18. Tammy #2
“Just checking in on my favorite little cowgirl,” he said, recovering quickly. “Looks like you’ve been busy around here.” He gestured toward the barn. “That’s some mighty fine carpentry. How’d you afford it?”
“That’s none of your business,” I seethed, crossing my arms.
Derek chuckled, a sound as hollow as his compliments. “Now, now. That’s a matter of opinion, Tam-Tam.” His gaze shifted to something over my shoulder, and his smile faltered slightly. “Didn’t realize you’d hired help.”
I didn’t need to turn around to know the aliens had decided to come out of hiding.
I could feel that they were closing in behind me.
My Omega recognized them by smell and instinct.
When they stopped approaching, I wanted to look back and reach for them, but I steeled myself and kept facing my asshole ex.
“They’re friends,” I said simply, because what else could I say? “They’re staying with me for a while.”
“Friends, huh?” Derek’s smile tightened.
“Well, ain’t that interesting. My buddy Jason down at First Kansas Savings was just telling me about your situation.
” He lowered his voice to a faux-whisper.
“Said you’re months behind on payments. Said they’re starting to talk foreclosure.
Guess it’s more than just talk, seeing as they’ve sent you a couple notices. ”
My cheeks burned with humiliation. Of course, Derek would have banking connections. Of course he’d use them to monitor my failure.
“Your point?” I managed through gritted teeth.
He spread his hands in a gesture of false generosity. “No point, sugar. Just concerned is all. This cute little project of yours—” he swept his arm to encompass the whole ranch, “—it’s admirable how you’re trying so hard. But we both know you’re in over your head.”
Now, I did feel the aliens move to stand close to me. I turned my head slightly, catching glimpses of them arranging themselves—Vantor slightly to my left, Kalith to my right, Cyro directly behind me. My personal alien bodyguard triangle.
Derek’s gaze flickered between them, his brow furrowing slightly as he took in their size, their silent intensity.
I tilted my head, looking upward and seeing Cyro’s body stretched taller than usual.
I looked left, then right, noting that all of them seemed to have made themselves bigger and more intimidating.
“Who did you say these fellas were again?” he asked, a new edge in his voice.
“My friends,” I said again firmly. “They’re helping me get this place back on track.”
Derek took a step closer, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret.
“Look, Tammy, we both know where this is headed. You’ve got what, a couple weeks before the bank calls it in?
Less, if they get antsy?” His eyes gleamed with something predatory.
“I could buy this place for ten cents on the dollar at auction, but out of respect for our... special connection, I’m willing to make you a fair offer now. Save you some dignity.”
I felt a subtle shift in the air around me—an almost imperceptible change in temperature and pressure. The alien presence behind me seemed to intensify, like storm clouds gathering charge before lightning strikes.
“There’s nothing special about our connection,” I spat. “There never was.”
Derek’s eyes narrowed, but he pressed on.
“Don’t be like that, darling. We had something good.
Could have it again.” His gaze slid from me to the ranch house, then back.
“You weren’t meant for this life, Tammy.
All this hard work, all this...” he wrinkled his nose slightly, “...dirt. You were meant to be taken care of. To be shown off.”
“You mean to stand there and look pretty?” I quoted his favorite phrase back at him.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “There are worse things.”
“Yeah, like being with you.”
His practiced smile slipped for a moment, revealing the coldness beneath. “You always did have a smart mouth.”
Behind me, I heard a sound like fabric stretching—the soft, wet sliding of something that wasn’t entirely solid anymore. I didn’t dare turn around, but I could feel the aliens struggling to maintain their human forms in response to my distress.
Derek noticed too. His eyes widened slightly as he focused on something just over my left shoulder. Whatever he saw there made him take an involuntary step back.
“Your new friends are... interesting,” he said, his voice tighter than before.
I risked a quick glance to my left and nearly gasped.
Vantor’s human disguise was intact, but only just. His skin rippled with suppressed colors—deep burgundy and flashes of orange visible just beneath the surface, like magma under thin rock.
His frame had expanded slightly, making him tower over me, and his eyes had that metallic alien sheen.
I turned back to Derek, who was now actively backing toward his truck. “They’re very protective,” I said, allowing a small smile.
Derek’s eyes darted between the three aliens, thinly masked, genuine unease replacing his usual arrogance. For once in his life, Derek Morgan didn’t seem to know what to say.
“Think about my offer,” he finally managed, reaching his truck and yanking the door open. “I’ll buy it off you, we can go back to how things used to be.”
I felt a surge of something fierce and hot in my chest—not just anger, but a new kind of strength, bolstered by the silent, solid presence of my alien companions.
“In your dreams,” I said, the words sharp and clear.
Derek forced a laugh, but it sounded brittle.
“Baby, you're playing house on borrowed time. You know where to find me when this all falls apart,” he called, climbing into his truck.
The door slammed with finality, the engine roared to life, and he executed a hasty three-point turn, gravel spraying from beneath his tires as he accelerated back up the driveway.
I watched his taillights disappear through the trees, my body humming with adrenaline and something that felt suspiciously like victory.
The sound of Derek’s truck faded into the distance, but the echo of his words remained, ringing in my ears with cruel persistence.
The momentary triumph I’d felt watching him retreat drained away like water from a cracked basin, leaving me hollow.
I stood frozen in the driveway, my body suddenly too heavy to move, my chest constricted as if iron bands had wrapped themselves around my ribcage, squeezing tighter with each breath.
Shadows seemed to build around me, and something inside me—something I’d been holding together with duct tape and sheer stubbornness—finally broke.
The first tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it, hot and shameful. Then another. And another. Until they were falling in earnest, my vision blurring as my carefully constructed walls crumbled.
“Tammy?” Cyro’s voice came from somewhere to my right, uncertain and concerned.
I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t even look at them.
Every fear I’d been suppressing rushed to the surface at once—the impending foreclosure, the failing breeding program, the dwindling bank account, the crushing loneliness of fighting this battle alone.
Derek’s smug certainty that I would fail echoed in my mind, and the worst part was that some small, traitorous part of me believed him.
What if he was right? What if this was all just delaying the inevitable?
The aliens would leave eventually. They’d fix their ship, collect their water samples, and disappear back into the stars.
And I’d be alone again, just the owner of a half-fixed ranch I couldn’t afford to maintain and horses I couldn’t afford to feed.
I heard the aliens exchanging words in their own language—a series of wet clicks and undulating tones that sounded like whale song and electronic music had a baby.
I didn’t like when they did that. I wanted to know what they were saying.
I only understood when they spoke aloud and the translator did its magic, delivering words to my ears and brain.
Through my tears, I saw them gesturing to one another, seemingly at a loss for how to respond. Their bodies sparked with tiny lights. Stars across their bodies even in daytime. It was like they carried the universe with them. They couldn’t stay on Earth. It wouldn’t be natural.