Read Online Sleeping With the Enemy by Kaitlyn O'Connor - Free Book Online Page A

brought the lander with them so we’d have a way to escape.”
        She could tell from the look on Holly’s face that they hadn’t.
        “They have ships,” Holly said pointedly.
        Sybil uttered a laugh that lacked humor. “And you think there’s a chance we could get to one, steal it, and actually pilot it home?”
        “It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility,” she said stiffly.
        “But it isn’t likely either.”
        “What do you suggest, then?” Holly demanded.
        Sybil frowned. “Negotiation. If they wanted to kill us, they could have. There’s some reason they’re keeping us alive.”
        “To study us?”
        Sybil’s belly clenched but she rejected the idea. “I’m not saying that isn’t a possibility, but why bother? What do you think they haven’t already learned? They can speak our language. They understand it and that means a lot more than simply being able to translate from their language to ours. They’d have to understand us-our customs, our civilization-all of it for the language to make sense to them. Think about it! If they didn’t know what a… home was, they wouldn’t use that word and Anka did.”
        “He told you his name?”
        Sybil looked at her in surprise. “You didn’t hear that?”
        Holly shook her head. “I was staying as far from him as I could and neither of you were speaking very loud. We were wondering what the conversation was about.”
        Sybil frowned, thinking back, but she hadn’t realized that none of the others had been close by when she’d spoken to him. She’d been too focused on him, she realized. She shrugged after a moment. “He’s Commander Anka l’Kartay. That’s what he said anyway. I don’t know why he’d lie.”
        “Or tell us anything.”
        Sybil had wondered at that herself, but she didn’t acknowledge what Holly was suggesting. She didn’t see any point in arguing when neither one of them really knew if he was being truthful or not.
        “What else did he tell you?”
        Sybil frowned, trying to recall. The truth was she’d been so on edge she couldn’t remember anything very clearly. “He just said it was cool because they’d moved the facility to the dark side to cool it from the heat. He said sometimes they would pull into the sunlight because they missed home and it was… depressing to always be in the dark.”
        Holly didn’t say anything for several moments. “It seems like he said quite a lot.”
        She was fishing and it irritated Sybil. “Yes, we took a stroll around the facilities and he explained everything-even told me how many soldiers were stationed here and where they were stationed,” she said sarcastically. “He was just being… polite.”
        “If you say so.”
        Anger flickered through Sybil. “Why don’t you just go ahead and let me in on the workings of your mind? I like to know what I’m being accused of. It makes it a little fucking easier to defend myself.”
        “You don’t have to be so defensive. It was just a comment.”
        With undertones. Sybil wondered if Dr. Rains just thought she was too stupid to catch the subtle insults and insinuations. “He was courteous enough to take me to look for my clothes,” she responded tightly. “I don’t see that responding with hostility will get us anywhere.”
        “I’m not sure being friendly is a good idea.”
        There it was! The accusation she’d been expecting. “Why don’t you handle things the way you think you should and let me worry about my behavior? You aren’t my mother or my superior.”
        Her lips tightened. “I’m just saying it could put you in more danger-all of us.”
        Sybil stared at her in disbelief. “You’re telling me you think being friendly is more dangerous than being hostile?”
        “I don’t think being hostile is a good idea either. Being cautious is .”
        Sybil sighed, leaning her head back against the wall. She supposed