Razor's Traitorous Heart: The Alliance Book 2 (6 page)

Kali’s eyes softened at the slight fear that
crept into her brother’s eyes as he remembered what had almost
happened before. She stood up and walked over to him. Wrapping her
arms around his waist, she rested her head on his chest. Her eyes
closed as she listened to the steady beat of his heart. They only
had each other and it terrified both of them when they thought how
close they had come to losing each other.

“He won’t,” she promised as he held her
close. “He isn’t smart enough, and he knows if I ever get near him
again, it will be to shove a knife through his heart.”

Destin’s soft chuckle pulled a smile to her
lips. “You’ve turned into a blood-thirsty little demon,” he
remarked before he sobered and released her to step back. “You have
to be more careful.”

“I will,” she teased as she returned to her
seat. She was glad she had when he answered her next question with
one of his own. “So, what are you going to do about Jeffrey?”

“I should kill his ass, but I’ll probably
just have him escorted out of the city,” he replied tiredly as he
returned to his own seat and sat down. “Now, when are you going to
tell me about your encounter with the Trivator warrior and why you
think they are going to be making a move on the city? I’ve been
waiting two weeks and you still haven’t submitted your report on
that incident.”

“Shit!” Kali exclaimed in irritation. “You
weren’t supposed to know about that.”

Razor walked through the corridor of the
facility he had been given. He nodded to several warriors and human
personnel as he strode through the long corridor toward his office.
Irritation burned in him as Cutter explained that Councilor Badrick
from the Usoleum Star System was waiting for him.

“Three humans from the northern section of
the city have requested a meeting with the leaders of the Alliance,
specifically the Trivator commanders,” Cutter muttered. “I don’t
like this. Badrick is here and has demanded your presence when he
heard they were here. He said they wanted to negotiate with us to
secure the city.”

“There is no negotiation. Is Parks one of
the men?” Razor asked impatiently as he walked into his office.
Since he arrived on the planet he could see what part of the
problem the Alliance continued to have with the humans were - each
faction wanted to make their own rules and demands instead of
learning to live together as one species.

He stared intently into the nervous brown
eyes that turned to glance at him in shock as he stepped into the
room. “You will cease fighting immediately or those who continue to
fight will be eliminated. The Alliance will select who will oversee
the rebuilding of the city.”

Razor watched nonchalantly as the human male
swallowed several times. The male to the left of him nervously
shifted while the male to the right glared back at him with hatred.
Razor knew immediately which male would fight and which ones would
back down. The male doing the talking was not the leader of this
group of supposed representatives and none of them were Parks.

He and Cutter both smelled the faint odor of
explosives when they walked further into the room. He ignored
Cutter as his friend and second-in-command moved to the side so he
could circle around the third male.

Badrick, the stupid, arrogant fool that he
was, had walked into a deadly trap. Now, he and the human military
officers in the room were in danger. This is why the Trivator were
in charge of the military for the Alliance and not the Usoleums.
His arm swept up as he pointed the laser pistol in his hand at the
head of the third male staring back at him with loathing.

“Concede,” he growled in a low, dangerous
voice.

The male’s hand moved slightly toward his
belt. Razor didn’t wait. He pulled the trigger. The two males
standing in front and to the side of the human jumped in panic as
the male collapsed. Coarse expletives filled the room as the human
military grabbed the remaining males. One of the human officers
reached for Razor but backed off when Razor turned the pistol in
his hand toward him.

A loud sigh filled the air. “Was that really
necessary, Razor? The negotiations were going well,” Councilmen
Badrick remarked sardonically, looking with distaste at the dark
blood staining the finely woven carpet on the floor.

Razor turned his eyes to the slender male
with long white hair and faint blue-tinted skin. There was no love
lost between the two of them. He knew Badrick didn’t always approve
of his methods. In fact, he had been the lone dissent on the
Alliance Council asking for Razor to step in.

The council really had no other choice.
Razor had already informed them that no more Trivator warriors
would be sacrificed on this world. Either they allowed him to end
the last areas of rebellion, or he would pull the warriors and let
the Alliance security teams deal with them alone. Six years was
longer than it had taken to bring any of the other worlds the
Alliance had inducted under control.

“Yes, it was necessary. Your species does
not have the sense of smell a Trivator does. If you did, you would
have smelled the explosives on the male. Did you not have your
security team check the humans before you agreed to meet with
them?” Razor asked in a cool voice.

Badrick looked down at the dead male with
disdain. He shrugged his slender shoulders as he looked back at
Razor. He was very careful to keep his true feelings hidden. He was
well aware of the Trivator warrior’s opinion of him.

“I will talk to the security team. I had
assumed they would have checked the humans before allowing them
inside the building. Are you sure he had explosives on him?”
Badrick asked in a calm voice.

“Press the detonator button he has at his
waist and let me know if I’m wrong,” Razor replied before he looked
at the two remaining rebels. “Who sent you?”

The male who had originally been doing the
talking swallowed several times as he looked at the laser pistol
now pointed at his head. He paled and began to tremble violently as
he opened his mouth to speak. He stumbled several times before he
finally choked out one name.

“Parks,” he whispered.

Razor pulled the trigger before he turned it
to the last man. “One last time,” he snarled in a low voice. “I
want the truth this time. Who sent you?”

The other man’s eyes widened for a moment
before he shoved the MP holding his arm. He reached for his waist
at the same time as Razor pulled the trigger. A bright stain of red
spread over the front of the male’s chest as he collapsed.

“Well, at least we know which side to
contact now,” Badrick remarked as he wiped a small splattering of
blood from his cheek.

Razor’s eyes turned to coldly observe the
other councilman. “He was lying. Parks did not send them.”

“Of course Parks did,” Badrick said with
disdain. “The human admitted it before you killed him. Parks
obviously does not want Allen to receive additional support. He
probably knew that our forces were going to join with Allen so he
wished to eliminate you in the hopes of blaming it on Allen.”

“Do you really believe the shit coming out
your mouth or are you just that stupid?” Cutter asked under his
breath.

Badrick turned and coldly looked Cutter up
and down. “You are dismissed. In fact, all of you are dismissed.
This is a matter between Chancellor Razor and myself. Your presence
is not required,” he stated with contempt.

“Now, wait just a damn minute,” Colonel
Baker, the human commander for the area interrupted. “I’m in charge
of this district. I want to hear Councilman Razor’s observations on
the matter.”

Razor watched as Badrick turned sharply and
took a step threatening step toward the human. His eyes flickered
to Cutter who nodded. They both knew how volatile the Usoleum male
could be when he didn’t get his way.

“The human stays,” Razor stated with an
underlying tone of warning. “Control yourself Badrick. The Alliance
Council granted that it would cooperate with the human military.
Colonel…” Razor’s eyes shifted briefly to the human male before
turning back to Badrick who stood clenching his fisted hands at his
side. “… Baker is within his rights to remain.”

*.*.*

Badrick drew in a hissing breath before his
cold eyes turned back to Razor’s challenging stare. He forced
himself to relax. Stepping back, he briefly bowed his head to show
he recognized the quiet threat in Razor’s voice.

He shielded the hatred in his eyes even
though he knew the Trivator could smell it. The cynical amusement
in Razor’s eyes were like claws ripping through his gut. It
perturbed him that he had not known the human male had an explosive
on him. He would be having a conversation with his new security
team as soon as he got rid of the two Trivator warriors.

“My apologies,” he said with a fake smile.
“Of course the human may remain. Perhaps we should retire to the
Colonel’s office while your second oversees the removal of the
bodies?”

“Agreed,” Razor replied. “Cutter, see if you
can discover where the explosives came from and review the
documented images to determine which side of the city the men
belonged to.”

“Documented images?” Badrick asked with a
frown. “You have images of the men on each side?”

“I like to know who I am fighting against.
It helps to know how they think and move to minimize the amount of
threat to my men,” Razor briefly answered.

“Of course,” Badrick muttered, turning to
walk through the doorway leading to a back corridor.

Razor paused when the human Colonel stopped
next to him. He glanced at Cutter who raised his eyebrow in inquiry
before turning slightly toward the human male. The man’s troubled
eyes were not on him but on the back of Badrick. Suspicion darkened
the already dark brown eyes until they looked almost black.

“He refused to let my men search them,”
Baker muttered under his breath. “He also had them by-pass the
security scanners. I don’t trust that bastard, neither should
you.”

“I don’t trust anyone but my own men,” Razor
replied.

Baker nodded in understanding. “I know what
you mean,” he agreed. “Did you really order the destruction of
Mexico City?”

“Of course. They refused to concede,” Razor
replied as he turned toward the corridor to follow Badrick. “As I
said before, I do not negotiate.”

Colonel Baker stared after the huge alien
male as he walked confidently down the hallway. He swallowed as he
ran his eyes over the thick muscles straining against the dark
fabric of the alien’s black uniform. He had been in the military
for almost thirty years and was looking forward to his retirement
when the Trivator warriors first appeared six years ago. All
military personnel had been called to active duty and all
retirement suspended until the threat was over.

Unfortunately, they had been expecting the
threat to come from the aliens, not the citizens. At least not to
the magnitude it had. When rioters, government reformers and
religious zealots poured out, they were split in half. He had
quickly moved up the ranks from Staff Sergeant to Colonel due to
the lack of resources and his experience as more men and women were
called to action.

It soon became clear that while there were
more humans, the Trivator out-powered them, had far superior
technology and extremely well trained soldiers, or warriors, as he
later learned they called themselves. When the United States
Commander-in-Chief ordered a cease-fire, the military followed
those orders; unfortunately, the civilians did not and so the fight
continued. Only this time, it was citizen against citizen in a
world gone crazy. In desperation, governments around the world met
and agreed that if humanity was to survive, they would have to
accept not only the aliens who came to Earth at their innocent
invitation, but each other.

I just hope that bastard knows what he is
doing,
Baker thought as he followed Razor down the corridor.
I sure as hell don’t want to be the one to stop him like I’ve
been ordered to do if he tries to flatten the damn city.

Kali breathed a sigh of relief as she escaped
her brother’s office. He had questioned her for over two hours,
pulling everything he could out of her before she convinced him it
was better for them to review every inch of their defenses, weapons
and evacuation routes for those living in the city just in case the
Trivator did decide to attack. By the time they were done, she was
more than ready to get out for a while.

“Hey Kali, wait up!” Jason called out from
behind her.

Kali quietly groaned under her breath. She
wanted to run. She needed to run. Right now, confusion and
frustration were making her antsy and she needed to escape to a
place where she could be alone to think about the discussion and
strategies she and Destin had just gone over.

It still shocked her that her brother knew
about her rescuing the alien. His question had thrown her off guard
at first before she realized that a helicopter crash and three
Trivator rescue ships hovering above the barrier dividing the city
wasn’t something she could easily hide. An incident like that would
immediately be brought to his attention, as he so eloquently
pointed out to her.

The first hour he had grilled her about what
had happened and why she felt like the Trivator might be taking a
more definitive stance compared to their previous actions. He also
wanted to know everything she could tell him about the warriors she
had seen.

She told him what she could, without, she
hoped, revealing how much her encounter with the male had shaken
her or the fact that she had been on Colbert’s side of the city.
She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the alien male and it
was beginning to piss her off. It was only when she was running
that she able to lock him away for a short period of time. Even
that wasn’t a guarantee anymore.