Page 62 of Kissed By the Alien
With a nod from Hunzu, I crawl back through the hole into the fresh air outside. No scent of my female lingers. No boot prints disturb the dirt surrounding the building. I’ve spent my entire life tracking people, starting with Narzan when my father ferreted him away from our home and abandoned him.
I was a youngling of twelve, with no drekking idea how to find him, but I didn’t let that stop me. I found him, and he became my responsibility.
One I drekked up.
I cannot fail Lexi, too. I have to find her. The problem is, I have no drekking idea where to start.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
LEXI
“What the fuck did you do, Virtue? We don’t need a hostage,” Moses yells across the camp where I’m being held. “Especially her.”
“You’re getting soft, Moses. The bitch is the key to what we need.”
“Who says? Him?” Moses points to Mystery Man, as I’ve dubbed him, who’s standing shoulder to shoulder with Virtue. My angle doesn’t give me a clear view of Mystery Man’s face, not that I’d likely see much. He’s wearing a long black rain coat, steel-tipped boots, and too many layers for me to identify who the hell he is. Between his hat, mask, long sleeves, coat, and gloves, I can’t tell if he’s Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or even human for that matter.
Mystery Man points an angry gloved finger at me, but he’s keeping his voice too low for me to hear.
Maybe he’s one of the og’dals Moses has been arguing with Virtue about. If Moses doesn’t receive the next shipment of blasters soon, he and Virtue won’t be alive much longer. No one cheats the Brotherhood and survives.
Mystery Man flings credit chips at Moses. They bounce off Moses’ boots into the dirt. He and Virtue scramble to scoop up every last one as the man walks away.
“Gimme them chips,” Moses demands of Virtue.
“Just keeping my share,” Virtue says, pocketing a fistful.
“I decide your share.” Moses shoves Virtue, nearly knocking him into the only source of heat for the camp, one lone garbage can sporting a raging fire.
If he knocks that can over and it rolls off, I’ll freeze to death. It’s fucking cold tonight, and I’m only wearing a negligée. Stupid me for trying to live on the edge a bit, to give in to my wants for a change.
This morning, I left the embassy escorted by the guard whose name I never learned. As soon as my not-so-secret shadow escorted me to my hideaway, I told him I was safe. Not going anywhere, that I’d wait for Lutan to come see me. That satisfied the guard, and he left.
Twenty minutes later, I emerged from the safety of my hidden lair to shop for a very special item I need for when Lutan shows up. One that I’d only find in a fancy store that caters to the wealthy, with its own guards, frilly products, and grotesquely high prices. My credits have been accumulating like crazy for years for the work I do for my dad. Beside the men’s clothing I buy, which isn’t expensive considering the poor condition they’re in, the only expensive purchase I’ve made in years was the gun.
A lot of good that did me.
When I returned from shopping, I stuffed the gun under the sofa cushion in my hideout. Even though I left Lutan on rocky terms, he cared enough to have a guard follow me. In my heart, I know we’re not done with each other. I fully expected he’d find me after recapturing the last prisoner who escaped.
I had all these grandiose plans in my head of wooing Lutan, starting with the sexy negligée. That was my downfall, ultimately. I was standing in front of the mirror, primping and preparing for when I’d next see Lutan, when Moses’s men grabbed me. I never even had a chance to grab the gun.
Now that I think back, I wish Lutan had told me it was Moses who escaped. Maybe then I would have been more observant, more alert, and not caught up in how to impress Lutan.
Damn, I have no reason to lay any of this on him. I disregarded my own safety measures. I went shopping in a pricey area. Which means I chucked my vagabond style clothing, or the guards never would have let me in. Doesn’t take long for word to spread around here when there’s fresh meat.
Which is how I feel as another cold wind slices through me. My teeth won’t stop chattering, but I’m more scared than cold. Standing out here practically naked with so many guys staring at me in this negligée that barely hides anything has me terrified.
“It’s not enough money to pay back Russo. We need the blasters,” Moses says to Virtue.
I don’t like how Virtue keeps staring at me.
For the past few hours, I’ve held onto the hope that Lutan would come looking for me, but it could be hours before he discovers I’ve been kidnapped. That’s assuming he looks for me.
Virtue points a knife at me. “She’s worth several hundred credits on the market.”
Oh, God. They’re going to sell me!
I don’t have anything to buy my way out of this. I left my credit chips back in the building, under a loose floor tile. It’s my emergency stash. Even if I try bargaining with these assholes, I have no way to keep them from taking anything I might reveal.
