Page 33 of Chosen By the Alien King
“It’s not like we can really go anywhere though, right?”Darc asked.“We’re kind of stuck here.”
An idea struck with the force of a hammer.“We make the trade here on Klio-3.”
Darc scrunched her cute little button nose.“Isn’t that a little too obvious?A little too overeager?What if they catch on that it’s all a big hoax?”
“The worst that could happen is they don’t show up to make the deal, right?”Darc asked.
“Yeah.We can just say that one of our ‘associates’ happens to be in the neighborhood.It could happen.”Shrugging, I looked to Maxx to see what he thought about it, but he was too busy gouging out the planet with the force of his glare.“We’ll get the scale back, Maxx.I promise.”
“It’s not even the scale; it’s themeaningof what they’re doing.There is no bottom with them.With any of them,“ he ground out.“I knew this of course, after everything they’ve done.”He flicked his gaze up to me, tortured and haunted and angry, a replica of everything I felt too.“Everything they’ve taken and have almost taken.”
I nodded, right there with him, and took his hand in mine.“Who do we send to meet them?”
“Not Pete,” Maxx and Darc said in unison, and it was the perfect moment to lighten the mood some.
We each exhaled relieved chuckles.
“No, Pete has done more than enough.”I turned to check to see if our host was still lying in Miekil’s arms after fainting, but no, he was upright and talking again.Miekil was rolling his eyes at whatever he was saying, so everything looked normal once again.“Someone else they don’t know… Someone we can trust…” I searched the stage, and my gaze kept circling back to one individual.“Someone…like June.”
“June.”It was a hiss from Maxx more than a question.
I listed all of her assets on my fingers.“She’s smart.She’s flirtatious.She’s cool under pressure.She’s a good actress.And she hasn’t tried to kill us.Yet.”
Maxx gestured to the stage.“She’s also currently in first place on this show.You don’t think they’ll recognize her?”
“We’ll give her a light makeover just in case.”After all, lots of aliens had one eye like June.
“You think she’ll go for it?”Darc asked skeptically.
“If we ensure her first place, I bet she will.”At Darc’s gasp, I added, “Look, this show’s been nice and all, but I want to go on a honeymoon with my husband and let him impregnate me again.Pronto.”
Maxx hauled me into his side andgrowled, so deeply and possessively that it rumbled into me and licked flames across my skin.
Darc’s eyes widened at Maxx, then she pursed her lips on a smile at me.“And how are you going to promise her first place?It’s not up to you, and everyone loves you.”
I snorted.“No.They really don’t.But I’ll think of something.I’ll be boring.I’ll keep my mouth shut, or I’ll go full Karen.Something.”
Maxx and Darc shook their heads like they didn’t believe I could do such a thing, but I’d prove them wrong.
I just didn’t know how yet.
Tenminuteslater,wehad yet another shoddy plan, but it was a plan all the same.We were getting really good at those.
June had agreed to be our liaison at the crew’s beach house, so long as I hand-delivered her the first-place prize and the million credits that came with it.
I didn’t care about that part.All I cared about was finding some kind of justice, and so far, I had nothing.
Darc relayed all the info to Rain on my ship, and the official trade of the Xenoxx scale for black-market money would happen in exactly two and a half hours.
We had time.The live airing of the last episode had been delayed to tomorrow for “safety precautions.”Umo’s words.Which meant he puffed on his cigar while he had the crew patrol for the panther with camera drones.“In case a mauling happens, it better be on film, damn it!”His words yet again.
I wanted as few people to know about this crazy idea as possible, so I did June’s makeup myself…and purposefully didn’t let her look in a mirror afterward.
Look, we couldn’t all be as talented as Oreo and Smitha.And yes, I apologized, inside my head, to June for making her look like an angry hooker on a cherry snowcone bender.
I also did some light theft of a camera drone so we could watch June’s progress toward the crew beach house while Maxx, Mosely, Darc, and I huddled in the backyard behind a cluster of potted tropical plants in case things went south and for the obligatory “ha-ha, caught you” video.
The crew beach house had a hot tub on the front porch, and that was where the meeting would take place.The porch, not the tub.Everyone else was out searching for the black panther.
