“Yesterday,” Sadie continued, “two of the bankers frequenting Mr. Edwards’ meeting mentioned the Hortzberg brothers’ shipment launch.”
Montage sat forward. “You have a time? A location?”
“During the fireworks at the summer festival in the valley east of the botanical garden.”
“Certain, Detective?” Commander Salazar, a bulky male, sitting to the left of Montage asked, his skeptical tone evident to everyone at the table. Interfering would undermine Sadie’s presence, so Aroc waited to see how she’d respond to his males.
“Commander Salazar, I believe,” she said, her eyes focused intently on his face. “Are you asking if I’m certain of what I heard?” Sadie asked and Aroc heard the challenge in her tone.
Salazar looked to Aroc.
Aroc answered the query in his gaze. “The detective asked you a question, Commander Salazar. I suggest you answer her with a reply.”
Salazar blinked twice turning his attention back to Sadie. “How do we know you’re not setting us up for your authorities on Earth?”
“You don’t,” she told him, while placing her palms flat to the table to lean toward Salazar. “How do I know you’re not one of the rogues infiltrating the station, placing Captain Farkus in the uncomfortable position of having to call out one of his own males?” She offered her hand in a gesture of respect. “I don’t,” she added, “But I trust you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t care about your people the same as I care about mine. Working together is the only way we’ll stop this from continuing to happen.”
The big man stood and took her hand after a long silent moment. Aroc waited to see if Sadie needed him to step in, but he knew Sadie would hate him for interfering.
Salazar leaned closer. “You like a challenge, Detective?”
Sadie met his challenge bringing her face closer to his. Everyone at the table tensed. “I love a challenge. But do I like standing here telling you that humans are attempting to steal from you? No. I think it’s vile and has to be stopped.”
“You mean that, don’t you?”
“Risking my life isn’t something I do lightly, Commander. I do it because it needs to be done—period.”
The tension creasing his forehead relaxed and shook her hand and not just held it, then released it returning to his seat.
“And your skepticism, Commander Salazar, pales compared to what Commander Montage put me through when I first arrived.”
Pride squeezed Aroc’s heart. His Sadie didn’t back down from anyone.
An audible sigh moved through the room as everyone relaxed.
“Look at this aerial shot of the site.” Sadie pressed on the screen inset into the table to bring up the map of Georgia. All eyes followed her finger pointing to the area where the shuttle was to land.
Aroc watched her strategically help his team plan the best approach to stay out of the civilian’s visual, protecting their existence. Sadie, his warrior, his mate. He’d claim her this weekend and make them an officially mated couple.
“And I know some branches of the police force are aware of your existence, per the treaty. As history has proven time and time again, accepting differences in others isn’t America’s strongest asset. So it’s imperative this is handled on the launch site away from civilians. Don’t bring this into the populated areas. We’ll stop them from stealing and polluting, but it has to be done with discretion,” Sadie finished, arms folded as she waited to see what he’d say.
“Any questions?” Aroc asked, threading their fingers together.
After the meeting, Sadie stopped Montage from leaving.
“Something I can help you with, Detective?” he asked.
Sadie raised her brows. “Not me personally, but it seems you’ve caught the attention of more than one human female and regardless of me explaining your abhorrence to my kind, they’re still interested in your dating status.”
Montage roared with laughter—something she’d never heard from him— which set an even deadlier gleam to his eyes. “Detective, you’re an asset to your race and my captain’s choice in females,” he complimented, shooting a look from Aroc to Sadie. “Inform your human females I prefer a karuntian female, no offense to you, of course.”
“None taken. Not every male can handle the support, the care, and the rock-solid love of a black woman. We can come off as aggressive at times. That’s because we’ve been held too tight for far too long.”
“You’re not aggressive, Detective.”
She shifted her attention to Aroc. Her warm eyes focused wantonly on him and heat slashed through his heart. That was his female. “Exactly, Commander. Exactly.”
Aroc caught the unspoken praise that he was her platform to freedom. She was his calm at the end of the day and a great mother for Norese.
“I’ll let you know if I decide to expand my options, Detective.”
Aroc stepped up, placing an arm around Sadie’s shoulder. He dismissed Montage, leaving him, Sadie, and Norese alone.
“Did you feel that way about women from Earth before you met Katherine? That we were too different to be compatible?”
“Too fragile,” he admitted with a sly wink. “I was wrong. You’re quite flexible.” And she felt good in his arms at night. He wouldn’t give that up because she wasn’t karuntee. Cupping her face, Aroc planted soft kisses over her lips until Norese held her face up, her lips pursed.
“Looks like you’ve stolen another heart, big guy.”
“I guess I have,” he said, and then smooched Norese making her smile. She leaned in, pursing her lips for Sadie to give her a kiss, then hooked her arms around Sadie’s neck, begging her not to leave.
“Sadie mommy stay home,” she cried, her little face tucked against Sadie’s shoulder. “Don’t go.”
Eyes glossy, Sadie strolled around the room holding Norese in a fierce hug. The image he’d remember for the rest of his life. The moment he felt like they were a family.
After she’d wiped away her tears and Norese was sated enough to run off to her room to play, Sadie pressed her body to his and backed him into the wall outside of his dining room. He loved when she became aggressive.
His hands settled around her shoulders trapping her to his body. He watched her gaze follow him when he placed a kiss to her forehead, then the space under her eye down to her mouth, where he took his time and kissed her right.
When he pulled to straighten his back, he settled her deeper between his thighs and slid down the wall, positioning himself until their heights better fit the moment, then went in for a deeper sensual exchange. The tip of her fingers dipped inside the waistband of his cargo pants and tickled the muscles crisscrossing his waist. He grasped her hand and pushed it down over his skin; let her feel what she’d done to him.
Her fingers encircled him, all of him, behind the material. His hips surged forward, letting her grip send shivers down the longest shaft, from the heat spreading through him from her fingers. When her fist brushed over the head of the smaller penis, his stance opened wider. The thigh muscles clenched.
He grunted his pleasure. “You’re a beast, female…a sweet, greedy beast.”
Her lips parted when she started to speak. Cutting off her words, he shoved his tongue into her mouth to stop the panic of need growing for a taste of her, and flattened a hand to her back grinding his body into hers.
He could do this all day, as Sadie had the softest lips and most pliable body. Aroc raised a hand up her back to massage the nape of her neck, rubbing the knuckle of his index finger along her ridged spine. He loved her smooth skin.
“You’re so soft.” He pressed his thumb to that tender spot behind her ear until her body bowed in to rest along his.
“I learned this week that I miss sharing my day with you and Norese when I’m on Earth. It feels right to share meals with you. Talk about my day. Listen to yours.”
He traced his hands along her ribs and down her hips, loving her curves. The rapid pulse at the base of her neck drew his hand up between her breasts. The beat thudded intensely. The other hand he slid up to cup her jaw. “I’m tired of waiting to see this beguiling face once a week.”
“After tomorrow you won’t have to.”
Chapter 18
The Edwards’ home bustled with men in suits and a handful of what Sadie was certain to be dirty cops in for their take. Sadie went into the kitchen. She vibrated with excitement and apprehension. Sadie tucked the intricately cut crackers in a swirl pattern on the bright blue glass platter, alternating each cracker with a rectangle of cheese. Once finished, she set the bowl of onion dip in the center and wiped away the creamy sauce from the rim. She dropped a slice of red pepper in the center, scooped up the other platter of cold cuts, then padded out of the kitchen to Mr. Edwards’ office. She’d convinced Savannah that Timothy missed his father, whenever Richard held meetings at the bank instead of here at the house. Richard Edwards agreed and held his meeting that night at the house.
The doorbell rang. She crossed through the living room to answer the door. The warm summer air pushed in, drawing the cool air of the air conditioned home out the front door. She hurried the men inside. “Gentlemen, Mr. Edwards is expecting you. Can I trust you to show yourselves to his office down the hall and not end up in my kitchen again? And Mr. Hart, I'll leave the recipe for my biscuits for your wife so you can stop stealing my bread."
The man stole as many biscuits as Timothy.
Mr. Hart, standing beside Wixom, pulled a cigar from his inside breast pocket. "Ms. Sadie, why some man hasn't slipped a ring on your finger, I'll never know." Moving past the long stereo console, his dark green eyes focused on her legs as usual. You'd think her legs were wrapped in bacon the way they stared at her body. "My wife will appreciate the recipe, thank you."
"You’re welcome.” Sadie extended her hand and as if on impulse, a silent message filled the air. They handed her their hats one by one. She placed them on the shelf in the guest closet.
Had Oliver received her message? Her heartbeat sped up with the thought. If something went wrong, two men she cared about would be right there in the thick of things.
Standing on her toes, she went still. A voice filtered through the wall from the rumpus room where the Ping-Pong table sat, and where the Edwards’ played cards with their guests in the past.
Savannah’s sweet southern socialite tone was unmistakable. The other voice belonged to Mrs. Colson, wife to Mr. Colson of Genesee Bank and Trust.
“Richard mentioned something called a Karuntee the other day. It sounds like mountain people in a third world country," Savannah murmured. "And you will not believe this, but I asked him about some papers I found in his office with Sadie’s name on it—”
“Oh my lord, Savannah, I wanted to mention this to you last week. Cleaning out Harry’s suit jacket, I came across a piece of crumpled up paper with that name at the top. I knew I’d heard the name before." Reda paused. “For a minute I thought he was having an affair.”
“Who would dare cheat on you?”
Naïve, Sadie thought, and pushed her ear against the wall behind a wool coat to get a better listen to Reda.
"What could your Sadie possibly have to do with any of this?”
“Nothing," Savannah announced in a protective mother hen tone she used whenever someone came at a friend of hers. “Richard assures me the initials belong to one of their clients. She’s the salt of the earth and I trust her with my most valuable possession—my family.”
Everybody had to own somebody, Sadie thought.
Relief moved through Sadie, knowing she hadn't judged Savannah wrong and the woman wasn't in on it with Richard Edwards.
“Maybe they’re working for the government. We could be married to GI men, just like in the movies,” the other woman said, her voice low and animated. Sadie listened to her draw out the last word, as if she were auditioning for a soap opera.
She dug into her pocket for her communicator, wrapped her fingers around the little device, and slipped it under her collar. Her body stilled as a warm hand closed over on her shoulder and the familiar spicy scent wafted beneath her nose. Though excited to know he was up and well, she wasn’t happy he was out of the hospital. Now that she and Oliver knew their attraction was superficial, he flirted more.
She moved around and gave her best southern greeting. “Mr. Cantrell, it’s always a pleasure...may I take your hat?” She leaned in. “Stop it, now,” she said between compressed lips while she yanked the hat from his grip.
He winked, the skin around his blue eyes creased adding to the taunt...for another woman, not her. She had Aroc.
“Thank you, Ms. Sadie,” closing the space between them bringing their faces inches apart. “I got your message.” He looked over his shoulder then swung his gaze to her. “And you choosing the captain doesn’t mean I can turn off my attraction like a knob on a faucet. Things may not work out between you two. I need to stay relevant. Deny it as you will, I saw the concern in your eyes when you thought I was dying on the sidewalk, Sadie. You care about me more than you want to.”
“You’re right. I care a great deal about you or I would’ve let you bleed to death.” She took a quick peek over his shoulder to see an empty hallway. “Is a friendship between us too much to ask?”
Oliver groaned. “It’s a gut feeling, Sadie. Aroc’s loyal to karuntee and in the end I think he’ll end up hurting you.”