Chapter 11

Standing inside my jail cell, I grinned across the way to where Ram stood inside his. "You take me to all the cool places I've never been before."

He blew out a breath through his nose as he gave me some side-eye. The officers had left him his pants and his boots, but taken everything else from him. I'd threatened them with lawsuits and bad press if they dared remove the sleeve on his regrowing arm, calling it a medical device and comparing it to my prosthetic leg. Would they take that from me? I honestly had no idea if they could legally take those things from either of us, but it sounded good and had made them leave it on him.

Ram had insisted on being allowed to contact the Norlon ship, and I had demanded my phone call, but no one had followed through on either yet. In fact, no one had come back here since they'd left us.

Looking at the bars of my cell, I wasn't too disturbed by all of this. Maybe I'd broken a law or two, but I'd get community service at most. Coogan was the one up shit's creek for everything he'd done, and if this was his doing as well, he'd rot in prison for the rest of his natural life—I'd see to that. And I had to believe that someone would take a look at why we were here and see that it was a giant mistake.

For one thing, Ram wasn't even a citizen. Could they hold him at all? And not just because he wasn't subject to our laws but because he could probably break out without that much effort. Maybe humans should know a little bit more about the warriors they were dealing with so they might think twice about fucking with them.

"I bet you could break out of here easy."

The tiniest little smile lifted the corner of Ram's lips.

I chuckled. "You've already worked out at least two ways to escape."

He shrugged one shoulder before gripping a bar in front of him. The sound of protesting metal practically echoed through the area, and damn if he didn't bow the bar a couple of inches. He hadn't even appeared to strain to do it and he'd only used one arm.

I laughed so hard that I had to hold onto my own bars to stay on my feet. If he could do that, he could probably just lean on his cell door and pop it right open. A forceful sneeze might take out the camera down the corridor. Could his claws dig through concrete?

I should probably tell him to bend the bar back into place, but fuck it. Let them see and wonder what kind of a mistake they'd made by locking up my mate.

After I'd gotten ahold of myself, I realized Ram's expression had turned mournful. I sobered right up and asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I do not like being separated from you," he grumbled.

He was just so sweet. "We'll be okay. Somebody will come down, sort it all out, and let us go. I mean, by law, they have to give us a phone call each. If yours is to the fully-armed space ship hovering above us, well, that's on them."

Ram huffed a laugh. I had no way of knowing whether the ship had any kind of armaments given that it was a diplomatic one, but if I didn't know, I bet the Akron PD didn't either. It wouldn't even have to get to that, though, since the arrival of a few members of Ram's team and a ticked off wolf prince would no doubt make at least one person piss themselves.

"If we don't return to the ship on time," I asked, "what happens?"

"If we don't call for a shuttle by tomorrow afternoon, they'll try to contact me. When I don't respond—since they confiscated all of my equipment—they'll send a team down to search for me. They know where you live and will investigate our disappearance. Eventually, I'm sure, they'll make contact with local authorities and discover that we are here." He grinned in a way that showed off his teeth like a threat. "Then Prince Ye Lena will get involved."

I rubbed my hands together, feeling a little giddy. "I'm guessing he's scary as hell when he's mad."

Ram chuckled in a dark way. "He can drop the temperature in a room by ten degrees with a single look."

I thrust my hands in the air in victory and turned away to settle on the cot, leaning against the wall and getting comfortable. "This is going to be awesome. I mean, seriously, this isn't going to end well for anyone but us."

"If Coogan is behind our arrests, it will only damage him more than he already was." Ram leaned against his bars and sighed. "I don't know human laws, but abducting a member of a foreign dignitary's security team, holding him against his will, assaulting him, and falsely accusing him of crimes cannot possibly result in anything that will benefit Coogan's cause."

Ram might not know human laws but he'd named all the good ones.

"Just the fact that you can identify him is enough to prosecute, I'm sure," I said. "The lawyers aren't going to have to work too hard on this case. Coogan's sewn it up tight for them."

"Not having witnesses should help then," Murray said as he came around the corner.

Fucking fuck. He was dressed in his uniform, so of course no one had tried to stop him from coming back here. Why would they even pause to wonder, right? Everyone would assume he was on the up and up while dressed like that.

But he immediately drew his service weapon from its holster, something I was pretty sure he shouldn't even have on him back here. And he pointed it right at Ram.

"Fucking lizards," Murray growled as Ram's fringe stood up on top of his head and turned orange. "Look at you. You're just an animal in a cage."

I could hear a weird, slightly muffled clicking noise, almost like someone was trying to flick on a lighter. It wasn't Murray since he didn't have anything in his other hand. Was it the camera? Did it take stills instead of video? Turn on with movement? I had no idea and tried to put it out of my mind.

"Murray," I cautioned, "come on, man. This isn't going to do?—"

"Oh, shut the fuck up," he snapped at me, his weapon still trained on Ram. "Everything was fine until you showed up. Why the fuck did you even get involved?"

"Because you can't take people hostage?" I couldn't even begin to keep the derision out of my tone. "Jesus, do you even understand the kind of interstellar incident you've caused?"

"Good! Maybe this will make those fuckers fucking leave already."

"Okay, hold on. Why do you want them to leave? That doesn't make any sense. They're helping us. For free!"

I had to assume that stalling him was the right thing to do. Even if the camera was taking still photos, someone out there had to be looking at a monitor, right? Unless the whole damn precinct was corrupted, one of the officers had to see Murray with his gun waving around and come help us. I had to believe that.

"Oh, it's not free," he said with a laugh like I was an idiot. "They've already been taking people away, and we have no idea what's happening to them right now."

"They're getting laid. Dude, they signed up to literally get paid to fuck."

"Yeah, right. I know those people are fucking sick morons, but these animals want to fuck us? I don't believe it." He turned to face Ram and his tone got really dark. "They took them to slaughterhouses, didn't they? Every last one of them is a burger for one of you animals, aren't they?"

That was one disgusting-ass theory, and I had to wonder if Murray Coogan had all his marbles. How could anyone think that the Norlons were killing us? For food? As far as I'd seen, Ram was a vegetarian. He might make a meal out of me as often as he could, but I knew in my bones that he cared for me.

"That is utter bullshit," I said, getting angry. Ram wasn't talking, just standing there looking pissed, and I couldn't blame him. "They'd never do that to us."

"How the fuck do you know? They're just talking animals. Fix us up, fatten us up, and ship us to the slaughterhouses. All those people are dead already."

Okay, that made me pause for a second. They were curing us and they were making hunger a thing of the past. But, dammit, none of that was so they could eat us!

"You're wrong, Murray. You are one hundred percent fucking wrong."

"What the fuck is all that clicking?" Murray snapped as he turned to look at Ram again. "You calling for help, you fucking lizard?" He made a series of ticking noises and laughed.

But I could tell something was happening with Ram. He was turning orange from that fringe on his head all the way down to his toes. Since that was a fight response as far as I knew, was Ram about to bust out of his cell? While there was a gun trained on him?

"Ram," I cautioned, "take it easy."

Discretely, he waved his hand down by his side. He wanted me to back up? Trusting that he knew why it mattered, I slowly shuffled toward the wall at the back of my cell.

"Hold it," Murray barked, looking between us. "What the fuck is going on?"

When Murray swung his gun in my direction, I heard a loud pop, and then all of a sudden Ram was bright white, like all of the orange got sucked out of him. I gasped, instantly worried, and then I froze.

Ram opened his mouth and a stream of fire shot out of it.

Murray screamed and dodged away, but the back of his left leg was suddenly covered in flames. He dropped the gun, smacking at his pant leg, trying to put out the fire as he stumbled away.

There was fire on the ground and up the bars of my cell nearest the wall. Ram hadn't just unleashed flames, but something liquid for them to consume as well. It was blood red and bubbling, like the fire was boiling it. How the fuck had he done that?

Ram was back to his normal blue with just the orange fringe and now he was yanking on the door of his cell, clearly trying to break free. The second his door's hinges snapped, the sprinkler system kicked in, dousing us in chilly water as an alarm sounded and lights flashed. All of the flames petered out and disappeared, even the ones trying to burn the pants off of Murray. He collapsed onto the floor, wailing like a baby, and lying in a growing puddle of water.

I flinched when Ram suddenly yanked my cell door open. He stepped inside, and I was so full of questions, I couldn't say a word to him. He ran his hand all over me like he was checking me for injuries.

"Are you burned?" he asked, tilting my face this way and that. "Does anything hurt?"

"I… No, I'm fine. What the ever-loving fuck just happened? You can breathe fire? You are a dragon!"

"I wasn't breathing it. We burn as we do because our blood contains a combustable substance that we can gather and ignite." He cupped my cheek and looked down at me kind of mournfully. "I've only done it in extreme circumstances, but when he pointed his weapon at you…" Ram gulped and looked a little sick.

And I understood. He'd used the only weapon he'd had that would stop a man from shooting me. Violent and seriously fucking dangerous though it was—what if he'd caught himself on fire?—it had done the job of getting Murray the fuck away from me and disarming him, too.

Before either of us could say more, officers flooded the area. Every last one of them stopped short when they registered the fire damage, Murray on the floor, and two cell doors dangling. Ram started turning orange again.

"Okay," I hollered, stepping around him. "Everyone needs to calm the fuck down before my boyfriend burns this place to the ground." A lot of wide eyes stared up at Ram in clear shock as I pointed at Murray. "He came in here to harass and threaten us. He pulled his weapon on us, too. The fire was self-defense, but it's out now. Somebody had better take that asshole," I pointed to Murray, "into custody A-SAP because we're definitely pressing charges."

Someone I didn't know walked into view then and said, "I have to agree."

He was younger than me, blond, with bags under his blue eyes and wearing a suit that looked like he'd slept in it last night. He gave Ram and me a tired smile before snapping a glare over his shoulder. "Well? Go on. And somebody turn off that alarm."

A uniformed officer practically sprinted around him and right over to Murray. He was rolled over and cuffed before being hauled to his feet. I hoped they had more cells somewhere else since these two were ruined.

"Detective Brudnicki?" I guessed with a smile at the newcomer.

"The one and only." He accepted my handshake when I offered. "Let's get you two dry and find somewhere a hell of a lot less damp to talk."

Brudnicki might looklike a cute twink, but he was a man to be feared and had the whole precinct dashing to do his bidding. He'd gotten all of our personal items back, including phones and tablets, helped us get dry and changed into lost-and-found clothes, and sequestered us in a small room with ancient couches and a humming vending machine in under twenty minutes.

"Coogan is in custody obviously," Brudnicki said tiredly, "along with Rex Dennison, Peter Samson, and Karl Erwin. Erwin admitted to both shooting and burning you, Sergeant, so in addition to the other charges, he'll also be charged with aggravated assault."

It felt like a weight lifted from my shoulders, and I had to assume Ram felt the same as he sighed and nodded. I reached under the table and rested my hand on his knee.

"Everyone's pointing at Coogan as the head of the operation," Brudnicki continued. "If he was hoping for loyalty, he chose the wrong crew."

Well, at least they were talking and giving everything up. I'd watched my fair share of police procedural TV shows, and it always seemed to work out best when the criminals blabbed about what they'd done. Hopefully, they'd all plead guilty and that would be the end of all this.

"What about us?" I asked Brudnicki. "Are there any real charges against either of us?" I hesitated to mention driving like a deranged bat out of hell and leaving the scene of an accident if he didn't already know about my part in all that.

Brudnicki made a face and waved it all away. "I'm chalking it up to self-defense and escaping your captors, blah blah blah. Your truck's at the impound, which sucks for you, but you're both free to go. Oh," he said and looked between us. "There is the possibility you'll need to testify if anyone pleads not guilty. Will you…be around for a while?"

I looked to Ram since it wasn't like we lived down the road. Could Brudnicki tell us not to leave town? Or, uh, the planet?

"We came here to speak with you," Ram said, "and will be returning to the ship once Quincy concludes his business at his home. I'm assigned to the prince, so unless he plans to leave, I'll be in orbit and can testify in person or via remote feed."

"And I'm with him, so same," I said with a grin for Ram.

Brudnicki huffed a laugh and nodded. "Alright then. Can I assume contacting Specialist Munni is still the way to do things going forward?"

"Regarding the centers, yes," Ram said and got out his tablet. "For anything related to my experiences, I'll give you my direct contact information."

I got my phone out to take down the info, too, since I didn't have it, but Ram said, "I'll see to it that you're issued a tablet. As my mate, you're entitled to such things. I apologize for not doing so before now."

"Oh. No, it's cool. Awesome adventures and fun new toys, my boyfriend has it all."

Brudnicki snorted before clearing his throat, his cheeks turning pink, while Ram smiled and shook his head at me.