Page 38 of Shielded Heart

“I don’t have any.”

Orange pressed two of his hands atop the table and pushed himself up, leaning toward her; the table groaned beneath his weight. He bared his teeth and growled.

Samantha flinched back and threw her hands up, palms out. “I swear! We only just met! I don’t know anything about him other than his name.”

“You two seemed pretty damned close for having just met,” Goat said.

The orange alien’s fingers wrapped around the edges of the table; its metal buckled in his grasp. “You’d better start giving us information, terran.”

Tears welled in Samantha’s eyes as terror gnawed at her insides. She couldn’t give them anything.Wouldn’tgive them anything. No matter what Alkorin might have done to these people, she refused to betray him. Not when he’d done so much for her.

“I don’t know anything,” she said shakily. “We only just met. H-He was fascinated with me being a human and flirted with me. We spent the day together and I haven’t seen him since. That’s all!”

Orange leaned closer to her. “How do you keep in touch with him?”

“I don’t! I don’t know how. He didn’t give me anything,hecame to me.”

“When are you meeting him again?” Goat asked.

“I-I don’t know. Itoldyou. He just came to me.”

The aliens exchanged a glance with one another.

“For your sake”—Orange reached across the table with surprising speed and grabbed her hair, dragging her out of the seat until her face was centimeters from his—“you’d better be telling us the truth. Our boss wouldn’t appreciate you lying about this.”

She cried out, her hands flying up to clutch at his fist as pain shot through her scalp.

Worthless. Weak.

The tears spilled from her eyes. “Please! Please, don’t!”

“We’ll be around.” Orange shoved her away.

She stumbled backward, tripped over the leg of her chair, and fell to the floor. She remained there, shaking, and watched through the curtain of her hair as they left her apartment. The door closing behind them was like the gunshot signaling the start of a race, startling her into motion. Shoving herself to her feet, she darted across the room, hit the lock button on the door’s control panel, and engaged the heavy deadbolt that slid into the floor.

She didn’t know who they were, how they got in—how easily they could get inagain—but she would do what she could to prevent their reentry.

Pressing her back against the wall, Samantha slid to the floor. She sucked in one sharp breath after another. Panic threatened to overcome her; her heart raced, her throat felt tight, and chills shook her body. Black spots filled her vision.

No! I can’t pass out.I need to tell him.

Samantha forced herself to take deep, even breaths. The darkness slowly receded.

Crawling away from the door, she sat up against the side of her bed and lifted her wrist. With trembling fingers, she activated her holocom and swiped through the menu to bring up her contacts.

She paused.

Why hadn’t they made her show them her contact list?

Whatever their reasons, it didn’t matter now. She needed to tell Alkorin.

She started a visual call.

Within seconds, Alkorin’s hologram appeared on her display. He flashed his fangs in a grin. “Samantha,” he purred. “I was starting to worry that you wouldn’t—”

“I need you,” she said quickly.

His eyes widened and his brows fell low as he leaned closer, searching her face. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

---