Free The Princess and her Bounty Hunter: Alien Romance (Fated to the Alien: The Psychic Matchmaker Book 2) by Harmony Raines Page B

like a building falling down, sounded outside. “What have you done?!
    “I have made a way in for you, Tiana. I suggest you run to the cargo bay. Ramp is descending.”
    “Damn computers,” Tiana said under her breath as she ran to the cargo bay. Stellia had decided to take charge of the situation herself. “I thought I was in charge?”
    “You are, but I have superior knowledge and experience.”
    Not having time to argue with Stellia, Tiana ran into the cargo bay, to see the doors half open, and she slid through them, landing on the ground heavily, but at least on her feet. A large hole had been blown in the warehouse wall right in front of her. Stellia was a master of precision.
    Drawing her laser, she ran forward, raising it and firing as a man—some weird alien being with an orange face and what looked like four hands—came towards her. She hit him square in the chest, rechecking that the gun was on stun. With no idea who was who, and who was good or bad, she was not willing to kill anyone, not unless she really had to. The least she could do was try to avoid a diplomatic incident.
    “Into the warehouse, head across to the door on your right, and then the door on the left. That is where Mak is.” Stellia’s voice spoke to her, and she obeyed. Although Tiana didn’t like it: she was running blind, putting her trust in a computer. As she made her way across to the first door, the reality of the situation settled on her. This was a life or death situation. Sparring with your brothers was one thing, but open warfare like this was another, and she wanted to get Mak and Larka and leave. Quickly.
    Once through the first door, she ducked behind a table before standing slowly and looking around, checking there wasn’t anyone in here who was going to blast her out of existence. She assumed the bad guys would not have their guns set to stun. They would be out to kill her. Unless Mak was right and this whole thing was a setup, with Larka as bait for a princess. That meant she had played straight into their hands, a thought that did not sit well with Tiana.
    Going home after rescuing Larka would be bad enough; being captured and then traded by these Maraki back to her father would be impossible to bear.
    So let’s not allow that to happen, she told herself.
    “Tiana. I have reconnected with Mak. Or at least he is allowing me to hear what is being said. There are six separate voices in the next room. One of which is Mak, the other is a girl, and the other four are unknown males.”
    “Four. Great, I’m not sure I can take them all out.”
    “They have a gun to the girl’s head.”
    “Oh, damn it.”
    “You have to go on,” Stellia said. How could she sense Tiana’s reservations?
    “What if she ends up dead?”
    “Is that any worse than what they are threatening to do to her if she lives through this and is still their captive?”
    Tiana closed her eyes, tears threatening, but she blinked them away. “I don’t know. Isn’t any life better than no life?”
    “I do not have the experience to answer that question,” Stellia answered.
    “Sorry, that was insensitive of me.”
    “Do not be sorry. It means a lot to me that you think of me as a sentient being.”
    “You sometimes sound more sentient than most other people I have met, Stellia.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”
    She plunged forward, kicking the door open, surveying the room quickly and letting off two shots, hitting two of the men in the chest and halving her adversaries. She reached for the second laser, which was charged and ready to fire, but a voice commanded her to stop.
    “I could break this little girl’s neck. One tug of my arm and she is dead.”
    Tania hesitated. It gave the other man in the room enough time to act, and he raised a laser, aiming it at Tiana’s head.
    “There now, we all just need to chill,” said the guy pointing his laser at her. “That means you need to put your gun down, Princess, or this little