Page 79 of Wanted By the Alien Warden

Once I’d stomped an appropriate way into the area behind Rivven’s saloon, I stopped.

“What is going on with you today?” I asked Tenn. “You’re being so moody.”

I wanted him to respond with anger – anger like my own – so that we’d be on some kind of equal footing.

But he didn’t look angry. He looked…grim.

“I have kept something from you.”

My heart lurched.

“Something I no longer feel comfortable hiding.”

My palms, pits, and forehead started sweating. My mouth went so dry I couldn’t even form the question, couldn’t even ask him what it was.

He didn’t need me to ask. He continued on his own.

“Last night, Warden Hallum indicated that none of his men have ever committed another crime after their childhood convictions. I… I allowed you to believe the same was true of my men. But it is not.”

I swallowed against a sudden bout of nausea.

“Who?” I whispered.

He let out a short breath, then met my gaze steadily and said, “Silar.”

“Silar?” I exploded. A fat drop of rain landed on my chest. “He was the first one to get a bride!”

“He was,” Tenn confirmed. I blinked, then swiped away another raindrop. Wind pressed my clothing tightly to my body.

“What kind of crime?” I asked. Because now that we were in this, I needed to know it all.

“Murder.”

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” I shouted. “Are you serious right now, Tenn?”

This whole time, I’d been trying to give the men here a fair shot.

This whole time, I’d been trusting Tenn.

And now…

And now, it was all going to shit.

As if agreeing with me, the sky puked up all its rain on our heads. A torrent of water soaked us. Lightning forked in the distance, followed by a bone-shaking blast of thunder.

I thought there was another stroke of lightning, but it was Tenn’s white eyes, piercing through the rain.

“We can’t stay out here!” he bellowed.

“Fine!” I pointed to the shed, then trudged through the spewing rain towards it.

It wasn’t all that much better inside the shed. Half the roof of the empty, dirt-floored building was already gone. Maybe blown off in a storm like this one.

But the half of the shed with a roof over it was mostly dry. We stood beneath its rickety shelter.

“Start talking.”

“Cherry was in debt to a criminal organization. She was on the run. It was why she sought to become a bride in this world,” Tenn said. “Did you know this?”

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