Alien in the Family

Of course, my plummeting to my death wasn’t going to sit well with them, either. Right before I started to scream, whatever I was leaning my toes against disappeared, and I felt hands on my feet.

“It’s a chick,” a male voice called. “Gimme a hand.”

“Help!”

“Hang on, sweet cheeks, we got you.” I felt someone near me and risked a look. A big guy wearing a USC Trojans T-shirt was inching along the ledge next to me. He put his arm around my waist. “Got her, guys. Let go, babe.”

I did and grabbed him. Built like Martini. Thank God. Several pairs of hands pulled us inside. Inside what turned out to be a big suite. “Wow, thanks. I can’t tell you how great your timing was.”

The guy who’d saved me gri

Lots of big guys, all athletes. Fairly drunk, but I wasn’t going to complain. “I’m Kitty, and I need your help. I mean, again.”

“You a dealer here?” another one asked me.

“No, why would you think that?”

“Some of the Hooters girls don’t wear the shorts and stuff,” he answered with a grin. “And you have the job requirements filled.”

“Filled well!” another voice called. There were affirmations around the room that my rack was all right by Trojan football.

“Dudes, seriously. I’m a Federal agent and we have a terrorism situation going on.” I looked around and saw the room clock. 11:50 a.m. “We have ten minutes to save thousands of people. Can you please help me?”

Len gave me an up and down. “Federal agent?”

“Undercover. My badge is on the roof. Along with my partners. Who are potentially losing fights to the terrorists. Look, thanks for the save, I have to go.”

“Oh, come on.” One of the others said, getting in front of me. “Why go now?” He was one of the drunker guys. He was also a linebacker if I was any judge.

I picked up the threat. I didn’t have time for it. “Let me go or come with me. The only options.”

“C’mon, Kyle, get out of her way,” Len said.

“You’re only the QB when we’re on the field, Len.” Kyle looked as though he was used to being a problem.

“I don’t have time for the gang rape plan, okay? I’m not kidding, thousands are going to die.”

“Sounds great.” Kyle had a few guys backing him.

Len came up behind me, took my hand, and pulled me away. “Mine, then. Okay? Now, get out of the way.”

“We’re a team. We share.” Kyle finished his beer, tossed the can, and put out his hand. One of his buddies slapped another into his huge ham-hand. He popped it and started drinking again.

“I have to get out of here. There’s no time.”

Len tried to move me out of the room, but the line stopped him. “Who’s go

“I will,” Len said. I looked behind us. Len had some backers. They weren’t as big as Kyle’s backers, and Kyle’s were all clearly more wasted.

Time to improvise and hope Gregory hadn’t caused too much damage. “Harlie? Be a good Poof and help me get back to Jeff.”

The Poof jumped off my shoulder and turned Martini-sized. It didn’t growl, though. It roared.

“Holy shit!” Kyle and his guys fell back. I took the opportunity to run for the door.

Len came with me. “What the hell is that thing?”

“Experimental protection weapon. Top secret. Come if you’re helping, otherwise, thanks again for the save.” I bolted for the stairs.

There were pounding feet behind me. Len and his crew were following me. I could hear the line screaming. Good.

Ran up the stairs, saw the door Martini’d ripped off its hinges. Good, right spot. Reached the roof to see the fighting still going on. Grabbed my Glock and tried to figure out who to shoot.

There were two Martinis fighting. Both were hurt, one more than the other. But I couldn’t guess who would have done more damage between the real Martini and Kyrellis. Christopher and Gregory were rolling on the ground, blurry but there. So they were tiring. I pointed to them. “Guys, get them separated. One’s a bad guy, one’s another Federal agent. The Fed’s in a black Armani suit.”

The football players ran over and surrounded Christopher. I stopped looking. Hopefully that would turn out okay.

“Kyrellis!” They both looked at me. Damn, that didn’t work. “We’ve found all the bombs.” Lie, but maybe it would cause a reaction.

Did. They both went back to hitting each other. Hard. One landed a great uppercut and the other staggered back, toward the edge. I wanted to run and grab him, but what if it wasn’t “my” Martini?

“Hey, Kitty!” I turned at the sound of Len’s voice. They had Christopher and Gregory separated. “Who’s who?”

I ran over, and pulled Christopher out. “He’s the Fed. Keep this other guy under control. Hurt him if you need to.” I looked at Christopher. “You look awful.”

He shrugged. “It’ll pass. How’s Jeff?”

“Um . . . no idea.” We stepped a little closer. “Have you seen him fight like this? Can you tell who’s who?”

Christopher studied them. “She’s imitating his fighting style. No way to tell.” He sounded as worried as I felt.

“Great. Find out if we’re going to have an explosion.”

He pulled out his phone and I inched closer to the fight. The Martini who was more hurt got knocked to his knees. The other one slammed his fist into the side of his head. He went down.

“Jeff?”

The one standing looked at me and nodded. The one on the ground groaned. I went to him and pointed the Glock at the one standing. “Say something.” The Martini standing rolled his eyes. But he didn’t speak. And I didn’t hesitate.

CHAPTER 37

KYRELLIS TRIED TO RUN, but I hadn’t been joking—my mother had been working with me on rapid firing techniques. I hit her torso and kept firing. By the third bullet, she shimmered and turned back into herself. By the eighth bullet I gave up on the torso and hit a knee. She went down.

“Christopher, need you and the guys, and my purse!”

Christopher pulled some of the football players off Gregory, and they covered Kyrellis. Len ran my purse to me. “That was weird and amazing.”

“Thanks. Need your help.” I dug through for the case where I kept Martini’s adrenaline. Got it out, filled the huge needle. Ripped his shirt open. “He’s going to start thrashing, and he’s really strong. You need to help me hold him.”

“Okay. Will you tell me what’s going on later?”

“Possibly.”

Martini’s eyes fluttered open. “Baby? Were you sure that wasn’t me?”

“Hush, Jeff. Of course I was sure. Why do you think I waited until you were on the ground?”

“Gee, thanks.”

“I meant I had to wait to see if the Martini standing was going to speak to me or not. I didn’t want to distract the real you.”

“I feel like crap.” He was gasping. I knew this scenario well.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” I, as always, hoped. I bent down and did my ritual. Kissed his forehead and said, “I love you, Jeff,” against his skin. Then I reared back and slammed the needle right into his hearts.

He bellowed and started thrashing. “Shit!” Len flung himself onto Martini’s body. “You weren’t kidding!”

I heard the sound of ru

Kyle’s eyes were wide and he looked as though he’d been scared sober. “I think that thing wants us to help you.” His voice was squeaky. I looked around him and saw Harlie, still huge and mad, herding the rest of the team to us.

“Help hold him, but don’t hurt him.”

Kyle and a couple others dropped and held. I got the harpoon put away, then put Martini’s head onto my thighs. “It’s okay, Jeff. Come on back, baby.” I stroked his head and tried not to worry about how badly Kyrellis might have hurt him.