Nate's Fated Mate(34)

Sheena sighed. "Okay. Well, take Scott into my bedroom and dump him. No need standing around with him draped over you."

"So tell me …  how good does a Novus Prime general look naked?"

Sheena giggled at the hopeful expression on her sister's face. "Scott looks great for a lying bastard."

"Great. I'll undress him for you. I haven't seen a fully naked man in years."



       
         
       
        

"Okay," Sheena said, "but no touching. I don't want you going where I've gone. That's just too big an ick factor."

"Okay. Lookie-no touchy. Got it. Damn, it's hard for a woman to get any thrills around here. I can't wait until I start getting some alien stick on the regular. I'm so horny-I may go through my whole folder."

Bri walked off with Scott over her shoulder while Sheena shook her head and stared at her sister's back.



While Bri was taking care of Scott, Sheena went to the kitchen and made herself a cup of Angus's famous tea, except she added a double packet to her mug. She needed all the help she could get staying alert tonight. She might have to share a bed with Scott, but she was planning to use the time to do some research. Bri was back in the sitting area waiting on her when she returned.

"I put his clothes in the bathroom and a bath towel on the chair next to the bed. That makes your story more believable. And yes …  I've done this before."

Sheena groaned softly and put her face in both hands. "Stupid. I'm so stupid. Novus Prime made Scott sleep with me. How could I not know something like that was happening?"

"Don't go there, Sheena. This is not on you. I got orders all the time to sleep with men so I could gain their trust. Sometimes, like Scott, I even followed those orders. It's not criminal to have physical needs. Sounds like Scott didn't have to have his arm twisted very hard to follow his orders about you."

"No, it's not criminal to need a little comfort now and again, but I was only an assignment to him. He wasn't one to me. I genuinely liked the man. He's a good husband and father-well, except for the whole open marriage thing."

Bri shrugged. "Since you can't change reality, let's at least change the subject. Did you have your little talk with Nate?"

Sheena nodded. "Yes."

"And … ?"

Sheena shook her head. "The first thing I did when I came here was have the droids sweep your room. Everything you, Angus, and Erin said was being recorded and passed on to the Admiral-if not the Director of AAS. My boys scrambled the microphones but left them in place. I had them do the same to some of the other equipment in about a third of the rooms on the ship. The engineers think they're experiencing random tech failures, which they are, but I'm causing them every day."

Bri chuckled. "Thanks, Dr. MacNamara, Super Spy. Now stop stalling and tell me-what did you find out from Nate? I'm guessing you know for sure now that Angus and Erin aren't clones. I knew you were lying to Scott earlier, and by the way, that is some super cool shit you used on him. He's not going to know a thing come tomorrow, is he?" 

"No. Not a thing. Not even that he told me all that. His culpability is zero which could save his life if he gets questioned by Novus Prime," Sheena said wearily. "What did you see, Bri? It's just the two of us now. I seriously need to know first before I tell you what I learned."

Bri hunkered down, studying her bottle of water. "I saw Nate's father talking to the Director from Novus Prime. Nearby, an execution was taking place and both men watched six people get phased to ashes. The victims were all unconscious before being incinerated, but it was still cold of those men to just stand there and do nothing. I got tagged running away because I was shocked. It was criminals who tagged me, but I think they're working for my company or yours or a new group altogether. Honestly, I don't know what to make of it all."

Sheena closed her eyes. Nate would be devastated if he knew about his father. He idolized the role his famous family had played in reshaping the planet after the invasion. But people change for reasons that were often hard to understand. One day even Nate was going to have accept that. Had his mother been able to?

"Does the Provost know who you saw? I'm surprised she would believe you."

Bri let the breath she'd been holding escape. The only answer she had was the main reason going off-planet didn't bother her. She was tired of New Earth politics.

"No one else has known the real truth until just now when I told you. Of my group, I was the only one who had a clear view of their faces. I lied to the Provost after deciding no one in my organization or yours could be trusted. I told her two men in black cloaks watched as six innocent civilians were executed in cold blood. I said I didn't know who they were because I couldn't get close enough. I did identify the criminal group who tagged me. The Provost told me to stay low and hide until she got in touch. Guess she tracked me to the castle. You were right about that being about me."