“And that worked?”

  “We’re here, aren’t we?” She put her arm around him, her fingers caressing the ridges for a moment, before she pulled back. None of his bones started to extend, so that was good.

  A holographic server appeared in the center of the table, and they both ordered drinks.

  With her scooted so close to him, he could feel the way her hips rubbed against him.

  He liked it. She was certainly growing on him. If the situation were different, he could have been very interested in making this work. As it was, he wanted to complete this task for Dhomhes and return to his regular, daily activities.

  Of Holok harassing him.

  Being alone.

  It wasn’t much of an existence. He could admit that. But what else did he expect? His own people rejected him.

  As such, her defense of him in the store surprised him. His reputation said he could have ripped the store owner to shreds and finished his surveillance without any qualms.

  After all, he was a hardened criminal.

  She, however, came to his defense. Not knowing or caring about his past or his reputation.

  She stopped him.

  Her hand touched his arm, and it calmed him.

  Maybe not calmed him. Because he was still ready to defend himself and Tori as needed, but he felt more control over his temper than in the past.

  A surprise, to be certain.

  Now, though, as they sat so close, body touching body, he felt his own internal desires and craving for her.

  As a mate? He didn't think so. Regardless of what the Intergalactic Dating Agency said. “I don’t know if this will work.”

  She leaned into him, her breast brushing against his side. “Don’t you know anything about surveillance?”

  “Maybe not as much as I thought I did,” he said, smiling at her. Her seriousness amused him. He appreciated her effort.

  “The best thing we can do is not look like we care about the subject we’re watching.”

  “Why do you know this?”

  “If we’re close together and seem to be intimate, others will look away because public displays of affection make many uncomfortable.”

  He shook his head. “Were you some kind of investigator in your world?”

  Their drinks emerged through the center of the table, first one sliding along a small track to Tori, then the other over to Olmed.

  “No. And I gotta say, that’s neat,” she said as she motioned to the table. “Makes serving a lot easier, I would bet.”

  “You don’t have that?”

  “We don’t have that. We do, however, have plenty of cop dramas, which is where I learned about surveillance.”

  “Cop drama?”

  “Fiction show about the life of a police officer. Manufactured stories based on real-life scenarios.” She took a sip of her drink. "Mmm, this is good." A smile spread over her features, and she glanced at him. "Good choice for me."

  "I thought you would enjoy the sweetness," he said as he took a sip of his own warm tea. "About your fiction shows. They pass knowledge through the fiction stories like that?"

  "Sometimes. Sometimes they made it all up. Just depended on the story.”

  Olmed looked out across the corridor and saw the Kantenans getting up. “They're leaving."

  She nodded. "Let's see where they're going now."

  Olmed and Tori stood, Tori carrying her cup.

  "Leave the drink," he said.

  "I can't take it with me?"

  "No."

  She pouted but left the drink on the table and followed him. He settled the credits, and just as they got outside, he saw the Kantenans heading toward the docking bays for private vessels.

  Olmed picked up his pace. He wasn’t letting them get away from him again. Lucky that they were still there on the station at all, Maybe he could get more information from them.

  Like who their buyer was.

  The further they got, the faster he moved. He followed as close as he could to maintain appearances.

  When the Kantenans reached their destination, they lingered around one of the private docking ports. Like they were waiting for someone else.

  There was yet another player in this scene.

  He wondered if Dhomhes had any idea how many there were.

  One turned and looked his way.

  Olmed's stomach dropped and he froze in place.

  Barnak.

  He had maybe a moment to decide what he was going to do.

  Run or confront?

  With Barnak, there was very little chance to decide more than once.

  Barnak stood taller when he caught sight of Olmed, and came toward him.

  Great.

  He didn't think he knew these miners before, but it seemed this was bigger than just one drop at one shop.

  More than the two he’d seen before, if Barnak was there as well.

  Olmed took a step toward his old mining supervisor.

  Ready to get this over with.

  8

  How far did he go?

  Tori took off in the general direction that Olmed went. She wasn’t sure, though that he hadn’t taken an alley one way or another, because the tunnels all had a curve to them. Seeing exactly where someone went was not easy because of the curves. People just seemed to disappear.

  Aliens were all around her.

  Honestly, it reminded her of a busy airport, except instead of windows that showed the planes coming in, it showed the stars, or in many cases, the port tunnels to access the ships latched onto them.

  At another time, she might have enjoyed looking around in an observation area, if they had that here, but for now, she just wanted to find Olmed.

  Increasing her pace, Tori scanned in all directions. After all, he was taller than many of the other colorful aliens all around her, so surely she’d be able to spot a tall red alien with horns.

  Especially since he was looking for others of his people, so all of them together would be a sight to see. As she hurried along, she felt her backpack buzz.

  “What in the world?” She swung the pack around.

  Sure enough, her phone was buzzing.

  “I get reception?” she muttered and pulled it out of the bag. “Yeah?”

  “Hey. It works!” Polly said.

  “I guess so,” Tori said. “What’s up?”

  “I was just checking to see if it would. Erzo thought it might be able to connect with the systems here, and at least allow us to reach each other.”

  “That’s handy,” Tori said. “Would we be able to reach Jana?”

  “Not sure. We’ll have to try it out.”

  “Okay.” Tori finally saw Olmed ahead with the other Kantenans. “I gotta go.”

  “Cool. We’re at the apartments. I think we’re heading to dinner soon. Is that right, Erzo?”

  “Dinner,” she heard Polly’s alien agree in the background.

  “Fine,” Tori said “I’m finishing up shopping and then Olmed and I are, uh, looking up some old friends.”

  “Have fun. Talk later. Text if you need me,” Polly said.

  “You too.”

  They disconnected the call and Tori was almost to Olmed. She reached him just in time to hear one of the other red aliens speaking.

  “We have plenty of room. And you know those charges, we can get them revoked. It is not a problem.”

  “Charges? What charges?” she whispered.

  Was he a wanted criminal? A suspect in a crime? Had he been convicted? Was he running from the law? Wait, no, that would make him a convict, one who was serving a sentence.

  What was his sentence? And what was his crime?

  “Tori,” Olmed said, turning to look at her.

  “A friend?” the other male said. He tipped his head back and laughed. “She’s so tiny. To each their own, I suppose. Come, come. We go now.”

  Tori glanced at Olmed. “Where are we going?”

  “Back to Kantenan.”

  “But, uh—”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  “You’d better.”

  Later came pretty quick—like as soon as they were shown to their quarters on the main male’s—Barnak, she learned was his name,—vessel. Nothing as nice as what they had in the space station. These were little gray metal rooms with ladders that Olmed could barely fit down, along with beds that folded up and locked into the wall. Generally everything one would see on a sci-fi show. Well, except Star Trek. They always had clean ships with polished everything. Unlike the classic sci-fi show, these quarters were not clean and spacious. Instead, they were tight fitting, dark metal, nothing really polished or pretty, but it did give privacy.

  Seemed so, anyway.

  “You gonna tell me what’s up?” Tori asked as soon as they were alone.

  Olmed made a gesture with his hand.

  She raised her eyebrow. “Doing magic?”

  For a second, a flash of light blinked, not super bright, but it ran over the two of them for a moment before disappearing.

  “Unimpressive trick. Didn’t even sparkle,” she said.

  “It is a protective bubble to keep our conversations private.”

  “Oh, so I can yell at you and no one will know?”

  “For a moment.”

  “So, where are we going, and why? Quick and concise answers, please, since we are on a spaceship leaving the station.”

  “The others are the ones I’ve been following. They have something to do with the thefts that I’m here on Disguised Serenity to find.”

  “What’s in it for you?” she asked.

  “I will get my name back. Be able to walk on my soil again.”

  She blinked. “I thought you didn’t want to go back to your homeworld.”

  “My homeworld is just that. My home. My mother is there. I have not seen her in a long time, and I am not allowed to.”

  She could only imagine what that would do to someone whose actually cared about them.

  What different worlds the two of them lived in.

  He looked down when he spoke, almost like he was embarrassed. “I am sorry. I do not mean to—”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m sorry when I spoke about my family before, if it made you feel any kind of way.”

  “Any kind of way?”

  She shrugged. “That I was being selfish or rude or something because you missed your mother.”

  “Not everyone has the same kind of family, obviously.”

  “Obviously.” She moved, and brushed against the bubble they were in, because it flickered. “Ouch!”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Fine. Just tell me, what other dark secrets are we hiding, so I can get my story straight.”

  “You’re a companion,” he said. “Not a mate. Kantenans do not mate with others who are not Kantenan.”

  “Okay. Easy enough. What else do I need to know?”

  “Primary goal is to find out about the theft of our equipment and who it is being sold to. There’s a buyer on the station, but I don’t know who it is being sold to from there.”

  “And this matters because?”

  “It is specialized material and tools for the mining of citricite. Citricite is a very important mineral; it is what the strength of Kantenan society was built upon. We use it for everything. It also powers much of the known galaxy.”

  “So it’s really valuable.”

  “It’s also very dangerous and can destroy starships or even moons if it is not mined correctly.”

  “But no one’s stealing the ore, just the tools to mine it?”

  “Specifically, the stabilizers that neutralize the ore for mining. If they’re stealing that, then they’re attempting to mine somewhere else and could put a great deal of humanoids in danger.”

  Tori nodded. “Of course. Because this can’t just be a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong. Why don’t people think things through?” She said the last part mostly for herself, but when she met Olmed’s gaze, he seemed to agree with her.

  “So what do we do now?” she asked.

  “Pretend to be lusting after each other. You are a companion.”

  “And I expect to be well paid,” she said.

  This did make Olmed grin.

  9

  Tori freshened up, trying on one of her new outfits as well as some of the face paint.

  If anything, she looked even more attractive than she had been before. Stunning, he thought, as he escorted her to the mess hall for some food while they traveled back to Kantenan. He’d held out his arm to give her support for some of the walkways were narrow and had very few safety rails.

  When they reached the mess hall, the other Kantenans were there, all eating evening meals. One had his ju-nak on his back as if he’d either just finished practicing with the double-ended blade or he planned to practice shortly.

  Barnak looked Tori up and down. “My oh my,” he said. “What do you charge for a group, companion?"

  Tori stared at him. “You couldn’t afford it.” Her hands trembled against Olmed’s arm, and he growled at Barnak.

  “You will not challenge,” Olmed said.

  “You cannot lay ownership on any female but your mate,” Barnak said. “If she wants me, she can have me.”

  “But therein lies the rub,” Tori said, her voice crisp and clear. “I don’t want you. And I never will.”

  She still trembled, but she kept her head high as Olmed guided her to a seat. The other two Kantenans, Dless and Scotts, stared, but neither of them said anything.

  The few others on the ship, some were Kantenan as well, but others were different humanoids. All of them, though, shared that smell of the mines. One of those aromas that no matter how much they cleaned themselves, the smell never quite went away.

  Probably part of the reason that Tori stood out. She didn’t smell like that. She smelled fresh and cleansed the breathing, and possibly even the spirit.

  His spirit, anyway.

  He brought her a tray of food—it wasn’t anything special, just nutrient bars, some soup, and a piece of bread.

  She looked at the food for a moment and picked up the bread. “It’s kind of gray. Is it still good?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

  Olmed nodded. “It’s blue grass. Normal. What color is bread on your world?”

  “White or brown. Tan. Really dark brown. Depends on what kind of ingredients.”

  “As is ours. Blue grass, though, is in most things. It travels well and works in space better than most ingredients. It is a very important commodity.”

  Barnak leaned in. “You don’t have blue grass?”

  Tori glanced at him. “Not on my world, no.”

  “What world is that?”

  “What?”

  “The world.”

  “What world?” she asked.

  “The world you’re from.”

  “My world.”

  “Yes. Your world.”

  “What about it?”

  “You don’t have blue grass on your world?”

  “No, I don’t. Didn’t we just cover that?” Tori asked.

  Barnak waved his arm. “You have fun with that.”

  Olmed glanced at Tori.

  She winked at him.

  They finished eating their meal and he walked her up to the bridge so she could see the main control of the ship.

  “Come, you can take a look,” Olmed said. There were very few beings on the bridge. Scotts and another crew member, but certainly not a full complement for the seating.

  “I don’t want to interfere,” she said. “Too many sci-fi movies. The visitor goes on the bridge and accidentally tries to blow up the ship or start a war because she poked the wrong control panel.”

  Her stories about the fiction on her world. They must make a lot of fiction stories there! She always was referencing them as they spoke of different things.

  “I guarantee you will not break anything.” He held her tiny hand and tugged her out of the entrance.

  Scotts was watching from his seat. “Yes, you’re going to be fine. We won’t let you do anything drastic.”

  “A lot of these panels are coded to their users,” Olmed said. “See?” He touched the panel and nothing happened, since he wasn’t the authorized user of the ship.

  “Oh, well that’s reassuring,” she said and put her hand on nearby panel.

  A light underneath lit up.

  “Not that one!” Olmed cried out.

  Tori jumped in the air, and right into his arms. Of course, he caught her and held her tight.

  And laughed.

  “You are terrible,” she said, and started hitting him on the chest. “That was not funny at all!” Olmed embraced her, even as she fought, he loved the feel of her against him.

  “Yes, it was,” Scotts said.

  She twisted, her hips grinding into his in a way that made everything rise.

  “You and your dumb horns,” she said, smacking them, then pulling her hand back. “Ouch. Those are hard.”

  “They should be,” he whispered. “Like many things.”

  She raised her eyebrow. “Promise?”

  “Swear.”

  He couldn’t stop himself and pulled her into a kiss.

  She gasped, but reciprocated immediately and wrapped her legs around him.

  Intense and powerful, his natural need burned in a way he’d never known.

  The kiss lasted for eternity, but also not nearly long enough. When they broke apart, he could see in her eyes that she felt the desire that he felt.

  It throbbed through him like nothing he’d known.

  “We need to go,” she whispered.

  Olmed nodded. “Yes.”

  10

  They barely made it back down the ladder to their tiny bunk before they started kissing again. When Olmed pressed Tori against the ladder, she gasped. This time when she wrapped her hands around his neck and along his horns, she didn’t try to hit them. Instead she caressed them, and he let out a growl against her neck.

  Intense, just the touch of his skin. It wasn’t smooth like hers, the texture on it different. She pulled off his shirt and stroked the ridges down his neck, feeling how they protruded from his back and spine area.

 

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