30
Darren
Darren felt Aiden tenseup a little. His hand found Darren’s and squeezed it gently, the contact enough to make Darren’s heart skip a beat. His body was perfectly attuned to the signals Aiden was sending, to every little touch and stolen glance. And they lit him up every time, each one an unintentional testament to how much Aiden cared about him.
It was the complicated type of affection and Darren was yet to fully earn it, to make up for what he’d done to Aiden, but the fact that they already had each other’s back and shared that visceral need to be near each other brought upon a mind-jumbling sense of contentment within him.
It suffocated him sometimes, threw him off balance, made him question if he really deserved it and yet he couldn’t give it up. His entire being belonged to Aiden already, he couldn’t live if he wasn’t allowed to be by Aiden’s side, and with every day that passed, he couldn’t help but wonder if one day that would be true for Aiden, too. Not yet, he didn’t think they were there, but once Marcus was no longer a threat and the world rememberedthe Valrais, maybe Aiden would choose to stay by his side instead of killing him like promised.
“I will go with Darren,” Aiden said—no,declaredit, his voice stern and authoritative and reverberating through Darren’s entire body until it found his soul and clasped it with its invisible hands.
“Agreed. No matter how legit this seems, I don’t think Darren should go alone,” Nyle commented, keying in a reply on his tablet.
“I’ll join you, too,” Kristen piped up. He was standing with his hip propped against the mess hall counters, his arms crossed over his wide chest. “As a contingency plan. I can wait nearby with a shuttle in case… things don’t go as planned.”
Everyone was on edge. Darren could feel it in the air around him and in the way his friends tried to keep it together. Rick’s betrayal weighed on them all, but he was glad that it seemed like they’d unanimously decided to move on from it. It would do them no good obsessing over it and trying to see where they’d gone wrong in trusting a man who had been Aiden’s best friend for so long.
Darren wondered if Aiden wanted to talk about it. It had to be the hardest on him, yet he’d not said a word. He made a mental note to bring it up when he got the chance and opened his mouth to ask if George had replied yet just as Nyle’s tablet pinged with a notification.
“Okay. George just sent me the location. Let’s see… It’s some bar on the outskirts of Calisto, twenty hours from now. He’s really not giving us much time to think about it.”
“Bea, can you get us there in time?” Darren asked, leaning back into the couch.
“Think so. But we’ll be cutting it close if we get pulled at a checkpoint.”
“We won’t get pulled. I already got the Maine new credentials set up,” Nyle grated out, frowning at the speaker near the strip of recessed lights. “The bar you’ll be going to… attracts a big crowd. Which is good. It would make it hard for George, or you, to do anything questionable with all the potential eyewitnesses around.”
Darren hoped that was the case.
“Can you get into the surveillance feeds?” Aiden asked, his hazel gaze cutting to Nyle.
“Yep. Just checked their security protocols and they are a joke. But I’ll wait until we are in the Moon’s network grid before tapping into their servers. Don’t wanna risk getting us flagged for accessing them from outside.”
“Nyle, baby angel, send me the location of the bar already so I can find a suitable landing spot for the Maine. I’ll keep her grounded, just in case we need to make a run for it.”
After he did that, Nyle returned his attention to the tablet, occasionally exchanging a few words with Kristen about system updates and additional security features. Aiden began sifting through what information he could find on the bar, while Darren joined Bea in the cockpit so the two of them could figure out an escape route if they ended up needing one.
“Ok, Darren, Aiden, remember—Kristen will be sixty seconds away from you, just on the other side of the smoking area’s emergency exit,”Bea said as Darren walked into the noisy bar with his hand resting at the low of Aiden’s back.
“Got it, Bea,” Darren replied, tapping his earpiece off and adjusting his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
They were about thirty minutes early, but he’d seen no point in waiting when they could scope the place first. Both heand Aiden wore the anti-detection glasses as per usual, while the rest of their outfits comprised cargo pants, black shirts and leather jackets so they could blend in with the club crowd.
Barrels-turned-tables filled up the space and complemented the wooden bar on the left, and colorful spotlights illuminated the dance floor. The energetic rhythm of the music the DJ was playing had Darren wish they weren’t here on a mission but for pleasure so he could dance with Aiden, but he chased that thought away and hurried them over to the back of the venue.
They claimed the spot where the bar counter ended in an alcove into the wall, the space just big enough for both of them to squeeze in. The view of the dance floor and the doors from here was good, and the huge decorative plant on the alcove’s other end half-hid them from any curious eyes.
Facing Aiden as he leaned his forearms on the bar counter, Darren said, “What are you drinking?” With the music not quite reaching here, he didn’t need to shout to make himself heard.
“Just water.”
With a lift of his hand, Darren got the bartender’s attention and ordered a glass of water and a whiskey on the rocks for himself. When their drinks arrived, both of them turned around and leaned their backs against the bar, focusing on the unhinged crowd. Half was concentrated on the dance floor, while the other half was in various stages of undress and inebriation. The couple three chairs from Aiden was making out loudly, and the booth near the corridor with the restrooms was hosting an orgy with none of the participants seeming to care that they were putting on a show for more than a few of the patrons.
In fact, when Darren scoped the nearby tables and booths, the number of people he saw fucking made him realize what kind of club this was. It had been ages since he’d been to one, but it reminded him of his early twenties all the same. Carefreeand right out of military training, he’d fucked a different person every night, not even daring to imagine he would find someone who could rock his world the way Aiden had.
Darren glanced at the man in question, who was sipping from his water and observing the wild crowd. As if feeling he was being stared at, his mesmerizing eyes cut to Darren a second later. The gold flecks in them shimmered with something dark and alluring, and despite where they were, Darren’s dick didn’t waste time taking notice.
Aiden licked his lips, letting his gaze dart left and right before it settled back on Darren. “Should we go check the smoking area?” he suggested, his voice low and a little rumbly. Agitated, as if he was still riding an adrenaline high.
