Optorio Civil War Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 6): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance (Optorio Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Reality can come crashing down hard on you sometimes. And when it does, it can be a real bitch.

  To his credit though, he could have been angry and bitter about it all, but he wasn't. He'd accepted that his dream had died the night he'd heard that fateful pop in his knee, but he'd somehow managed to maintain a positive attitude about his life. For the most part.

  Once in a great while, I saw something akin to disappointment and sadness on his face – perhaps even a small trace of anger every now and then. But he'd always done a good job of hiding it and being positive and upbeat otherwise.

  “Sam, you know I can't go out on a date with you. You're my boss.” I laughed it off as I finished wiping down the last of the tables in my station. “That would be so totally inappropriate.”

  I'd used that excuse on him more times than I could count since I'd started there. But he remained undeterred and always came back, hopeful that he'd get a different answer. He was persistent and it was sweet in its own way. But even if he hadn't been my boss, I wasn't interested in him like that.

  To be fair though, it wasn't him. Honestly, I wasn't really interested in any man like that. I was happy being single and in doing my own thing. But of course, men like Sam – or most men, really – couldn't understand that. Not without hearing my entire story, anyway. But who knew, perhaps even after hearing my story, he wouldn't understand it.

  But there was no way in hell I was about to open up to him about all that. I preferred to keep the past where it belonged – firmly in the past. My story was my story and I wasn't going to talk about it. Not to anybody.

  “Oh come on, Riley,” he said, leaning on the counter top, looking up at me with those baby blue eyes I was sure made many a heart melt in his day.

  Sam was a good looking man, there was no denying it. With those heart-melting eyes, that strong and toned physique, and his Captain America good looks, I doubted he struggled with the ladies. In fact, I was pretty sure no girl had ever said no to him before, much less as often as I had. And maybe because of that, he was eager to turn my no into a yes.

  Yeah, good luck with that.

  “Not happening, Sam,” I said. “I have class early tomorrow and homework due. It's already going to be a long night. Sorry, babe.”

  Sam rolled his eyes and sighed. He stood up straight and tried to flex a little bit, trying to give me a good view of the muscular body beneath that maybe too tight shirt he was wearing. He seemed to think his good looks would finally win me over and that I'd magically throw my panties at him or something. Maybe experience had taught him that was how things operated in his world. But if he genuinely thought that, it proved that he didn't know me. And that he was in for a big surprise.

  When you got right down to it, I just wasn't attracted to him. Not in any sense of the word.

  Sure, he was an attractive enough man. Tall, broad shoulders, well-built and with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. I assumed that most women would throw themselves at a man like Sam – and many probably had. There certainly was no shortage of cute little waitresses and hostesses in the restaurant he could have had a crack at. So, why in the hell was he all over me? I didn't get it.

  I supposed that for many men, it came down to the chase. The challenge of conquering that which they deemed unconquerable. And the more I said no, the more he tried to win me over. Like he needed to conquer me. Like I was goddamn Mt. Everest or something.

  I was starting to think that maybe it was time to start looking for another job. But the bitch of it was that I liked working at the Lazy Hen Cafe. The Hen, as it was called, was a family-owned diner that focused primarily on making amazing tasting home-cooked meals. Some of the food there was a lot like the stuff I grew up on myself. And they had the best pie in Sapphire Bay – not that we had many pie places here, but I still liked to indulge in free slices now and then. Just one of the perks of the job.

  But staying at the Hen also meant that I had to deal with the likes of Sam. And all the pie in the world – no matter how amazing it was – just wasn't worth that.

  “You really need to get a life, Riley,” he said as I clocked out for the night. “All work and no play isn't good for you. Like they say, it makes you a dull girl.”

  “Sadly, I don't have the luxury to have it any other way, Sam,” I said, gritting my teeth and doing my best to suppress the anger that was rising within me. “I don't have those options.”

  “Don't you have family?”

  I clenched my jaw and bit back the scathing reply that was dying to come flying out of my mouth. I had to resist telling him it was none of his business – even though it really wasn't. Instead, I decided the best – and safest – course of action was to just ignore him. I'd told him before that I didn't have family – none who were worth dealing with at least. For all intents and purposes, I was alone in this world. And for people like Sam – people who had the good fortune to have good family they could lean on – they'd never get it. They'd never understand what it was like to essentially be an orphan.

  He'd never understand his privilege because he had it easier than I ever did. It was his daddy who'd given him a job after his football dreams ended. It was why he was a manager when he wasn't the least bit qualified for the job. He was barely qualified to be a Walmart greeter. But that was life. It was what it was. And I wasn't one who was going to complain. Even if I did seem to get shafted in the grand scheme of things. All I could control was what I could control and all I could do was play the cards I'd been dealt. Sitting around bitching and whining about it got me nowhere.

  “Goodnight, Sam,” I said, not bothering to wave as I walked out of the cafe and wanting nothing more than to be out of there and away from him.

  I rushed to my car, just wanting to get home. I needed to get home. I wasn't lying about having homework and an early class in the morning – that was the norm these days. Class all morning, work all evening, homework until the early morning hours. That was my life, such as it was.

  It wasn't easy. In fact, it was as hard as hell. But it was what it was. Like I said, sitting around bitching and moaning about it wasn't going to get me anywhere. The only way I was going to get anywhere was by picking myself up and pushing myself forward.

  But guys like Sam would never even be able to comprehend the shit I'd had to go through in order to survive. They'd never understand how hard I had to work just to get by. Just to tread water. And that was because they had mommy and daddy there to pick them up when they fell.

  All I had in this whole, wide world was myself.

  ooo000ooo

  As I rushed out of the restaurant and toward my car, I was surprised to see another car sitting in the parking lot at that hour. It wasn't Sam's car and I was the only other person working that night – it had been pretty slow. All the customers had left about half an hour before closing, giving us plenty of time to clean up and do our side work.

  As I looked at the car in the lot, I let my paranoia get the best of me. I felt my heart racing and my hands trembling, but I tried to push it out of my mind. After all, it was a public parking lot. It could be anyone.

  A homeless person. A driver stopping to making a call. Somebody who'd broken down. It could have been anybody.

  It didn't mean anything at all.

  I climbed into the car and tried to stop my anxiety from getting any worse than it already was. But this time, I was having some trouble talking myself down. Despite my best efforts, the fear was still there. Heavy and oppressive, it was still there. It felt like someone was watching me from the darkness of the interior of that car, and I couldn't get rid of the feeling. I shivered, even though I wasn't cold. Keeping an eye on the vehicle, I started my car.

  “Please don't die on me,” I pleaded with my car, watching the vehicle in my rear view mirror.

  Sam hadn't come out of the diner just yet – but part of me was actually hoping he would. Just so I didn't have to be alone out there with the stranger in the str
ange car. But there was no sign of Sam.

  I squinted my eyes and was able to make out a person sitting behind the wheel on the driver's side of the car. They were facing my direction, but were they watching me? Or was I simply being a paranoid freak? It was hard to tell. But given my history, it was understandable.

  “Calm down, Riley,” I said, putting my car into reverse once it had warmed up. “It's not Mike. This car is unfamiliar.”

  I kept trying to talk myself down, tried to stave off the panic attack that sometimes utterly crippled me. My ex-boyfriend, Mike, was always in the back of my mind. Lurking. He was a sinister and malicious presence in my brain – one I wished I could banish forever. But one I had never yet been able to.

  Mike still scared the living daylights out of me – even though I hadn't seen him in months. The impact of our relationship – especially our parting – would forever be etched into my brain. There was no way I could ever not live in fear of him coming after me, not after the threats he'd made.

  But it had been months – he had probably moved on by now, right? He had to have moved on. Besides, Mike didn't drive a black sedan – which was what was sitting in the lot behind me. That car was nicer than anything my ex could have afforded. By far. It wasn't him. Couldn't have been.

  As I pulled out onto the main street in Sapphire Bay, I kept looking behind me, half expecting to see the black sedan pulling out onto the street behind me. When it didn't come out of the parking lot with me though, I breathed a sigh of relief and turned the radio on, allowing myself to relax as I drove the short distance to my apartment.

  But my relief didn't last long.

  As I prepared to turn the corner onto Oak Tree Road, I noticed that there was a car on the road behind me.

  And it was the one that had been lurking in the parking lot.

  “Shit,” I thought to myself, wondering if I should stay on the main street opposed to the small residential street I lived on.

  This late at night, there was hardly anyone around. I quickly turned my blinker off, deciding to go straight instead. I didn't want to lead them back to my place and needed to lose them. When the light turned green, the black sedan behind me continued following close behind. I decided I had no other choice but to drive somewhere public, somewhere where there'd be people around this late at night.

  A public place would be my sanctuary.

  The Mahogany Tavern was up on the left and if Sam was right, there would be crowds of people there. But right before I pulled into the lot and parked before making a run into the public space, the sedan turned left onto a side street. It hadn't been following me after all. I let out a sigh of relief and a small nervous chuckle as I realized just how silly and unfocused I'd been.

  That sedan might have been going this way all along, I thought to myself. It didn't have a blinker on to turn before, like I had. I just assumed it was behind me, assumed that it was following me. And for making that assumption, I was an idiot. A big, fat, paranoid idiot.

  Still, my nerves were wrecked. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by people – at least to make sure I was safe, not because I particularly wanted the company. But my English paper wasn't going to write itself.

  I made a quick U-turn and headed back toward Oak Tree Road, turning onto my street when I got there. I checked my mirrors and saw no sign of any cars behind me, which was a relief. I parked in my assigned spot, and even though I still saw no sign of the strange car, I hurried into my apartment, slamming and locking the door behind me.

  I'm safe, I told myself. I'm alone. All alone.

  The exhaustion of the day took hold of me quickly, and the siren song of my bed was beckoning me. But I had a paper to write. It was due at eight the next morning, first class of the day, and it was a large part of my grade. I had to get it done, no questions asked.

  But the exhaustion and stress of my life took its toll on me, and I just wanted to curl up in my bed and sleep the days away. Heck, curling up in bed and never waking up didn't sound too bad either. Especially since there was very little worth waking up for. Besides my boring English class, anyway. A class I should be passing with flying colors – but a class I was barely scraping by with a C in.

  But it was a basic class, I needed to pass it to move on to my other classes – classes that might land me a job somewhere other than the Lazy Hen Cafe working for douchebags like Sam. And I was aspiring to something a little higher than that.

  I glanced over at my bed, which wasn't hard to do in my studio apartment, but settled in at my desk instead. My ancient computer took forever and a day to load up, so I walked into the kitchen to get a drink while it loaded everything up.

  Grabbing a soda, I stared into my otherwise empty fridge. I'd been able to snag some freebies from work, so I wasn't starving, but the pickings were incredibly slim. And I was still slightly hungry. But I didn't have the extra income to get things like snacks. My paycheck had to go to rent this week, so my food budget was limited. Really, really limited. At the moment, I had two slices of cheap, processed cheese product, but no bread. I also had a box with a slice of apple pie from last night's shift – and that was it.

  My stomach growled in protest as I stared into the empty refrigerator. I sighed as I grabbed the pie and my knockoff brand of Diet Dr. Pepper before sitting down at my desk and settling into my essay on The Great Gatsby. It was a book I hadn't had time to read, but I'd watched the movie and had internet to help with the rest.

  It was going to be a long ass night, but hey – at least I had pie.

  Some days, that was all I had going for me.

  Chapter Three

  Tarkonil

  My job at the Ministry of Technology came with a lot of perks – including the fact that I had more freedom than others might have in a traditional job. I had the freedom to take long lunch breaks if I'd wanted to, for instance. I didn't typically abuse the rules and freedoms I had been given – but today, I'd decided to take a little trip down to the docks to see what I could see.

  I knew a few guys who worked down there and thought maybe I could ask about any unusual ships coming in with cargo that maybe appeared human in nature. Or at least, not Optorion.

  Dibic “Dibs” was an old friend of mine, someone who had worked with me long ago – long before I'd become an important government official. He was one of Optorio's port managers and was sitting to the side of a hangar, at a table filled with entirely too much clutter, honestly speaking. I wasn't sure how he managed to function in such a mess. But there he was, sitting amongst the scattered debris, eating a sandwich while he was watching a ship come in. It was lunch time for him too, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

  “Hey, man,” he said, the moment he saw me walking toward him. “Long time, no see. What brings an important person like you all the way down here to the dirty old docks? Feeling the need to slum around a little?”

  I cringed, hating how my new title seemed to have changed people's perceptions of me. I hated that the fancy sounding words seemed to bring more weight and prestige to it than there actually was. And honestly, I wasn't any different than I had been before. I was just the same old guy. I just happened to be working for the government now, trying to get things back on track and in order.

  “Not much,” I said. “I was just curious to see how things were going down here.”

  “Is this an inspection?” Dibs asked, looking at me with a strange expression on his face.

  “No, not at all. Just a friendly visit for my own edification,” I said. “Though I do have some questions for you.”

  “Figured,” he said, putting his sandwich away with a sigh. “Government types like you don't just come down to this part of town to chit-chat unless it's for a reason. You always want something.”

  “Well, my questions are of a more personal nature. Off-the-record, if you will.”

  Dibs cocked his head and looked intrigued. “Okay, ask away,”
he said. “I can't promise I'll have the answers, but I'll do what I can.”

  “That's all I ask, my friend,” I said. “That's all I ask.”

  I looked around and realized that we were right out in the open where anybody and everybody could see us. Too many prying eyes and ears. I saw a couple of men look our way as they walked on, perhaps heading out on a break. But the fact that they'd seen me there made my stomach clench and a bolt of adrenaline shoot through my body. What I was doing – and what I was after – was incredibly delicate, not to mention dangerous. I needed discretion more than anything at this point and being so exposed made me nervous.

  “Can we go inside somewhere?” I asked. “An office, perhaps?”

  Dibs looked at me curiously for a moment before he nodded and motioned for me to follow him. A ship had just landed and a bunch of uniformed men were unloading boxes from it and stacking them on a small hovercraft. There was nothing unusual looking about the shipment being offloaded. And it certainly wasn't what I was looking for. From where I was, it looked like it was probably just some textiles from Xaradu, a nearby planet that was known to have some of the softest fabrics around. Only the richest of the rich could afford them, of course. Especially now. Which made the size of the shipment I was seeing curious to me.

  With poverty and deprivation running rampant among the people of Optorio, who was buying all that material? It was a question that had to be answered later though. At the moment, it was low on the list of my priorities. There were larger things in play right then and I couldn't afford to take my eyes off the bigger picture.

  Dibs closed his office door behind me before moving across the office to his desk and sitting down with a loud sigh. The expression on his face was one of irritation – whether it was because I was taking up his time, or because he believed I was one of those types who only came around when I wanted something, I couldn't be sure. But I needed his help and had to make sure to not alienate him.

  I sat across from him and cleared my throat as I looked around, not sure where or how to begin. His office was tiny, but at least he had an office – and a job. Which was a whole lot more than some people – a lot of people, really – could say. Most of those guys out there working the docks weren't regular employees. Most of them weren't even from Optorio. They were day laborers brought in from off world, meaning not only did they not have an office – they might not even have a job come tomorrow morning. They were brought in because they were cheap labor and they didn't complain about much of anything.