Страница 35 из 111
Martini was right there. “You okay, baby?”
“Yes. Get a gun and shoot him. Or her. Whatever it is I’m holding.”
Whatever it was flipped so it was on hands and knees and I was in the air, so to speak.
“Male, unless it’s a shapeshifter.”
“Stop . . . her . . . emissary . . . friend . . .”
“Our friends knock, you creep. Our enemies, on the other hand, love to pull this kind of crap. Jeff, a little help?”
“You’re doing so well. And you look great doing it, too. Love that outfit. If it gets wrecked, I’m buying you another one.”
My opponent stopped struggling. “Not an enemy. An emissary.” He sounded pained, as though I’d insulted him.
“Heard you the first time, dude. Didn’t care then, don’t care now. You snuck in. That makes you an enemy, means someone out to harm us. We have a lot of them.”
“I’m not one.”
“Right. Jeff, really, I have to kill him, or you have to help.”
“Oh, kill him.”
“Your Majesty, that would not be wise.”
“You keep on calling me that. Wouldn’t know why.”
“Your name is Jeffrey Stuart Martini . . . on this world. However, you have a name on another world, and you are the next ruler there.”
Martini sighed. “Thanks for stopping by. Give my loathing and complete lack of interest to the folks back home. We’d love to invite you to our wedding, but, gosh, we’ve already booked the room, and we’re full up. Now, I’m going to knock you out, so I don’t have to worry about you hurting someone I care about. No hard feelings.”
“No, wait!” Too late. Martini clobbered him, and we went down onto the floor.
“Um, Jeff? Dead weight on my arms and legs.”
He lifted us both up, I detached, and he dumped the body on the floor. Security chose this moment to arrive. “Commanders, are you all right?”
“Yeah, thanks for the speedy arrival.” Martini had the sarcasm knob up to eleven.
“Sorry, sir. We had some other issues.”
“What?” We asked in unison.
“Variety of small issues.”
“Describe them. In detail.” Martini shifted me to his hip and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
Gladys came on the intercom. “We have a variety of unknown A-C perso
“How many?”
“With the one in your room, Commander Katt, an even dozen.”
“How did they land without our noticing?”
“Cloaking, I assume, Commander Martini. We have confirmed NASA picked up nothing, but we have done some molecular scans. We have three cloaked ships perched on the tops of Animas, Hatchet, and Chiricahua Peaks.”
“Fabulous,” Martini snarled. “Take him to a holding cell. We’ll be up in a minute.” Security did as requested. “Gladys, please make sure they’re all together—I don’t want to have to wander around too much.”
“Yes, Commander. I’ve alerted the Pontifex and Commander White as well.”
“Thanks.” The com went dead, and Martini sank onto the bed. “Great, they’re here. Perfect timing, too.”
“And, boy, do they want you.”
He shifted me so that I was in his lap with my legs around his back. “I don’t want them. Only want you.”
I leaned up and kissed him. “You have me, Jeff. I promise.”
He held me tightly. “I won’t let them take you away from me.”
I hugged him back. “I won’t let them take you, either. We’ll be fine. I’ll bring along my hairspray and some Everclear.”
Martini managed to laugh. “I do love how you think.”
CHAPTER 26
MARTINI SIGHED. “GUESS WE’D better get moving.”
“I want to change.”
“Why? You look beyond hot.”
“I look naked with some fabric hanging off my shoulders.”
He gave me a wide grin. “Yeah. Like I said . . .”
“Jeff, they’re going to test me. I know I’m going to fail, but I should at least try to represent.”
He shook his head. “Good luck, but okay. However, I want you to wear that again. A lot.”
“You didn’t mind everyone staring at me?”
“Nah. As long as you’re coming home with me.”
I felt his forehead. “You okay?”
Martini kissed me, long, deep, and hard. Couldn’t help it—I started grinding against him. He pulled me closer in to him. “Yeah,” he said as he ended the kiss, slowly. “I just felt everything you went through when you thought we’d lost James. Life’s too short and uncertain. I’m trying to give up the jealousy. It’s hard, but I’d rather put the effort into making you feel safe and happy.”
“I don’t mind that you’re jealous. All that much. I just don’t want you to think I want anyone more than you. Because I don’t.” And after my talk with Reader in the clothing store, I could say that confidently again. I felt the worry about making the wrong lifetime decision slip away. I ignored all the other wedding-related worries—we had bigger problems right now.
He kissed me again. “Mmmm, I’d love to tell you to prove that, but duty calls.” He said the last two words like we were going to clean out a pigsty. Of course, I shared his opinion.
He lifted me off his lap and put me on the ground. “Armani fatigues or my own clothes?”
“Do we care what they think?”
“No, I was asking what you wanted.”
Martini gri
“Yeah, but it never gets old.” I took my clothes off in the closet. Hoped the A-C Elves would get this outfit cleaned fast.
“Oh, go for the fatigues. You look so hot in them.”
“And they’re not sheer. Tito might not recognize me.” Martini laughed. “Jeff, do you think these dozen are going to be it?”
“No, and you don’t either.” He had that right. “I think, no matter what, we have a world of hurt coming toward us.”
“Yeah. At least the emissary wasn’t Moira’s mate. I want to be heavily armed when we cross paths with that chick.”
“Me too. Speaking of which, your purse is in the living area.” I came out of the closet as he got up and went to get it. Martini put it down on the bed. “I want to make sure it’s okay. It was out of your control for a while there.”
“I need my heels. You dump, I’m going to scoot under the bed.”
He did as requested while I dropped to the floor. “Wow. I can’t believe what you manage to stuff in here.” He sounded awed.
“I told you. It’s big and made of cheap leather, so it’s strong and sturdy. I can fit anything in there.”
“Hmmm . . . including something alien.”
I almost bumped my head on the bed frame. “What?” I reached for my shoes and stopped. “Jeff?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not alone down here.”
The bed disappeared. Martini lifted it, and, I was sure, in deference to all my stuff on it, put it aside as opposed to throwing it across the room. Now that I could see clearly, I for sure wasn’t alone. There was a small thing in front of me. Quivering.
“What is this?” It wasn’t something from Earth. I hoped it wasn’t an interstellar snake. Or bomb. Or worse.
“What the hell?” Martini bent down and put his hand out. The quivering thing sniffed, then crawled into his palm. He pulled me to my feet with his other hand.
“What is it?”
“I think . . .” He dug his phone out. “Christopher, sorry, where are you? Oh, good. Look, do you remember that pet thing your mom used to tell us about? Yeah, that. What did it look like, and how big? Amazing. Yeah, I think I’m holding one. Get down here, will you?”
“So that’s a Tribble?”
“Huh?”
Oh, right. They weren’t into science fiction, humorous or otherwise. Guess all the shows and movies were too much like documentaries. I decided not to try to explain. “It’s not dangerous?” It didn’t look dangerous, but I’d seen enough movies. The probability it could go killer or instantly reproduce into the thousands seemed high.