Page 29 of Loved By the Alien King
“On?”
“On how much we can do in fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, I think we can do it all. Fifteen minutes is a long, long time.”
I groaned into her mouth. “Mm, so it is.”
“Then let’s go get her.”
It took a moment for my Nera-fueled mind to catch up, but even then, I was lost. “Her?”
“Yeah, the spiky-haired woman who’s always carrying a roll of wire with her left hand so she looks like she’s doing something. The one who was sent to find Emjay and found an Earth Space Fleet handkerchief inside one of the bungalows. Let’s go talk to her.” She grinned and cocked an eyebrow. “What did you think I meant?”
This woman. I was falling more in love with her by the second.
Chapter thirteen
Nera
Timetogetallthe answers. Starting with the least painful source. Gently, and with a baseball bat.
For some reason, there was one leaning against the bottom of the stage in the sand, so I took it. Weapons were everywhere on this planet. Or yes, okay, maybe someone was just playing an innocent game of baseball, but for me, everything was a weapon.
Therapy. It’s a thing I might need to look into.
Maxx and I strode toward the spiky-haired woman carrying her trusty wire in her left hand, back and forth, back and forth across the sand. You’d think someone would eventually catch on and ask her what she was doing to earn a paycheck other than possibly writing heartless notes on leaves with her left hand.
That’s okay though. I’d do it for free.
“I see you favor your left hand,” I said to her, cutting right to the quick of things.
She slowed to a stop and ticked her gaze nervously between Maxx and me, her eyes blowing wide. “Yeah…? Is that okay…?”
“That depends. Do you know which crewmember wrote the notes on the leaves for the game we played on the show called Baggage Between Buns?”
“Yeah…?”
Maxx nodded, a prompt for her to continue, but when she didn’t, he gave her a glower. “Go ahead and tell us.”
He said it in that no-nonsense tone of his, with a strong undercurrent ofor else, the one that left you with no choice but to obey. For me, it rolled a pleasant shiver down my spine, but for anyone else, it was a clear threat.
“Um, it was me and one other girl who wrote the notes,” she answered.
“I want you to think back to my leaf,” I said, “the one that readThis contestant was directly involved in the start of the Faid War.Who wrote that one?”
“Listen, I don’t—” she blurted, and then sealed her mouth shut.
Tears sparkled in her dark eyes, and a pang instantly speared my chest.
She was frightened, not just of us but whoever made her write that message.
“Relax,” I said softly, “we’re not mad at you, and we won’t tell anyone what happened. All we want is the truth.”
She took a deep breath and whisked away a stray tear. “Some guy. I don’t even think he works on the show.”
“You don’t think?” Maxx hissed.
I squeezed his hand as a message to ease up. “What about this guy?”
