Alien in the Family

“Okay. Do you remember anything else?”

“Yeah.” He laughed softly. “I saw a lot of universes . . . I saw myself reflected in a lot of them.”

“What were you like?”

“Pretty much me.” He hugged me tighter. “You were in all of them. We were always together, in some way.”

“Good.”

“We were married in about half of them.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Happily, too.”

“I don’t think we want to share that with Jeff or Paul.”

“Nope. I just want you to know, though . . . if something happens to me here, and I’m not with you, I’ll be with you in all those other universes.”

“I love you, James.”

“I love you, too, Kitty.”

We lay there together, and I let the hatred for Moira and what she’d done subside and ebb away. It was hard to hold onto the hatred, lying here, next to Reader, knowing he was alive and going to be okay. I started to get sleepy. “James?”

“Yeah, babe?” He sounded as drowsy as I felt.

“I’m not buying my wedding dress without you.”

He chuckled. “Good. I want you looking like the hottest thing on two legs. No one I trust with that job besides myself, other than Jeff, and he’s not supposed to see the dress beforehand. A-Cs have the custom just like we do.”

“You really think mermaid style would look okay?”

“I think you’ll look beyond beautiful. Just like always.”

“Coming from the best-looking human in the world, that means a lot.”

“Good. Go to sleep now, you need the rest.”

“You too, but . . . I don’t want to. I don’t want to forget.”

“Me either. But, it won’t change anything between us, even if we do.”

“You sure?”

“I’m positive.” He hugged me. “I saw it. Always together, one way or another.”

“That’s all right, then.”

“Yeah, that’s my opinion, too.” He yawned. “Go to sleep, Kitty. Big days coming. We need to be ready.”

“They’ll differ from our other days how?”

“The prosecution rests.”

CHAPTER 25

I FELT SOMEONE LIFT ME UP. “What’s going on?”

Martini cradled me in his arms. “You were asleep on the bed with James. I’ll discuss how cozy you two looked later. You okay?”

“Yeah.” My mind felt fuzzy. “We were . . . talking about important stuff.”

“Well, he’s asleep, which is good, and you obviously need a longer nap.”

I wanted to remember something. “James is alive.”

“Yes, he is. Miraculously.”

There was something about that word I wanted to remember, or comment on, or something. But I couldn’t grasp it.

“Where’re we going?”

“Well, Paul’s going to stay with James tonight. Tito’s going to stay with them. Paul will use the time when James is asleep and they’re awake to bring Tito up to speed on what being an agent is like.”

“He already has a good idea.”

“Yeah, he’s bright. I think he’s as smart as you and James.”

“Good. What about everyone else?”

“Reynolds and Christopher are back in Vegas with the rest of the team. Reachable via phone if we need them, the usual.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the Lair. If you can handle being on the same floor as whatshername.”

“Moira. And, yeah, as long as we have a lot of security and we’re both sleeping with an eye open.”

“Check and check.” We were in an elevator. I didn’t feel amorous; I just wanted Martini to hold me. He shifted me so I could wrap my arms and legs around him. “Just hold on, baby,” he said softly. “We’ll be in bed soon.”

“Mmm hmmm.” His arms were around me, one supporting my bottom, the other my neck and upper back. It reminded me of when I was little and my father would carry me to bed. “You’re going to be such a good daddy.”

“I hope so. And soon.” He hugged me. “As soon as you’re ready.”

“Not tonight.”

He laughed. “No. I don’t even think we’re practicing tonight.”

I thought about that. “Maybe later.” I yawned against his neck. “Sleepy.”

“I know, baby.”

We were in the bedroom, or at least I assumed we were, because Martini laid me down on a bed. He didn’t undress either me or himself, just lay down and pulled me next to him. I draped over his body, held onto his shoulder, and went back to sleep.

I woke up, all senses alert. I could feel Martini was awake, too. He slid his hand over my mouth, and I nodded. It was dark in the room, just a tiny nightlight glow, meaning we were in the middle of the night.

I listened hard. I could hear Martini’s breathing, shallow, to stay quiet. I was doing the same. But it was there, at the edge of my hearing—breathing that wasn’t ours. I had no clear idea where my purse was, so no way to get to a weapon.

Martini still had his arm around me, and he tightened his hold. I relaxed as much as possible—it was easier for him to move me that way.

The advantage we’d have, the only one, was that we lived here and our intruder didn’t. I wasn’t confident this would be enough.

Something was different—the breathing was closer. Martini rolled me over him and us both off the bed, and he hit the intercom button while he shoved me behind him. This took less time than I needed to blink.

“Yes, Commander?” Gladys’ voice came through the com.

We looked around the room. We were alone in it as far as we could see. “Intruder, somewhere on level fifteen,” Martini said.

“Are you endangered, Commander?”

“Potentially.” The lights came on like it was midday.

“Security on the way.”

I looked around during this exchange. Where would someone be able to go in such a short time? I didn’t doubt someone was in here with us—I might be wrong, Martini might be wrong, but we were rarely wrong at the same time. Plus, there were too many intruder possibilities for me to assume we were just jumpy.

The closet could work, but the door was open, it wasn’t all that big, and we were on the same side of the bed as it was, so we should have felt the intruder go by. I looked back at the bed. It seemed so obvious . . . but we weren’t looking there, were we?

I nudged Martini and pointed to the bed. He gave me a look that said I was crazy. I shrugged—probably, but it was worth a shot.

He didn’t want me near the bed, and he didn’t want to let go of me. I could tell by the way he was moving, or not moving. Oh, well, impetuous was apparently my middle name. I pulled out of Martini’s hand, jumped on the bed, and started bouncing. Impetuous, yes. Stupid? Not so much.

It didn’t take long, I heard someone make an “oomphing” sound. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Martini rolled his eyes. “Only my girl.” He grabbed a pair of my stilettos from the closet and sent them under the bed, hard and fast.

“OUCH! Stop!”

“Crawl out and maybe we won’t kill you,” Martini growled. I didn’t stop bouncing. It was kind of fun.

“Make her stop.”

“Not just no, but hell no. You’re the one who’s in here trying to kill us,” Martini added. “Why should we make it easy for you?”

“I’m not here to kill you, Your Majesty.”

I didn’t stop bouncing, but Martini and I exchange the classic WTF look. “His majesty would like to have that proven,” I shared between bounces. “We start, on this world, by showing our faces. Actually, we start by knocking and being admitted, not doing some alien form of B and E, but you know, whatever works.”

Someone crawled out from under the bed, opposite from the side Martini was on. I leaped onto his back, wrapped my arms around his neck, and, as he started to flip, my legs around his waist. Tucked my head and held on.

I’d held Martini like this, many times, when his reaction to the adrenaline harpoon was too violent and he was a danger to himself and me. Whoever I had in a full body lock tried to get me off, but he wasn’t as strong as Martini by a long shot. I tightened my hold, particularly the hold on the neck, and started to choke off his air.