Chapter Four

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The sound of a door being forcefully shut brought Stella out of her daydream about her lost love. She heard voices in the outer office, but stopped woolgathering and came alert when a woman said something unexpected.

Someone named Hugh had called Sheriff Merrow over the radio. She recognized his English accent the moment he stepped into the sheriff’s office. He was now in the outer area with the sheriff and a woman named Delaney, who was apparently Hugh’s wife.

“I truly believe that this man read my mind,” the woman said.

“Tell me what happened before he allegedly read your mind,” Sheriff Merrow said in a soothing tone. “And also what did he look like?”

“Tall, rugged, handsome.”

Someone made an unhappy, scoffing noise.

“Well, he was, Hugh,” Delaney continued. She briefly described a man who could fit a number of identities, even alien ones. After she offered him a sample of the chocolate in her shop, the man told her she was a creature of the night, blabbed that she was a vampire out loud and then asked how she could be out in the daylight.

“What did you say?” Hugh asked.

“Nothing,” the woman said exasperatedly. “My mouth was still hanging open in shock.”

“I find that difficult to believe,” her husband said. “I’m surprised you didn’t at least spout out a trivial statistic about stock market sugar futures in the Western Hemisphere or something.”

“Okay, maybe I said holy chocolate balls under my breath and there might have been a statistic regarding dark chocolate producers increasing in the world at large on the tip of my tongue.”

“That sounds about right.”

Delaney continued as if her husband hadn’t spoken. “But the man seemed to realize his little trick wasn’t going over well and he ran right out of the store. Honestly, I think he was trying to impress me with his mind-reading skills. I was shocked not impressed, and by the time I was able to scramble slowly and carefully from behind the counter to look out on the street, I couldn’t find him anywhere.”

“I know being pregnant slows you down, but I appreciate that you didn’t race out of the store like an Olympic track star ready to leap over hurdles in a single bound,” Hugh said.

Stella heard his accented tone soften as he talked about his wife being pregnant. A pang of regret slid down Stella’s spine. She wanted to have children. Lots of them. She wanted a huge family just like the one she’d found in Alienn, Arkansas.

“He could be a supernatural that we haven’t identified,” Sheriff Merrow said. “I can sense shifters because I am one, but—”

Supernatural. Stella leaned forward, keeping silent to ensure she heard every single word.

“He wasn’t a super,” Delaney said. “I’m certain of it. He didn’t give off the same, you know, aura as one of us, but I don’t think he was quite human either.”

“Or he is a supernatural and has some sort of stealth ability that will be troubling to deal with in the future,” Sheriff Merrow added, sounding displeased.

Hugh spoke in a low tone—almost a whisper—and Stella pushed her head against the open bars as hard as she could to catch any words. All she got for the effort was light bruising on her temple and jaw. The sheriff responded with a whisper of his own and Stella didn’t catch a single word. Space potatoes!

“Okay,” the sheriff said. “Let’s do that. I’ll call ahead and meet you there.”

Where were they going? At least now she had some insight into possibly why her Big D hadn’t worked on the sheriff. He said he was a shifter. If Stella had to guess what he shifted into, she’d say gray timber wolf or possibly grizzly bear.

The town’s Halloween theme made more sense, too.

If the townsfolk were all supernatural beings, perhaps they were immune to her people’s technology. Add another interesting note for the lessons learned portion of the post-mission brief, if she ever got back to Alienn.

She wondered which of the three Alphas from the downed ship had bumbled into the chocolate shop. It had to be the prisoner. The guard would be looking for his escapee, not perusing a chocolate shop. The same went for the pilot.

Stella wished she had names to go with the titles. All she’d gotten was pilot, guard and prisoner; alas any detailed information hadn’t been provided.

The contract was so bright, shiny and new they hadn’t had anything but the bare bones of information. The nature of this being the first test run of a coming regular prison waystation visit had prompted more secrecy.

Too bad the first test had resulted in a crash. Stella had heard vague rumors that Axel Grey, the brother in charge of communications in Alienn, had pushed Diesel to start this prison run endeavor. It was entirely possible that they could lose the contract altogether if Stella didn’t salvage the mission.

Looking at the solid iron bars of her incarceration space, Stella felt as helpless of controlling the situation as she had when all her childhood friends went to new families while she got left behind like a broken doll at the bottom of the toy box.

Before complete devastation could overtake her senses, Stella heard someone enter the building from the main street. By the sound of the quiet conversation that ensued, she guessed the newcomer was a deputy. Soon after, the sheriff and the parents-to-be left, destination unknown.

Perhaps she could get the deputy to come back to the cells so she could mind-nudge him for information about where the sheriff had gone. Before she could even call out to him, she heard a noise from the back hallway leading to the rear parking lot.

A man she thought she’d never see again strolled into view.

Draeken.

Did I just conjure him up out of my dreams?

Staring through the bars of a jail cell had been the first time she’d ever truly looked at him on Alpha-Prime. She’d brought him in while working as a bounty hunter.

However, this time their roles were reversed. She was locked up and he stood outside, free. She couldn’t fathom how he was even here. Maybe she’d fallen and hit her head and was unconscious and dreaming.

“Stella Grey in jail while I roam free? This seems backward,” Draeken said. “I can’t say that I don’t enjoy the switch up, though.”

“Am I dreaming or are you truly here?”

Draeken tilted his head slightly and his expression softened. “Do you often dream about me, Stella? If so, that’s great news for me.”

Hearing him say her name made her a little soft in the head. She stared at him without speaking, taking in his beautiful face. He moved closer to the bars, but stayed just out of her reach. They heard a noise from the outer room. Stella realized they’d been speaking in low enough tones that the deputy hadn’t heard them, shockingly enough.

“What are you doing here on Earth?” she whispered.

“We crashed here.”

She knew he wasn’t a pilot. He also wasn’t a guard. That meant he was the prisoner. Still, they’d loved each other once, hadn’t they? Did he hold a grudge after the way she left him on Alpha-Prime?

“Are you going to help me get out of here?”

His expression shifted to one of mock horror. “That would be against the law here on Earth, wouldn’t it?” Oh, he was so enjoying this.

“Draeken,” she said in an oft-used tone of reproach.

His eyes lowered. “I’d forgotten how much I’ve missed hearing you say my name, even when you’re scolding me.”

The phone in the other room rang. The jangle stopped mid-ring and the deputy started speaking.

“Please help me get free, Draeken.”

“Of course, love.” He headed toward the open doorway.

“Wait. Where are you going?” she whispered furiously.

“Trust me.” Draeken moved quickly and quietly. The deputy was still on the phone, talking to someone who’d found a stranger lost in the woods. Could it be one of the survivors of the crash? And if so, was it the pilot or the guard?

Draeken winked at her and disappeared through the door into the other room.

How did he still have the power to make her insides feel like jelly?

And more importantly, how could she turn him over to her leaders for a one-way trip to Galactic Gulag XkR-9 once they returned to Alienn?