Domestic Duet: Domestic Alliance & Asset (36 page)

“Aroc, I love you. And I’d do it again to give Norese stability.” Sadie touched his face. “Give up the hate in your heart.”

Oliver volleyed a look between them, his eyes gone wide and shifty. “Tell me!”

Aroc moved in closer to Oliver. “First, Detective Ochi is not, has never been, and will never be my karuntee whore. Sadie’s helped raise my and Katherine’s daughter for the last year.”

Oliver’s eyes glazed over.

It tore at her to watch him fight his emotions. “Oliver, the baby lived that day.”

“Katherine’s daughter lived? Is she okay?” His blue eyes watered. “She’s a healthy little girl?” A hint of desperation showed in his pained gaze. “I have to see her,” his voice trembled. “Katherine was as close as family. I thought of that unborn baby as my niece.”

She nodded, fighting the knot in her stomach while pain crawled through her heart. “She’s a healthy smart little girl, all because Aroc’s an amazing and patient father any little girl would be proud to have at her side. I’ve been filling in as her mother for a year.”

“Does she have the spikes?”

“Does it matter?” Sadie said, holding his stare.

“Norese is all I had until I met Sadie, changing our world. Made us a family,” Aroc told them. His frown eased, relaxing the squint to his eyes. “I agree she should know other people that knew her mother. Right now we have a battle raging around us.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t make me regret hanging myself out to dry for you, Cantrell.” Noise from the left brought Sadie around as hands jerked her back seconds before a police officer aimed a gun at Aroc.

“No! Don’t shoot,” she screamed manically waving her hands. “He’s on our side, helping us.”

Oliver held his hands in the air. “She’s telling the truth. This is the Karuntee Captain. You got the wrong alien.”

“How can you tell one from the other? They all look alike to me,” he complained, darting a confused look between them. That angered Sadie.

“Because I know him!” Sadie was coming out of her skin trying to keep them alive.

Oliver gestured to the left. “Over there. I thought we were using tear gas. Not guns, so we’d have suspects to prosecute when this is over.”

“I couldn’t toss it with humans over here. Can’t he stop ’em?” he said looking at Aroc.

“Not with you aiming a gun at his head.” Sadie gestured to his gun still in his hand. He held it at his side.

“Rogue—” Aroc shouted. He ran full out behind another karuntee sprinting across the grass through the trees. Sadie followed him.

“Officer, handle the humans, we’ll take care of the karuntee,” Oliver directed, running to catch up with Aroc.

Sadie waved Oliver on down the path. Darting to the left, she ran full out, leapt on the man coming at Aroc from the side, and rolled him to the ground her legs catching him about the thighs. The uneven ground served up a large rock, catching the front of her thigh. Pain splintered up her leg. Her eyes watered behind the weakening sensation claiming the muscle strength in her leg.

Grappling for purchase, they slammed into a bush full of thorny brambles. She shielded her face with her hands and the man was on top of her before she could roll out of the way.

"You're helping that freak of nature, the karuntee," he accused, cursing, turning her onto her back to straddle her waist.

Richard Edwards.

The sight of his smug face snarling down at her fueled her anger. Jerking herself loose, Sadie shoved him to his side and got to her knees. Hands in the air, fists close to her face, she braced for a fight.

“I knew you were up to something, always in my office, pretending to help Savannah.”

“No you didn’t, or you’d have stopped me,” she chastised him and in that moment, it didn’t matter that she was black and could go to prison if this went bad. Anger fueled her fight. “You stole from the government without regard to placing Savannah and Timothy at risk. They worshipped the ground you slithered over, you snake.” She watched his face twist and as if in slow motion his arm drew back, hand open wide. Sadie shoved her hips in the air, lifting him high, and was jerked over onto her stomach. Scrambling to her feet, she realized Aroc had crashed into the man heavy as a brick wall taking him to the ground. A second man leapt on Aroc's back.

Had he never seen a karuntian’s anatomy? The spikes.

Sadie hustled over the uneven ground, legs on fire, when a set of hands clamped around her body dragging backward. Fighting the hold, she threw her hand back, catching the man on the forehead. Her fingers brushed a clean-shaven head. Montage’s steal-like grip held her suspended in the air, with her arms trapped at her sides.

He shook her once. “Detective, never ever, get behind a karuntee in battle,” he warned, his fierce tone vibrated over her cheek.

Digging her nails into Montage’s arm, she steadied herself. An army of Karuntee arced around her building a semi-circle of protection out of their bodies.

“We’re your army, Detective. You’re one of us now. You never fight alone again,” Montage exclaimed handing her off to another male…Crandall. “Keep the Detective at your side or answer to me.”

Crandall made a hand gesture over his heart she was certain to be some sort of oath acknowledgement. What had Aroc told them about her?

Sadie stepped back as they formed a circle around her.

The fight roiled around them and she missed Aroc’s fighting the man. Karuntian fanned out around her fighting.

Crandall shot her a look. “Detective, use your phaser. You’ve never come up against a karuntian.”

Why was he certain she couldn’t fight? “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Crandall.” Then she saw why he said that. Rogues and humans were coming at them in numbers.

“Take this one and I’ll take the other,” he directed, indicating the short man running for her.

Sadie dropped into her stance and let him come to her. Heartbeat pounding in her ears, she jammed her shoulder into his gut. A jolt of pain slashed through her body, sending her to stumble back, but stayed on her feet. He fell back, bouncing off the ground cursing as he groaned.

Crandall turned and smiled at her. “
Bakta Ron
! Warrior female,” he exclaimed through labored breaths, eyes gleaming with pride. Sadie, returning the smile, backed up as Crandall hooked his arms under the man’s shoulders, dragging him into the shadows.

Pivoting on the balls of her feet, eager for the next fight, Sadie heard the menacing groan of Aroc’s voice, three times darker than normal.

In his arms, tightly bound around a man’s neck, and another on his back, Aroc appeared composed. Why was he fighting alone? She bolted over the ground, arms pumping to get to him, and fighting her way through the mayhem when her feet left the ground. A hard body pressed at her back, body heat penetrating her clothes to her skin, the scent of musk and sweat filled her nostrils.

Montage.

“Watch…learn…respect. What do you see, Detective?”

Nervous, her fingers digging into his muscled forearms snug beneath her breasts, she watched. Her mouth going slack, the seconds ticking away in slow motion as Aroc morphed into a weapon before her eyes. Legs braced under the weight of the two men, Aroc, using the man in his arms as a weight, shoved backward trapping the struggling man at his back to the ground.

Tossing the other man off and using that upward momentum as leverage, he threw his legs in the air, driving his body into the man below, and then a crunching sound filled the air. Bones cracked. Grunts became screams. Limbs trembled. His spikes were tearing through the chest cavity of the man beneath him on the ground. Violent, angry, and bloody—the picture made her stomach roll as the man jerked with his last gasp of air, before going motionless.

Sadie slapped a hand over her mouth as bile rose in her throat. Heavy hearted, she sucked in a breath to keep her last meal down that threatened to rise.

Blood seeped out around their bodies to glisten in the dark night.

Montage’s arms kept her upright. She felt a strong grip on her shoulder. Turning her face to see Oliver, eyes concerned as he took in her reaction, she didn’t try and hide her disgust. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

She wasn’t. “Doesn’t matter…Aroc needs me and I’m not bailing on him because my stomach can’t handle it.”

Montage relaxed his hold, allowing her feet to touch the ground.

“Then let’s go finish this fight. I have a little girl I need to meet.”

“Let’s do it!”

During the fight, Sadie realized time and time again, Aroc protected her, never allowing her to go it alone, yet leaving her with her victories.

The ground rumbled, dragging her attention to Oliver signaling the shuttle to open its doors. The wide doors made a soft whooshing sound as they slid apart. “Sadie, take the ladies to the station,” Oliver directed.

Savannah and Theresa sat wide-eyed. Timothy hunched forward, struggling to break free of Savannah’s grip.

The shuttle lights faded to cloak mode. A loud crack brought her around to see a man lying broken next to Aroc's feet and another man in his arms. Mr. Colson from the Edwards’ home. Blood ran down the man's temple and Aroc walked across the dusty ground toward a police car and settled the man in the back.

Sadie ran over, placing a hand to his waist before drawing back upon encountering something more than blood. Pushing away to stand under a sliver of moonlight, she eyed her hands and became sick to her stomach…gore.

Her stomach continued to churn. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

“Are you okay? You look pale?”

She eyed her hand as if it would leave a stain. “That’s nasty.” Wiping the gore on the hem of Aroc’s canvas vest, she didn’t bother identifying the bits that were already stuck to the material. She sagged against him and released a gust of air over his chest.

Aroc’s voice filtered down a whisper of understanding. “Better, sweet female?”

"Eventually,” she answered honestly. “What are you doing?" Taking her eyes off the mess, she couldn’t avoid the scent of sulfur and different bitter body smells. Mixed with the pine trees and grass, it came across as a burning field of pot.

Aroc tended to the man like a bleeding child, with care and compassion.

He angled his chin enough to make eye contact. "You need someone to take responsibility for this massacre." He winked, pressing his chin to her fingers on his pelt. "He volunteered…with my help.”

Stunned, she said the only thing her wriggling nerves would allow, “Thanks.”

He winked. “I’m keeping track of my good deeds, Detective. They’re beginning to accumulate."

“Take it up with payroll, Captain, I’m just a worker.”

“Interested in working overtime?”

“For you?”

“Yes,” he taunted, chucking her chin with his knuckle.

“What’s the job pay?”

“What are you expecting? As payment?”

Trembling, Sadie thought of a number of ways he could compensate her efforts. Then the visual of his special assets filled her mind.

“Double time, in a safe secure work environment,” she teased, her chin raised high in the air.

He brought his face closer. “I’ll need you to start tonight and stay forever!”

Heat swamped her body making her shiver. “Not a problem, Captain. I’ll be there…forever!”

What were they doing out here? Fighting aroused her karuntee and from the bodies on the ground, the beads of sweat on his forehead weren’t all from fighting…neither were hers. Sadie looked back at the landscape to get away from those eyes and took in the blood bath of officers and a handful of karuntee sprawled out over the ground. What just happened?

His strong fingers found her face turning her until their eyes met. "You’re my warrior.”

She watched him return to Colson, tucking his leg inside the car before stepping back to rise. He held the door and shoved it closed. Oddly enough, no one responded to screams and howls, but slam a door and everyone in the neighborhood is crowding the picture windows in the front room.

Aroc moved them behind the white van. Lifting her off the ground, his corded steel-like arms clutched her to his chest.

Face buried in the bend of his neck, slick with sweat from the battle. She didn't care. She'd wanted him and understood her reluctance to be with Oliver. She loved Aroc Farkus from her heart.

“Marry me, Sadie?”

“What?”

“We’re mated, so in my world, you’re recognized as my life mate. Marry me, so in your world, I’m recognized as your husband.”

Wiping her hands over his face, she kissed him in between murmuring, “Yes,” across his firm lips. Hearing Captain Holston calling Aroc’s name, she broke the kiss. “I have to get Theresa, Savannah, and Timothy off planet. I’ll meet you later.”

He smiled. “Wait up for me and kiss our daughter good night.”

“Our daughter?”

“Yes, our daughter. It’s time we legally became a family.” His soft kiss, full of phrases and confessions meant for the privacy of the bedroom, left her staring hungrily into his eyes.

She held his hand as he ran with her to the shuttle. The doors opened. She made no sound as he settled her onto the platform, lifting her wet hair behind her ear and letting his head rest on her face.