Chapter Four
As Diesel shepherded Juliana out through the employees-only door, he pondered the information Axel had given him, wondering why his brother had needed to take even five minutes to discuss what they’d already talked about regarding the new prison run deal. The transports would come at the first of the month, every month, even if they didn’t have prisoners on board because they also carried supplies from Alpha-Prime and retrieved prisoner-made items created during scheduled work time. Mostly lots of pea gravel, but occasionally artists and craftsmen were confined.
Axel especially wanted to take advantage of the special addendum option on the contract Diesel had just signed. The monthly stops would be the bread and butter of the deal, but the special runs could prove very lucrative. The ink on the deal wasn’t even dry yet and Axel had found an unscheduled run they could take on for their first use of the contract. He wanted Diesel’s okay for what he called, “A small trial run of this contract.” Only three people would be on the ship headed for the gulag: the pilot, the guard and one prisoner.
Axel felt it was a perfect test.
Diesel didn’t really care when UGG started running prison ships to Earth or how many occupants would be visiting. He’d already signed the paper without discussing it with the home planet or the council. It was his call on both counts anyway. Letting Alpha-Prime and the council of elders know about the contract was simply a courtesy on his part, tradition, because that’s the way it had always been done.
The entire time he’d been speaking with Axel, his mind had been on Juliana and the kiss and how he wanted to do it again. Maybe he could kiss her goodbye and then invite her back for a real date?
“So what do you think?”
He almost said, “About the kiss?” He stopped himself in time. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s talk about it later, okay?”
He headed back down the hallway, past the bathrooms toward the Maxwell the Martian booth, worried the whole way that she wouldn’t be waiting for him.
She was exactly where he’d left her.
He was surprised by her direct questions about kids and family, but maybe it was a human thing he’d never encountered before. Reluctantly, he led her to the employees-only door. He was an employee. Although he usually gave anyone else who worked in the truck stop endless grief for allowing civilians through the door, he was the Fearless Leader and he could mostly do what he wanted. Besides, he was escorting someone out, not sneaking someone into the building.
Outside, they’d have more privacy. Maybe he would have the opportunity to get an extra kiss goodbye and he’d definitely ask her to come back. Or out on a date.
If she didn’t want to return to the truck stop, perhaps on his day off he could visit her wherever she lived. Crazy, because he rarely left town on his day off. In fact, he rarely even took a day off.
She’d been so excited to discover he had a huge family. Others were not so excited about that information and had looked down their noses at the idea of seven children. Juliana had been animated, excited and happy that he came from a large family, and that fact briefly stunned his senses. His focus was completely on her and not their current surroundings as he ushered Juliana out the employees-only door into the usually empty side alley. That was a mistake. A big one.
The moment he stepped onto the cement slab leading to the parking lot and the door closed with finality behind him, he looked up and saw a huge, inescapable problem.
The emergency basement doors leading to the underground facility that housed all their clandestine alien everything were standing wide open about thirty feet away. What the hell!
A Moogallian was just about to go down the stairs. The tourist lifted four of its eight tentacles, emitted a high, piercing scream and promptly fell down into a heap, apparently fainting at its first sight of a human.
What incredibly imperfect timing.
Juliana turned to Diesel with eyes as wide as the full moon scheduled for two nights from now. “You saw that, right?”
Diesel didn’t answer. He just stood there wondering what in the world he was going to do now. He knew what he should do. He inhaled to explain, unsure of even what words would come out of his mouth courtesy of his flash-stunned brain.
He put an arm around her as she pointed at the being lying prostrate at the opening of their secret basement alien bunker leading into questions he absolutely could not answer.
“Please tell me you saw that,” she repeated in a quivery, frightened voice.
“Better not.”
Before he could say anything else—and his mind was blank as to any content—he caught movement out of the corner of his eye over her shoulder and his attention was drawn from her stunned expression to yet another potential problem. Now what?
Diesel recognized his brother, Cam, approaching at a fast clip. Relief rushed through his body.
Cam was in charge of security for not only the truck stop but also the secret underground bunker. He’d know what to do in this situation. He’d take care of this issue pronto.
“Hey, Cam,” Diesel said, hoping Juliana would also look away from the motionless visitor from Moogally who decorated the ground by the open basement doors.
“Juliana, this is my brother, Cam,” Diesel dutifully introduced them.
She turned away from the fainting alien problem and looked straight at his brother. Cam glanced in her direction, gave Diesel a stern, disapproving frown, lifted his arm from his side and aimed a Defender at Juliana.
“Don’t shoot her!” Diesel said, then, “You shot her.” He couldn’t believe it. How could Cam be so callous?
Juliana slumped against Diesel, unconscious. He caught her before she hit the ground. Sliding one arm behind her back and another beneath her legs, he lifted her limp body against his and prepared to have a big fat fight with Cam. “What did you do that for?”
“Security.”
Diesel glanced at the Defender. “I hate it when you use that thing.” A weapon that rendered humans unconscious and affected their memories, it was only supposed to be used in very limited and extreme cases.
“And I hate it that you don’t use it enough.”
“I’m not a blast first, ask questions later kind of guy, since we definitely can’t get any answers now.” Diesel hugged Juliana closer, trying not to despair.
“I know, but that’s what you pay me to do. She was here to ask about whether aliens lived among us, spouted information about the Boogieman Affair and we certainly didn’t need to let her leave with positive proof from Mr. Drunken Moogallian over there.”
“How do you know why Juliana was here?”
“It’s my job to know.”
Diesel resisted the desire to grunt in frustration. Cam was right, but he didn’t have to like it. He looked down at Juliana’s limp form. Eyes closed, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. A more alarming thought occurred to him. What memories had been lost with that irreversible blast from the Defender? The last five minutes? More?
“What was the Defender set on, Cam?” he asked, uncertain he wanted to know the answer. “Tell me it was only five minutes.”
His brother looked at the top of the device to check, brows lifting in what looked like surprise. “It’s set on the maximum,” he said in a self-satisfied tone.
Diesel’s jaw muscles clenched until he feared he’d crack a tooth. He moved his jaw from side to side before speaking. “It was unnecessary to use the maximum setting, Cam. I could have handled the situation without use of the Defender.”
“Except that I’m the one charged with ensuring humans don’t discover our existence here. I’m the one who decides when and how much force is needed to suppress humans from finding out the truth.”
“All I’m saying is that you didn’t have to erase her memory for thirty minutes. She hasn’t even been here at the truck stop that long.” If he’d set the Defender for only five minutes, Diesel could have taken her back inside the convenience store, parked her in the reception area and that would have kept her from remembering the non-humanoid alien she’d seen.
Cam shot a quick look at his wristwatch and shrugged. “She’s been here for twenty-six minutes. Close enough.”
Diesel glared at Cam. “So rounding up, it’s thirty?”
“Yes. It is close enough. What is the problem? Put the human in her car and she can try again. This time don’t take her out the employee door. That was foolish, Diesel.”
Diesel ignored the dig and said, “I don’t know which car is hers.”
“I do.”
“How do you know? Were you watching her?”
“Of course I was watching her. I saw her arrive. Have I ever mentioned that I take my job in security very seriously? Speaking of which, have you changed your passwords lately?”
Diesel lifted the beautiful Juliana a little higher in his arms and tightened his hold as he frowned at his brother. He was in no mood to discuss password safety and his brother’s endless and overbearing precautions. He negotiated the tall wooden gate next to the store with Cam’s help and crossed into the public parking area. “Which car is hers?”
Cam pointed to a small silver-gray sedan. “That one.”
They looked around to see who might be watching them. It was a quiet evening, shockingly enough. She’d parked out of direct sight of the gas pumps and hopefully no one could see Diesel holding the unconscious Juliana.
Diesel carried her to the car and pulled the driver’s door handle. Locked. He again looked around to ensure he was alone and shuffled her in his arms until her head rested on his shoulder and the rest of her limp body was secured only by one arm around her waist.
Cam joined him. “Hurry and get her in there. Someone’s bound to come by or she’s going to wake up.”
Diesel stepped away from the vehicle. “Then help me unlock her door.”
Cam rifled through her purse without remorse. He retrieved her keys, opened the door, put the key in the ignition and stepped back. Diesel carefully placed her in the seat behind the wheel, put her seat belt on and arranged her so she wouldn’t slump over. He smoothed her hair away from her lovely face as Cam whispered, fiercely, “She’s fine. Let’s go.”
They shut her door and backed away from the vehicle. Diesel hated to leave her unattended.
“You can’t be here when she wakes up.”
“I know that, but nothing better happen to her before she comes to. Keep an eye on her.”
Cam gave him a narrow-eyed look. “She’s a human.” His tone suggested it wasn’t important to worry about what might happen to a human who’d been zapped with a Big D.
“I’m aware.”
The flinty gaze continued. “What is she to you?”
The first human I’ve ever kissed. And I liked it. A lot. While Alphas could sometimes read human minds, the same could not be said about each other. Luckily, Diesel’s memories were his alone to ponder and revisit.
“She is someone who came in to ask me for information about Alienn, Arkansas and how it came to be named that and why there’s no cellular service. She’s doing some sort of article for a travel book. I gave her the standard spiel.”
They’d made it out of view of Juliana’s vehicle. Cam crossed his arms. “The standard spiel? Tell me exactly what you said to her.”
“I thought you saw the surveillance.”
“I saw part of it. I didn’t memorize it. Yet.”
“I told her that Alienn was supposed to be named Alienne after a woman who founded the town long ago and not an indication of extraterrestrial life here on Earth. And that a lazy bureaucrat put Alienn in the paperwork, dropping the final E, and that it stuck, and also the ‘ask the phone tower people about the lack of a signal here’ spiel.”
Cam looked dubious. “And did she believe you?”
“I don’t know. Octo-alien with the scaredy-cat squeal came out of nowhere and fainted at the emergency basement exit—which should not have been open, by the way—and then you shot her in the face with the Big D.”
Cam’s mouth flattened. “And here’s something funny and unexpected—you have been rather protective of this human since she arrived.”
Diesel looked over his shoulder in the direction of Juliana’s car. “I don’t want anything to happen to her because of what you did.”
“I had to do it. You know I did. You’re acting like a mama bear that had her cubs stolen. What’s that about?”
“Maybe, I don’t like that it complicates things. Why couldn’t you set it for five minutes instead of forever?”
“It was hardly forever. It was only thirty minutes, which is the longest setting. Tell me the truth, Diesel. What is your interest in this human?”
“None of your business.”
“But it is my business.”
“Fine. I like her.”
“Why?”
“I just do.”
Cam made a face. “Wait a minute. You’re promised to a woman on Alpha-Prime.”
“No.”
“Yes, you are.”
“The contract says it has to be one of us. Doesn’t mean it has to be me. You know the eldest often is excluded because he gets stuck with everything else. Like being the Fearless Leader of the Big Bang Truck Stop for our Earth-bound lifelong career.”
Cam shook his head, frowning as if trying to remember the specifics of the marriage that had been arranged for one of the Grey sons before any of them had been born. “No. I think it’s the eldest who needs a bride to carry on the family name. Also, mating with indigenous people and producing Alpha-human hybrids for a future generation isn’t typically allowed, even if you weren’t promised.”
“That’s not true. Besides, there are six of us men in the family. Only one of us has to fulfill that arranged marriage proxy. And even that arrangement is not set to go into effect for quite a while yet.”
Cam tempered his harsh visage. “Are you soft for this human, Diesel?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Soft isn’t the word I’d use. I like her. She’s smart. She makes me feel different. She makes me feel good.”
“Because she thinks you’re attractive.”
Diesel gave Cam a long, hard stare. “How do you know that?”
Cam huffed. “I’m in security. I’ll refer you back to the surveillance images I saw earlier.”
“How do you know she thinks I’m attractive, Cam?”
“Axel wasn’t the only one who saw you kiss her, Diesel. I have it recorded on the store security logs. Would you like a copy of it, perhaps?” he asked sarcastically.
<^> <^> <^>
Juliana opened her eyes, confused by her familiar-yet-unfamiliar surroundings, then realized she must have fallen asleep in her car. Yes, it had been a long day. Yes, she was tired. No, she’d never dozed off in her car before. She didn’t even remember parking here. She shook off the remnants of her lethargy and grabbed her keys from the ignition, thankful she’d at least had the wherewithal to turn her car off before her unexpected nap.
On the drive here, she’d been thinking about what might happen when she broached the question about aliens running wild on planet Earth, especially in this particular area of Arkansas.
She got out of her car slowly, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu when she walked toward the convenience store. She’d never been here before, to the best of her knowledge. Maybe all truck stops looked alike.
Her initial probable scenario about this coming conversation involved meeting a short, rotund man in a silver lamé costume who smoked a cigar and stared at her legs. But all of a sudden a completely different scenario slid into her mind with a vivid yet dreamlike quality she’d never experienced before.
What if the manager of this place was tall, dark and handsome? No, tall, fair and handsome. What if he mesmerized her with his blue-eyed gaze and kissed her to make her forget why she came here? A buzzing feeling settled in her belly, slowing her steps as she created a vision of what an alien kiss might be like. It would be amazing. Wait. How do I know that?
Juliana almost stopped walking before she shook off the foolish notion, picked up her pace and headed inside the convenience store portion of the Big Bang Truck Stop. It was already full dark outside. How long had she been asleep? A glance at her watch told her she’d napped for almost half an hour. She shook her head and reconsidered starting a vitamin regimen.
She was certain she’d never been here before, but the clerk looked familiar for some reason. He had straight black hair, dark caramel skin and a diamond stud in one earlobe. The silver lamé uniform looked good on him. His nametag said, “Welcome, Earthling! My name is Paulo.” He started to smile, and Juliana knew he had perfect white teeth before he opened his mouth. How do I know that?
Paulo grinned and nodded, proving out her prediction of perfectly straight white teeth. So what? Lots of people have white teeth. Yes. True. But the feeling in her gut said she’d seen his smile before. How is that possible? She’d never been here before.
Juliana shook off her vague discomfort and asked, “Hi. Could you direct me to where I could speak to the manager of this place?” He’s going to point you to the back corner of the building and tell you to ask for…what was the name of the manager? Gasoline…color. No. What is the name? It was on the tip of her tongue.
“He’s right over there.” Paulo turned and pointed toward two men standing ten feet away. They seemed to be having a curt, unhappy discussion. Juliana thanked the clerk and approached the two men, feeling quite a bit off balance and hating to interrupt an argument.
The taller of the two men glanced in her direction as she approached and gave her a smile. Whew! He was attractive. He had dark blond hair, vivid blue eyes, a five o’clock shadow covering his solid jaw and chin, plus a wide, engaging smile that almost made her forget her own name. She looked down at his chest, noting he wasn’t wearing silver lamé or a nametag like Paulo.
The other man looked similar in coloring, but had a frown on his face. A deeper grimace registered when he glanced over his shoulder and saw her.
Juliana extended her hand to the very attractive man and said, “Hi, I’m Juliana Masters. Are you the manager of this place?” Without letting him answer, because she knew he was in charge, she quickly said, “I wondered if I might have a few minutes of your time to help me with an article I’m doing for a special new Finder’s book.”
Mr. Scowl Face extended his hand in her direction. “I’m the one in charge. What is it you need?”
“No, you’re not,” she said, returning his scowl. She looked at the other man—the very attractive one—and said, “He’s Diesel Grey and he’s in charge here.” How do I know his name? Did Mr. Harriman tell me that? Maybe.
Before she could ponder how she knew his name or why she got the strong feeling they’d met before, the deeply delicious-looking man extended his hand. “Yes. That’s right. I am the manager here. This is my brother, Cam. He’s in charge of security.”
Cam huffed and took a step back. “This discussion isn’t over, Diesel. Come find me once you answer her…questions.” He pointed at the front door of the store where she’d just come in. “And by the way, that’s the exit.”
Juliana expected him to add, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.” But he didn’t. He just gave his brother a stern look and walked away.
“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
“No. Don’t mind him. He’s just having a bad day. He shouldn’t take it out on others.” Diesel put his full attention on her. “What can I help you with, Juliana?” Say my name again. I like your voice.
Juliana felt heat rise in her cheeks. She stared at him just a little too long after his question, deciding he was certainly more attractive than she’d initially pictured. “I wanted to ask about the rumors surrounding Alienn, Arkansas and this truck stop.”
“Rumors?” he asked, clearly amused. “Like are there really aliens living in the area?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. How did you guess?”
He lifted one muscled shoulder in a shrug. “Do you know how many people come here to ask me that on a day-to-day basis?”
Juliana couldn’t seem to stop staring. “Are you really going to answer my question with a question?” The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she asked the question. She felt like this conversation was familiar, but not quite right.
Diesel brushed two fingers along his temple then suddenly wiped his palm from forehead to chin as if to reject whatever he’d wanted to say in order to say something less inflammatory. He looked over one shoulder briefly before turning back to her. She looked in the same direction, but only saw the in-store security camera mounted up in the corner.
“So, how about it? Will you answer my questions?”
He gestured to the front door. Was he kicking her out? “Why don’t we talk outside?”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you have an office or something?”
“Or something and it’s a mess. It’s a nice evening. Why don’t we take a stroll outside instead?”
Feeling a bit like she was being shuffled out to be dismissed, Juliana turned and walked slowly back the way she’d come. Diesel stepped in front of her, put his large warm hand on the center of her back and pushed the swinging glass door open to let her go through first.
She shivered the moment he touched her as if he held some manner of sway over her soul. The distinct desire to kiss him and discover what he tasted like rose in her vivid imagination like a boogieman ready to strike her down if she didn’t make a concerted effort to act on her instinct and find out. What was that all about?
His palm still touching her back, Diesel ushered her several steps into the mostly empty parking lot, stopping at the corner nearest the side lot where her car was parked. The scent of gasoline wafted past her nose, not surprisingly, since the station’s vast array of pumps were within view.
Diesel’s hand dropped from her back and she missed the connection instantly. “Okay, now that we’re all alone out here, what’s the standard company line that you give out when hordes of people ask about alien activity in the area or why the town is named Alienn?”
He stared at her, gazing intently into her eyes, with his arms crossed over his chest and a familiar smile shaping his luscious mouth, a mouth that she wanted to taste again. Wait. Taste again? No, she hadn’t tasted him yet. But you want to. Yes, that was certainly true.
Juliana was unprepared for him to move closer. He bent forward a bit and she mentally measured the distance between their lips, wishing he’d make it easier for her to reach him. “The standard company line regarding the town’s name has to do with a lazy bureaucrat who wrote Alienn on the town’s papers of incorporation, dropping the last E, instead of the female founder’s name, which was Alienne.” He pronounced it I-lean, and then he spelled the name for her. She loved his Arkansas-flavored Southern accent, even when he spelled.
“I see.” He smelled so good, he was so attractive and his voice was soothing and exciting all at the same time. “What about the aliens possibly running around in the area?”
He shrugged. “Do you see any?”
The image of a half octopus-half man appeared briefly in her mind. She shook it off, deciding it must have been a creature from some late-night movie marathon she’d half slept through.
Juliana glanced around the area but only saw people pumping gas or shopping in the convenience store. A look the other way showed the Cosmos Café with a fair number of customers and the Satellite Truck Wash. Next to the truck wash was the Black Hole Movie Theater. No out-of-place aliens in sight.
She looked back at Diesel and had the most powerful feeling they’d met before.
“What about the lack of cellular service in the area?”
“You’d have to ask the people who put the towers up. Perhaps we’ve angered them somehow and now we’re being punished with a lack of cellular service.”
Juliana watched his mouth the whole time he spoke. The answer he gave was expected, but the desire to kiss him was…well…alien to her. A smile formed on his mouth and she started to ask if they’d ever crossed paths, but she got fixated on the shape of his lips. Would they be firm or soft? Firm, surely. What would he taste like? Would his kiss knock her socks off? Did she want to find out? She knew his kiss would be the best she’d ever had in her life. Wait.
How do I know that?
“Is that all? Are you satisfied?” he asked, not moving away as she basically stared at him. Her gaze fixed on his engaging blue eyes. His sexy half-smile undid her. Am I satisfied?
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m nowhere near satisfied.” Juliana closed the distance between them, lifted up on her toes and planted her mouth on his, kissing him like she wanted to devour him. Her hands steadied on his biceps. He was so warm.
The kiss she’d wanted since the first second she’d seen him was everything she expected and more. The kiss was as amazing as she’d imagined it would be. His lips were firm, memorable and comfortable territory.
Wait.
Why did their first kiss seem so…familiar?