Red Handed Read Free Page A

changed colors with their moods, glowing like neon signs. The Arcadians had similar bodies and facial features to us but their skin was much paler and their eyes were a metallic purple color, inhuman.
    There were more alien types than I could name. Still. Same story. They looked different from us. The ones I know about, at least …. But I did not want to consider that .
    Ryan frowned at me, and it was one of the darkest expressions I’d ever seen. Scary.
    â€œTake your friend and go home,” he repeated.
    â€œWhy?” I asked, raising my chin, refusing to budge. He’d dismissed me only a few minutes ago. The fact that he was now eager to get rid of me only made it worse. Who did he think he was?
    â€œThere’s going to be trouble with the Outers tonight, and you do not want to be a part of it.”
    Aliens a.k.a. “the Outers.” I had nothing against them; they’d lived and walked among us for over seventy years. I’d learned in history class that they’d only been allowed into our school system and workforce about twenty years ago. But they’d always been a part of my life and had never caused me trouble, so Ryan could go screw himself.
    Outers rarely caused trouble, to be honest; they were too afraid of being killed by A.I.R., Alien Investigation and Removal, an elite unit very similar to police or military or FBI. Except deadlier. Meaner. More blood thirsty.
    They were the stuff of legends and movies.
    Everyone, even humans, feared them. They could mow you down like roadkill if they even suspected you were guilty of helping an alien commit a violent crime. And it would be perfectly legal. They were judge, jury, and executioner.
    â€œWhat makes you think there’ll be trouble?” I asked, humoring him. A part of me didn’t want him to leave my side.
    He didn’t look at me when he said, “Maybe I spotted a few aliens when I hiked through the forest.”
    â€œSo,” I said with a laugh.
    â€œSo,” he said with a scowl.
    I snorted and waved a hand in dismissal. “Are you an Outer hater or something?”
    Ryan’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t answer.
    â€œYou paranoid, then?” I’d been thinking about leaving only a few minutes ago. Now I wanted to stay. Maybe it was the rebel in me. Maybe it was the fact that I was talking to one of the hottest boys I’d ever seen—a boy who, with only a few words, had made me feel more alive than I had in a long, long time, even though he couldn’t wait to get rid of me. “Think the Outers are out to get us and steal our planet? Well, guess what? You should have paid better attention in class. Even I know the War of the Species is over. Has been for like sixty years. Everyone’s friendly now.”
    To end the war that had almost destroyed our planet, the Outers and humans had signed a peace treaty, which gave aliens permission to stay here and A.I.R. the right to police and destroy as needed. I’d had to memorize the stupid thing, not that I could recall a single word now.
    A muscle ticked under Ryan’s eye. “You know for a fact that they’re friendly?”
    â€œWhen was the last reported violent crime, hmm?”
    â€œSo the media reports everything now? That’s a newsflash to me.” He laughed, but the sound lacked humor. “Ignorant, that’s what you are. You have no idea what you’re messing with, little girl.”
    Ignorant? Little girl? My eyes narrowed, just like his had done earlier. I closed some of the distance between us. He smelled like firelight and pine. “Every girl here is my age or younger. What’d you come here for? To get you a piece of ass from one of these little girls , right? So what does that make you?”
    His jaw hardened, making it a determined square. “That’s not—”
    A strange, eerie howl suddenly cut through the night. The sound was raspy, animalistic. Close. Startled,