“Cam?” she said gently, waiting until he looked up and she had all of his attention. “I’m not going to get carried off by any of them. I’m done with guys. You know that.”
His expression tightened, his features becoming something near feral. With her he didn’t pretend or wear the "prez" suit he wore with everybody else.
“Landon is a fucking idiot.”
She snorted. Trust Cam to put it so succinctly.
“Yeah, you don’t need to tell me that. And that just proves I’m not falling for any little green men. I’m safe,” she assured him. “I promise.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Yeah, right. It’s not you I’m worried about. I’m saving their asses.”
She frowned in confusion. “I thought things were good with the Lathar? How are you saving their asses?”
He looked at her in that way he had, eyebrow raised slightly and a look of incredulity in his eyes, almost as if to say, "Are you serious right now?" Or, "Wrong answer, try again." She’d seen battle-hardened politicians break down under that look.
“What?” she demanded, seriously considering dumping the contents of the water jug over him, just to put him back in his place. They might be adults now, and he might be the special forces version of the bogeyman who some idiot had put in charge of the entire planet, but sometimes he needed reminding that he was her brother and she didn’t put up with bullshit like that.
“El, I say this with love… but you need to look in a mirror.” Cam’s voice was a low growl.
Panic filled her, and she half stood, looking around toward the mirror on the opposite wall. “Why? Do I have a bird’s nest for hair… Oh shit, I’ve got spinach in my teeth. Haven’t I?”
But the reflection that looked back at her was just as polished as the one she’d seen in the mirror before she had left her apartment this morning, and she looked at him in confusion.
“El, you are stunning,” he told her. “And the instant any of those aliens get a look at you, you will be over one of their shoulders before you can blink and I’ll have to kill them.”
She froze in place, shock rolling through her system as she looked at him. Cam never remarked on her appearance. Like ever. Not even when she had a punk rock hairstyle in her teens or pierced her nose in her twenties. Any kind of flamboyant dress sense completely passed him by.
In fact the only thing that ever got a rise out of him was if he didn’t think she was covered up enough. And by covered up… Yeah, nuns wore less. She wasn’t even sure he’d actually registered the fact that she was female. Not that that bothered her. He was her brother, genetically related or not, and she had never once thought of him that way.
“Seriously?”
He nodded, the expression in his eyes chilling. “They don’t have divorce. If one of them bonds you, it’s for life. No escape. What happens if he’s an asshole? Beats you?”
Her reply was swift and sure. “You’d kill him. As slowly and painfully as possible.”
She knew that for a fact because he’d killed the pimp who had tried to rape her when they’d been forced to live on the streets as kids. They’d been fourteen, just escaped from the group home and within a day he’d put a body in the ground for her.
“Exactly.” He nodded and looked at the file again. “So, by keeping you out of their way, I’m preventing a murder, an intergalactic diplomatic incident, and possibly a war. One that, I don’t need to remind you, humanity can’t win.”
She sat down with a thump.
Even though she was only his PA, Cam didn’t keep anything from her. She knew the precarious position Earth and her colonies were in against the massively better armed and more powerful Latharian empire. The aliens could wipe them out without breaking a sweat, without even committing a fraction of their estimated forces. It was a sobering prospect.
“It’s all good,” she gave in with good grace. “I’m not interested in another relationship anyway. I’m totally over men. Who needs love anyway?”
“Exactly.” He briefly glanced up to smile, and for a moment she saw the charming little boy he had been. “Besides, I could do without the bitching when you break one of their pretty boy little warriors' hearts.”
It was an out and they both knew it. Her marriage to her ex-husband had been a cluster-fuck of epic proportions. The only reason Josh Landon was still alive was not because she had begged Cam not to kill him, but because he was an experienced intelligence officer and Cam might still have a use for him. Her brother never did anything, or killed anyone, without a reason. But still, she took the out and grinned at him.
“Okay, so are you sure we should take the little green men to the zoo?”
2
“Any idea what this is all about?” Jay whispered to Cade as they stood assembled in the main hall of the B’Kaar ship.
“We’re waiting for the emperor to pay a visit,” Cade replied in an undertone.
Jay’s expression darkened as he looked down, plucking at his training uniform.
“Dammit, I would have changed.” Jay scowled as he looked about. “Are you sure? It doesn’t look like this lot are flying the flag.”
Cade inclined his head, pondering the quickest way to explain the complex structure of the Latharian empire to the human. It wasn’t a secret, but it wasn’t considered polite to discuss in public.
“Let’s just say that the B’Kaar and the K’Saan aren’t exactly friends?” he leaned in to murmur.
“The B’Kaar used to be allied with another clan, the K’Daar,” he explained quickly. “They were one of the other royal bloodlines and held the throne for generations. But then their heir disappeared, and the K’Saan rose to power. The B’Kaar blamed the K’Saan… said they’d arranged to have the missing heir killed and therefore wiped the K’Daar out. Since then the two have never been allies.”
“Holy shit.” Jay looked impressed. Or incredulous. Or both. It was hard to tell with human expressions sometimes. “I thought humans were bad for politics but you guys have us beaten hands down.”
He looked up again, studying the hall around them. “So that’s why they’re all wearing their fancy suits then?”
Cade snorted. “No. That would be because the emperor is a drakeen pilot. If the rumors are true, he is capable of operating four at once, as well as fighting himself. They’re trall-scared of him.”
Jay nodded. “I don’t blame them. I once saw a Lathar pilot two of them at once. It about fried his brain.”
It was Cade’s turn to look impressed. “Without training? And he survived? He’s lucky to be alive.”
Jay grinned. “Yeah. Nyek’s utterly batshit, and so is his mate.”
Cade looked up and around the great hall. This area of the ship was usually given over to the training halls. The circle markings were evident in the surface of the floor, as were the tracks where the walls had been rolled back to open up the cavernous space. High-vaulted ceilings reached above them nearly to the dorsal hull, the space intercepted by walkways and gantries filled with row upon row of cyber warriors.