Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset (33 page)

“Concern noted, Commander,” straightening the coats she’d shoved apart, she added, “Like I told you, Aroc and I are together. End of discussion.”

He looked behind him, his sharp gaze slowly returning to her face. “There’s still something shady about him that I can’t put my finger on, but when I do, you better listen.”

“You listen, Cantrell. My personal life stays out of your life or this partnership is done.”

He withdrew himself and stepped back. There was something bigger than Katherine looming between those two and now it was affecting her working relationship with Oliver.

“I’ll see what I can find out. See you at the coffee shop on Third and Elm after the meeting,” he whispered looking around behind him. “I have Ryner’s men ready to converge on the site the moment the exchange happens. This is going to get ugly.”

That was an understatement.

She nodded and smiled her best southern greeting when she heard noises in the background. Returning to her maid persona, she said, “It sure is a warm night out tonight." Peering around his shoulders, she kept an eye on the hallway leading around to the rumpus room. "There’re refreshments in Mr. Edwards’ office. Help yourself."

Savannah’s steps were near impossible to hear sometimes, as if she floated just above the ground. Like her mother would say, happy feet rarely touched the ground.

“Let me go into this meeting. I know Richard had someone helping, but he’s keeping that information tight to the vest.”

Hearing Savannah approaching from the hallway, Sadie waggled her brows. Oliver nodded in recognition.

“It was my pleasure to run you by the store, Ms. Sadie. No problem at all.”

“You’re in a particularly good mood this evening, Mr. Cantrell.” She gripped the glass knob closing the closet, and greeted with a bright smile behind Oliver. Savannah Edwards stood behind Oliver, arms folded, large bright smile on her elegant face said she’d waited for this day.

“Well, Oliver, I agree with Sadie, you’re absolutely pleasant tonight," Savannah praised, her bright pink lipstick a perfect match to her flush skin. "You’ve worked a smile out of my Sadie; you'll have to drive her into town every day from now on, Mr. Cantrell.”

Not if your husband is going through with his plans tonight to steal from the government. He’ll be sitting in a Federal prison by morning.

“Ms. Sadie’s smile comes through in her food, Savannah. She’s smiled for me numerous times,” he complimented and she had to step away from the show. They turned as Timothy came barreling through the living room and clung to Sadie’s leg.

“Can I have a cookie please, Ms. Sadie?” His collar filled with crumbs told Sadie the counter was a mess as Timothy had already been into the cookie jar.

“If you sweep all the crumbs from your shirt young man, you’ll likely have two cookies.” Her hair spilled over her shoulder with a shake of her head. “Timothy how on earth did you get onto my counter?”

“I…I…”

“Never mind. It’s too painful to watch you try and lie, cookie monster.” She patted the little boy on the back.

Savannah made a
tsking
noise. “Timothy Edwards, you’ll get yourself killed, young man going after Sadie’s cookies. Say hello to Mr. Cantrell then go wait in the kitchen if you want to go to the festival and see the fireworks later.”

“I’ll be good.”

Sadie watched Oliver pick the little boy up, brushing the crumbs from his clothes. “Ms. Sadie makes the best cookies. Sometimes you just have to have one, but listen to your mother. No more climbing on the counter, hear me?”

“Yes, sir.” Timothy abandoned his fight, pulling a partially damp cookie from his pants pocket. “Can I keep this one? I only licked it once, but the other side is dry.”

Lawd that boy was a handful. Sadie shook her head, placed a hand on her hip, and rubbed her finger over her brow. This boy was full of vinegar and sugar. How could she leave Savannah with this boy when it was all over?

“I think your mother and Ms. Sadie won’t mind you keeping that particular cookie, young man. Now go do what your mother said and wait in the kitchen, and stay off that counter.”

“Yes, sir.”

A fueled rocket shot off slower than that boy when a cookie was involved. But her attention was divided with the show from Oliver. He’d make a great uncle to Norese. However, sharing that information would mean going against Aroc’s wishes, hurting their relationship. She’d figure out a way to include him in Norese’s life if it killed her, which it just might, if Aroc doesn’t approve.

She gestured to the open door of the home office. “Mr. Edwards is waiting.”

Oliver mouthed one hour and slipped away down the hall into the office.

“Sadie, honey, everything looks perfect. Mr. Edwards and I appreciate you taking on the extra responsibility.”

Anything to get this case filed away as solved.

“Timothy needs to see his father more often and working long hours at the bank is a sure way of making them strangers.” She looked around, catching the time on the clock on the piano. She had to go. “Excuse me; I have to meet some friends tonight. Everything is laid out on the counter in the kitchen if they run out of anything and there’s extra club soda in the pantry in the laundry room.”

“You are a pearl, Sadie,” Savannah gushed. “Oliver's intentions aren't wasted from what I just witnessed."

"Mr. Cantrell bothered me less than normal tonight, that's all that was.” After closing the closet door, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her uniform. “Cantrell is pleasant when he's not leering at me, improper and all."

"Well, whatever happened...you're radiating so someone is responsible for your glassy eyes."

What would she say if she knew thinking about her alien lover put that smile on Sadie’s face?

In the laundry, she tried to contact Farkus on his communicator and got his lockout screen indicating he was transporting. On alert, standing behind the louvered doors, she played the one message. Hearing Aroc’s voice, she cupped a hand over her mouth.

“Sadie, plans changed. Meet me outside at the corner behind the bakery around the block from the Edwards’.”

What’s changed? She rushed a message to Oliver’s device, and then bolted out the back door.

Outside, she stood on tiptoe to peek over the neighbor’s fence to the sidewalk. Too many people were still out walking their dogs. She couldn’t transport.

Bothered by the unusual amount of black and whites patrolling tonight, Sadie rushed to the corner. When she got to the next street, she ducked down the alley past the laundry mat to wait on the corner next to the ice cream parlor. Turning from side to side, she kept a look out for anyone out walking down the street. Just the garbage cans and empty pallets lined the back of the store.

Tucking the device into her pocket, she darted glances down the street past Third and Emerson to the post office on the corner. Two blocks from the neighborhood precinct, the streetlights flooded the sidewalk and the patrol cars lining the street. The bakery in sight, she made it to the side wall and waited.

This was the end of this mission and with everything coming to a head, Sadie needed to talk to Theresa.

A large hand covered her mouth, another clamped tight around her stomach. Screaming into the palm, she recognized Aroc’s scent as her feet left the ground and her back wedged against his familiar ripples and bulges. Farkus scooped her legs up to run down the alley. She wrapped her arms around his neck to keep from falling as he leapt over a short fence. She hoped that biscuit she ate didn’t get jostled up into her throat.

When he stopped, they were under the glow from the lamp across the street straining to cast a shadow down the alley. When her feet hit the ground, she wheeled around and pressed her hands to his chest.

"Aroc.” She eyed his males filling the alley, staring at her. “Captain...what happened? Captain Ryner assured me you gave Commander Oliver and myself lead on this case.”

He angled forward. "Another contaminated shipment delivered to my bay. I’m done negotiating with humans.”

“Aroc, you can’t start a war over this. There’s too much at stake to throw it away when we’re this close to shutting down Edwards’ operation.”

“I have to quarantine the entire bay, Sadie. That’s lost income and possible health risks for my males. Karuntee are effected by high levels of certain gases and those containers tilted the scale.”

Angrier karuntee poured from the shadows, bodies gleaming with rain under the streetlights, giving them a wet marble appearance.

"Your mate has our protection, Captain,” Montage informed, his attention focused on her.

Sadie held his stare. The normal tightness she’d noticed in his shoulders whenever he spoke around her was no longer there. Had she won the approval of the great Montage, hater of all that is human? It appeared that way. There was no denying the fearless presence of his aura, but the female that took him down one day would have to have her own.

“Where would you like the men positioned?"

“Montage, what’s happened?” Sadie asked uncertain he’d answer her.

“We received confirmation that Edwards added more shipments in the last hour. The man you and Oliver captured at the warehouse, confessed to a second shuttle landing at the sight. Your men will need help. And if these rogues are karuntian, a part of the rogue sect that attacked Cantrell’s shuttle bay, I’ll deal with them.”

Sadie blew out a strangled breath. "Aroc, not here in the neighborhood,” she said, shooting a glance down the alley then back up to him. “It’s not safe. There's a police station three blocks from here. This street will be swarming with patrolling cruisers soon. You're not a complete secret from all humans. Police are an extension of the government and those that know the damage a karuntian is capable of to a human body… They could walk the streets with bazookas wreaking havoc on all these innocent people, possibly killing a child.”

He showed a slice of his serrated teeth through his parted lips. He pointed a finger down the street. “Richard’s not getting away on this one. My crew will follow them to the site where the rest of my males are waiting.”

“Aroc, if things go wrong and something happens to the treaty, cutting off the relationship between karuntian and humans...” She hesitated, looking into his handsome face. “I don’t want that on your head.”

He grinned. “You’re worried about me?”

“Yes, I am. Now go so I can do my job.”

"Your safety is in jeopardy being here on Earth tonight, and I want you safe and away from this back on the space station.”

Sadie ran a hand over her face. Her fingers came away wet, as rain appeared to drip from the sky. "Is Norese safe?"

His answer, when he finally stopped staring long enough to grace her with one, came in three dimensions she'd remember forever. As if her concern aroused him.

His hand wedged between her back and the cement block wall, and since it was Farkus, she waited and allowed him the touch, directing her closer. His mouth covered hers in a scared, hungry kiss. Sadie could have been thrown off planet Earth with less surprise at the sincere, pained emotion Aroc breathed down her throat. His thick fingers cradled her spine, sliding his hand up her back to grasp her hair in his fist. The elastic rubber band yanked from her hair seconds before his hands returned to massaging her spine.

She hadn't realized she'd ran her hands under his arms, fingertips brushing the edge of his retracted spikes, under his vest. Enticed by the sensation, she ran her fingers around the muscle encircling each spike to feel them reflexively tighten. Encouraged by Aroc’s throaty moan, Sadie drew her fingers up the column of his neck, thumbs massaging under his earlobe, another sensitive spot she’d learned of recently.

In response, he ran the rough pad of one thumb up the nape of her neck pressing the tendons, sending a delightful tingle to run the length of her arm. Her fingers flexed on his neck and she wanted to melt into his caress. Not with a battle raging around them.

“Be careful,” she said more to bring herself out of the heady clouds his touch drew her into, than making him aware of their surroundings. “Soon Oliver’s going to lead those men to the shuttle.”

"Don't worry, Sadie. Karuntee are uncivilized, but our women are important and precious to our community and to our families."

She watched his temple pulse with his thudding heartbeat. He was ready to fight the humans, hungry for it. His eyes glowed with the lust for battle.

"Tonight we'll fight together to help your people and mine. And when this is over, you, Norese, and I will be a family."

"Excuse me, Captain Farkus," came Montage’s deep voice from the end of the alley. A low growl of agitation left Aroc's throat. Sadie broke the seal to burrow her warm face against Farkus’s hard chest. Lord she was on fire.

"The males ready?” he asked his hand stroking her shoulder.

"Human police were spotted on the next street over. My men are ready to engage.”

“Aroc,” Sadie said. “If you leave now, you can stop the launch without killing humans or engaging the police in battle. There doesn’t always have to be bloodshed.” She touched his chest giving him a pleading gaze. “Don’t do this Aroc, don’t start a war.”