Page 52 of Alien Mine

“I’m having your parental rights terminated.”

“Rach—”

“No, you hear me out, Juan Olvera. I’ve had it up to here with your shenanigans, and I sure as tootin’ don’t need your old gang messing around the girls anymore.”

“Messing how?”

“That don’t make no never mind,” she snapped out, and immediately regretted the sharp tone. She took another calming breath and tried again. “Sorry. I just meant that they’ve caused enough trouble. If I can put some distance between you and us, Miguel might leave us alone this time, you know?”

Juan stared at her for a long time, and the longer he held her gaze, the harder his became. Finally, he said, “You do what you gotta, but understand this, Rach. I’m gonna do what I gotta do, too. They’re still my girls.”

“Nobody said they weren’t.”

“Nothing you do is gonna change that.” He sat forward and speared her with eyes gone stone cold. “Ramirez came to me a couple of weeks ago, asking about you and my girls. Wanted me to do him a favor in exchange for leaving you alone.”

Something sickeningly acidic cramped Rachel’s stomach. “Oh, my God.”

“I’m gonna take care of it,” Juan said, and he stood up and gazed down at her, resolution a determined mask over the too-pale skin stretched taut along his cheeks. “Don’t you worry none about it.”

“Juan, don’t—” she began, but it was too late. He’d already turned away, leaving her there to sort through the sudden feeling that whatever Juan was about to do, it wouldn’t do a thing to staunch the trouble heading their way.

The next day, Fate took Rachel into town to pick up her repaired van and visit the lawyer. Dyuvad stayed behind with Kelly and Tiny and the goats. As soon as breakfast was cleaned up and morning chores were finished, he jumped the girls onto his ship.

It was the safest place for them. Rachel’s objections be damned.

His nape crawled all day long, carrying a foreboding Dyuvad had no trouble interpreting. Something bad was coming. Maybe it would come from Rachel’s former husband. She’d told Dyuvad every detail of the visit after he’d coaxed and bullied and pushed her into it, and he was certain whatever Juan had planned would make the situation worse.

Then there were Juan’s associates, who’d been too quiet of late. Miguel Ramirez in particular had struck Dyuvad as more dangerous than he appeared. Not a man to let something go, especially something he wanted badly, the way he seemed to want Rachel, Kelly, and Tiny.

Until Juan or Miguel acted, though, Dyuvad was stuck in the same holding pattern as Rachel and her family. Sit and wait. No other action seemed appropriate.

Dyuvad set his ship to monitor Rachel’s property, then shoved away from the helm. He might have to wait, but by Fryw, he didn’t have to sit idly by.

Kelly and Tiny were in the galley taste testing the snacks Dyuvad had set out for them earlier. Crumbs were scattered around the floor where they sat cross legged facing one another. Kelly looked up when Dyuvad entered and her eyes went round.

Tiny jabbered in a mixture of languages Dyuvad didn’t recognize, though one word stood out plainly, the name of his home planet.

Kelly carefully sealed the lid on a container of dried fruit strips. Her small fingers were dark against the white lid and hesitant where she normally wasn’t. “I got a question, Mr. Dyuvad.”

He crossed the room and knelt beside her, then brushed one fingertip along the tip of her nose. “I thought we’d agreed to drop the mister.”

“Yeah, um.” Kelly’s chocolate eyes darted to Tiny and back. “What’s this Abyw thing Tiny keeps talking about?”

“The planet I was born on.”

“Oh.”

“It’s a long way from here.”

“Oh.” Kelly drew the word out as her fingers fidgeted along the container’s sides. “You gonna take us there or something?”

“Do you want to go?”

She nodded, shook her head, shrugged. “It might be neat to visit another planet. Like, nobody on Earth ever has, you know?”

“True.”

He sat on the floor and pulled her into his lap, waited until Tiny clamored onto his other leg, and embraced them both. The little girl scents of freshly washed hair and fruit sticky fingers drifted to him, and his heart clenched in his chest, seized by a love he’d never expected to feel. Another man might have fathered Kelly and Tiny, but they were Dyuvad’s now, his in a way he barely understood. What would he do if his relationship with Rachel failed to flourish? How could he possibly leave this part of his heart behind and forsake the daughters he’d always wanted?

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