,” Fate cautioned sotto voce.

From what Dyuvad knew of his landlady, he figured her brother had Rachel’s reaction pegged.

She did seem suspicious. From time to time, she settled a level gaze on first Fate, then Dyuvad, but she said nothing about the vandalism or Ramirez.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking about it. Dyuvad might not have spent a lot of time around women, but he’d learned enough observing his female kin to be certain of that. Rachel was biding her time, waiting for the right moment to ferret his and Fate’s plans out of one of them.

Dyuvad had revealed as many secrets as he intended to, at least until he gained her trust.

Or until he completed his ‘path directed errand on Earth and was free to court Rachel as a man should, tucked safely onto his ship on their way to the Choosing.

He grinned and threw himself into work, his mind on the many possibilities presented by the tantalizing image of Rachel tied to his shipboard bed.

Chapter Seven

Rachel let that long, night-time cuddle, with the sexiest man she’d ever met, no less, bother her the whole morning long. She’d forgotten how good it felt to snuggle up to another warm body during the night, a fully grown male body with all his parts in working order.

And boy, had she enjoyed being tucked against those working parts.

She bit her lower lip, hiding the grin threatening to split her face plum in two. A God fearing woman ought not to’ve allowed Dyuvad in her bed at all. Funny thing, that. The more she was around him, the more she suspected God might’ve had a hand in sending Dyuvad their way. That didn’t make sharing a bed with him right. Not in the least. But the possibility that he might really have been sent to her neck of the woods for a reason, the way he claimed, made it a little harder to fight the attraction stretching between them.

And she just felt better having him within arm’s reach. Safe, almost, like with Dyuvad there, she didn’t have to worry so hard over every little thing.

Rachel snorted and led Georgette out of the milking shed. Finding him chatting away with Tiny that morning sure hadn’t helped. What kind of woman could resist a man who went so far out of his way to accommodate her kids? Not many, that was for darn tootin’. Sometimes, their own fathers wouldn’t go that far.

Dyuvad did. Sure, he was a new broom and was bound tolose patience with them eventually. With her, too, for that matter, but for now, he was working out just fine.

She eyed him and Fate as she slipped around the side of the house with Georgette, toward the fenced in pasture. The two men had been thick as thieves since Dyuvad’s arrival, and today was no exception. No doubt they were up to something foolish, like going after that no account Miguel Ramirez. That, she wouldn’t stand a minute for, but she could head the men off well before they built up enough steam to go charging off half cocked.

No, what worried her was the way Dyuvad kept checking that fancy watch of his. Odd how twice now he’d stopped trouble before it got too far along and been dead serious in the doing. For a man who wandered around half dressed all the time, he sure had a dangerous look about him.

Especially when he was holding that laser gun of his.

Rachel penned Georgette up, stretched the kinks out of her back. Trudged to the separate kitchen Fate had built near the milking shed, bagged the day’s haul for freezing. She was putting the last labeled bag into the upright freezer when the shed’s door opened and Yasmin slipped inside.

Rachel brushed her hands off against the seat of her shorts and frowned. “Are you already off work for the day?”

Yasmin shook her head, bouncing the loose, nearly black curls pinned to the top of her head. “Fate texted me about last night. I got here as soon as Esme came in and took over for me.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I most certainly did,” Yasmin said, her words crisp and tart. “My best friend in the whole wide world was vandalized, and you expect me to sit in my shop waiting for last minute weekend weddings?”

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