Page 51 of Alien Mine

It didn’t take long to figure out visiting hours and rope Fate into going with her. After, Rachel finished cooking breakfast, the start of a long day of chores and family and, later, fun. It was the same pattern they’d fallen into since Dyuvad’s arrival: Work during the day, spend the after supper hours outside under the stars next to a huge bonfire.

And when they’d cleaned up and gone inside, once the girls were safely asleep and the crickets provided night’s song, Dyuvad made good on his unspoken promise and fired Rachel’s blood inside and out until they both fell asleep, exhausted.

Visitation at the detention center rolled around quicker than Rachel expected, but she gritted her teeth, put on some decent, clean clothes, and rode out with Fate in his truck while Dyuvad stayed behind with the girls.

He hadn’t said a word to her about it, but the look he’d given her had been enough. She’d understood what he hadn’t said, that she and Fate should be careful, that Dyuvad would care for Kelly and Tiny as if they were his own, that he would be waiting there for her when the hard part was over, just like he’d been there for her from the beginning.

She was well past relying on him to be there. Time was, she’d counted the days until his rent money ran out and he’d be on his way. Now, she knew where he came from, what he was going back to. Not exactly, no. She had no notion what was out there in the galaxy beyond what he’d told her, but she knew he was leaving.Only this time, he wouldn’t be going down the road a bit. This time, he’d be leaving the solar system.

It put a whole new twist on long-distance relationships.

Maybe she and the girls should go with him.

Her fingers snarled into a tangle over her jean-clad thigh and she nearly laughed. Go with him? Dear Lord, she’d lost her mind. What would happen to her goats and the land she’d inherited from her folks? What would happen to Fate if they left?

She peeked at him from the corners of her eyes and her heart twisted into a thousand knots inside her. She couldn’t leave her only brother. He was the only family she had left. If she and the girls took off with Dyuvad, Fate wouldn’t have a soul to care for him. He’d be all alone with his bees and the goats and the land.

And that wouldn’t do.

She shook her head, discarding the notion almost as soon as it had sprung into her head. Earth it was, then. Besides. Dyuvad hadn’t hinted time one about taking her with him when he left. Well, except for that time in the shower when he’d mentioned his mother and fighting and God only knew what else while his hands made merry with her body.

Did he really expect her to pay attention to his words when he was a-doingthatto her?

The truck slowed and turned, and Rachel came back to reality with a bang. “We’re here.”

“Yup,” Fate agreed, his voice mild. “You woulda knowed sooner if you hadn’t been mooning over Dyuvad.”

She shot an exasperated glance at him, but held her tongue. One day, Fate would meet his match, and then she’d tease him mercilessly about mooning over a woman.

They went inside and checked in, endured the security protocols and the press of people waiting to see loved ones. Rachel kept her eyes as straight as she could, avoiding the dry, industrial sterility of the waiting room along with everybody’s gazes, and only exchanged terse greetings when she had to. These visiting times never got easier, but like any chore, she wasdetermined to grit her teeth until it was done.

When she finally got to see Juan, his appearance shocked her. She hadn’t visited in weeks, months, really, while she sorted through what had to be done. He appeared leaner somehow and pale through the plexiglass partition separating them, like he hadn’t ever been out in the sun. His hair, once glossy and nearly black, had been shaved to the skin, accenting the new hollows in his cheeks, and his dark eyes were flat and cold and empty, bereft of the sweet humor that had once filled them.

He picked up the handset on his side of the partition, waited for her to pick up her handset, then said, “How you been, Rach?”

His voice sounded as worn out as he looked. Rachel bit back her kneejerk concern and firmed her lips into a hard line. Juan had made his choices. Doing so had pulled him out of her life, and heart, for good. “Your move up here was a surprise.”

He laughed wearily and ran a shaky hand over his stubbled head. “Good behavior.”

“So I heard.”

“How are the babies? Is Kelly still doing good in school?”

“She’s taken a shine to the stars here of late.” No need to mention who was encouraging her along those lines. “Tiny’s still not speaking right.”

“Give it time, Rach. It’ll come.”

Of that she had no doubt, though it might take a long while. The knowledge of what Tiny might be, of the people who were interested in her, popped into Rachel’s head. She tucked it away again and focused on the things she could control in the here and now. “I’ve got some things to tell you, Juan, starting with that flat-footed rascal Miguel Ramirez.”

Juan’s eyelids slid closed and he winced. “C’mon, Rach.”

She jabbed a finger at him, stopping just shy of poking the partition. “His men nearly turned the van over and me in it. What if the girls had been along, huh, Juan? What would’ve happened to them then?”

“I didn’t have nothing to do with that.”

“But it happened because of you, because you were toospine-boned weak to keep your nose clean and do right by your family.” Rachel sucked in a sharp breath, bottling her anger up, and breathed it all out in one gusty sigh. Wouldn’t do any good to bring up the past when there was so much needing her attention right now. “Look, Juan. Seems like you might be trying to straighten yourself out again, and I hope you are. But in the meantime, I’ve got to protect Kelly and Tiny. I’ve got to protect them any way I can, including legally.”

Juan slumped in his chair and shifted his grip on the handset, his black eyes bleak and stark as an Arctic snowfall. “Legally?”

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