Alien Proliferation

hadn’t really meant to upset him.
    Jeff heaved a sigh. “No more guilt. No more stress.” He hugged me. “Let’s just relax and enjoy that we’re all here together.”
    “I can do that.” I snuggled closer to him, cuddled Jamie while Jeff wrapped around us again, closed my eyes, and went back to sleep.
    I was glad Jeff had gotten me to shut up and rest because we were up again in a few hours, to do the feeding, burping, and diaper changing all over again. I dreaded when he was going to have to go back on duty.
    Third time for the drill; now it was sometime in the afternoon. I had no idea any more. Heard a knock on the door. Jeff got it, and Amy was standing there. “Kitty, how are you?” She saw the baby and squealed. I didn’t remember Amy as a squealer, but then again, I didn’t remember Amy around babies, either.
    She raced over and hugged me. “Christopher told me you’d had a horrible time. I’m so sorry I pulled Jeff away from you when you needed him.”
    “It was okay. I’m fine.” I hugged her one-armed.
    Amy stepped back and took a critical look at me and Jeff. “Right. Jeff, you want to go take a shower and I’ll guard Kitty?”
    He looked like he was going to argue. He also looked like he was going to drop. “Jeff, go ahead. One of us should take the opportunity, and it’s not going to be me.”
    He struggled with it, but finally he nodded. “Okay, baby. I’ll be back in a flash.” He kissed Jamie on her head, me full on the mouth, which reminded me that I wanted to ask Tito for the exact moment we’d be allowed to have sex again. Jeff pulled away with a grin. “Truly, I love how you think. Be right back, baby.”
    “Take your time, it’ll be fine.”
    Jeff left and Amy relaxed. I found this interesting and took a good look at her. She looked pretty much as she had when I’d seen her in Paris—taller than me, willowy, long auburn hair, green eyes, great skin. She looked the way you expected someone from money to look, honestly—poised, confident, happy. Well, she was happy looking at me and the baby. The moment she looked away, I saw fear and worry.
    “You want to tell me what’s going on? Jeff said you were garbled last night. I don’t buy it. You didn’t want to tell him and Christopher what’s up.”
    She nodded and pulled a chair over. “I am in so much trouble.”
    “Twenty guys trying to kill you usually indicates trouble, yeah.” She nodded but didn’t speak. “Ames, you’re seeing me and the baby, really, before my parents.” I found Mom’s visit from earlier hard to count in the “seeing the baby” category, after all. “Make the whining I’ll hear for the rest of my life worth it and share the news, okay?”
    “I discovered a government conspiracy.”

 
    CHAPTER 17
     
    I LET THAT ONE HANG on the air. “And you called me instead of Chuckie, why?”
    “Why would I call Conspiracy Chuck?” Amy seemed genuinely shocked.
    “Gladys said you called using a covert ops emergency number.”
    “I have no idea what number I used. I met this guy; he was helping me get the information on the conspiracy. He gave me the number, said to use it if I was in life-threatening danger.”
    “What happened to him?”
    She started to cry. “They slit his throat in front of me.”
    “Were you in love with him?”
    I got the “are you crazy, is that your problem?” look. They must have taught it at our high school. Maybe it was a Pueblo Caliente specialty, since Mom was a pro at it, too. No matter, I now had the hat trick and could congratulate myself later. “He was like sixty years old, Kitty.”
    “Was he really handsome, like Jeff and Christopher handsome?”
    “What is with you? No, he was a normal guy for sixty. Not too much of a gut, since I guess he was an agent, but I thought he was just a businessman.”
    A-C agent out. Well, it was worth checking. “So, what’s the conspiracy?”
    She took a deep breath. “Elimination of some heads of some businesses. I’ve never heard of them. The P.T.C.U. and the ETD. I don’t know what the letters stand for.”
    “I do. Com on!” I was bellowing. Jamie didn’t wake up. What a good baby.
    “Yes, Commander Martini? And congratulations. Is this baby-related?”
    “Thanks. No. I want Charles Reynolds and my parents, Kevin Lewis and his family, and any other key P.T.C.U. or ETD personnel taken into full protective custody, like yesterday. My mom and dad are at our house for sure, no idea where the others