He spun a chair around backward and straddled it, his arms crossed on the back. “With my life. With yours, too, for that matter.”
Her eyebrows sank low over her eyes at that comment. “You’re not going to tell them everything I’ve told you, Eli. You can’t.”
And there was the problem. How did he tell Mike and Jamison about what he’d learned about his weird DNA without telling them where it had come from? “Your truth has become so twisted up with mine that it will be hard to separate it all out.”
She slammed her hands down on the table. “Damn it, you promised, Eli.”
Maybe not in so many words, but that didn’t mean anything. Not after last night. They might not have a future together, but he wouldn’t dishonor what they did have with a betrayal. He met her angry gaze head-on but kept his voice low and even. “You have my word that I will do my damnedest to keep your people out of the line of fire, Safara. My friends don’t need to know anything about Kalithia, the rogues, or the truth about your people who live in our world.”
She slowly nodded as most of the tension drained out of her posture. “So what are you going to tell them?”
“That depends on why they’re coming up here. Major Mike Voss was... is my commanding officer. He was the first one to find out I was still alive. He figured I might need someone else I could contact if things go to hell in a handcart and thought Jamison Shaw would be a good choice. Doc was the medic in our unit until he left the service a while back to go to nursing school. He shouldn’t be on anyone’s radar. Some of my other friends might be.”
“Just whose radar is Mike worried about?”
He couldn’t risk dragging her into his problems when she already had so much on her own plate, but she should be forewarned. “Mike didn’t know that last time he and I talked. He sent Jamison up here to show me pictures of some guys. They were poking around the crash site and asking a bunch of questions, but they weren’t part of the usual alphabet soup agencies that investigate that sort of thing.”
Safara got up to top off her coffee. “Why would he assume they were interested in you?”
“Nothing specific, but Mike’s got a top-notch bullshit detector. If he sensed something was off about those guys, I believe him. Afterward, he came up to Martin’s cabin, hoping to locate someone who might have known me.” He couldn’t help but laugh. “You should’ve seen the look on his face when he found me instead.”
He rubbed his jaw in memory of that particular conversation. “I slashed my hand open to convince him that I was telling him the truth about what happened.”
She looked horrified. “Did you have to do that for Jamison, too?”
He chuckled. “No, but it was a close thing. Mike had already told him about it, and Doc kept staring at my hand whenever he thought I wouldn’t notice.”
“How are you going to explain me being here?”
“Good question.” He gave the matter some thought. “It might be safer for you if we tell them you were here for professional reasons. You know, stick as close to the truth as possible and play the deputy card. Tell them your grandfather was attacked up here on the mountain and that I found him. You needed to ask me some follow-up questions.”
“And how do we explain how I got here without my patrol car?”
Good point. “You left your vehicle where the attack happened and then hiked your sexy ass over here.”
Her cheeks flushed a bit rosy at his comment, but she looked pleased with his assessment. “Okay, but maybe I’d better put on my uniform.”
She headed down the hall toward the bathroom. Good thinking on her part. Meanwhile, he did a quick survey of the cabin to see if there was anything else that might cause them problems.
The dish drainer held two of everything. He shoved the clean dishes back into the cabinets, and then headed for the bedroom. The sheets and blankets were a twisted mess, not to mention the empty foil packets scattered on the bedside table. He gathered them up and stuck them into his pocket to toss in the trash under the kitchen sink. It didn’t take him long to put the bed to rights even though he hated erasing all evidence of the amazing night they’d shared. Of course, if Safara followed her original intentions of staying up on the mountain until tomorrow, maybe they could have a repeat performance. A man could always hope.
She followed him into the room. “Oh man, you’re fast. I was just coming in here to make the bed myself.”
He pulled her close for a quick kiss. “After Mike and Jamison leave, we can have fun messing it up again. You know, just so you can have a turn straightening things up.”
She patted him on the cheek. “Wow, the sacrifices you’re willing to make. What a guy.”
The sound of a big fist pounding on the front door cut their conversation short. “I’m guessing your friends are here.”
“Their timing always did suck.”
She followed him back down the hall, stopping him before he reached the front door. “So are we going to go with me being up here for professional reasons only?”
He considered that option but finally rejected it. “On second thought, no. That might be why you’re here today, but these guys are great at reading body language. If we try to convince them that we’re not even friends, they’re going to think we’re hiding something.”
Which they were.
She looked doubtful but didn’t argue. “I’ll follow your lead.”
