Captured: Warriors of Hir, Book 1 (6 page)

Jenna put her cup down on the counter as she hurried after him. “What’s the matter?”

He stood beside the picture window looking through the glass, using the curtains to conceal himself.  His body was taut and tense, his hand resting on the weapon at his hip.

He gave a low, menacing growl and Jenna frowned. There was nothing out there but mountains and her SUV buried beneath last night’s snowfall.

Then she heard it too; the faint sound of an automobile coming this way.

Her eyes widened as the sheriff’s car came into sight, heading up the curved road right for the cabin.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered.

Ra’kur narrowed his gaze at the approaching vehicle, his fangs bared in a snarl as he drew his weapon.

She yanked the curtains the rest of the way shut and grabbed Ra’kur’s wrist.  “You have to hide!”

In the next moment she found herself shoved behind him.

“Come on!” she urged, her hands on his back trying to push him toward the bedroom. She got in front of him, grabbing his wrist to pull him that way. “Oh, please, hurry!”

He looked angry now, growling at her in his own language, unmovable as a rock.

A glance through crack in the curtain revealed the car had come to a stop next to her SUV. Sheriff Riley was a peaceful man in his late fifties and a good sort. Pap and Bill’s dad had been army buddies and she knew that, while Bill Riley might never have fired his service revolver outside of the practice range, he was a crack-shot hunter.

If he caught sight of Ra’kur, all bared fangs and alien eyes, a weapon in his hand—

“You don’t understand! And, holy hell, he won’t either!” she cried, her voice cracking with panic. “Oh, please! He’ll
kill
you!”

His face was hard and set and in desperation she grabbed his hand and put it over her pounding heart.

“Ra’kur. Jenna. Remember?” The car was idling outside, and as the engine cut off tears stung her eyes. “Well, there isn’t going to be a Ra’kur and Jenna, if you don’t fucking
hide
!”

Brow creased, he searched her face then glanced at the window.

“
Please!
”

His jaw tense, he let her lead him into the bedroom and she heard the front stairs creak just as Ra’kur stepped over the threshold. 

“Shhh,” she whispered, her finger to her lips. “Just stay here and be quiet. Quiet as a space mouse, okay?”

On impulse she snagged her car keys off his belt.  Ra’kur looked outraged, ready to protest, and she covered his mouth with her hand to hush him.

Jenna startled at the heavy knock on the front door.

“Just a sec!” she called.

She held her finger to her lips again to Ra’kur, then held her palm up, praying he understood what that meant now. Ignoring his frustrated, burning alien gaze she shut the bedroom door.

Bill knocked again, louder this time.

Jenna drew a shaky breath and went to face the sheriff.

Six

“Hey there, Bill!” Jenna opened the door only part way, blocking most of what
was
open with her body. “Whatcha doing up this way?”

Bill’s salt and pepper eyebrows rose. “Came to check on you. Sarah Jane said you called in a plane crash?”

She forced a laugh. “Yeah, I guess I . . .” She nodded out toward the woods. “But there wasn’t anything out there after all. So it’s okay!”

His glance slid past her to the interior of the cabin. “Okay.”

“
Any
way!” she sang out. “Sorry I troubled y’all. I went through the woods, didn’t see smoke or nothin’.” She gave a shrug. “Must have been a tree falling.  Done just startled me, is all.”

Bill gave a slow nod and she knew his suspicion had just ratcheted up to high. “Coulda been.”

“Right,” Jenna said after a moment. “So if there’s nothing else—?”

“Actually, I’d be much obliged to you for a cup of coffee.” Bill indicated the snowy mountain behind him with a tilt of his head. “Awful cold this morning.”

“Sure thing,” she agreed, nodding. “You wait right here and I’ll fetch you up some.”

His hand shot out and caught the door before she could shut it.

“You mind if I come inside and warm up a spell, Jenna?” he asked smooth as silk even as he held the door open against her push. “Like I said—awful cold out here this morning.”

“Well, I’m not dressed . . .” He wasn’t going to buy that for a minute. Bill had seen her in a bikini out on the lake dozens of times over the years. Her robe and boots had her covered as anything.

“Tell you what,” he offered. “How ’bout you let me in now, an’ you can go throw something on while’n I drink my coffee?”

Her dad and Bill Riley had gone to school together. After her parents died he’d practically become an uncle. If she didn’t let him in now, he’d
know
something was wrong.

“’Course.” She had to keep herself from looking toward the bedroom door as she stepped back. “Come on in.”

He gave her a smile but his glance was already darting about and his hand hovered near the gun holstered at his hip as he entered.

Shutting the front the door behind him, Jenna took a quick furtive look around the living room. The coffee table was still pushed out of place but she’d turned the TV off when she’d come out here this morning.  Things looked pretty much like they always did.

Bill sniffed at the air. “You baking something?”

Jenna was about to shake her head but then she caught it too.  The lingering scent of cinnamon.

And sex.

“Pancakes,” she mumbled, her face hot. “I—I was making pancakes. How about that coffee?”

Halfway across the living room her stride faltered, as she remembered that Ra’kur’s breakfast was still sitting on the kitchen table.

Two
place settings?  It would be plain as day she wasn’t alone here and with Pap was gone Bill would take it onto himself to scrutinize any new boyfriend she had.

If he knew there was a man in this house with her, Bill would want to meet him. And Bill Riley wouldn’t be taking no for an answer either.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Jenna threw over her shoulder. Bill was looking around, his eyes sharp. “I’ll be back in sec. You like it light and sweet, right?”

She pushed the swinging door to the kitchen closed behind her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d shut it and some of the paint flaked off the door when she did. From the cobwebs at the corner behind it had also been a long time since she’d remembered to clean there.

Great, Bill will see I’m an alien-lover
and
a lousy housekeeper.

She grabbed Ra’kur’s dishes off the table and threw his partly eaten pancakes into the trash. Jenna had his mug in hand, ready to toss Ra’kur’s coffee into the sink, when Bill pushed the swinging door open.

Bill’s glance took in the room.

“Sorry.” She forced a smile. “I got me a messy kitchen today.”

“I seen worse. Thanks,” Bill said, taking the mug from her.

“Oh, that’s—!”

Bill paused, his eyebrows raised. “What?”

Yeah, that’s
what
, Jenna? The alien’s cup o’ joe?

“I think”—she tucked her hair behind her ear—“I might have added too much milk.”

Bill took a sip. “No, I think it’s fine.”

“Sure I can’t get you a fresh one?” she managed, watching him take a deep draft of Ra’kur’s coffee.

“Nope,” Bill said, raising the mug a little in a toast. “Just perfect.”

“Oh, good,” she said weakly.

Bill took a seat at the table, his hands wrapped around the cup like he was settling in for a long chat. “So, you say you went out looking for the plane?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t find anything.”

Even as she said the words she realized Ra’kur had to have come here
somehow
.

God, there’s a fucking spaceship out there!

Coming on the heels of that thought was the shocked realization that Ra’kur might not be alone. There could be dozens of his kind in the woods outside, spread through the mountains, heading for the town below—

No, that didn’t feel right. Something in his eyes, the eagerness for contact, the struggle to communicate, told of a very lonely existence.

“Did—did anyone else?” she stammered. “Find anything? Or call about it, I mean?”

Bill shook his head. “Just you.”

“Oh.” Jenna shifted her weight. “Well then, what are you doing here?”

“You ain’t been answering your phone.”

She glanced toward the avocado green dial-up that had hung on the kitchen wall for just about forever. “I had the phone turned off.”

“I meant your cell.”

“I dropped—I mean, I must have dropped it yesterday. Fell right out of my pocket. Out in the woods.”

“Sarah Jane left a bunch of messages for you last night.”

Jenna blinked then gave a little smile. “You and Sarah Jane a thing, Bill?”

His face flushed. “I’m just saying she called you is all. Wanted to check up on you.”

“Oh. Well, that was nice of her . . . and you. But, as you can see, I’m fine.”

“We—a lot of people around here—been worried about you, Birdie.”

Her throat tightened at hearing Pap’s nickname for her and her hand went to the charm around her neck. “I appreciate that.”

“I know losing him was hard.” Bill tilted his head. “You doing okay?”

The SUV’s keys felt heavy in her pocket. Twelve hours ago all she’d wanted to do was get ahold of them and make a run for it. Bill Riley, armed with a loaded gun, was sitting right here in her kitchen. All she had to do was tell him there was an intruder in the house, that some not-human was hiding in her bedroom, and Bill would rally to her defense. 

She and Bill could go through the mudroom and walk out the back door. Bill would call it in and the place would be surrounded.

He was an alien, for God’s sake.

He’d shot her, cuffed her to her bed, taken her keys to keep her from leaving.

So why the hell am I still here? What is this, some kind of goddamn Stockholm syndrome thing?

Jenna recalled how he’d held her hands yesterday, washing them as tenderly as one would bathe a beloved child. How he’d stroked her hair while she cried over Pap. How he’d solemnly growled their names, holding her palm over his heart, and later how he’d lain wide-eyed, naked and trembling in her arms, how he’d curled around her afterwards, cradling her against him.

Bill would try to kill him. And even if Ra’kur were only wounded, they would call someone: FBI or CIA or whatever secret government department was set up in case of alien encounter and they’d take him away.

They’d imprison him, study him,
hurt
him.

The washroom was off the kitchen. She could grab some clothes from the dryer to put on, walk out the front door with Bill like there was nothing wrong, climb into the SUV, and drive away. Just not say anything to Bill about Ra’kur or to Ra’kur about leaving. She’d come back in a few weeks, after she was sure he was gone.

Just walk away from this and not look back.

She swallowed hard. Somehow she knew how badly that would hurt him, enough he might rather have Bill kill him.

“As okay as I can be,” she said hoarsely, then added: “I miss him like crazy.”

Bill gave her a sad smile over his mug. “I know, Birdie. It’s never going to go away, it just doesn’t, but it will get easier.”

If she wasn’t going to tell anyone about Ra’kur, if she wasn’t going to make a run for it, then she had to get Bill the hell out of here—and quick.

She straightened. “Listen, I got a lot of packing to get to. Maybe we could meet up at Dolly’s Diner for lunch or something in a couple days? Talk some more then?”

Bill took another swallow of his coffee then put the mug down and stood. “Sounds good. Want me to help you find your phone?”

She had no clue where the vehicle or spaceship or
whatever
it was that brought Ra’kur here was but she sure couldn’t risk Bill seeing it.

“No, I think I know where I might have dropped it. I’ll get dressed and head out in a couple minutes.” She took the car keys out of her pocket and held them up. “And if I can’t find it or it doesn’t work or something, I’ll drive into town and get one of those pay-as-you-go ones.”

Bill gave a nod. “You call me either way, okay? Let me have the new number or give me a ring so I know the old one works.”

“Sure thing.”

She followed him to the front door and risked a sideways glance at her still-shut bedroom door.

Bill opened the front door, letting a blast of cold air into the cabin.

“Bill, if you see Lester Mills, could you let him know I’m not going to be putting the place up for sale for a bit?” she asked. “Just if you see him over at Dolly’s Diner or something. I’ll give him a call later to let him know. Once I find my phone, of course.” She wrapped her arms around herself against the chill and offered a half-shrug. “I just . . . I need some more time here.”

He gave her a respectful nod. “If I see him, I’ll let him know.”

She locked the door behind him and waited, looking through a crack in the curtains as Bill got into his cruiser and called in. It seemed an eternity until he started the car and backed up. It wasn’t until his cruiser was out of sight that she let herself breathe easy.

She hurried to open the bedroom door and gave a startled cry as a snarling blur leapt at her.