Jack had exchanged a look with Ty, who had immediately moved toward the plane and clambered up on the wing.
“Let’s go inside,” Jack had said.
And now here they were, all sitting in the small office, not looking at each other.The urge to speak almost choked him, but it was Rita’s move.He didn’t have to be briefed to know that.
She was the only one who could break the silence, the stalemate.And then Jack and the others would have to decide if they could trust what she said.
Right then, she looked up and met his gaze and he realized she knew it, too.She’d been sitting there trying to decide what to say.
She’d trusted him, well, to some extent, since they’d met.Now she had to close that last gap…
“I lied to you, Red,” she said, as if he were the only one in the room.Her gaze flicked to the other two and she gave a wry grin.“I’d like to tell you the truth, if we could be alone for a minute?”
Con blinked.Why was it a surprise he hadn’t seen this coming?When had he ever known a woman to do what he expected.
And then he realized something else.She didn’t know that he knew Jack and Mel.Or she was pretending she didn’t know that.Or she wasn’t sure?Which was it?
Jack rose, holding out a hand to Mel.“Sure,” he said.
They’d be able to hear everything they said.Con knew this room was bugged.
Rita might have been a little surprised when Mel and the man left them alone.What did they know, she wondered.There’d been time for Red to answer a few questions.Were they a couple of stranded strangers to them?But she’d had a feeling that Red and Ty knew each other.
Exhaustion and hunger made it hard to order her thoughts for her confession.
Had Red noticed they’d changed times?She couldn’t tell, but why would he notice or even look for that?And would he believe her?But there was that sense he’d known this place.
None of it made sense.
Since she’d met him, he’d been a guy trying to do the right thing in a situation that kept changing around them.They’d been acting and reacting to something neither of them understood.Or so she assumed.
And he was a guy, she added a bit wryly.In her experience, they didn’t alway see the nose on their faces.
But he’d removed the tracking device from her back and created the Faraday cage, following her instructions.
She supposed he’d tucked it in the room somewhere while she sorted through her backpack for the incriminating stuff.She’d planned to destroy the backpack the first opportunity, but one hadn’t arisen yet.
Had she missed something that could be tracked?Is that how they’d been found?And always, her thoughts circled back to why?
“I’m not who I told you I was,” she said, watching him carefully.
He looked down, then up again.“Will you hate me if I tell you I didn’t really think you were an alien?”
She was surprised into a laugh.“Then why…”
“You were in trouble and my mom raised me right.”
Right?Rita was pretty sure his mom hadn’t intended him to risk his life—though maybe that was implied.
“I’d like to meet your mom,” she said, and regretted it when a shadow passed over his face.“I’m sorry.She’s gone, isn’t she?”
He nodded.“She’d have liked you.”He hesitated, then said, “Why are those guys—people—after you?”
She gave a frustrated shrug.“I wish I knew.”
“You have no idea?”His tone was neutral in a way that said he was struggling now to believe her.
“Nothing that makes sense.I haven’t done anything to…” She stopped.“I’m not a criminal, Red.”
