Chapter Six

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Stella launched out of the back door she’d recently been shuttled through by Sheriff Merrow, cuffed and mortified. Now she was escaping like a criminal and unsure this was any better.

In this moment she was grateful to be free, surprised at the identity of her rescuer and fearful they were not going to get away from the deputy who was determined to catch them.

Guilt warred with her need to be free.

Technically, she was about to be on the run after a dubious arrest with the very prisoner she was supposed to take into custody and haul back to Alienn.

Instead, Draeken was her accomplice in her first foray into a felonious escape and all she could think about was how his kisses had once lovingly melted her soul and still did even after the brief lip-lock back in the sheriff’s station.

She cast a gaze at Draeken’s lips, unable to stop herself. He hadn’t changed a single bit. Even his familiar scent drove memories of their intimate time together deeply into her soul. She’d missed him. In this place and time, he felt a little like home, or at least the home she’d carved out for herself on Alpha-Prime before joining her blood relatives on Earth.

Draeken’s arm still circled her waist halfway as he faced the advancing threat of the very angry Deputy Rosemont. The man had a feral look on his face, and was still dragging the metal file drawer along, scuffing the floor deeply as he got ever closer.

Just before the deputy clamped his free hand around Draeken’s forearm, the man went completely stiff, as if all his muscles had been zapped by a lightning strike. His eyes closed and he went loose and boneless, falling to the floor just inside the door. The empty metal file drawer—still attached to his abraded wrist by the handcuffs—rested at his side upside-down and battered from the trip through the office.

Draeken closed the back door hard, tightened his arm around her waist and hustled her across the parking lot to the alley leading to the street.

“Slow down,” she said after several swift steps. “We don’t want to look like we’re criminals running away.”

“You’re right.” Draeken slowed, but kept his arm around her. They turned onto the main street and headed away from the sheriff’s office. “Besides, only one of us is a criminal here,” he said with a chuckle. She glared at him. “A local criminal, anyway.”

She continued to glare, but he only smiled. She felt her expression slip as she realized he did have a point. “Oh, I don’t know about that. A criminal is a criminal wherever they escape, even on Earth.”

“Trust me, Stella. I was framed for this current trip to the gulag.” She sensed he was telling the truth, but she could also tell he was holding something back. Maybe he’d been involved in the crime, but someone had fingered him as the sole offender.

“Really? If I could read the transcript details of the most recent crime bringing you here, would I say, ‘this sounds exactly like something you’d do’?”

His grin made her tummy clench sensually. “Perhaps, but I swear I didn’t do it.”

“Maybe so, but you were the one in the chocolate shop earlier causing ‘local’ trouble, right?” she asked, thinking of the overheard conversation between Sheriff Merrow, Hugh and Delaney.

“Wait.” He paused mid-step, almost tripping. “How did you hear about that?”

Without missing a beat she said, “I have skills.”

A large grin shaped his mouth. “You always did have the very best skills, Stella.” He leaned closer.

She let him get close, then turned away. “Stop it, Drae.” She used the endearment he’d loved because she was the only one who used it.

He didn’t press her, perhaps hoping to stop the general decline of their unspoken truce. Instead, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

She pushed out a loud sigh and lied. “No. But I have no doubt that you are. I don’t know how you eat so much and stay so trim.”

“Me either, but I’m dying to try out some Earth food in this unique place.”

Stella looked around at the black and orange decorations, the shops with distinctive and funny names extolling the Halloween spirit—if there even was such a thing—and the generally festive theme this town seemed to thrive under.

“I could eat.”

“Excellent.” He frowned. “We’ll have to use your wad of cash, though. I’ll owe you.”

Stella glanced down at the manacle on his arm. “I guess no one here recognizes that you’re an escaped prisoner from another planet.”

“I honestly don’t think they’d care even if they did know.”

“They might.”

“Only if they discovered I’m an alien with powers of persuasion. But then, so are you.”

“I’m not nearly as persuasive as you. Seriously, I’m not even in the same league.”

“You managed to put a baby nudge into that deputy’s mind and save us that first time out of the gate. We’d have been in the clear if the phone hadn’t startled him. That’s why you won’t tattle on me. For once we’re in similar circumstances. Admit it: you must be a little bit guilty of something. Otherwise, why did the sheriff detain you?”

“No comment at this time.” Stella didn’t see the point in arguing. They slipped into the next small restaurant they saw. Mummy’s Diner served food that was supposedly “to die for,” if the sign could be counted on for accuracy.

The comforting scent of blueberry pancakes hit her in the face the moment they stepped inside. Her stomach made an undignified noise. Draeken didn’t say anything, but he smiled. The diner was fairly busy this morning, giving them the sense that they’d easily blend in and stay hidden in plain sight.

Once they’d each plowed through more than half of their generous servings of blueberry pancakes with syrup, Stella said, “We need to get going. I have to take you to the rendezvous point and send a message to my team.”

“Sorry. I need to find—” he stopped talking, stared deeply into her eyes and added, “someone from the ship.”

A quick streak of anger raced down her spine. She wondered if it was a woman he wanted to find. “Who is it?” she said, a bit more forcefully than initially intended.

He looked at his plate, shoveling a large amount of food onto his fork, saying only, “The guard,” before filling his mouth.

She watched as he chewed, contemplating why on earth he wanted to find the guard, who was presumably the person who most wanted to catch him and ensure he made it to the gulag in the most expedient time available.

“Why?”

He shrugged.

“Tell me.”

Draeken said in a quiet voice, “It’s Riker.”

Riker! His brother! The guard!

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“Are you telling me your brother was the guard assigned to bring you to the gulag? How did that happen?”

He shrugged. “All I know is he was a last-minute replacement and I was grateful to see him when he boarded the ship.”

“Why do you think he was on your flight to the gulag?”

Draeken looked over her shoulder, staring at seemingly nothing before whispering, “I don’t know. Maybe to make sure I made it there safely. He didn’t say much on the flight. He and Holden mostly talked through their headsets, so I wasn’t privy to their discussions at first.”

“What changed?”

His eyes widened as if she should already know. “Well, the looming crash on Earth was the biggest shift in regular protocols, I think. The headsets came off and they started shouting at each other over the many loud alarms going off. Holden was barking orders at Riker and my brother growled back answers until—”

“Until what?”

Draeken blinked. “Until the engines cut out completely and we started our dive toward Earth’s surface. Holden eventually got at least one engine back online to engage the reverse thrusters, but I blacked out before we hit the ground.”

“That was likely a blessing. Do you know what happened? Was it a malfunction or something else? And how did you survive, do you think?”

Draeken looked away from her intense gaze. “I heard Holden say the word sabotage at one point, but I don’t know if he was saying he suspected someone had tampered with the ship or just answering a question from Riker.” He shook his head as if the memory made him uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry. What happened next?”

“As I said, by the time we went down, there was a multitude of alarms going off from the pilot’s console that masked any further conversation. Holden and Riker stopped screaming questions and answers at each other. But I know Holden did something that softened our landing. Riker said he hoped it worked, which was the last thing I heard him say. Holden probably saved our lives. If the other two are still alive, that is.”

“Did you see the others when you woke up? Did you hide?”

“No. I’d been thrown into some bushes and completely covered up. When I woke I was alone at the crash site as the sun was going down. I saw a set of space boot prints and followed them toward town. I figured Riker would go to the local law enforcement station to see if I’d been found, but instead I found you there.”

“I haven’t seen any of the others. The team wasn’t given names. Honestly, I was completely shocked to see you.”

“You didn’t know I was on the flight?” Draeken drilled another seductive gaze her way, smiling as if he enjoyed the idea of her being surprised by his unexpected arrival.

“No. We only had titles on the flight manifest. Pilot, guard and prisoner.”

“Interesting. So who came with you on your team?”

“No one you know.”

His expression shifted to boastful awareness. “I know people.”

“They are Earthers, like me.”

Earther was what Alphas called the folks who volunteered to settle on this particular colonized planet. It wasn’t exactly a tribute or an offensive slang. It was, however, a label.

His demeanor changed. He stared into her face as if studying her closely, and put his chin on one palm. “I like what you did with your hair. It’s much shorter than the last time we were together. Still, I’m glad you didn’t change the ice-blonde color.”

Her hand absently stroked the recently changed hairstyle. It had been Valene’s idea, but Stella also liked it and now so did Draeken. Great. She pulled her hand away, resisting the urge to shake her head at the girly display. This wasn’t a date. She needed to keep that in the forefront of her brain.

But then he said, “I’ve missed you, Stella.”

“Oh?” Her tone wasn’t as harsh as she intended. Her single word reply had come out softer and more reasonable.

“One of the reasons I wasn’t averse to this trip was that I was hoping to see you when we stopped at Earth’s way station.”

“How did you even know you were coming to Earth?”

He grinned. “Well, I guess you’ve got me there. I didn’t find out until shortly before we crashed. But I immediately thought of you. That’s the truth.”

He was likely blowing smoke up her skirt, but he’d always been charming. She’d never doubted his love and affection for her, but they had different ideas about their future, mostly because he wanted to live on Alpha-Prime and she didn’t. Neither could convince the other to change their viewpoint.

They’d actually broken up the day before she told him she was headed for Earth and wasn’t ever coming back. He told her his plan was to kiss her senseless until she changed her mind. He’d certainly given it his all. But in the end, she wanted to live with her distant family. She wanted to live with people who considered her one of them.

Stella wanted to immerse herself in Earth’s culture and belong somewhere. She hadn’t told Draeken about her family. She’d wanted him to understand her unspoken need and simply go with her without a reason. That had been foolish. She should have told him. Perhaps then he would have understood. Her single-minded intent to belong somewhere overrode everything and everyone else at the time. She’d just wanted to go. If he didn’t trust her unspoken desire, then she’d leave without him. And she had.

To be fair though, his kisses had been very persuasive.

“Were you going to try to kiss me senseless again?” she asked.

“Think it would work this time?”

She leveled an intense gaze into his beautiful eyes. “Not if you expect me to accompany you to the gulag.”

He frowned. “No. Of course I don’t want you there. My sentence is ten years, maybe seven with good behavior.”

“And?”

“And after I fulfill the requirements of this confinement—however long it winds up being—I want to stop here and maybe stay for a bit. Learn why you like it so much.”

“Because my family is here.”

His brows furrowed. “Your family? You have family on Earth?”

“My uncle.”

“You have an uncle?”

“Yes. My father’s older half-brother has lived here most of his life. His wife, my aunt Xenia, and their children, my cousins, are also here. There is quite an extended family living in Alienn. A family I knew nothing about until I moved out of the orphanage.”

“I see. It’s good to be around family.”

“Yes. It is.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had family here?”

I was a coward. She shrugged, unwilling to admit that in the quiet moment. “Would it have changed your mind?”

His open expression closed up quickly. “Possibly. I would have at least understood your desire to leave.”

“Or possibly not. Besides, there wasn’t only one reason.”

“What else?”

“We wanted different things.”

“What different things? I wanted you. You wanted me…”

“You wanted every day to be a lark. You expected an amusing adventure with never a dull moment and I wanted a more solid existence where rules and laws were followed always not just when it was convenient.”

“Ironic that you ended up being the adventurer, moving across a galaxy to Earth for your new hopefully solid life.”

“My life is rock solid.”

“Moving a galaxy away grounded you?”

“Yes.” And she’d grown up. Being part of a family for the first time ever had been rather an adventure this past year. And she’d also missed Draeken desperately, never more so than when she saw him come into the Nocturne Falls Sheriff’s Office to rescue her an hour ago.

“I would have been willing to settle down, you know.”

“Maybe, but I didn’t want you to change for me.”

“I wouldn’t have done it for anyone but you.”

They sat side-by-side in the booth, hunkered together as if lovers on a special day out. Draeken leaned closer. Was he about to kiss her?

The bell above the diner’s door signaled the arrival of a new customer. Stella glanced in that direction briefly before closing her eyes as Draeken’s lips pressed against hers in a sweet kiss.

She startled and broke the lip lock as the freeze frame of the new arrival registered in her brain.

Sheriff Hank Merrow.