Alien Paladin's Redemption - Mina Carter Page 0,57
marry me, I mean. In the human way?”
She opened her mouth but he lifted his hand, putting his finger over her lips. Shaking his head, he said. “No, don’t answer yet. Think about it and give me your answer when we are done with this place. I can wai—”
A sound out in the corridor made them both look around.
“Someone is going somewhere they shouldn’t be,” he said softly. “I think we should make sure what and why. Don’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
They moved as one toward the doorway, entering the corridor just in time to see the doors at the other end swish shut. Whoever it was, they were moving fast.
“They’re heading toward Sector Four,” Nyek said in a low voice.
“Why am I not surprised?” she murmured as they followed.
It didn’t take them long to catch up, finding not just Gracie and Seren at the airlock to Sector Four but also Keris and Stephens. If the Latharian AI could express displeasure through a blank faceplate, she managed it.
“Would you like to tell me what you all think you are doing here?” Nyek asked, his voice calm and level, the stick-up-his-ass manner in top form.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Seren leaned down to murmur in Gracie’s ear. Because of the silence of the corridor, they all heard him clearly.
“The AI warned us this sector was off limits.” Nyek’s expression hadn’t changed and reflected the expressions of the other Lathar—displeased with extra sides of WTF.
“That’s just the thing.” Stephens folded his arms across his chest, standing his ground. To his credit, he didn’t so much as flinch when Nyek looked at him, even though the bruises on his throat were plain to see. “It looks absolutely fine. And we didn’t see any evidence of damage on our way in. On other levels yes, but not this one. Which begs the question… if there’s no damage here, what does that AI not want us to see?”
Nyek’s lips parted as if to answer, but then he paused and frowned. Indra looked up at him.
“Muscles has a point.” She pointed to the door, which looked the same as all the other doors they’d seen. There was no damage to any of them. It literally looked like the Cabal had just decided to up and leave years ago. “I say if they don’t want us in there, there’s a reason. And I don’t like people keeping secrets from me, not even scarily pretty alien AIs. Especially not scarily pretty alien AIs.”
“Exactly!” Gracie piped up. “Better to have all the information at hand. Shit intel gets people dead, fast.”
She patted Seren’s arm in reassurance and Indra slid a quick glance down to the guy’s wrists. The cozy way those two were acting, there was no way they weren’t doing the horizontal tango. She’d seen the possessive look in his eyes when he looked at the pretty redhead so it wouldn’t surprise her to find mating marks on his wrists already. But they were clear, at least the left one was. Like Nyek, he wore a bracer on his right and she couldn’t see the skin.
Glancing down, she looked at Nyek’s wrists again. No marks apart from the vicious scars on the inside. Her gut clenched again. He’d said someone had done that to him. And by the looks of the straight cuts, he’d let them. But why?
“You raise valid points.” Nyek walked forward, toward the door. “We should indeed check it out. The Cabal… even though they are gone, I’m not entirely sure I trust them. They appear to have motives and plans that run counter to that of the empire.”
“Woohoo!” Gracie caroled. “Mr. Prim and proper is on board.”
Indra hid her grin. So she wasn’t the only one who had noted Nyek’s formal manner and attitude. For his part, he ignored the comment, but by the way his shoulders rose just a fraction, she knew he’d heard it.
Between the two Lathar and Keris, it was a simple matter to get the door open, and they walked through…
“Whoa… it looks like World War Four happened in here,” Stephens breathed as they stood in the middle of utter chaos.
In the other sectors, the base simply looked deserted, like everyone had just decided to up and leave, but here… yeah, they hadn’t left willingly. Lights were shattered, the fixtures hanging from the ceiling. Windows off the corridors were broken, allowing them glimpses into the rooms beyond as they made their way to the center. Several looked like labs, with