as I got. "I meant how do you speak perfect English?"
"We learnt how," Gar replied. "When you were chosen."
"Oh? And how long ago was that?" I propped my elbows on the table.
Gar might be quiet, but he was more straightforward than Fin. "Halfway from Jebar to Earth."
I shook my head. "Didn't you say it took a year to get there? You learnt English in six months?"
"We're smart," Fin declared. He picked up the pickle I'd left on my plate and ate it. Even alien men were weird enough to eat those things. Ewww.
"Uh-ha," I replied drolly. "What's the real explanation?"
Fin pretended to be offended. "Are you suggesting—"
I interrupted him with an arched eyebrow.
He sighed and slumped down in his chair.
"We're attached to an interface," Gar said simply. "It sends the information directly to our brains."
I sat up. "Can I do it? Can I speak Spanish, or Jebari?"
"The interface would fry your brain," Fin said.
"Now you know what fried means," I grumbled.
"Unfortunately Fin is right. The interface would damage the human brain. If you were a Centauri or Laxarian, maybe then…"
I slid back down, then eyed them both. "Who chose me? Why?"
"A level two on the scouting team." Fin leaned back and scratched at one of his wings. "He would have scanned the planet, looked for the right body type, then studied your life and—"
"I beg your pardon?" I asked, outraged. "They stalked me?"
Gar looked uncomfortable. "It was necessary to know what connections you had so they could be removed."
"Please don't tell me you killed Zade?" I'd been pissed off at him for the last few weeks. If all of that rage was for nothing…
"Absolutely not." Gar looked horrified at the idea. "We merely removed you from their memories."
"Oh well, that's so much better," I said sarcastically. Tears prickled at my eyes. "That's why my cards were blank. And why my apartment was empty? And why Helene didn't remember me?" A tear slid down my cheek. "You erased my life?"
Fin reached out a hand as if to comfort me, but placed it on the table instead.
"By decree of the Emperor of Jebari," he said softly. "Isn't it better than them searching for you for the rest of their lives?"
"Isn't it better that you left me on Earth and let me live my life?" My voice rose with each word.
"You wouldn't have been chosen if your life was a contented one," Fin replied.
"Hey, I was doing okay!" I protested. I ran a hand over my hair. "I had a job and Zade. I was making ends meet." More or less. On the up side, my horrendous credit card debt was gone.
The guys exchanged looks.
"What?" I asked. "Don't tell me, Zade really was cheating?" I waved a hand. "You know what, I don't want to know. Nothing justifies rubbing out a person's entire existence. Nothing."
I jumped up from my chair and stomped away. I didn't know where I was going, I was only allowed in my cabin, the dining hall and the entertainment room. The latter was a wide space full of screens on which we could access a wide range of streaming platforms. Presumably for a horrendous monthly fee. More likely, they hacked Earth wifi.
Right now, I just needed to be away from these two.
I hurried out into the corridor and ran square into an expanse of green chest.
"Sorry," I muttered. I stepped back and looked up. And up. I'm only average height, but compared to me, seven feet was enormous. Added to that, he was wider than my level threes. His arms would have put a tree to shame.
"Um." I swallowed. "I should have been looking where I was going." Only I would miss a huge, green alien.
"It's perfectly all right," he replied in English. "You seem upset." He wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb and made my heart flutter.
Dude, I reminded myself, he's one of them.
"Here." He took my hand in his large one and drew me aside, into a room off the corridor. "It might help to talk about it." He lowered me onto one side of a wide bench under the window and sat beside me.
I swallowed and reminded myself he was on this ship to plant an alien in a human woman's womb, not to be my friend. And yet, I felt comfortable with him. More than that, I might have considered letting him use my womb if I didn't control my suddenly out-of-control hormones.
"It's this whole erasing-my-life-and-abducting-me thing," I said, holding back a