Page 20 of Rescued By The Alien Prince Pirate

It was still uncomfortably quiet. I had to break the ice before my head exploded. "I think I should probably try to get in touch with our crew mates now," I said and glanced over at Nix.

He straightened his posture and let out a grunt of approval, nodding in my direction. "Good idea."

We mentioned nothing of the kiss, and that was probably for the best. Nix wasn't the type to ask me what the hell I was doing, or what had gotten into me. He minded his own fucking business most of the time. He did what I asked of him, and that was all that mattered.

I immediately got on my tablet and started sending a message through to the rest of the crew.

I was grateful for the distraction and to change the focus off that epic kiss I'd just shared with Carmela. I was still spinning from it in the best possible way. The taste and touch of her lips lingered on mine.

After a few minutes, messages started pouring through.

"What's going on?" Nix asked, studying me with a look of concern in his deep, emerald, green eyes as I started reading them.

"I'm getting word back from the others," I said, concentrating on the messages and hesitating before I answered him.

"Is everything okay?" Nix asked.

Judging by the look of doubt on his face, he wasn't going to believe me even if I told him that it was.

"It could be better," I admitted.

"Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good." Carmela placed her slender hand on my forearm and lightly stroked it. Her expression was somber and empathetic.

I was grateful for the surge of warm tingles that I got as soon as she made skin to skin contact.

Carmela made me feel better, and all she had to do was simply touch me. It was like a miracle meeting her, and I wasn't trying to be dramatic about it, either.

Carmela might have claimed that I was the one who savedher, but in a lot of ways, I felt like she had savedmetoo.

"The crew is redoubling on their efforts," I mentioned, trying to keep the hope alive. "No one has been killed. They are going to keep trying to distract the whole robotic force of Belic's on this ship."

"That's a relief." You could see it in Nix's posture that he was elated to hear that promising tidbit of news.

"Meanwhile, we still need to try to get to the control room and breach it. The sooner we do that, the better. It's also less time that our crew will have to spend putting their own lives at risk to fight off the patrol rounds."

"I think we can do it," Carmela said with an optimistic ring in her voice. "I think we can make it to that command center and take it over."

I took a deep breath that felt really good to inhale. "Yes, we have opportunity on our side. Might as well not waste it."

"So, everyone is faring alright then, that's on the ship?" Nix asked. "They're going to keep trying?"

"Well…" I trailed off with a sigh. "There have been a few reports of injuries, but nothing detrimental."

Nix's expression cut to worry, but he didn't say anything otherwise. Nix bottled up a lot of things inside and let them go. With the life we've had and being driven out of our home planet and having to deal with living on a traveling spaceship— I was surprised any of us had an ounce of sanity left.

Everyone dealt with their issues and anger in different ways. Nix wasn't the explosive type. He couldn't afford to be. He had a family, now.

I glanced between Nix and Carmela. "I hate to say this, but what just happened to us out there with that robot patrol might happen again. If it does, we have each other. Use each other and your weapons. We can get through this."

I was attempting to speak to them as if giving them the most endearing pep talk of their lives, right before they entered the most important fight of their lives. I felt like if I gave them enthusiasm, it would boost morale. It wasn't just us working for the cause. We had a whole crew to back us up.

Nix and Carmela cautiously glanced at each other and then looked back to me. "We are with you, all the way," Carmela said.

"Yes, we are," Nix confirmed, nodding at me with an expression of reverence.

"We can't risk waiting around for the robots to come out of their own hiding and attack us," I said. "We might have to fight our way back through the corridors to gain some headway. If we wait too long, it might be too late. Our crew needs us."

Carmela squeezed my hand with a twinkle of inspiration flickering in her saucy green eyes. "Don't worry. We are ready to do whatever we have to do."

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