Alien Tango

asked.
    “No.”
    “Good.” He kissed my cheek. “Let’s get going and see who wants to kill us at this location.”
    Martini went first, with Kevin insisting on going right after him. Gower, Reader, and Tim went next. I wanted to be near Martini, but that wasn’t allowed. I was, instead, put in the back with Christopher, who had the usual instructions to grab me and run if there was trouble. Where we would run to was a mystery, but then again, perhaps there were several secret exits as well as other weapons caches in this plane. Perhaps we’d leave through the food and drink time tunnel or something.
    Martini had started this little “put a lot of bodies between whatever it was and Kitty” pretty much right after Operation Fugly was over. Apparently he hadn’t enjoyed seeing me on the front lines at all and wanted to avoid repeat performances as often as possible. Christopher got to be my wrangler because he was just nasty enough that I knew he’d knock me out if he had to. So far he’d never had to, but Martini trusted Christopher’s discretion more than mine in these kinds of situations.
    We moved out of the jet—so far so good. Down the long tunnel where no airport-type personnel were. I knew we weren’t really at an airport, but we’d taxied to a hangar and the ramp had attached to our plane just like at any advanced airport. There should have been someone or something to indicate we weren’t enemies entering this area. But there was nothing and no one. So far so very creepy.
    “Is it always devoid of personnel? Anybody could waltz in here.”
    “No,” Christopher sounded worried. “Normally there are checkpoints.” He had a gun in his pocket and his hand on the gun. His other hand was on his suitcase. “Take my arm,” he said quietly.
    I did. I could feel his muscles, and they were tensed. “Should I be scared?”
    “Do you work better scared?”
    “Sadly, yes.”
    “Then be scared.”
    I didn’t want to think about the fact that Martini was in the lead. Adrenaline wasn’t any good for bullet wounds.
    Martini turned a corner, then the others did, too. Just as Christopher and I reached it, I heard what sounded like a lot of shouting. And then what sounded like an explosion.

CHAPTER 23
    CHRISTOPHER SHOVED ME against the wall and back, the way we’d come. “Stay here.”
    “Jeff’s out front.”
    Christopher shot patented Glare #5 at me. “And he wants you protected. I’m going to check around the corner. If I get hit or tell you to run, you run.”
    “I’m not leaving you if you get hurt!”
    “Then I can’t see if Jeff needs help. You either promise me you’ll run if something bad’s going on, or I take the assumption we’re in trouble and we’re out of here together.”
    “Fine, I promise.” I was lying, but they weren’t good at telling.
    Christopher’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe that for a minute.” Damn, he was getting better at it.
    We heard more shouts and another explosion. “Okay, fine, just look and be careful.” All I wanted to do was run out there and see if Martini was okay or not. None of the others had come back, which scared me to death.
    Christopher kept a hold of me and held me against the wall. I didn’t have a hope of wrenching out of his grasp. He took a deep breath, ducked down, and looked around the corner. He pulled his head back. “Okay, no idea of what’s going on, the room’s filled with smoke.”
    “That’s like the opposite of good.”
    “Your way with words remains unsurpassed.”
    “Let’s go.”
    “Me, not you. You stay here.”
    “Why don’t I just use you as a shield?”
    “Because if I get hit and go down, then you don’t have a shield any more.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Kitty . . . I don’t want you to get hurt any more than Jeff does.” His eyes opened and looked directly into mine. This close up I could see the flecks of blue in them.
    Oh, hell, we were back to one of those moments where Christopher and I were at risk of appearing romantically interested again. Or possibly considering being romantically interested again, which was worse. My lusting after Kevin was one thing. Lust toward Christopher was never going to be met with any joy or understanding by Martini.
    “Okay, go, I’ll stay here.”
    He nodded and let go of me, a little more slowly than normal. “If I don’t come back or call to you, I want you to get out of here, Kitty. You can’t help us if you’re captured, hurt,