It felt so long ago, all of it. Aiden’s infiltration of the Horizons Space Prison as a substitute warden so he could kill the murderer of his fiancée. His confrontation with Darren that night. His trip to this hideout had changed everything the moment he’d learned about the tragedy that had ended the last monarchs’ reign. The secrets, the lies, the truth about Marcus DuLaurent and Claudia’s death. Everything was still a jumble in his head, but at least he had the full picture now.
Two doors down from Darren’s, Bea used the scanner, claiming the fourth room. Once it had registered her, she opened it, revealing a moderately spacious en-suite with a desk, closet, a double bed and a chest of drawers.
Nyle charged in, plopping onto the bed. “I think this calls for immediate quality control,” he said as he propped himself on one elbow and patted the space next to him.
“I say we test the shower first. Wouldn’t want you ending up with plumbing trouble again,” Kristen countered, sliding open the stained-glass door of the bathroom. “It even has a tub.”
Nyle shot up, practically sprinting over. “No way!”
All three glanced at Aiden then, the unspoken question clear as day. He considered the invitation and while it was nice of them to offer, the idea didn’t appeal all that much to him. Sex hadn’t been on his mindmuchsince the night he’d fuckedDarren, and when it was, he usually tried to avoid thinking about it. Or remembering what it had felt like to touch Darren, to have his fingers all over smooth skin and defined muscles, to be touched in turn.
Aiden smiled and crossed his arms, arching an eyebrow. “I’ll take the last room on the left and meet you in the war room in an hour?” At Nyle and Bea’s shit-eating grins, he amended, “Or make that two hours.”
Nyle, Bea and Kristen had hit it off literally within two days of Kristen’s arrival, in more ways than one. And while that was none of Aiden’s business, he was glad the effort he’d put in was paying off and they’d started warming up to him, too. They weren’t exactly friends yet, though he hoped it was where they were headed.
And perhaps where he and Darren could one day get, a passing thought whispered, though he let it not linger.
The three’s combined laughter rang behind him as he left them to their own devices. The quietness of the empty hall engulfed him, persisting as he made it to his room and inviting too many thoughts in his head. Some were of Claudia, some of Marcus, some of the lies he’d been fed by both of them. Sara, the advanced AI based on Darren’s sister, was often on his mind too, and so was Darren. He didn’t like to think about them together, to revisit that painful childhood memory Sara had shown him in the hideout, because the way Marcus had destroyed the siblings’ family always made him struggle to breathe.
A part of him wanted to forget all of this, to leave, but he couldn’t. He’d promised Sara he would help—and Darren too, so he could kill him once this was over—and that gave him a direction. A goal, something to keep his mind occupied now so the anger and pain he still carried in him wouldn’t take over. He couldn’t let them go, he wouldn’t, just like Claudia’s betrayal and Darren’s crime. They were two absolutes that Aiden clungto, because they’d remained when everything else in his world of lies had shattered.
Because if he gave them up, what would be left of him then?
Aiden reached for his pocket in search of the amber stone. A bolt of sadness shook him. The habit still lingered, even if he didn’t have the stone anymore. It was lost just like everything else from his past.Just like his name.Aiden Graydidn’t exist anymore. There was only Aiden Kesley. It was how the crew knew him, and he was okay with it, because holding onto the other Aiden hurt too much. Besides, if nothing else, it felt like his own version of attempting a fresh start, even if sometimes it felt like he was just pretending.
He rubbed the area behind his ear, where the ‘C’ dedicated to Claudia was tattooed. It was the only thing he’d kept, a remainder of the love they’d shared, the only piece he couldn’t and wouldn’t erase. She’d had an ‘A’ done, a dedication to him that had matched his.
Letting his hand drop, Aiden tried not to go down that rabbit hole, not to think too deeply of those times where he had been both in love and clueless. Where everything had been so falsely simple. He focused on getting his room in order instead, needing that distraction in order to keep the anger at her lies at bay.
With the few possessions he had, it didn’t take him long to unpack, and soon he found himself in front of the massive media unit in the lounge just off the kitchen. None of the games interested him, so he put on a random show and stared blankly at the screen for a while, speculating whether Darren was currently talking to Sara, unpacking or taking a nap.
“I didn’t take you for a fan of talent competitions,” Darren said from behind him, making the hair on his neck stand up.
Whipping his head back, Aiden found the other man perched on the kitchen island with an apple in one hand. It was a casual stance at first glance, despite his black dress shirt and formal slacks, though his shoulders were tense and his expression was guarded.
“Clearly you’ve never watched one then, Howe,” Aiden challenged, even if he’d never seen one either.
His words and the conversation they invited came against his better judgement, out before he’d managed to veto them. They weren’t fully intended and were caused by an instinctual urge to alleviate the weight off Darren, even if that was something he shouldn’t care about. After all, the level of courteous friendliness and the occasional conversation were a compromise enough and plenty to allow tolerable cohabitation, so, really, there was no need for Aiden to poke his nose in Darren’s business.
Except you can’t stop doing just that, even if you should, that voice he didn’t like to acknowledge whispered in his head.
“We can always do a talent show night and amend that,” Darren said wishfully, his face relaxing into a sad but fond smile that stole Aiden’s breath away and made him hate himself for it.
Mercifully, Bea chose that moment to appear, coming from the direction of the war room and saving Aiden from the explosive conflict he was about to face internally because of his warring emotions. From going mad, from losing himself when he needed to remember not to despite this alluring side Darren sometimes unintentionally showed him.
When had she made it to the war room?He must have been more out of it than he’d thought if he hadn’t noticed her and likely the rest too come out of the bedroom and walk past him. The meds were helping a lot more now than they had been while he’d still been chasing Darren, but he supposed they weren’t a magical cure.
“Bea.” Darren shifted his attention to the woman, who’d changed into khaki shorts and a loose white shirt.On that note, why was Darren so dressed up?“Is everything set up?”
“Yep, was just on my way to get you two.”
Hopping off the kitchen island, Darren tipped his head for Aiden to follow. When they reached the space in the middle of the hideout, the two massive holoboard screens were on and filled with real-time visuals and data tracking the activity of space vessels in a radius around the asteroid. The desktop screens on the table were on too, some running programs and others scanning through the heaps of pages on the web to produce output highlighted in yellow. Nyle, draped sideways on his chair in front of the two huge screens, was typing something on a holographic keyboard while Kristen observed with genuine interest.
“Nyle, what have you got?” Darren directed at the blond as Bea claimed the free chair on Nyle’s left. Aiden sat next to her, though Darren remained standing by the edge of the section wall.
“I’ve got the perimeter monitoring system up and running, but I think Kristen might need to haul his ass outside and fix some of the cameras. A portion of the feed is a bit grainy and I can’t do shit from here.”
“I’ll make that a priority,” Kristen said, directing a nod Darren’s way.
