Freefall_The Great Space Race Read online

  Table of Contents

  Freefall: Team Prism

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Join Us!

  About the Author

  Thank You!

  The Great Space Race

  Who will win? Who will lose?

  A reality that these contestants must survive.

  Welcome to the Great Space Race!

  From the far reaches of the universe, six teams joined the Great Space Race for riches, thrills, and intergalactic bragging rights. They never expected the mortal dangers...or the chance to race for the greatest adventure of all: love.

  You’re joining six stellar teams of astral adventurers written by six science fiction romance authors sharing one dangerous galaxy. Just a warning: Octiron Corp doesn’t play fair, so these teams have no idea what they are about to risk. Get ready to race!

  Read more about all the books of the Great Space Race here or join us on Facebook!

  And sign up for the Elsa Jade New Release Alert for release, sales, and more!

  She doesn’t believe in aliens.

  He can’t believe he’s stuck on a repurposed honeymoon starcruiser with an Earther girl.

  To survive the Great Space Race, they need to find the legendary Firestorm Queen’s Prism in the perilous Paragon Galaxy—but along the way, they might just freefall into love!

  ***

  Scarred by life and scared by it, Amy Long finally found peace in quiet Sunset Falls, Montana…until a malfunctioning popcorn popper transports her across the universe.

  She arrives accidentally—and nekkidly—on the honeymoon cruiser Blissed where the widely viewed and wildly entertaining Great Space Race is already in progress. Now if she ever wants to return to Earth, she has to pretend to be the famous intergalactic explorer who was supposed to be half of Team Prism, searching for the legendary Firestorm Queen’s Prism.

  Can this unsuspecting Earther wrap her head around a universe of aliens and adventure? While she’s at it, maybe she’s gonna wrap her arms around the uptight but sexy drakling male who is her teammate.

  Luc Amaveo of the Flamewalker Clan just needs a treasure. Any treasure, even the imaginary ones teased by the Great Space Race. Every drakling needs a treasure to prove himself, and being a respectable transgalactic accountant doesn’t count with his raucous clan. If he can take the Great Space Race prize to his twelve older brothers’ mating ceremonies, maybe they’ll finally stop trying to make him into something he’s not: a ferocious, fiery, bold beast. But he might need to do some pretending of his own if he’s going to keep his innocent Earther girl alive.

  Because even as they realize that the cruel corporation of the Great Space Race cares more for ratings than their lives, Amy and Luc also discover that the real danger is facing their own fears…and the risk that they might be falling in love.

  Tune in to this new astral adventure…The Great Space Race!

  Chapter 1

  Sunset Falls, Montana—early November

  At the end of a very long day, with nothing else to do, Amy Long was cleaning out the temperamental antique popcorn popper in the back of Mr. Evens’ Odds & Ends Shop when the cowbell over the door clanged. Stuck between the summer sightseeing crowds from nearby Yellowstone and the start of snowmobiling, this was the first potential sale she’d had in hours, so she abandoned her oily struggle and whisked around to the front counter, wiping her hands on her apron.

  She made sure to tuck her left hand into the apron pocket.

  “Can I help—?” She dredged up a careful smile. “Oh, Mr. Evens. I thought you’d headed home for the night.” It wasn’t really night, but the sun seemed to set so early behind the tall, pine tree-covered hills that surrounded the small town. For a heartbeat, her breath hitched at the fleeting memory of the low sloping vistas of the terraced rice paddies where the view stretched away for gentle miles.

  But she was never going home.

  Mr. Evens gave her the twisty grin that had left her faintly alarmed when she first started working in the shop, uncertain whether he was being wry or mean. In her three months of employment, she decided he was mostly just a little awkward, like the kids in her ESL classes had been. She didn’t think he was that much older than she was—maybe thirty compared to her twenty-one—but sometimes he acted centuries older. Like now. He wandered toward her with the slow steps of a doddering ye-ye, peering at the shelves that she knew he knew as well as she did.

  With its curiously eclectic collection of antiques and As-Seen-On-TV products, the thrift shop didn’t take long to traverse, although he stopped along the way at a box of rocks labeled “!?!?!?meteorites?!?!?!” As if the numerous exclamation points and question marks on either side of the word weren’t bad enough, the gray lumps inside didn’t exactly inspire confidence either. When he prodded at the rocks, she stiffened; she’d tidied that same exact box earlier and didn’t want him to think she wasn’t on the job.

  Evens aligned the box another quarter inch and moved one of the alleged meteorites—as equally gray and boring as the other rocks—to the front of the display. If there was any difference between them, Amy didn’t see it. But then, she’d gotten straight Cs in science.

  Her boss finally drifted to the counter, resting his forearm across the spotless glass. “Late meeting with a client.” His slumberous gray eyes drifted over her. “Are you happy here, Amy?”

  The random question made her blink. “Happy?”

  His gaze shifted to somewhere over her left shoulder. “Perhaps I should say satisfied,” he murmured. “Or content. Or at least willing to go on.”

  She resisted the urge to grimace. Well, that had deescalated quickly. From happy to at least not self-destructive. She forced her smile wider. “I’m very happy you gave me a job.” That at least was true. “I realize my CV wasn’t much to look at.” Much like herself…

  Evens smiled that twisty smile again. “You should’ve lied more. It’s important to dream bigger.”

  Tucking her chin, she studied him uncertainly. What would she have lied about? Her love of popcorn oil, dust, and glass cleaner? Now that he mentioned it, she didn’t really dream, big or otherwise.

  He nodded as if he could hear her thoughts. “Anyway, I’m happy to have you here,” he said gravely. “You may have noticed from the many different names listed on the bathroom chart that the employee turnover here is rather high.”

  She had noticed that as she dutifully cleaned and charted her efforts on the note posted behind the bathroom door. “I’m sure it has nothing to do with you as a boss.”

  His gray gaze connected abruptly with hers, and she flushed with mortification. Why on earth had she said that? She made it sound as if he was a terrible boss when he was just…odd. Like many things about this odd little town: barely any wifi, awful cell reception, not to mention the persistent rumors about an exclusive dating resort on the edge of town that had closed under suspicious circumstances. She could understand why people who came here might dream about “Big Sky Country” for a while, but in the end they would go looking for brighter lights, greener pastures, and jobs that paid more than minimum wage.

  Luckily for Mr. Evens’ staffing needs, she was not one of those peopl
e.

  “I am very happy here,” she said resolutely. “All the popcorn I can eat, right?” She tried for a wider smile.

  He nodded slowly, not so much in agreement, she thought, as if he’d come to some understanding of her that she didn’t understand herself. “I want you to go full time.”

  She straightened, like she was one of those questionable meteorites he’d arranged to his satisfaction. “Yes, sir.” Thinking of the employment interview articles she’d read after leaving school, she added, “I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

  He half closed his gray eyes. “I’m delighted that you feel you’re up for the many challenges to be found here in Sunset Falls.”

  Challenges? She wasn’t interested in challenges. She dropped out of community college because the competition at beer pong—not to mention student financial aid—was too much for her to handle. Sunset Falls was kind of her last chance, so she wasn’t going to squander it. Still, she felt compelled to confess, “I’m afraid sales have been a little slow today. I thought maybe we could move some of the more, ah, interesting pieces into the window to entice shoppers.”

  “Enticing?” He glanced at the front window, where the view was obscured by a haphazard collection of yellowed paperback novels, a scattering of snow globes without their bases, and an overstuffed couch upholstered with a bizarre print of giant asteroids zooming through space. Evens shrugged. “If you like.”

  She’d already noticed he didn’t care much about the day’s take. Maybe he was independently wealthy, although his slouchy trousers and the old man sweater with a hole in the elbow didn’t seem to reflect that. But what did she know about money? And he’d talked about clients before, so maybe he was a stockbroker or something else that could telecommute. Although with the lack of connectivity in Sunset Falls, that didn’t seem possible. But being nosey wasn’t her place. If he trusted her to go full time, that was everything she could hope for.

  She gave him a decisive nod. “I can’t wait to get started.”

  “It’s true that waiting rarely gets us where we want to go.” He turned to face the door a split second before the cowbell clanged again. “Ah, my client is here. We’ll be in the back office. Please see that we aren’t disturbed.”

  She managed not to roll her eyes. Disturbed by who? Certainly not customers. He probably meant by her. Well, she wasn’t going to bother anyone—

  Her lips parted as she gawked at the new arrival. Maybe those rumors about the celebrity dating resort were true. Because this woman was definitely not from Sunset Falls, Montana.

  Though the newcomer had the bold, shoulder-squared stance of the confident outdoorswomen who flocked to Sunset Falls to hike and raft and hunt, her Amazonian height and gliding stride would’ve made her equally at home on a high-fashion catwalk in Paris. Amy closed her jaw with a snap. The woman was glorious. No wonder Evens didn’t care if he made any money through the shop, not when he had “clients” like this.

  The woman gave Amy a smile that was disarming, assessing, and dismissive all at once. The smile dropped and her deep brown gaze turned piercing when she looked at Evens. She strode toward him, her low-heeled, knee-high leather boots silent on the tile floor. Her whole outfit was custom-fitted leathers with buckles and zippers and deep, sealed pockets that made Amy wildly curious. What was in those pockets? Nothing to clean bathrooms, probably. She hadn’t heard the sound of a motorcycle outside, but this woman looked like someone who had covered many miles on her own power and not been lonely for a moment of it.

  Pausing in front of Evens, the woman propped her big, perfectly manicured hands on her generous hips. Diamonds glimmered on all ten of her fingers, matching the diamond stud in her broad nose, but her dark eyes glinted even brighter. “Is it here yet?”

  He shook his head. “Patience. Soon.” He unfurled a gesture toward the back office door. “I have an excellent moon-brandy to make the time pass less boringly.”

  The woman’s straight white teeth flashed in a wide smile against her brown skin. “Moon-brandy? I knew I’d like doing business with you, Evens.”

  The two disappeared through the back doorway, their exit marked only by the soft click of the closing door. Amy let out a soft breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. So, rustic little Sunset Falls really did have a glamorous, mysterious side. And she was going to be a full-time, front-line employee here, seeing it all. How exciting. Like a TV show happening right in front of her.

  Keeping one ear cocked to the back office (not that she could hear a thing and not that she was eavesdropping, but just in case they needed anything) she finished cleaning the popcorn maker, trying to ignore the scars on her own small hands.

  Life could be worse. Like, she could be back in school, losing money instead of earning it. She munched on the last mouthful of especially salty, buttery-flavored goodness. Amongst the bits lay one unpopped kernel. It might as well have been her. Unpopped. Nothing worth chewing on.

  She flicked it across the room and it disappeared.

  On that note… She got to work on the front window display. The ugly couch was too big to move by herself, so she’d use it to show off some of the shop’s more interesting pieces, as if this was the living room of a woman as fascinating and obviously well-traveled as the lady in the back office. Letting her imagination roam—not that it had far to go in the small shop—Amy picked through the offerings.

  She’d just picked up one of the snowglobes—its internal music box started to play “I’m dreaming of a…”—when a crackling noise brought her whirling around.

  Fading away from the antique popcorn maker was a puff of smoke and a column of golden light.

  Fire! Or…butter oozing down the machine? Oh, no.

  She hurried to the machine as she unwrapped her apron, ready to swat out whatever flames were rising. At the thought of the licking heat, her heart slammed heavily, as if straining against the scars marring her chest.

  Note to self: Have the boss invest in a fire extinguisher. This was not the sort of challenge she’d been looking for, not at all.

  Skittering to a stop in front of the popper, she paused and tightened her hold on the thick canvas of her apron. There was no oil-fueled fire in the sparkling clean depths. Instead, there was a small black box.

  She tilted her head in confusion. She’d just cleaned the machine, so she knew there’d been nothing left inside, not even that stray kernel. Swallowing, she opened the inscribed glass doors—Fresh! Yummy!—and caught a whiff of a strange smell. It wasn’t the butter-flavored oil or even the cleanser she’d used. Definitely not the stink of burning flesh that sometimes still haunted her nightmares. It smelled…bright, like the hot ozone of a lightning bolt sizzling the air.

  The matte black of the box was etched with silvery markings. It wasn’t an abstract design, but neither was it any language she knew. Sort of like the hànzì calligraphic symbols from home, but kind of half Arabic, half Cyrillic too. She squinted. The writing was every bit as mysterious as the woman in the back room. This must be what Mr. Evens said they were waiting for.

  Her pulse ticked up again at the thought of actually talking to the woman. Without thinking, she reached into the popcorn machine to cradle the small box in her left palm.

  It rang. Louder and deeper than the cowbell, the sound rattled past her skin and into her bones. She staggered back a step, her fingers spasming on the box, clenching it hard. Unable to let go, unable to think. She felt the blunt edges of the metal press deeper, even through the numb skin of her scars. More sounds reverberated, like words but…not. Until suddenly the words made sense.

  “Greetings, Great Space Racer,” the box intoned. “Your teammate awaits. Ready yourself for adventure.”

  Adventure? Teammate? Amy gulped and pivoted on her heel toward the back room, startled. The door slammed open and Mr. Evens and his glamorous client were jammed shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, scrambling to get out. Trying to get to her…

  Uh-oh.

&
nbsp; The woman stared down at Amy’s disfigured hand, and Amy flushed with shamed heat. The woman might as well have been looking into her soul.

  “Amy!” Mr. Evens barked. “Don’t you dare—”

  Oh, she’d never do that. The one time she’d dared, it’d blown up in her face. Literally. She’d never dare again, she’d promised. “It won’t let me…” She tried to force her fingers open, but she couldn’t, as if the damage from all those years ago crippled her still…

  The silver lines on the black box scintillated, a rotating glow moving faster and faster in front of her hypnotized gaze.

  In the way back of her mind, she was dimly aware of Evens and the woman shouting. They wrestled free from their doorway traffic jam and raced toward her.

  Great Space Race? What was that?

  Probably she’d never know. She had to give this back to Mr. Evens and the beautiful stranger.

  But the peculiar energy flowing through the box forced her scarred fist tighter. An electrical hum raised all the tiny hairs on her body, and in another heartbeat her long black hair was mohawked straight up. She couldn’t help but giggle at the tickling sensation. If this was some sort of special-order sex toy, now she understood how boring Mr. Evens solicited such a glamorous client.

  Reluctantly, she extended her awkward hand and opened her mouth to explain. But all that came out was a gasp as the static hum sank all the way to her spine. The shock that bolted through her was terrifying, orgasmic. Her spine arched, and silver sparkles eclipsed her vision, bright against a void of darkness, as if the stars themselves had come to claim her.

  Damn it. Was she accidentally daring?

  Everything went black as deepest space.

  ***

  “Welcome, Great Space Racers! Ready yourself for adventure!”

  Luc winced as the mellifluous voice boomed from the ship’s comm. He turned down the volume with an irate flick of his fingers and watched as the holo-vid morphed from a view of the Great Space Race logo to a not particularly flattering image of him hunched over his work dat-systems, his gaze fixed with predatory intentness on the screen. Is that what he looked like to outsiders?