The Gigolo's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles) (3 page)

Chapter 2

Gwen was waiting expectantly when Ashleigh
walked into the daycare. “So?”

“It wasn’t Tate.” Ashleigh paused at the
front desk. She’d had a long debate with herself that morning about
wearing the necklace, but in the end she knew it was safer at
home.

“Well, that’s probably a good thing,
right?”

“Yeah, but he left me a half-dozen messages
last night and sent me a couple of texts this morning. He wants to
know who my secret admirer is, and what he has to do to compete
with him so he can get me back.” Ashleigh rolled her hazel
eyes.

Gwen gave her a sympathetic look. “If he had
cared this much the first time, he wouldn’t have slept with
Brit.”

True.

Her body demanded sugar and caffeine, so
Ashleigh said goodbye to Gwen and headed to the kitchen, grabbing a
lemon-filled donut and a cup of coffee in a lidded mug before
heading to her room. The three and four year-olds were going on a
field trip to a local fire station to meet with the firefighters
and see their equipment, so the day was incredibly busy from start
to finish.

All Ashleigh had been thinking of on her
drive home was the necklace. Even though she felt silly, she wanted
to wear it. And she really, really wished she knew who it came
from. Hopefully her mystery man would reveal himself soon. She
dropped her purse on the counter and went into the bedroom, picking
up the necklace and slipping it on. When the cool, slight weight of
the stone rested against her skin, she smiled.

Turning back to the kitchen, she dug her cell
out of her purse. She didn’t want another day to get away from her
without setting things right with her mom. Just as she was about to
call, there was a knock on her door.

She looked through the peep-hole and saw the
same young man who had brought the flowers and necklace to her the
day before, holding a long black box with a red ribbon on it.

“Yes?” she said, loudly enough to carry her
voice through the door.

“I have another delivery for Ashleigh
Turner.”

Her thumb ran a small circle around the
‘call’ button of her phone as she opened the front door slowly.

“Ashleigh Turner?” the delivery man said with
a tight smile.

“Sure. I remember you from yesterday.” She
opened the door further and reached for the box, but he lifted the
lid and a cloud of dark blue gas burst in her face, making her head
spin.

“Wh-what’s happening?” she mumbled through
thick lips. Her knees went weak and her vision tunneled as arms
grabbed her and kept her from falling to the ground when her legs
went out completely. Her fingers lost their hold on the phone and
it clattered to the tiled floor.

She heard several different masculine voices,
but they spoke in a language she didn’t understand. She opened her
mouth to speak, to call out for help, but nothing came from her
lips, and she drifted away into the darkness.

* * * * *

“Psst! Psst!” A voice hissed in Ashleigh’s
ear as someone shook her shoulder. Ashleigh groaned and tried to
roll over and go back to sleep. It was then that she realized she
wasn’t in her comfortable pillow-top bed, but on a hard, metal
floor.

Her eyes popped open and she sat up straight,
making her head spin violently. “Ow, crap,” she breathed, pressing
her fingers to her temples as she tried not to vomit.

“Careful, it seems to take a while for the
drugs to wear off,” the same female voice said.

Ashleigh blinked her eyes a few times and
found herself staring into the face of a woman who looked to be
about her own age, wearing a simple white shift. Ashleigh looked
down at herself and saw she was wearing the same thing. She touched
the material; it felt soft, like brushed cotton.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“My name is Kate. We’re on some kind of alien
ship.” Kate gestured around her, and Ashleigh saw a lot of women.
Some were huddled fearfully together in small groups. Some were
lying on the floor like her, waking up slowly.

“Did you say ‘alien ship’?” Ashleigh asked
incredulously.

“I think so. What’s the last thing you
remember?”

Ashleigh told her about the flower delivery
guy opening a box and the puff of blue smoke, and then passing
out.

“I had a similar experience,” Kate said.
Ashleigh noticed that each woman in the room had on a necklace that
was similar to hers. The pendants were a rainbow of colors, though,
and whether that was significant or not, she didn’t know. The room
looked like it was made entirely of smooth, nickel-colored metal,
save for the ceiling of frosted glass, which let in soft white
light. There appeared to be no doors, windows, or furniture.

Aliens.
Her mind raced. “What would
aliens want with us?” She felt panic rise in her, and she fought it
down. It wouldn’t do any good to lose it.

“I don’t know.” Kate fiddled with the
necklace. “I think they put some kind of tracker in the necklace.
Otherwise, how would they know where we lived?”

“Surely this is a trick,” Ashleigh said. “The
delivery guy looked entirely human to me. And besides, there isn’t
life anywhere but Earth; everyone knows that.” Even as she spoke
the words, her mind reminded her that no one could really know
everything. What if there
were
aliens on other planets? Why
would they abduct women?

One of the women, red-faced from crying,
twisted her long blonde hair around her fingers. “They’re going to
experiment on us or make us sex slaves, I just know it!” Her voice
took on a hysterical edge and the other women near her tried to
calm her down, but it was clear that all of them were equally
worried.

Ashleigh’s mouth went dry. Sex slave or
experiment. Those weren’t very good options.

Kate shushed the women. Ashleigh closed her
eyes and shook her head.
Please be a dream
, she chanted in
her head. She was disappointed, but not all that surprised, when
she opened her eyes and found herself still in the room with the
other captured women.

There was a crackle that sounded like a
speaker, and a large opening revealed a flat screen about the size
of a large TV in one wall. The screen flickered for a moment before
the face of a woman appeared. She was sitting on a small stool in
front of a glass wall that looked out into space. She appeared to
be human, with long brown hair and eyes.

“Welcome, women of Earth. My name is Shreva,
and I am a medical officer on board the freighter ship
H’lio
. You are being taken to the planet Norlan, several
galaxies away from your former home.”

There was a pause, and several of the women
gasped in disbelief. Ashleigh knew the phrase they were focusing on
because it was rattling around in her brain: 'former home'.

The screen split, and a picture of a city
appeared. Sleek, egg-shaped cars hovered off the ground, moving
through streets lined with non-descript dome buildings. The sky was
purple, dotted with silvery clouds.

Shreva smiled brightly. "This is Kyvern City,
the capital of our world. The ship will land here, and you will all
be taken to your new homes."

The image shimmered, and a slideshow began.
She ticked off the descriptions of the images as they were
scrolling by: the green-tinted ocean, the farming areas outside the
city, a city park with tropical-like plants, the night sky with
twin moons, and smiling families of one man and one woman, a child
in their arms.

"First let me assure you that you will not be
harmed. When you were taken, you were put into a light sleep and
transported into our ship far above your planet. While you were
unconscious, female medics such as myself examined you for any
maladies that our advanced medical knowledge could heal, and then
bathed and dressed you."

Ashleigh felt a little sick to her stomach,
glancing down at her body and wondering just how many had seen her
naked and vulnerable.

"In a few moments, guards will be coming into
the room. Do not fight them or try to escape. They will not harm
you, but they will restrain you if they have to. They will identify
you by the necklaces you wear. Please do not try to remove them.
The necklaces were locked during your exam and cannot be broken or
taken off. You will be taken, one by one, and delivered safely into
the hands of the male that chose you as his bride. Once in his
safe-keeping, all your questions will be answered. Rest assured,
Earth females, you will not be harmed in any way. Welcome to
Norlan." She smiled again, and the screen went blank as the
covering slid back over it.

There were a few shocked moments of silence
and then...chaos. Some of the women fainted, many of them cried,
and a few - like Kate - tried to rally everyone to fight.

"We're stronger together!" Kate said
loudly.

Ashleigh stood up slowly from the floor and
grabbed Kate's arm. "You can't incite them to fight, Kate. You
don't know what will happen to us if you fight."

"Did you hear her? She called Earth our
'former home'! That’s bullshit. I want to go home, now!" Kate
raised her voice and wrenched herself from Ashleigh's grip.

Ashleigh put as much authority into her voice
as she could. "The woman in the video said we wouldn't be harmed
and that we shouldn't fight back or try to escape." She implored
the women to calm down, knowing that a few panicked people could
cause all of them harm.

Kate stomped her foot. "The only choice we
have here is to go like lambs to the slaughter or fight. I'm not a
lamb!"

Her brave words were cut off as a door slid
open in one wall, and two men with bright blue hair came
inside.

Kate and two other women threw themselves at
the men, and a few others tried to escape, but more guards
appeared, blocking the exit. Some of the guards had bright blue
hair and some had dark brown hair, but they all looked human.

Ashleigh backed away from the fray slowly,
not wanting to get caught up in the melee. She took a few breaths
and tried to assess the situation logically and calmly. While the
other women around her were either trembling in terror or fighting
against the large men, she tried her best to keep a cool head. If
she'd learned anything from her job, it was that adding your own
panic to a bad situation wasn’t going to do anyone any good.

Her back pressed against the smooth wall
opposite where the men entered. Some of them stood in the entrance
to block the women from escaping. The women who were fighting
didn't seem to be having any effect on the men as they kicked and
hit.

Ashleigh wanted to believe that Shreva was
telling the truth, at least about them not being hurt. The men,
although larger than the women, were restraining them carefully so
they weren't injured.

The two inside the room spoke to each other,
but Ashleigh couldn't hear what they said. They moved to a group of
women, apparently using a metal instrument to guide them. They
raised it and waved it over the group. The women began whimpering,
clutching each other for support, and when the instrument beeped
over the head of a thin, blonde-haired woman, she went nuts. She
screamed and shoved the other women ahead of her, “No, no! Don’t
take me! I want to go home. Please! Help me, please!”

Ashleigh cringed, unsure what to do. Kate
wrenched free of the guard who was holding her back and jumped up,
beating on the back of one of the men. “Who are you? Why are you
holding us captive? We want answers, damn you!”

Another guard pulled Kate away with far more
tenderness than Ashleigh would have expected. When the terrified
blonde woman was clear of the room, her wrists in glowing
handcuffs, the guards released Kate and the other women who had
tried to escape and left, sealing them all inside.

Kate felt all over the wall where the door
was, but there was nothing except the smooth surface. Sliding down
to the floor, she put her head in her hands and sobbed.

Ashleigh thought about the guards. They
certainly looked human. Handsome faces, the right number of arms
and legs, as tall and muscular as one might expect from men who
were clearly well-trained in how to handle abducted, hysterical
women. They looked normal except for the hair. But anyone with a
bottle of blue hair dye could do something similar, although she’d
never seen a dye job quite like it. It wasn’t just blue, but shades
of navy, turquoise, and powder blue nestled together in the
strands.

Kate gathered herself after a few minutes and
stood up, dashing the tears from her cheeks. She began to search
along the wall again, looking for a way to open the door. Ashleigh
wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the door opened again.
Kate was waiting and tried to rush out but was stopped easily
before she got even one foot out the door.

This second time, only one woman stood with
Kate and tried to get out, as another woman was taken away in
glowing blue cuffs. The third time, only Kate railed against their
captivity.

One by one, their numbers slowly dwindled
until it was just Ashleigh and Kate. Ashleigh moved over to Kate
and sat next to her against the next wall.

“I wish I’d have listened to the instincts
that told me that accepting a gift when I didn’t know who it was
from was a bad idea. If only I’d listened to my inner voice!” Kate
sighed. “You’re being awfully calm, Ashleigh. Are you in shock or
something?”

Ashleigh shook her head. "No. I've always
been able to keep a cool head in a bad situation. I guess panicking
isn't really in my nature. I mean, don't get me wrong; I’m freaked
out on a number of levels. But losing it?" She shrugged and ran her
hands across the smooth fabric of the shift. "I just don't see how
it can help."

"We should just go with them without
fighting?" Kate accused. "They took us from our homes, and they're
calling us 'brides'!"