Chapter 20

Emmy brushed a bead of sweat from her brow and cautiously advanced down the deserted hallway, pulse pounding in her ears. She'd put on an air of confidence with Chigs when she'd insisted she go alone to find something to disguise him, but in truth, she was terrified. What if she bumped into an old colleague? What if someone questioned her credentials? Would something like a surgical mask be enough to disguise Chigs's copper skin and full beard, or was this entire mission doomed to fail before it even began?

Failure isn't an option. Not only did the denaidan women's lives hang in the balance, but she and Chigs no longer had a shuttle. They couldn't leave. The only recourse was to hack the security protocols so the rest of their crew could land. The weight of the situation loomed above her like an impending avalanche.

She peeked around the dark corner at the end of a hall to find an alcove and another door. On the wall nearby, a security panel glowed with blue light.

"Shit," she murmured, the taste of worry sharp on her tongue. She hadn't expected another door so quickly. What if there were guards stationed on the other side?

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It's going to be okay. If I encounter guards, I'll just tell them my shuttle crashed, and this was the closest door.

Gathering her courage, she entered the alcove and placed a shaky hand against the sensor.

A blinking cursor appeared, requesting a security code. Panic fluttered in her chest like a trapped bird. She hadn't needed a security code to open the outer door, only her palm print. Perhaps her credentials would work? She began entering her employee ID, but after the first five symbols, a harsh beep sounded, and the panel began flashing red.

She flinched back in panic, staring at her own red-tinged reflection on the metal door. After a few moments, the panel turned blue again. Thank heavens. It seemed no one had been alerted to her mistake.

She rubbed her sweaty palm against her thigh. Obviously, her employee number wasn't the way in. Maybe I missed something during Doug's meeting. To be fair, her thoughts really hadn't been focused on the discussion. Abandoning the security panel, she retraced her steps back to Chigs.

The moment her foot touched the bottom rung of the ladder, Chigs reached down through the hatch and pulled her up into his arms. "That was fast." He glanced at her empty hands. "No mask?"

"There's another locked door around the corner, and my credentials won't open it." She raised her eyebrows hopefully. "Did Doug mention a password?"

Chigs shook his head. "No. He just said you're on the roster and your biometrics could get us through security."

"What should we do now?"

"I'll get it open." He jumped down through the hatch into the corridor beside her, forgoing the ladder completely.

"Wait!" she whispered, hurrying back down the ladder. His long-legged strides had already carried him to the end of the hall. "If you disable it, you might set off an alarm."

Chigs paused. "You want to try your credentials again?"

Emmy bit her lip, wishing she had an alternative solution. "I guess not."

Nodding resolutely, Chigs placed his hand against the security panel. A barely perceptible ripple of energy laced the air, then the panel went dark. The door slid aside with a subtle hiss of air. Beyond, what appeared to be a dark hallway veered left and right. Faint sounds of activity echoed in the distance, but no alarms.

Breathing shallowly, she lifted her head high, pretending she belonged here before stepping through the doorway. A long, empty corridor stretched in both directions. Widely spaced lights glowed in the ceiling at one end. The other direction disappeared into shadows.

The sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the corridor, and a figure appeared under the lights. Shit.

Chigs was still visible in the open doorway beside her—a door that most likely shouldn't be standing open. "Get out of sight. Someone's coming," she whispered.

With a silent nod, Chigs stepped back.

Thinking it was unlikely she'd been spotted yet in the dark, she stepped back through the door and pressed her hand to the door control to close it. Nothing happened. "Can you close the door?" she hissed at Chigs, voice laced with desperation.

He touched the panel, a look of concentration on his face. "No. My power surge broke it."

The scuff of boot soles on tile now sounded like they were just outside the door. Chigs reached for the pistol at his belt.

Emmy grabbed his arm. If a firefight broke out, it would definitely trigger an alarm.

Recalling all the stories her colleague friends had told her about sneaking off to the custodial closet to make out, she seized Chigs by the lapels of his uniform and pivoted them so his back faced the newcomer. It was a desperate ruse, but she hoped that with Chigs's features hidden in the shadows, they'd appear to be nothing more than a passionate couple seeking solitude. "Play along," she whispered as she sealed her lips to his.

Wrapping his arms around her, Chigs hoisted her with sensual ease, and her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist, securing her against him. The feel of his powerful arms supporting her sent an unexpected thrill of electricity through her system, reminding her of their earlier lovemaking. Chigs must've felt it, too, if the erection pressing through their clothing between her legs was any sign. How insane was it that she was even thinking about having sex right now? At least it would seem real if they were caught.

Unable to hear the footsteps over her own rapid breathing, she cracked open one eye to peer over Chigs's shoulder.

A guard stood there, dark body armor absorbing the dim light cutting in from the open door.

Is he watching us?Perhaps the guard was trying to decide whether to do his duty or allow the lovebirds a moment of peace. She continued kissing Chigs, albeit more stiffly, praying the guard would choose to overlook them and walk on.

Chigs sensed the shift in her mood, his kisses becoming more mechanical. One of his hands slowly left her ass, crawling down her thigh, its movement almost predatory as he reached towards the pistol holstered at his waist.

Still determined to avoid gunfire, Emmy murmured against his lips, "Let me."

Gasping as if she'd just noticed the guard, she unlocked her legs and slid down until her feet touched the floor. Laughing nervously, she stepped around Chigs to face the guard standing a few paces away.

The man's helmet was retracted, his profile bathed in sickly light to reveal a leering expression that made Emmy's skin crawl.

"Just taking a quick break," she said, her voice higher than usual as she adjusted her clothing, acutely aware of her kiss-swollen lips and the pulsing heat between her legs.

The guard's grin broadened, his eyes scanning her up and down with a look that made her want to shower in disinfectant. His attention stopped at her breasts. "This area is off-limits. Though it looks like you aren't."

"Oh…well," she injected a quiver into her voice as if she were truly scared—which, to be fair, wasn't entirely an act. "We were just... we needed some privacy, you know?" Her eyes flickered to Chigs's back, silently urging him to remain still, to trust her just a little longer. "Give us a minute to straighten ourselves and we'll be on our way."

"I should write you up." The man licked his lips. "Though I bet a pretty thing like you probably knows how to persuade me to forget I saw anything."

Her stomach churned, and she opened her mouth to reply, but before she could utter a sound, Chigs slammed into the guard with the ferocity of a lightning bolt. The air rippled with a burst of ionic energy, and the guard collapsed with a grunt.

"Nobody talks to my mate that way," Chigs ground out, fists clenched as if he was ready to keep fighting.

The guard twitched once, then lay still.

Heart hammering against her ribs, Emmy moved forward to stand next to Chigs. The guard stared lifelessly at the ceiling. "Is he dead?"

"Yeah," Chigs said, kneeling to remove the man's helmet. "There's a weak spot in this model of armor—well, relatively weak, at least to a concentrated ionic pulse. Stopped his heart."

Emmy had never seen a dead body before, let alone witnessed someone being killed. She wasn't sure how to react. Part of her wanted to scream in horror. But another, stronger voice appreciated Chigs for defending her. The guard had been despicable, but that didn't mean he didn't have people who loved him. His family would never know what had happened to him. Never get closure. She couldn't help thinking that she and Chigs could just as easily disappear from existence if things went badly.

She blew out a shaky breath. "Now what do we do?"

Chigs began removing the man's armor. "Give me a minute to put on my new disguise."

Bile rose in Emmy's throat at the thought of donning the clothes of a dead person, but she swallowed it down. At least now they could both enter the lab undetected.

Or so she hoped.