He shook his head.
“Let me see what I can find. My brother has some stuff here. He’s more your size than my dad.”
She entered another room off the hall and emerged with a pair of long, pull-on gray pants, a pair of very short white pants, a thin short-sleeved white shirt, and a long-sleeve heavier gray shirt. “I found some sweats. And some underwear.”
“The white goes under the gray?” he guessed, taking the clothes.
“Yes.” She nodded. “There’s shampoo, body wash, and bar soap in the shower.” Biting her lip, she said, “I’ll, uh, let you get to it.” She smoothed her hands down her sides, lingering on the holstered weapon. “I’ll…wait in the living room.”
She’s scared. Afraid to be alone.
“Maybe you’d prefer to join me in the bathing room?” In truth, he didn’t feel entirely comfortable leaving her outside. She’d said the locked house would be secure, but anyone with determination could force his way in. He’d noted the flimsiness of the locks.
“No…no, that’s all right. I’ll be fine. I let down my guard, and I shouldn’t have. I can take care of myself. I’m a little jumpy right now. I’ll have to get used to being on my own after you leave, anyway.”
“But you don’t have to right now,” he pointed out. He hated leaving her alone, hated to leave her at all. Getting free and reconnecting with his people had been his sole goal, but he was strangely reluctant to be parted from her.
She let out a quiet exhale. “Okay, then. If you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind at all.”
Chapter Thirteen
Grav’s bulk took up the space in the bathroom, but, rather than being oppressive, it eased her jumpiness and tension. Only that morning, she’d had him chained to the bed. However, she hadn’t viewed him as a physical threat for a while.
She hated feeling weak and vulnerable. She shuddered to think of what would have happened if he hadn’t appeared. The sexual assault served as a brutal wake-up call to keep her guard up and not take safety and security for granted. She’d left the house wide open. Never even thought to lock up.
Irony drummed a repetitive beat in her brain.
A fellow human had tried to rape and murder her—and a Progg had saved her.
Grav’s arrival still stunned her. He’d had a chance to escape but had chosen to help her instead.
Impressions and feelings had shifted. Sure, he was still silver, had bristles for hair, and hands with two thumbs, but he didn’t seem quite as alien as he had before. And those blue-blue eyes held compassion and concern.
“I’m all right,” she said to reassure him.Better with you here.Amazing really, how much she trusted him.He could have left at any time—or killed her and the rapist, scoring two humans for the campaign. She recalled him saying he’d never killed anyone before. Now he had. In defense of her.
“Let me show you how to use the shower.” She pointed out the hot and the cold and the knob that switched the stream from the faucet to the showerhead. “Turn the water on first before you get in—let it heat up a bit,” she said. From the cabinet, she got a clean towel, which she set on the vanity. Then she lowered the toilet lid and sat down, averting her head so he could undress with a modicum of privacy. She felt a little silly and awkward, but gawking as he dropped trou seemed like a violation. There’d been enough violations today.
Clothing rustled and hit the floor. The shower curtain scraped across the rod. Water came on. Ten seconds later, the curtain closed.
He groaned.
“Feels good, huh?” She looked forward again.
“Zok, yes!”
She fingered the sore bump on her forehead. The injury could have been so much worse. If not for the towel-turban, the scumbag would have cracked her head open when he slammed her face-first into the floor. She didn’t regret his death even a little. The world, especially now, was better off without human predators. Unfortunately, there were probably more like him, and law and order had been relegated to the past. Everyone would have to protect themselves.
And there were still the colluders to worry about. Maybe her attacker had been one.
She couldn’t just sashay up to a settlement and assume she’d be among friends or be welcomed. Every interaction would be fraught with apprehension, but unless she became a hermit, she had to try to reach out. People were not meant to live alone. She hadn’t realized how much she’d craved contact with other people until Grav came along.
She assumed when they parted, he would try to find his people and wait for an extraction.
The idea of Grav and her joining forces flitted through her mind, but she discarded it as unworkable. Teaming up would create more problems than it solved and guarantee they got rejected everywhere—if not killed outright. No human community would take him in; no Progg would accept her. Even if they did, she would never live among the aliens who’d murdered her people. She could not, would not forgive. Grav was an exception.
Serendipity had caused their paths to cross, and an unlikely bond had forged.
