Chapter 8
CHAPTER
EIGHT
“If you want to interview her so badly, you can come here and do it,” Rehz snapped. “That’s it. She’s still in my damn care, and I say she’s not ready for a full-on fun time at military HQ.”
He shut off the comlink and stared out over the city.
Maybe it was time for him to realize that she might never be goddamn ready, that she’d never come out of her goddamn bed again.
He banged his forehead against the cold glass of the window.
He’d pushed her too hard. Now he was going to have to let the shrinks and the docs and the military take a closer look at her.
With a sigh, he went over to her closed door and knocked on it hard. “Lee? Incoming in half an hour. If you don’t want them dragging you out of bed screaming, I suggest you get up, get dressed, and come out here.”
Silence.
What had he expected? He went back to the kitchen, brewed some more javron . He was fucking mainlining the stuff these days just to stop himself from picking up Anna Lee and shaking some sense into her, and then fucking her stupid until she finally gave up and . . .
And what?
Agreed to stay with him? The man she hated?
The slam of the bathroom door made him swing around. Anna was heading for the kitchen, her fair hair braided down her back and her face expressionless.
He nodded at her and got out of her way. Watched as she helped herself to javron and a protein shake and then ate a tiny slice of bread that she chewed determinedly for far longer than necessary. He knew how hard it was to get anything down without throwing up after those tentacles had been there.
The doorbell buzzed and he went to let the interrogators in. Three of them nodded and smiled as they went past him; the fourth . . .
Greez . . .
“General Palk.”
His trainer raised an eyebrow. “Akran. How’s your precious protégée?”
Rehz barely managed to step out of the way and let the male into his apartment.
Anna Lee still sat at the breakfast bar, her expression unmoved as the government scientist started setting up his equipment.
Palk sauntered over to her. “Lee, my felicitations on surviving. I’m impressed.”
“Why are you here?” Her voice was still husky.
“I’m the head of the whole Tribute project. Didn’t Akran tell you?”
“Why would he?”
His smile widened. “Nice comeback, Lee. Now I’m going to let the others get on with their work while I speak to Akran privately. Then I’ll come back to talk to you.”
Rehz crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s nothing you need to say to me, Palk. I’m staying here to oversee your people.”
“I don’t really want to speak to you, Akran. I was just being polite for the benefit of my inferiors.”
Rehz held his gaze. “I’m no longer one of them.”
“One of what?”
“Your inferiors. Lee was my last trainee, my ticket out of the service.”
Palk blinked. “Whatever gave you the idea that you could get out of anything?”
“Shall we discuss this later?” Rehz nodded at Anna. “I want this to be over for her as soon as possible.”
Anna forced herself not to panic as she answered yet another detailed question about her time with the Ungrich .
There wasn’t much she could tell them, after all.
The whole seven or eight days she’d been there were still blank.
She was no longer sure if it was because her mind simply couldn’t deal with the experience, or they had wiped her memories.
Strangely enough, with Akran sitting beside her, holding her hand, deflecting some of the questions and allowing others, she felt a lot calmer. She couldn’t quite believe how he’d stood up to Palk either. She got the sense that it didn’t happen to that cold, vicious thug very often.
But then Akran would probably argue that Palk had saved him, so he owed him something. Mitan was a strange, mixed-up world, and she hated everything about it.
“Did they deal with you any differently than with the males, Lee?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t really see much of anyone after the first few seconds.”
The female scientist sat forward. “Interesting. The males saw glimpses of each other occasionally. I wonder if you were kept in a different area.”
“I can’t say. It’s not like it was a set of rooms or anything. It was . . . it was like floating through chicken noodle soup.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
“There were no structures that were recognizable to my eye. I was just absorbed into the Ungrich and I existed.”
“Did you gain a sense of any of them as individuals?”
“There were definitely different personalities within the whole, but I’m not sure where one ended and another began. There was one—” She swallowed down bile. “One primary voice communicating with me.”
“Male or female?”
“I don’t think they use those distinctions, although that’s the first thing any of them communicated with me.”
“What exactly did they say?”
“Female.”
The psychiatrist took over the questioning, and Anna concentrated on trying to appear like a balanced, normal individual who hadn’t been subjected to a week of alien testing. Although technically she supposed she was the alien. The Ungrich were the original inhabitants of the planet.
“When will I be considered ready to return to civilization?”
She realized she sounded abrupt, but she’d given them everything she had.
The psychiatrist glanced at his colleagues and then at Palk. “When everyone involved in your care agrees that you are stable enough to manage on your own.”
“So, like now, you mean?”
“I don’t think you’re quite ready, Anna.” The doctor smiled sympathetically at her. “Physically you need to regain your strength and mentally . . .” She sighed. “You still seem quite fragile.”
“When I am ready, can I go back home?”
“And which region would that be?”
Palk laughed. “She means her mythical planet Earth.”
She refused to look at him, focusing on the doctor instead. “It is not mythical and it is my home planet.”
“I’m sorry. We cannot process such a request. When you are considered rehabilitated, we will offer you accommodation and employment in any Mitan region you want and a substantial lifelong pension from your grateful government.”
“I see.” She nodded. “Thanks.”
The physician rose and smiled at her. “We’ll need to see you again in thirty days. Do you think you will be well enough to come to the hospital by then?”
“I’m sure I will be.” Anna didn’t get up. She was more exhausted than she’d anticipated, and she had a sense that until Palk left, things weren’t going to get better.
Of course he didn’t fucking leave with the others. She’d guessed right.
Rehz returned from seeing his visitors out and glared at Palk. “You’ll miss your ride, sir.”
“Oh, I miss him all right.” Palk stood up. “Strip and get down on your knees, Akran.”
“I told you, I’m done with that. Now get out, or I will report you to your superiors for unbecoming conduct, sir.”
“I have no superiors!” Palk snapped. “Obey my order.”
Rehz took two hasty steps until he was right in Palk’s face. “Fuck off.”
“What’s wrong, Akran? Are you scared that your little trainee won’t think you’re man enough to fuck her once she’s seen you on your knees servicing me?”
“This has got nothing to do with her.”
Palk swung around to where Anna Lee had risen to her feet. “It has everything to do with her. You’ve gone soft, Akran. Do you really think she’ll want you?”
“Leave him alone.”
Rehz jerked his head around in disbelief as Anna faced down Palk.
Palk chuckled. “Well, damn, the little female’s protecting you now? What did you do? Fuck her senseless again?”
“He hasn’t touched me.”
“Really? What a mistake.” Palk reached out and grabbed Anna by the hair. “You obviously need a firmer hand.”
As she screamed, Rehz wrapped one hand around his trainer’s throat.
“Let her go.”
“She needs fucking, Akran. If you’re not the man to do it, I will.”
“You hurt one hair on her head and I’ll eviscerate you.” Rehz tightened his fingers around Palk’s throat. “Now let go of her.”
With a strangled gasp, Palk released his grip, and Anna fell to the floor.
“It’s almost funny, Akran, you developing a crush on a female and she’s preprogrammed to hate your fucking guts. It’s pathetic.”
Without waiting to see if Anna was okay, Rehz kept moving, dragging a resisting Palk to the front door and throwing him out like the garbage he was.
“Afternoon, sir.”
He slammed the door, activated the alarm system, and took a few deep-gulping breaths before he allowed himself to go back inside to Anna. He knew he’d have to deal with Palk on an official level at some point, but he’d be damned if he’d put up with the male getting in his personal space anymore.
Anna was still hunched up on the floor, her knees to her chest. He knelt beside her.
“Are you okay, Lee?”
She nodded.
He stared at her, and flexed his fingers as he fought the need to drag her onto his lap and make sure she never wanted to leave him again.
Pathetic . . .
Yeah. Palk was right about that.
“I’m going down to the gym. Come and find me if you need anything.”
He unlocked the door that led down to the lower level of the apartment and deliberately left it ajar. If she wanted him, she’d come after him. If she wanted to cry and go back to bed, he’d let her do that too. After Palk’s insinuations, he didn’t really want to face her anyway.
Anna waited until she stopped shaking and lifted her head. There was no sound in the whole apartment other than her ragged breathing. Why the hell had she defended Akran? She didn’t owe him anything.
But he’d saved her from Palk, thrown him out, and then walked away from her as though nothing much had happened. What would become of him if Palk reported his assault? If he was taken away, what would happen to her?
She shot to her feet and found herself staring at the half-open door she’d assumed was just a closet. He’d gone down there. He’d told her to come and find him if she needed anything.