Free To Protect a Warrior by Immortal Angel Page A

she’ll know everything we do by the end of this.”
    Hannah was far too satisfied by the raw panic that came over his wide face.
    “Nothing was destroyed. I mean, the roof took a lot of damage, but they didn’t fire at anything else.”
    The dean frowned, and Hannah’s own mind started to turn over what that might mean. “Then what was the point of all that? Was someone just trying to cause problems between our races again?”
    Dean Sufters shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. They could’ve attacked the outside of the academy and risked much less.”
    Hannah sat back down, rubbing her chin. They just attacked the roof?How pointless…
    “How many people knew you were on the roof tonight?” the dean asked, and their gazes met.
    Hannah didn’t want to tell her that only Liam knew. The dean hardly needed more fuel to add to the fire of her racism. Especially when Hannah knew in her heart the sexy alien had nothing to do with any of this. He’d been on the roof, too. And he didn’t even know her real name.
    “There’s security monitoring on nearly every inch of this place.” Hannah raised her brow. “Any person on your staff would’ve seen us going to the roof. And, if you weren’t careful with my identity, one of your untrustworthy staff members could’ve passed off the information.”
    Her blue eyes widened, and Stevril’s orange face went a shade paler.
    “We kept your real name off every document and file,” she asserted.
    Hannah crossedher arms in front of her chest. “My father will want to investigate, just to be sure. I hope you understand. If this academy can’t keep such a small thing private, he’ll have to ask himself if he and the president might need to make some changes.”
    She and Stevrilexchanged a panicked glance. The deep lines in her face looked even deeper as she leaned forward. “There’s no need for that. I will personally conduct a full investigation into this. You and your father don’t need to worry yourselves about it.”
    Hannah stood again, looking down at them. “Perhaps. But first, take me to Liam Fallow. After such a traumatic event, and your failure to keep me safe here, I’ll need someone I trust to seek emotional comfort from.”
    The dean hesitated.
    “Or perhaps I’ll just seek that reassurance from my father. Although…the last time I was in danger from negligence, he fired an entire ship’s crew.”
    Dean Sufters was on her feet in an instant. “I’ll take you there. Stevril, end the lockdown. Make an announcement that the threat is gone, but that all students should remain in their rooms until further notification.”
    He gaveHannah one last frightened look, then headed out of the room.
    The dean visibly swallowed, and Hannah saw the frustration burning not so subtly in her eyes. It must cut through her like a Keltair blade to have some wealthy, powerful brat ordering her about like a servant. Usually she was above using her father’s name to get what she wanted, but since witnessing their treatment of him on the roof, she was afraid of what they were doing to Liam. Being a student of an ambassador should’ve offered him protection from being tortured. But the prejudice against his race still ran deep among most humans.
    “We’ll go,” the older woman said, very slowly, “but keep in mind that we only did what we had to do in order to protect the students of this academy.”
    The air rushed out of Hannah’s lungs, and she grabbed the back of the chair. A Turongan constrictor snake seemed to squeeze her stomach. “What did you do to him?”

Chapter Two
     
    Liam coughed, spitting blood onto the stark white floor tiles next to his face. He strained against the bindings that held his arms twisted behind him and the ones lashed around his legs. The metal cut further into his flesh before he gave up, dropping his cheek onto the floor.
    Starflight Academy head of security, Rick, crouched down beside him, his mouth drawn into a stiff line.