Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,5

the tourist trap known as San Gagliano. It’s a centuries-old medieval settlement filled with quaint stone houses and an abundance of olive trees. Majestic snowcapped peaks rose behind the town and to the east was the Adriatic Sea. It was popular with the Americans.

I did a quick surveillance of the area. To my amazement, there were no guards patrolling the ancient church and a three-year old could bypass Giovanni’s security systems. Either the mad scientist was extremely careless, or he had booby trapped the place. Cazzo! I gave myself a mental head smack. Why hadn’t I taken a gas mask too?

Parking my van behind a crumbling stone chimney, I glanced out the windshield. It was a perfect summer day. A turquoise sky, cascades of purple flowers covering the ground and a cool ocean breeze. For a fleeting moment, I wanted nothing more than to be a normal girl intent on having some fun in the sun. I expelled a long breath. That life would never be mine.

If I didn’t get my head in the game, I wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. I quickly applied camouflage face paint, pulled on the tactical gear, and stuffed my long hair under a skull cap. With a couple of keystrokes, I took down Giovanni’s systems. Nerves fluttered in my stomach. I really hated catacombs. All those creepy bodies and the monstrous rats that lived in them. Ugh.

An armored shuttle suddenly landed by the olive grove.

My psychic senses went on red alert. Merda! There were two or more Coletti warlords onboard. Were they after Giovanni too? If they were, a smart woman would let them go in and take him out. I smiled. In all the confusion, I could easily free Adam. I scampered up a nearby tree and pulled out my binoculars for a better look at them.

“The Coletti warriors are here to capture you. Do not expect any assistance from them in freeing Giovanni’s prisoners,” a harsh male voice said in my head.

I stiffened in shock and psychically scanned the area. The only lifeforms I could locate were on the shuttle. The voice in my head wasn’t one of them. “Who are you and how do you know that?”

“You may call me Loki. My brothers and I have had many run ins with the Coletti and do not want them to forcibly mate you to one of their warriors as was done with our sister.”

“They took your sister?” Not that I was surprised.

“A warlord named Wulf hunted our sister, Yakira, from the time she was ten years old.”

Merda! “They go after children?”

“Any psychic female is hunted. They never stop until their prey has been captured or killed,” Loki spat.

Some bad blood there. “Did Wulf capture Yakira?”

“He did.”

I had never heard anything about the Coletti taking child brides. Loki was probably giving me his version of the truth. From his mental signature, he wasn’t human, so what kind of alien was he? Did he have tentacles or scales? My biggest questions were: how did he know about Giovanni and me? More importantly, what did he really want? “Why are you telling me all of this?”

“You humans have a word. Ah, yes, payback. We wish to take from the Coletti as they have taken from us. Family is everything to the Bjarke. We will help you rescue the one called Adam.”

A humorless laugh broke from me. Nothing was ever that easy. I was being conned. Loki wanted something from me, but what, and where, was he getting his information? “What is your price for helping me?”

“You are a thief, and we require your skills to obtain an object,” Loki replied.

It was never a good thing when a client became evasive. It usually meant the odds of pulling off the heist were poor, and I didn’t want to end up in some alien jail. “Is this object on Earth or another planet?”

“We will provide you with the necessary details when Adam has been rescued.”

Merda. Loki planned on using Adam as leverage. “Sorry, but I’ll have to pass on your generous offer.”

“We will speak again.” Loki’s presence vanished from my mind.

Not if I could help it. My attention was drawn to the shuttle as the landing ramp lowered.

Singing off key, an old man wearing a bright red shirt covered with snarling blue coyotes and yellow Bermuda shorts staggered out of the shuttle.

He wasn’t Coletti, but he did have some kind of psychic abilities. My eyes widened in alarm when I realized the warlords had vanished. Had they