DangerouslyForever (19 page)

“Eva, I can’t believe you have children.” Ally cradled the
baby girl in her arms. She looked exactly like Eva. Well, except for the
lavender-colored eyes that seemed to be the only alien characteristic about the
infant. But even those were beautiful, with dark lashes framing them. Her skin
was olive-toned, just like Eva’s, and much different than her father’s and even
her older brother Josanis’.

Ally ran a finger down the curvature of her round cheek.
Maliya turned her head, trying to latch on to Ally’s finger and smacking her
lips. “No, no, no, little papoose. I’m not the momma,” Ally cooed.

Eva held her hands out. “You can give her to me. That’s the
signal that it’s time for her to eat.”

Reluctantly, Ally gave her back. This was the first time
she’d held a baby since being on the Loconuist vessel, and the first time she’d
seen one since Adrienne’s. The vision of Adrienne’s half-human, half-reptilian
baby—coated in slime and with a misshapen head—swam back to her, making her
nauseous.

Adrienne’s baby hadn’t lived even an hour. It didn’t make
Ally sad that it had died. She hated herself for feeling that way, but the baby
had been so deformed. Human and reptilian DNA didn’t match. At least it hadn’t
for that baby.

She pushed the memory from her mind. If she thought about it
too hard the nightmares would start again. It had taken almost two years for
them to stop in the first place. Ally shuddered. She didn’t want
those
nightmares anymore.

Eva helped Liya, as she called her baby, to latch on to her
nipple. She looked up at Ally. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about your
feelings.”

“About what?”

Eva nodded down to Liya. “This. The baby. I know most of the
women in the brothels were sterilized.”

“As they should be.” She’d seen firsthand what damage could
be done if they weren’t.

Eva shook her head. “I can’t even try to imagine what you’ve
been through.”

Ally sat back. “I wouldn’t want you to. But know this—I am
very happy that you survived, found love and didn’t have to go through what I
did.”

Eva’s eyes watered. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I blame
myself for you being left on Xenaris. If I was—”

“Was what?” Ally scooted closer so she could wrap an arm
around Eva’s shoulders. “Weren’t almost killed trying to come back to me? Not
tasered to unconsciousness? Not saved by Taio? None of that was your doing and
frankly, if those events hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t be
here
and we
both probably would’ve been separated anyway.” She brought her head to Eva’s.
“And we wouldn’t be with each other now.”

Eva’s body began to shake. She sniffled. “You don’t know how
guilty I’ve felt for not being able to tell Taio and Rasha to get you too. I
kept thinking that if I had been a little stronger, I could’ve woken up sooner
and told them about you.”

Ally pulled her closer, doing her best not to disrupt the
baby between them. “I blamed myself for not breaking out of the confinement and
stopping them from taking you,” Ally said with a shaky laugh.

“How would you have done that?”

Ally chuckled. “I have no clue, but it didn’t stop me from
placing all the blame on my shoulders.”

“You couldn’t have done anything.”

“And neither could you.”

Eva sniffled again and wiped her cheeks. “If you tell anyone
I cried, I’ll have to beat you,” she joked.

“Why? Crying isn’t allowed on Drazlan?” Ally asked, wiping
away her own tears.

“I’m a warrior. Warriors don’t cry—especially twice in one
day. I just got my enlightenment tattoo. I don’t want Taio to find a reason to
revoke it or something.”

Ally pulled back to look at Eva’s face. “I like it. It’s
beautiful.”

Eva ran her fingers across the design. “It marks that I’m a
warrior. You don’t know how many people I had to kill to get it.” Ally raised
an eyebrow at her. “I’m serious. I had to earn this. I’m the only female who’s
ever had one,” she said proudly.

“Leave it to you to break the mold.” Ally traced a finger
over the intricate markings. The tattoo covered one of her eyes in a blue and
red design. It was a scaly arm with large claws. The design trailed down her
face, neck and covered part of her breast. “What is it? It’s different than
Kiehle’s.”

“It’s a
varitizar
. Two, actually.” She unlatched Liya
from her breast. Liya whimpered and frowned but that didn’t stop Eva from
smiling and lifting up her shirt to show off the complete design.

“Wow, that’s…beautiful.” Ally reached out her hand and
trailed it over Eva’s stomach. “Was it painful?”

“Heck yeah!”

“They didn’t give you anything for the pain? I know it had
to hurt like hell.”

“They could’ve. But that’s part of the whole experience. I
was not going to bitch out and ask for pain meds. It took a lot for Taio to
agree to let me have one. I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t handle it.” Eva
lifted Liya higher and put her back on her nipple, where she latched on again.

“So what was the requirement for getting one? A high kill
count? If that’s the case, then my body should be riddled with them.”

“Oh my sweet Ally. I don’t want to imagine you killing
anyone. You shouldn’t have had to.”

Ally rolled her eyes. She hadn’t heard “sweet” in the same
sentence as her name in years. “Yeah, well, the sweet little Ally is long gone
now.”

“No she’s not. I’ve seen the way you interact with Max and
Yoshi. You didn’t birth them but you are definitely their momma.”

At the mention of Max and Yoshi, she felt her demeanor
soften. She
was
their mother. She would do anything for them. “They
saved me. I had a death wish and they saved me. Without them…” She shook her
head. “Kiehle would’ve been claiming a body.”

“And that’s why I plan to spoil them rotten.”

“Thank you for getting clothes and toys. We had to leave the
stuff Kiehle bought for them behind. They hadn’t forgiven me for that, but I
think they forgot when they saw the things
you
bought for them.”

Eva shook her head. “I’ve never heard anyone scream so loud.
For a minute there I thought my eardrums were busted.”

When they had arrived at the apartment, the kids had been
happy and excited, like she had been. But at the sight of their toys piled high
in their rooms, they’d lost it. Ally had wanted them to calm down, to be quiet
in case their neighbors complained. But Eva had only encouraged them to scream
their little hearts out. By then, Mazel, Taio’s personal assistant, had joined
them with Josanis, and he had joined in on the screaming as well. It had been
one big scream fest, each trying to outdo the other.

Ally laughed. “I’ve never seen them happier.” She looked
down at her hands. “It was nice of Kiehle to stay with them so I could hang out
with you for a little while. I missed our talks.”

“So did I.” Eva was silent for a minute. Then she said, “I
have a confession to make. I was afraid that you didn’t like me anymore and
that you didn’t want to talk to me.”

Ally looked up. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t like
me
.”

“Why wouldn’t I like you? I love you.”

Ally shrugged. In her mind she had listed all the reasons
why Eva wouldn’t want to keep her around. “I’m not the woman I was. I was
afraid to come, but Kiehle talked me into it.”

“I’m glad he could talk some sense into you.”

Ally nodded. “I’m glad he did too. I was prepared to beg you
to let us stay here. The kids were so worked up about coming, I thought I would
mess it up for them.”

Eva reached for her hand and gave it a light squeeze. “
I
was prepared to beg you to stay.”

Ally lowered her head, trying to blink back her tears. She
didn’t want to cry again, but couldn’t help it; her emotions were stuck on
high. “I guess we both were worrying a lot.”

“And it sounds like we both have guys in our lives who care
for us.”

She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Yeah.”

“What’s going on between you and him, anyway?”

“Nothing.”

“Is that the story you’re sticking to?”

“It’s not a story. He helped us escape from Yinnis and he
brought us here.” She shrugged. “Don’t read too much into it, I haven’t. The
last time I did, it got me sold to another brothel.”

“No one is selling you anywhere, so don’t worry about that.
Besides, there’s something between you two. I can tell by the way he looks at
you. He watches you like you’re the only person in the room.”

“Really?” She shook her head and then shrugged. “I don’t know.
I’m not going to go there.”

“I think you’re already
there
, sweetheart.”

“I wouldn’t know the first thing about carrying on a
relationship. Next subject.”

Eva laughed. “Sure thing. Oh,” she said, as if she’d just
remembered something. “Everybody knows that I found you, so be prepared.”

“Everybody?”

“My crew.” Then she began to use her fingers to count out
the names as she said them. “Lo’Ren, Sa’Mya, Jess and Taraj. Consider them your
crew too.”

A crew?
She’d learned long ago that female friends
were one in a million. The brothels were cutthroat. No one could be trusted.
“I’m not sure if I want a crew yet.”

“There’s no way around this. They’ve all been sticking with
me while I tried to find you.” Before Ally could say anything, Eva continued
on. “I asked everyone to give you a couple of weeks to get acclimated before
they came, but Taraj is the only one who will follow my request. Sa’Mya’s
hardheaded, so she’ll probably be here tomorrow. She’s Kane’s mate. Kane is
human, he used to be a space pirate but now he’s a member of the Galactic
Council. I have to ask one favor before you meet Sa’Mya though.”

“Um…sure,” she said, trying to take in everything Eva was
saying.

“Don’t kill her.”

“Why would I want to kill her?” She let out a chuckle. “
Should
I want to kill her?”

“There will be a million reasons why. She’s the Queen of
Laconia and she can be a spoiled bitch. But I love her. So I ask for some
restraint.” One side of Eva’s mouth pulled up. “She’s pregnant and I didn’t
think it possible, but she’s acting bitchier than usual.”

“Don’t kill Sa’Mya. Check.”

“And since Sa’Mya is coming, I can bet my left tit that Jess
is going to come. She just had a baby but that won’t stop her from one-upping
Sa’Mya. She escaped from a brothel too, so if you ever need to confide in
someone besides me, Jess will be a great sounding board. She used to be a
member of Kane’s space-pirate crew but now she helps to run Sonis with her
mate, Rasha. He used to be the captain of the royal guards. Now he’s Taio’s top
advisor.”

Ally’s head swam with all the information, but she nodded and
Eva must’ve taken that as a sign to continue.

“I already told you about Lo’Ren, she’s my partner in crime.
She’s visiting her sister on Bri’El. You’ll love her. Taio hired her to be my
friend when I first came to Sonis.”

“He hired a friend for you?”

Eva laughed. “Yeah. None of the other females would have
anything to do with me. The bitches. But honestly, we would’ve ended up as
friends anyway. Taio is still depositing credits in her account for the job.”
She laughed again. “But she’s also the kids’ nanny.”

Ally nodded. “Friend and nanny. Check.”

“She’s pink. I mean, really pink.”

“
Okaaaay
,” Ally said.

“And Taraj is a dignitary from Holis, but like I said,
you’ll have some time before she comes for a visit. She’s the only one who can
show any kind of restraint.”

Ally stared at her.

“What?”

“I was waiting for you to keep listing people.”

“Oh that’s not the end. You’ll be meeting a lot of people,
but don’t worry, everyone here is a friend.”

“Great. I’m never going to remember everyone.” She put a
hand on her throbbing temple. “I feel like my head is going to explode.”

“I’m sorry, hon. I’m overloading you. I have a million
things to tell you and I’m trying to fit it all in at one time. You must be
exhausted from your trip.”

“I am, but I don’t mind.”

“I do. We’ll meet for breakfast tomorrow. If you can wait
until after Liya is done feeding, I can walk you back.”

“No, no. I can find my way. It wasn’t that far.” From what
she remembered, her suite was down the long hallway, then right, then down
another long hallway and a left. No sweat.

“Are you sure?”

She stood and stretched. “Sure.” She hugged Eva tightly,
mindful of the baby. “Thank you for finding me.”

Eva kissed her on the cheek. “Anytime.”

She’d been right about finding her apartment—easy-peasy. She
got turned around once, but quickly found her way. She stood outside the double
doors that had “Miller Residence” projected on the front.

Miller Residence.

She still couldn’t believe she was here and that they had
their own residence. When a guard had registered their handprints with
security, he had listed all of their last names as Miller. They were the
Millers. She smiled. From the very beginning, she knew Yoshi and Max were hers
to protect, but this small act solidified it for her.

She placed her hand on the security panel and waited for the
door to open. She walked through the main foyer and still marveled at the
statues…at the paintings that hung on the walls. Even on Earth she’d never
lived someplace this nice. She made her way to the living room and stopped.

Kiehle.

He was picking up toys from the floor and putting them in a
bin situated in the far corner of the room. There was something about the way
he looked. Her heart warmed as she watched him handle each toy with care. He
would make some lucky kid a great daddy one day.

When he saw her, he stopped. “I didn’t hear you come in.”