Page 14 of Taken By The Alien Warrior Pirate

“What do you mean?” Cyburn looked at me quizzically.

I let my shoulders shrug. “If she is still in love with you and threatened by me, then that might become a real issue. If she gets too obsessively focused onmeand not doing herjob,she could put your entire crew in danger.”

Cyburn’s black eyes widened with shock as if this theory had never dawned on him until now.

He hesitated before answering. He looked me in the eye and made a promise — a promise that I desperately wanted to believe.

“She is not going to be a problem. Trust me on that.”

“Iwantto trust you.”

“I haven’t let you down yet.”

I smiled at him across the table. “I can’t argue with that.”

We held each other’s gaze for an extended period of time before Cyburn broke the silence. “I assure you that as soon as we get the other refugees settled and situated at the local embassy, I’ll give Amada a stern talking to.”

It didn’t seem like enough to me, and it seemed like an issue that needed to be dealt with right away instead of being placed on the back burner.

I had a feeling that Cyburn was just buying time and hoping that I would forget about it by the time all that other stuff happened. My level of frustration began to increase, involving the subject.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to properlyvoicemy frustrations. They were just running rampant inside my brain and building up to a dangerous level.

I actually felt the stain of heat on my face. I was getting too worked up and needed to find a way to internally calm myself down. Was Ireallyinsisting that my new ‘lover’…if I could evencallhim that, reprimand hisex-lover?

Then again, why not? She wasn’t going to leave me alone until something was done about it. Should I just let him off the hook and take care of the problem myself? I was perfectly capable of defending myself. I’d done it all my life.

Cyburn must have noticed my unrest because he took my hand again and squeezed it softly. This time I let him hold onto it.

“She is not going to bother you anymore. I won’t let her.”

“Okay,” I whispered, my voice cracking, although this surprised me because I didn’t feel like I was going to cry.

What else could I do but take his word for it?

He was still dodging the root of the problem, however. He wasn’t really satiating my worries for the future. Simply telling me he would ‘take care of it’ or, ‘talk to her,’ didn’t seem like the most productive solution.

“You still seem upset,” Cyburn said, gazing into my eyes skeptically. He had enough empathy in his eyes to turn my perspective in the right direction, however.

“It’s a little tough,” I admitted. “I can’t trust her, but ifyouwant to vouch for her—”

“I vouch for her as an engineer,” Cyburn said somewhat vaguely.

I wished he would elaborate but he didn’t. Oh well.

“Why don’t we take a walk?" he suggested.

“A walk?” I looked at him. “To where?”

"I can take you to the bridge and introduce you to the rest of the crew,” he suggested. “Perhaps meeting some of the others will give you a better idea of how things actually run around here. Then you’ll see that the hostility comes only from Amada. I can assure you that everyone else will be friendly to you.”

He had a point.

“Everyone else has been welcoming so far,” I agreed.

Cyburn looked relieved to hear that. “Good.”

“Sure, I’ll take a walk with you.” My spirits lifted when I realized that he wanted to introduce me to the rest of his crew.

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