Chapter 11
Daria
This particular safe house was off the grid, way off the grid.
I had set it up myself, paid in cash for anything it needed so it could not be traced, and I had never reported its location to any of my handlers.
Nobody should know about this spot, one of several I kept throughout the city, but I still felt uneasy as I stared at the limited supplies available.
This basement had been bricked up, it no longer connected to the house above it, and it was not on any blueprints: safe.
But it didn’t offer a lot, just room for a weapons cache, a cot, and medical supplies.
With Killian ducking from the passage into the single room, that space suddenly became positively tiny.
He couldn’t straighten to his full height, and his golden hair brushed the dusty wooden ceiling above him. He didn’t complain but shrugged out of his jacket casually before closing the metal-reinforced door behind him with a soft, but very final sounding thud.
I swallowed roughly, my fear and worry morphing into a sharp, immediate desire. When he started rolling up the white sleeves of his dress shirt, I was done for. No man had any right to look that sexy while doing something so mundane.
Forcing myself to focus on the more immediate issues, I turned my back on his tempting presence and yanked open the old wooden closet to access my supplies.
My toes were so cold they’d gone numb, and I wiggled them madly to help the blood circulate.
When I found my warm socks, I pulled them on with a sigh of relief.
Jeans and a shirt were next, but I hesitated to put them on, as it would involve undressing first. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea…
It would give Killian ideas. Just a glance over my shoulder to meet his gray eyes was enough to know that they were smoldering with a barely restrained desire.
If I gave him so much as an inch right now, he’d pounce.
I shivered thinking about that, it seemed inevitable that I’d end up beneath him on that cot. Why fight it?
The pinch of the data chip I held told me why. I had to get that data out there right now. Sami would know what to do with it as soon as she received it, and the longer I sat on it, the longer they had to find a way to stop that news from getting out some other way.
I yanked out the laptop, ignoring the warm clothes for now, and with trembling fingers, worked to upload the data and distribute it safely.
I had it all set to go when a blanket settled around my shoulders.
“When you press send, will they be able to track the signal?” Killian asked me, and I froze.
Yes, they would, and I’d always decided I couldn’t care about that part.
But I wasn’t alone like I thought I’d be…
When I turned to look at him, I was a little lost for words. Did I tell him he was along for the ride? That I was risking his life for this? Did I hold off? I couldn’t read the expression in his eyes, but it seemed tender.
His fingers were just as tender as his eyes when he gently nudged my arm and picked up the strange gun that I’d taken from him to cover our escape.
He casually slipped it back into the leather holster against his ribs, and that gesture made my belly clench with another burst of sharp desire.
He really had to stop looking so sexy, it was terrible for my sanity.
“How about…” he started when the silence stretched, but he paused, his gray eyes growing brighter than should humanly be possible.
It didn’t take much for him to approach, just a small step and he was at my side, his thigh against my shoulder, where I sat on the cot.
Then his agile hands were on the keyboard of my laptop and he started confidently navigating its settings.
“Clever, no outside connections until you turn it on, untraceable.”
He sank on the cot at my side when I didn’t block him from touching the precious machine.
I should, but I didn’t have it in me to distrust him anymore.
He’d shielded my body with his own from a literal hail of bullets, for example.
That was a bit much if all he was doing was maintaining his cover or playing a game.
He’d even disobeyed his handler to come with me.
Ah, I was going to listen to my own advice, wasn’t I?
If Stella knew about this, she’d be laughing so hard.
The use-them-and-lose-them Daria, finally taking the plunge.
My breath stalled in my chest, my heart clenched painfully.
What did I just think? What the hell… Take the plunge?
That was a little more than allowing myself a fling with a sexy alien man.
“I got it,” the man in question announced. “I can disseminate this information to your contacts by hitching a ride on my communication signals. Callum will know where we are, but nobody else should be able to trace it.”
Callum, I had to assume that was his handler, who was probably on the spaceship that Killian had wanted to take me to.
I still didn’t know why he had wanted to take me with him, why he was so blasé about showing me what he was.
I felt like asking that question might net me an answer I wasn’t quite ready to hear yet, so I refrained.
“Do it,” I said, giving him a nod that almost made the blanket slip from my shoulders.
The hideout was barely warmer than the outside; it had no heating, but it was out of the wind.
I clung to the thick wool because if I didn’t, I’d lean into Killian, who seemed blissfully warm.
He gave me a long piercing look, probably to gauge if I was okay with his handler knowing my location, and then he pressed enter with a confident flick of his finger.
It was done. The data was uploaded in a flash, vanishing into the ether so it could wing its way to Sami and several others across the globe.
Mission complete. I realized that I had never thought beyond this point.
I knew what the data contained now, and Killian was right, it wouldn’t be enough.
It was proof the aliens were among us, and that the government was in bed with them, but not that their plan was evil. So now what?
Not only had I never planned further than this, I had assumed I’d die in the process.
Or that I’d get captured and extraordinarily renditioned to some black site even I didn’t know about.
Stuck in a hole and interrogated until I was dead.
Yikes, that was bleak. But now hope glimmered on my horizon, at the dawn of this brand new year.
With Killian’s aid, it might not turn out that way.
We just had to lie low as long as we could until the heat died down above us and we could sneak away.
“Darling,” Killian murmured huskily. His hands moved with capable certainty as he shut the laptop and placed it back in the still-open closet.
That freed up my lap, and it took the small amount of heat the laptop had generated with it.
I shivered when I lifted my gaze from my sock-clad feet to his gray eyes.
I knew what he wanted. It was time to give in to the attraction.
I raised my chin, and that was all the invitation he needed.
He dipped down and covered my mouth with his, our breaths mingling, our tongues entwining.
I let go of the blanket to grip the back of his neck, my fingers sliding into the silky golden strands of his hair.
Yes, this was the way to celebrate. I could worry about tomorrow or about my future later.