Chapter 15

Sunset Falls was a memory in the cruiser’s rearview mirror when Vaughn pulled over to the side of the empty two-lane road stretching to the horizon. Dark clouds had gathered over the mountains, threatening to drench her.

As if the wretched tears in her eyes hadn’t been bad enough.

She clenched the steering wheel for a long moment, then looked down at the tablet.

Had it already sent its message? The urge to throw the cruiser into reverse made all her muscles seize.

How had a scavenging thief become so much a part of her in just a few days? He was an alien!

She wondered what the Intergalactic Dating Agency would say about her disbelief.

She pressed her forehead against the steering wheel, as if she could absorb through it a confirmation of the right way to turn.

A squawk beside her made her straighten in alarm. The cruiser radio… Had the sheriff, the deputy, or the kindly clerk hunted her down?

A hologram unfurled from the tablet. “Onoffon, repeat your message.”

She stared at the image of the big, imposing alien. He looked like a general—had the brow furrow her father had mastered when she was little—but she didn’t think he was any council enforcer. His clothing had the look of Dejo’s black ships fatigues, although more sumptuous. This must be the Jaxian metal-lord who’d had his own run-in with Blackworm.

“Not the Onoffon,” she said. “I’m Vaughn Quaye. Er, of the planet Earth. I have information on the missing IDA brides—”

Another figure jostled into the hologram. “Hello?” The newcomer seemed human, a woman with dark hair and dusky skin set off by beautiful maroon fatigues. “You’re calling from Sunset Falls, Montana?”

“Well, not calling, exactly—” Vaughn hedged.

The woman laughed. “Right, right. I’m Zoe. I’m one of the Big Sky Alien Mail Order Brides.” Her quick grin faded as she took the arm of the big male next to her. “One of the not kidnapped ones. Sin got your message. Amazing boost on your signal. You’ll have to tell us how you did that.” She lifted her hand. “After we find the others. The message said your sister is one?”

Vaughn nodded, her throat almost too tight to talk. This woman understood and would help. Oh why hadn’t Dejo stayed? “You got the coordinates for the last communications between Blackworm and his partner?”

The woman, Zoe, nodded. “Sin is sending a fast ship your way. Shouldn’t take long since they were in the area, relatively speaking. And we’re shadowing the council’s actions with some of our best people going after the missing women.” She leaned forward, her expression fierce. “Blackworm tried to kill my sister-in-law, so trust me, we won’t let this new information go to waste in adding to his crimes.”

Vaughn’s blood chilled at hearing how bad Blackworm had been. As if she needed more data on that. The big male, Sin, stood behind Zoe, his hand on her shoulder with clear possession, protection, and support in her speaking for them and their apparently numerous ships.

She longed for Dejo’s heavy, steady arms around her. “Will you stay in touch? I have this device, but I don’t really know how to use it.”

Zoe nodded, her furious expression gentling. “Our crew will be there soon. I know it must all seem crazy, but just hang on.”

Vaughn nodded. Not that it seemed so crazy to her.

“My sister comes first,” she said.

Again Zoe nodded, as if that made perfect sense to her. “Jaxian metal-lords are notoriously obstinate.” She smiled up at her mate. “Sin will make sure the council doesn’t lose interest—or the women—again.”

Even when she’d had a patrol partner, Vaughn hadn’t quite understood what it meant to have a connection. But now she’d had a taste of it—a taste of Dejo—and she wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything else. “I’ll keep the device with me and get you whatever data I can.”

And she knew exactly where to start.

They disconnected after mutual promises to touch base again, and Vaughn spun the cruiser’s wheels hard enough to spray gravel.

She was just an Earther girl who would’ve never had any intentions of being an IDA bride. She’d had problems and failures enough on this planet to fear that reaching for the indifferent stars would only exponentially expand her troubles.

But maybe if she had a thieving, lying, loving scavenger beside her…

The skies opened up as she sped back to Sunset Falls, and she was glad drone-powered illusions didn’t wash away. The rain sheeted across the road, pouring alongside the shoulder ditches, and even the heavy cruiser felt barely in touch with the pavement.

She didn’t let up. She had to get back before the Onoffon left.

Leaving the cruiser parked in the mud, she jammed the sheriff’s hat on her head and ran through the dripping forest. The trees didn’t so much block the rain as gather the droplets into miniature sky streams that all wanted to pour down the back of her neck beneath the camo jacket.

But even the gray veil of water couldn’t hide the empty clearing.

Devastation blasted through her, scouring her soul like the most vicious laser burn, leaving only a smoking hole of emptiness.

He was gone…

The alien tablet device in her pocket chirped an open-sesame, and the Onoffon shimmered out of the rain into view.

Relief and joy poured through the hole in her heart, an antidote to the cold water fear. He hadn’t left yet. Even knowing the authorities were coming, he had lingered.

Like her, had he somehow hoped, deep inside…

She narrowed her eyes, the Guardswoman in her going on alert. The hatch was down, which perhaps wasn’t so odd, but a runnel of muddy water had pooled around the base. Dejo would never let his ship, his nest, fill with water.

Casting a suspicious eye around the clearing, she stalked a wide circle but saw nothing. And Dejo didn’t emerge. She knew the IDA repulsors protecting the town limited the reach of human and alien technology, but surely the ship’s proximity alarms would warn him of her presence.

Maybe he didn’t care.

As soon as the insidious thought tried to undermine her, she rejected it. He cared, very much, maybe not about laws, but he cared about her. She’d felt it in his every touch.

Pulling out the alien stun gun—and wishing she’d asked more questions about how many shots it held—she crept toward the open hatch. No muddy footprints on the walkway.

Maybe he’d run into town to refill his coffee…

Every muscle tense and her senses on high alert, she stepped up into the ship. Silence and darkness greeted her, as if the Onoffon and her captain were already lost somewhere in the depths of space.

But as she passed the portal of the data core, a warning chime drew her in. The gels were pulsing with an almost frantic pattern of lights, and when she focused, a face appeared in the flashing lightning.

“Dejo,” she whispered.

She yanked out the sheriff’s stolen device from her pocket and instantly a hologram burst from the screen.

The angle was from the ship toward the forest, showing the open hatch. And Dejo.

And Sheriff Giles. Just as the gnatha shot.

Vaughn felt the impact in her chest as if the orange ray had struck her. She swore hard enough to get her heart going again. She couldn’t help him if she panicked. The ship had recorded the confrontation and now played it back to her. God, how had it known to reach out to her?

Dejo might have a more valuable data trove than he knew…

The baby intelligence cycled through what it had seen, trying to display all the angles all at once. She supposed it was advanced enough to make sense of the overlapping data.

“Slow down,” she said. “Is he alive?”

Readings like a heartbeat monitor danced over the replay of his crumpled form. The line spiked when the beam hit him and then fell, but rose again fitfully. “Okay, alive.” She drew a steadying breath. “Now I have to find him.”

She’d done a miserable job of that all those years ago with her mother and more recently with Rayna. She would not fail with Dejo.

The gels flashed, and her tablet matched the pattern as the ship downloaded what it knew. To think it had taken an entire complex for the IDA to hold the data that resided in this one ship’s brain. He was brilliant, way too good to be a scavenger. And she’d tell him that, as soon as she proved she was good enough to find him.