Free Passionate Desire by Barbara Donlon Bradley Page A

problem?” she asked as they left.
    “What?” He looked at her. “No.”
    “They sure flew out of here like they did. Or they knew something was about to happen.” Her eyes widened when she realized she recognized the pattern. Another tiny part of her brain unlocked.
    “I have my perimeter defenses on. We should be fine.”
    “Do you have a safe room just in case?”
    “Yes. It’s under the garage.” He handed her a satchel. “Fill it with all the medical supplies you can. From those cabinets there.” He had one as well. They cleared out the cabinets quickly and stacked the bags against the wall. He had a few more things he wanted moved before they snuck out the back and down into the garage and opened the door. He turned on the light and headed to another door. They walked down a set of narrow stairs that were cut out of the rock the house sat on.
    Toki found herself standing in a small underground hanger.
    “This looks more like a ship.” She touched the hull to be sure she wasn’t imagining it.
    “It is. Mine. One of the reasons I bought this place. The opening is about a mile back so no one knows it’s there. I was able to hide this baby here undetected.” He went to the side of the ship and pressed a panel that allowed it to open. Once she was inside, he secured the door. “I came here to get away from it all, but sometimes my past still finds me, so I knew I needed to be able to get away at a moment’s notice and this ship gives me that chance.”
    There was a loud boom and the ground shook. He raced to a row of screens and activated one. A grin spread across his face when he saw someone, probably male, dancing around on fire. “Stupid Guapo. Serves him right.”
    “Guapo, the creepy one from last night?”
    “One and the same.” He turned on other screens so he could see what was going on all around them. His house still stood, which was good because he’d go after whoever tried to destroy it. It didn’t look like much but it had all the state of the art security equipment and it had taken him some time to load it. “That man who was here today with the file. He wasn’t happy to see you so I’m thinking he hired Guapo to come after you. Which is why he’s being tenacious.”
    “He could just want your little bride.” She leaned on a console and stared at the screen.
    “True, but he would just try to steal you, not kill us both.” He watched as Guapo looked around. “Damn, the fire is going out.”
    “Aren’t you afraid it will kill him?”
    “We’re not that lucky.” Kuarto turned from the screen to look at her. “Guapo’s from a planet where it takes a fire from a much hotter flame to do any permanent harm to him. He won’t look pretty for a while, but he’ll be fine.” He pulled the chip out of his pocket and sat it on the table. “So I guess the mystery man doesn’t want to hire me.”
    “What are you going to do with it?” She picked it up and started to play with it.
    “Throw it away.”
    “Why? Aren’t you curious about what is on it?”
    “Already looked at everything important when I opened it up the first time. I have a photographic memory.”
    “Must be nice.” She placed the chip back on his table.
    “All the information also loaded into my mainframe the moment I opened the file.” He pulled up the file so she could see it.
    “You strike me as a brilliant man, why are you hiding here on this desolate planet instead of being out there making a difference?”
    “I did do that for a while. I was the most sought after doctor in the quadrant because of my research.” He sat at the table. “I was a little too good at my job.”
    “And what was your job?”
    “I was studying DNA. I had come up with a way to correct any errors in the DNA strain of any race while it was still an embryo. I could cure everyone with the insertion of a simple chemical I created. But the research had other applications.”
    “Military ones.”
    “Of course. My research could