Page 27 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Ren stopped at the table near the door and leaned over it. Opening her purse, he reached inside and removed her phone, holding it between his finger and thumb like it was going to either bite his hand off or explode.

“It’s vibrating,” he said. “What is this device, Zoey?” There was a hardness in his voice she hadn’t heard since he’d first made himself known, and it was mirrored in his eyes.

He looked as though he expected a betrayal.

Despite the menace radiating from him, Zoey approached and held her hand out, palm up. “It’s my phone.”

His eyes shifted from her face to her hand, finally settling on the phone, but he didn’t hand it over. “What is aphone?”

The phone fell silent, and they both stared at the black screen. Within a few seconds, it started ringing again. It was probably Melissa; Zoey had told her to call in the morning, and Iowa was two hours ahead of Nevada.

When Rendash met her gaze, she thrust her hand forward, snatching the phone from his palm. She spun away from him and accepted the call.

“Melissa?” Zoey asked.

“Zoey! I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday! Why haven’t you texted me back? Where the hell are you?”

Her stomach lurched; it wasn’t Melissa. It was Josh.

“Josh, it’s none of your—”

“Are you communicating with someone?” Rendash asked from behind her.

“Who is that?” Josh asked, voice low with suspicion. “Are you with another guy, Zoey? Who the hell is he? He better not have touched you!”

“Yes, it’s another guy,” Zoey said, looking at Rendash. “We slept together.”

“What the fuck, Zo?” Josh’s voice blared through the speaker loudly enough that she had to move the phone from her ear. She couldn’t deny feeling some petty satisfaction at his reaction.

Before she could respond, one of Rendash’s hands shot forward, and he plucked the phone from her grip with ease. His arm went up high. Her eyes widened.

“Ren, no!” Zoey thrust her arms out to stop him.

But it was too late. His arm snapped back down, and her phone hit the floor with such force that it shattered. As though that weren’t enough, he slammed his heel atop it, breaking it, somehow, into at least a hundredmorepieces.

Zoey stared at the wreckage, stunned. She’d worked her ass off to pay for that phone, and now it was broken beyond repair on this ugly, forty-year-old carpet.

“Why did youdothat?” Zoey demanded. Anger flared in her gut as she looked up at Ren.

“If it can transmit and receive, it can be tracked.” His tone made his displeasure clear, but Zoey didn’t give a damn.

She stepped forward, pressed both of her palms to his abdomen, and shoved. Despite what she’d wanted to happen,shewas the one who moved. She stumbled backward, nearly falling on her ass in the process. That Ren caught her effortlessly with one hand on her arm and kept her upright only further fueled her anger.

She slapped his chest. It stung her palm. “Do you have any idea how many hours I had to work to pay for that?”

“If your people have such devices for communication, it stands to reason that your authorities are capable of monitoring your communications,” he said with infuriating calmness. “They will be searching for even the slightest hint of my whereabouts.”

“I don’t care! That was mine, and you destroyed it!” Zoey yanked on her arm, glaring at him, but his grip remained firm. For some reason, her vision blurred. “You had no right to do that.”

“I am sorry, Zoey.” He leaned down closer to her, and slowly, gently, touched the pad of a finger to her cheek, wiping away a bit of moisture. “What is this?”

Zoey only realized she was crying when she looked at the wet spot on his finger. “They’re called tears. They happen when people are really happy or sad, or very, very mad, which is what I am right now.”

Yeah, let’s go with very, very mad. That sounds a lot less pathetic, doesn’t it?

“Though it may not be easily done, yourphonecan be replaced. My life cannot.”

And now I just feel like a jerk.

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