Ven closed the door behind me immediately and told the car to move in a different direction. The vehicle shifted into another lane and exited the freeway. We were now driving on a road leading back to the spaceport.

It felt good to lie on the bottom of the car floor. I was still trying to make myself believe I was safe. My only regret was not getting to see the look on the blond guy's face. I missed it because I was focused on staying alive by jumping between two cars racing down a twenty-lane freeway.

"Emmy? Are you all right?" he asked, putting his hands on my shoulders and shaking me a little. His purple stripe seemed darker than before, and I wondered what made it change color.

I nodded, hoping I seemed calm.

All the fear of the past few days hit me at once, and I started to shake uncontrollably. I saw him search my face. It was easy to get lost in his eyes. Without warning, he pulled me into a tight embrace.

I surprised myself when I let him. I had never been held by a man before. My mom raised me. She was an only child, and her friends were all women. I had never had a real boyfriend, except Christopher. He was all about making out, not hugging.

I had no idea it could be such a pleasant experience.

My eyes closed and my arms moved by themselves, wrapping themselves around his waist. I buried my head into his chest and enjoyed the feeling of something bigger than myself.

His chest felt firm under my cheek. I loved how his arms held me closely like he was worried about me. Did he care for me? It seemed impossible because we had just met. I drew in a deep breath and let it out. The stress and tension left my body as his presence comforted me.

It felt good and safe. The sensation was so much like home that it scared me. The memory made my mind begin to function again, and I sat up, pulling away.

I smiled at him. Would he know that meant thank you? I sat back on the seats of the car. Ven turned to look at me directly. "Emmy, what are you doing?"

"Leaving?" I said hopefully.

"Why? We just got married. I wanted to get to know you." He glanced out of the window for a moment and looked at me again. "I thought you were going to stay."

"I married you because I thought I could do you a favor. It's nothing personal. I've helped you out, but I have a list of things to do myself for work. I'm sure you wouldn't be interested in it."

"Does your work usually involved being kidnapped?"

Shit. "My job can be dangerous sometimes."

"What's the job? You should be able to explain that, at least. Are you ex-military?" Ven had an odd expression on his face.

"No way." I laughed at his misunderstanding. "Not that kind of dangerous."

"If you could give me a kernel of truth, it would explain a lot."

"I've been honest. I told you everything I said would be the truth. There were some things I don't feel comfortable talking about."

"You said you'd see me in the morning." He looked unhappy. "That seems deceptive, at the least."

"Not really. I'm seeing you right now," I pointed out.

"Why did you climb out the window instead of using the door?"

"I didn't want you to know when I left. I thought using the window would make it harder for you to find me."

"That seems reasonable, but you should have read up about Stalwart's weapon licensing regulations. If you didn't want anyone to locate you, it was a mistake to take a gun with a built-in tracking chip. I wish I could have been here sooner."

"I would have figured something out. I always find a way. No worries."

"No worries?" He said the words in an intimidating tone. His purple stripe nearly became black. I shifted away from him, not wanting to take the brunt of an outburst. "I think they were going to kill you, Emmy. They were trying to kidnap you, weren't they?"

He looked at me for confirmation. I thought about their threats and shuddered. "You're half-right. They were going to take me somewhere against my will." I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "But they won't kill me."

"How do you know that?"

"They have to keep me alive. I have some information they need."

He shook his head. "It better be information that can save the galaxy, that's all I have to say."

"It's complicated, and it's not your problem. If you could let me take care of a few issues, I could return and pose as your wife for a while, if it would help you out."

"That's not how it works. We have to live together and be together. If you go off somewhere for some undetermined time, the executors will assume I only married you to keep my uncle's fortune."

"They're remarkably perceptive," I murmured.

He made a face at me. "They'll declare the marriage a sham, and the entire exercise will have been pointless." His voice sounded like he was losing hope. Part of me felt bad that I was deserting him in a time of need. But I had no reason to help him any longer.

"I'm sorry, Ven. I wish I could help you more. Would it help if you faked my death?"

When the words left my mouth, blasts of laser fire hit the side of the car, making it start to swerve wildly on the empty back road. Abel's men were back, and they meant business. Maybe Ven wouldn't have to fake my death after all.

VEN.

Emmy was nuts. Why would she want me to fake her death? I had a good plan, and she had blown it to pieces with a single crazy jump.

My idea was simple. I wanted to get my car close to hers, shoot any unwanted passengers, and pull her body across to safety. As soon as her door opened, she judged the distance and jumped between the cars. I did a lot of military operations where I had to move my body through the air, but even I would think twice before leaping to my doom. Emmy didn't even think once.

I was about to say I couldn't fake her death when the car shook. A giant cannon was attacking us. I pulled Emmy down to the floor as the glass started to shatter.

These guys were bastards. Emmy said they wouldn't kill her, but I thought she was wrong. Our car swerved wildly all over the empty road. We were fortunate to be off the main highway. At best, they wouldn't intentionally murder her, but considering their giant weapons they could easily have an accident.

More importantly, they wouldn't care at all if they killed me. I hadn't survived ten years in the Stalwart military to die at the hands of random Earth goons.

"Tell the car to go back to the spaceport. Let's head for one of the staff entrances."

I opened the window and leaned out, holding the gun. With deliberate care, I aimed and hit a spot I knew would destroy their battery. All the cars on Stalwart ran on solar energy, which was renewable and good for the planet, but left them vulnerable to attacks on their power systems. Their vehicle began to fall back immediately. It would take them a few minutes to get the auxiliary battery online. By that time, I hoped we would be back in the spaceport.

They half-heartedly shot a few more times at our vehicle, forcing me to duck inside. Soon their car was out of range, and their guns were useless. We turned off into a back alley leading to a small door marked for employees only. We clambered out of the car. I keyed in another destination. It sped off by itself as soon as we shut the doors.

I ran up to the door and pulled out a device to open it. It would give me temporary clearance and wouldn't leave a digital trail. I brought a few of my fancier gadgets with me when I realized I was going on a rescue mission. The door opened, and Emmy followed me without saying a word. I think she finally understood the gravity of her situation.

Once inside, we rushed past people getting ready for work or coming off their shift. I tried to look friendly and like I belonged here, smiling at people and saying hi. When we exited the employee room, we found ourselves in the heart of the spaceport. It was a deserted region where no ships were scheduled to leave. Across the open room was a maintenance door. I grabbed Emmy's hand, pulling her across the area.

Something happened when I touched her hand. A pulse of energy raced up my arm. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I glanced back, wondering if she had felt anything unusual. Her eyes looked surprised, and she stared at her fingers. My hand tingled in the middle of my palm. I didn't think about letting go until a group of five men and a dangerous-looking woman burst out of the employee door.

We ducked through a maintenance hatch. "How did they follow us here?" Emmy asked.

"They probably put a tracker on you. It's the simplest explanation. There's no other way they could have known which direction we went."

"There's nothing on me, is there?" She stopped to look at herself.

I followed her gaze and felt a shot of lust go directly to my cock. She was wearing the same tight, curve-hugging black pants as yesterday, but her shirt had vanished. Somehow I had missed this vital fact because I was so worried about keeping her out of danger.

She only wore a sports bra. Her generous breasts showed a fair amount of cleavage. Now that I was taking the time to inspect her body, I realized Emmy didn't carry extra weight. Her body had large breasts and swelling hips. But her waist was narrow. Looking at that bare skin made me want to put my hands on her hips and pull her close to me.

I forced my gaze away from her body. I didn't want to get distracted by her physical appearance. I reminded myself that she was annoyingly intelligent and possibly genuinely crazy. I had never seen anyone jump from car to car before. Emmy was the most maddening woman I could remember meeting, and she was not the type of woman with whom I ever wanted to get involved.

My moment of fantasy was interrupted when her pursuers spotted us. We had to run. I pulled Emmy through the maintenance door, and we immediately crashed into someone coming through from the other side.

"What are you doing?" he yelled. He grabbed Emmy and pulled out a gun. Belatedly, I noticed he wore a spaceport security uniform.

Fuck.

I put my hands in the air as he waved the gun in my direction.

"We don't want any trouble." We were already in trouble. In about a minute, the people chasing Emmy were going to come through that door. We were sitting ducks.

CHAPTER NINE.

VEN.

I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. I wasn't prepared to risk being stunned. I wouldn't be any good to Emmy if I were unconscious. Spaceport security was known for being trigger-happy.

As it turned out, I didn't need to do anything. Emmy rotated, throwing her body weight behind her fist and punching a hard uppercut to the chin. She hit him so strongly that she pushed his head back.

He swore. Emmy had already twisted her other hand out of his grip. She drove a right hook into his temple that knocked him out cold.

I stared in surprise. I knew women who could fight. I served with plenty of women who were tougher than me. However, it was disconcerting to see my wife beating up an out-of-shape, middle-aged security guard.

Emmy caught me looking at her. "Do you have a problem? I know how to take care of myself."

She certainly did. Her words were enough to break me out of my trance. "Let's go." I pulled her behind me.

"Earlier in the car they put something on my upper arm. I think it was the tracker. Do you know how to get rid of it?"

"Something?" I asked as we ran, dodging workers and equipment. I heard someone behind us come through the door and crash into the security guard Emmy had just punched. He was having a bad day.

"Was it a cream?" If someone spread a tracer cream on her body, they would be able to track her location for days. I had a device that would scramble the tracer's signal, but I couldn't activate it right now.

We dashed to the right, moving down an empty hallway. I was impressed that she could run this far without running out of breath. She must be in good shape. And her abs were beginning to turn me on. I had never been into women who worked out excessively. I thought I liked my women naturally thin and on the soft side. Emmy was starting to grow on me with her fit, healthy body. If I weren't running for my life, my cock would be hard.

What was I thinking? I needed to focus before the bastards behind us took Emmy away. That would wreak havoc with my plan and her life. Because as soon as they got any information from her, she would no longer have any value to them and they would kill her. That wasn't going to happen. I had sworn to protect her. Whether she wanted me to or not, I was going to do my duty.

"Let's go in there." She pointed to a door that read Docking Bay #12. The line of doors down the hallway stretched away from us, with numbers that seemed to advance all the way to infinity, but I knew there were only about ninety docking bays. We were at the main spaceport for Stalwart. Almost all of the shuttles coming to the planet passed through this building.

I opened the door and ran through, turning and locking it behind us. Thirty seconds later, we heard it rattle and bang from the other side. We didn't stop as we ducked around the spacecraft.

We heard the sound of blaster fire, and the door exploded. Five people barged into the docking bay, which seemed deserted except for us and our pursuers.

"Where did they go?"

I didn't hear anyone answer. Emmy and I continued to move around the shuttlecraft looking for anything that could help us. We needed to find a place to hide or a way to get out of the docking bay. As we crept through the shuttles, I started a program on my computer that would block the signal coming from the tracer on Emmy's body.

We couldn't find another way out. We were either leaving through the same door we entered or out the giant door for spaceships. Neither option sounded good. A man was guarding the other side of the door, and I didn't want to roast inside the engines of a ship.

"How long will the tracker remain active?"

"The blocker takes a few minutes to start working. If they used a cream on you, the effects are temporary."

"That's not reassuring. They can still track me right now?"

"Yes. It will be harder for them to find you. But it's the only way they could know we were in this particular bay."

We needed to find a better hiding place quickly.

Emmy eagerly tried all the door handles we passed to see if any hapless souls had left them unlocked. We got lucky. A door led into a mid-sized private spaceship. She beckoned to me, and we both slipped inside, pulling the door shut. A moment later we heard footsteps approaching our location.

Even though we were trying to be quiet, we had not closed the door tightly. We wanted to listen to any movements of people trying to find us. Emmy and I positioned ourselves on either side of the door. Neither one of us dared to take a step or make any noise.

The narrow entrance to the spacecraft was tight. If I moved another inch closer to her, her breasts would brush against my chest.

I tried to ignore her proximity. I focused on controlling my breathing until it was calm and quiet again. The footsteps came closer. I heard someone pull on door handles.

They would reach our spaceship in a minute. When they did, it would be obvious our door was open. I prepared to fight, flexing and releasing my muscles.

I waited for the door to fly open when a loud voice came from the vicinity of the docking bay door.

"What are you doing in here?" There was a pause until the voice start yelling. "Security! I need security here right now!"

We heard the sounds of a scuffle followed by silence.

I let out my breath. Emmy and I looked at each other. She motioned her head toward the interior of the ship. I nodded, hoping I could understand her without any explanation. The spaceport worker had bought us some time, but we weren't out of trouble yet.

EMMY.

I noticed Ven was good-looking before I married him. But once I found out that he was an annoying, stuck in his life, stuffy billionaire, I lost interest. It didn't matter how sexy he was.

I didn't have anything against wealthy aliens, but he wasn't the guy for me. I didn't need a man at all. But if I were going to pick someone for myself, it wouldn't be an alien who pursued his interests all day and would do anything to maintain the status quo.

Anyone who wanted to be with me needed an interest in adventure. I was an archeologist who hunted down precious treasures, and there wasn't anything normal about my life. I loved it, but I knew it wasn't for everyone. I couldn't imagine being with someone like Ven. He was so desperate to keep his life the way it was that he would marry a stranger.