Razor's Traitorous Heart: The Alliance Book 2 (7 page)

The last couple of days, the feeling that
she was being watched – even followed - had grown worse, and the
irritating male’s dark face kept sneaking back into her thoughts
when she least expected it. She knew he was watching her. She could
feel it. Tonight, that distraction had almost gotten her killed.
She didn’t know what he wanted, but it was time she found out
before the stupid lout ended up causing her to make a really dumb
mistake.

“Kali, wait!” Jason called her again, this
time a little more sharply.

Kali paused and turned to glare at Jason, a
look of annoyance on her face. He flushed slightly at her raised
eyebrow and tight lips. She wanted to make it obvious that she
wasn’t happy that he was interrupting her.

“What do you want, Jason?” She asked
coolly.

He flushed again and came to a stop a few
feet from her. “Are you going out again?” He asked bluntly.

Kali stiffened at the disapproval and
suspicion in his voice. She didn’t answer to anyone but Destin.
From Jason’s tone, it sounded like he was about to try to take his
interest to a new level. It was time she nipped that idea in the
bud.

“What I do is no one’s business but my own
and Destin’s,” she replied.

She watched as he shifted from one foot to
the other before his jaw stiffened in determination. She knew she
had made the right guess when his eyes flashed. It was time to set
him straight.

“I heard about what happened earlier this
evening. I can’t believe Destin would allow you to put yourself in
danger like that. You shouldn’t be going out on patrol,” he bit out
in a low voice. “It is too dangerous. I said as much to Destin. He
agreed with me. I’ve also told him of my interest in you.”

Kali took a step forward, stopping when she
was only a foot away from him. The temper that she had been
fighting to control snapped like an overstretched rubber band. Hot
fury poured through her. She was furious that not only did Jason
think he had the right to talk to her brother about her behind her
back, but that Destin had neglected to tell her about it.

“No one tells me what to do.” She pushed her
finger into his chest hard enough to knock him back a step as she
spoke. “You have no right to talk about me behind my back.
I
am the head of Destin’s security team.
I
am the one who
decides what is and what isn’t too dangerous,” she snapped out
coldly before dropping her voice lower in warning. “And
I
am
the only one who decides who I shall or shall not be with.”

Kali cursed silently to herself when Jason
grabbed her wrist and yanked her forward. She remained unmoving,
impassive as he crushed his lips to hers. She knew she could fight
him. She even had a good chance of beating him, but she also knew
that remaining unresponsive to him would have a greater impact than
arguing or fighting. She knew she had made the right decision when
he tore his lips away and released her.

“I want you, Kali,” he muttered in a low,
angry voice. “I plan to have you. We would make a good team.”

Kali remained rigid, a calm mask hiding the
trembling inside. She hated confrontations. While she had learned
to deal with them, deep down they always left her feeling
uncomfortable and shaky.

“You’re a good man, Jason. I respect you,
and we need you, but I’m not interested in a relationship with you
or anyone else. There is too much uncertainty in the world right
now,” she continued, softening her tone when she saw the brief
flash of hurt cross his face. “I made a promise that I would
protect my brother and the people under him for as long as it took
to rebuild our world.”

Jason swore and reached out to cup her face
between his hands. “We can do that together, Kali. Just give me a
chance. Let me in,” he responded in a low desperate voice. “Don’t…
don’t say no. Not yet. Think about it. I’ll give you time… just,
think about it. Life is too short to live it alone.”

Kali lifted her hands and wrapped them
around his wrists, pulling them down and letting them go before
taking a step back. She shook her head when he started to take a
step forward. She didn’t need time. She knew that the moment his
lips touched hers. All she could think about was the feel of
another man’s lips pressed against hers. A man who refused to leave
her alone. A man who wasn’t human.

“I have some things to take care of,” she
murmured, turning away. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

Kali could feel Jason’s eyes on her back as
she hurried away. A part of her wished she could feel something for
him, even if it was just a small attraction. The frustration she
had felt earlier grew even stronger the closer she got to the
entrance to the former mall.

She pushed through the heavy doors, ignoring
the four men standing guard on each side of the re-enforced barrier
protecting the front entrance. She was already thinking of where
she was going to go. She knew he would be there. She could feel it
in her bones.

Kali broke into a run, heading away from the
makeshift compound Destin had created and toward the place where
she hoped she could lay to rest the feelings threatening to
overwhelm her. She would go back to the place where they first
started. She would lay to rest her foolish thoughts of an alien
male once and for all.

Razor landed the compact Skid gently down on
the rooftop of the building. He climbed off the small bike-like
transport that was perfect for moving quickly over congested areas.
He scanned the surface of the rooftop as he did. The twisted
remains of the rooftop crane bent awkwardly over the side of the
building. The broken remnants of the sign that once proudly
displayed the name of the building were mixed with pieces of brick,
mortar and helicopter fragments.

“What were you doing up here that night?” He
murmured quietly, looking up at the remains of the sign.

“Thinking… dreaming… wishing,” a soft voice
responded from the darkness behind him. “I love staring up at the
stars. On a calm night, I would stand up on the top of the sign,
close my eyes and imagine I could fly out over the city.”

Razor turned sharply, inhaling deeply as
Kali’s slender shape stepped from the shadows of a large section of
the crane. He watched her as she warily approached him. His eyes
swept over her figure, memorizing every inch of her now that he
could think without his mind being hazed with pain and shock.

She stopped several feet from him. A soft,
nervous laugh escaped her as she stepped to the left of him to
circle around so she could see the Skid he had ridden. He watched
her thoughtfully as she knelt down to look at the transport. She
whistled under her breath in appreciation as she studied it.

“You can if you wish,” he replied as a
sudden idea took hold in his mind. “I could take you over it, over
the city, on the Skid.”

Amusement tugged at Razor when he saw her
eyes widen in delight before suspicion darkened them again. She bit
her bottom lip before she shook her head and stood. He twisted to
follow her with his eyes as she put more distance between them.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” she replied in a
husky voice. “Why have you been watching me?”

“Why did you save my life?” He responded
instead.

He stepped closer to the Skid as she took
another step away from him. It took a moment for him to appreciate
that she had strategically placed his transport between them as a
barrier while he was distracted. She was standing near the spot
where the helicopter had been hanging from the crane two weeks
before. While she didn’t turn her back to him completely, he could
see she was looking at the remains of the helicopter far below.

“What happened to the pilot?” She murmured
as she stared down at the twisted skeleton far below before she
turned to look at him with sad, troubled eyes. “Did he have a
family? A wife? Sister? Brother? Parents?... Children?” She asked
in a strangled voice that faded on the last word.

“His body was returned to his people. I do
not know if he had a family,” Razor admitted with a frown. “Why did
your brother order an attack on me?”

He watched as her eyes jerked up to his in
surprise before she frowned and shook her head. “Destin didn’t
order an attack on you. We don’t have… it wasn’t us. The rocket
came from Colbert’s side of the city,” she finished. “I want to
know why you have been watching me. I want you to stop. It’s… I
want you to stop.”

Razor stepped around the Skid, pausing when
she moved back a step. “Be careful, that area is not stable,” he
bit out sharply. “Why did you save my life? You could have left me
to die, but instead you risked your own life. Why? Why does your
brother continue to refuse to meet with me?”

*.*.*

Kali stepped to the side, keeping a wary eye
on the huge male. He seemed even bigger tonight then he had the
night of the accident. She had been laying on the roof of the fresh
air intake near the bottom of the crane when she saw him
approaching. She knew if she stayed perfectly still it would be
difficult, if not impossible, for him to see her since she was
dressed all in black as well.

She hadn’t been able to stop herself from
answering his softly spoken question. She didn’t know or understand
why she had told him about her fantasy. It had just slipped
out.

Drawing in a deep breath, she decided there
was no harm in telling him the truth. Hell, she had never been a
good liar anyway. Her mom and Destin always knew when she was
telling a fib.

“I couldn’t leave you,” she finally
admitted, glancing at him to see his reaction. “I mean, I didn’t
know that you were in the helicopter. I thought it was a couple of
human guys. It wasn’t until I was in it that I realized that you
were a… you.”

“You still could have left me,” he
commented, stepping to the side and walking toward the edge so he
could look down at the wreckage. “When you realized that I was on
board, you could have just left. Instead, you almost died.”

Kali gave a short laugh and reached up to
grab one of the metal support beams above her head. She curled her
legs up under her so she was hanging from it before she put her
feet back down on the roof and leaned back. She thought for a
moment as she stared at his profile before she decided she was in
too deep to stop now.

“I told you it wasn’t my night to die,” she
teased quietly before she sobered and continued. “You might be an
alien, but you are still a living being. I knew I couldn’t leave
you and I knew the crane couldn’t hold that much weight for very
long. Waiting for your people to show up wasn’t an option. Once I
saw that you were injured, well, that just sealed it. I was the
only one there and you needed help if you weren’t going to end up
like yesterday’s road kill.”

“Why does your brother allow you to be in
such danger? Tonight….” He drew in a deep breath and his eyes
flashed a dark yellow-gold before he continued. “Tonight you were
almost killed.”

“You saw what happened? I was right then.
You have been watching me,” Kali breathed out, this time pulling
herself up so that she was sitting on the narrow bar that she had
hung from a moment ago. “I knew it. I could feel it. How long have
you been watching me?”

“A week and a half,” he bit out, taking a
step toward where she was sitting. “Answer me! Why would your
brother allow you to be in such danger? Does he not care what
happens to you?”

Kali’s eyes briefly flashed in outrage at
the contemptuous tone in his voice when he said Destin’s name. He
knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about Destin. If he did, he
wouldn’t be siding with Colbert.

She hissed as she remembered what the other
alien male had told her and Destin two years ago. The aliens were
one of the reasons Colbert had increased his attacks. They were the
ones supplying weapons, granted human weapons, but weapons all the
same to Colbert in an effort to defeat Destin and take over the
northern half of the city.

“You know nothing about my brother!” She
hissed out angrily, standing up on the bar. “If you did, you would
know he loves me more than life itself just as I love him. Why are
you supporting Colbert? Don’t you know what he is like? Don’t you
see how he doesn’t care about the people living in the southern
half of the city? Every day we take in refugees seeking a safer way
to live. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything.”

*.*.*

Razor’s mind caught her accusing words even
as he moved forward to capture her waist when she turned to climb
higher on the bent framing of the sign. His hands wrapped around
her, almost touching as he pulled her back against him. He ignored
the short, frightened cry she emitted as he wound his arms around
her to prevent her from escaping into the darkness.

“Calm,” he murmured in her ear as she
struggled against him. “Be still, Kali Parks. I mean you no
harm.”

Kali froze in his arms. “Then let me go,”
she whispered throatily. “You owe me that. I saved your life. Let
me go.”

Razor moaned softly and rubbed his nose
along her neck. A low rumble escaped him, surprising him as he
caught the faint scent of another male on her. He stroked his nose
along her jaw as she tilted her head so she could look up at
him.

“Another male has been near you,” he growled
in a dark voice. “Who is he to you?”

Kali jerked in surprise and tried to move
away from him when he rubbed his nose along her jaw again. A shiver
ran through her, startling her. She didn’t know what in the hell he
was doing, but it felt… right.

“Let me go,” she demanded.

She turned her face away from him, ashamed
that what she really wanted to do was relax back into his arms. She
pushed back against him. This wasn’t what she wanted, she told
herself fiercely. She had come here to resolve her confusing
feelings, not create more.