Theo shook his head in complete bafflement. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Her hand dropped to her side. Jun’s hand hovered within inches of his hidden weapon as he remained vigilant and cold. She finally turned to Theo, her brown eyes wet behind her mask. “He released me, along with many others. Nearly died for his efforts.”
Theo couldn’t resist a tiny smile at that, pride blossoming. “That does sound like him.”
She didn’t smile back. Her lips were full but chapped, and she pointed at Jun with bitten nails. “He has our support.”
Jun edged closer, examining her finger as though it might suddenly develop the capability to slice through Theo’s chest. Theo rushed to move the conversation along.
“It’s always nice to have friends, I suppose.”
She wasn’t large, but with a slight shift in posture, her petite frame hardened into something immovable. “Not friends. Backup. Tell him I am ready to make the exchange.”
Theo translated, and Jun retrieved a small, cylindrical package from an inner pocket of his coat. Wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with a string, it was completely unimpressive and incongruent with their surroundings.
She held out her hand, cupping in it a simple black bag clinking with credits. The thick leather bracelet around her wrist shifted enough to reveal the raised edge of burned, curdled flesh, long since healed. The resulting scars had formed a pattern. The letter B.
A brand.
Theo opened his mouth to ask about it, but Jun’s fingers dug into his arm as he gave a minute shake to his head. Theo flushed at the belated realization that it might be insensitive to inquire after a stranger’s scars.
The lone light cut out just as Jun made the exchange, and then a bright, blinding spotlight switched on with the ominous, building buzz of a charger sounding off to the side.
With a curse, Jun shoved Theo between some nearby crates and hastily stuffed the packet in Theo’s pocket. “Stay down!”
The stranger had fled, her frantic, slapping footsteps echoing off the maze of crates.
Jun withdrew his ancient phaser with one hand, and one of Boom’s glinting, iridescent blades with the other.
Peering around the corner of a crate, Theo watched Jun drop low and roll out of the spotlight just as a beam scorched the concrete where he had stood.
Theo covered his mouth against a gasp, shrinking back at the sound of the door screeching open and boots hitting the ground without a care to stealth. Four men strode into the warehouse with phasers in hands, examining the area closely.
The tallest one sucked his teeth and barked out a command without pausing his perusal of the space Jun had rolled away from. “Park’s in here somewhere. Scan for signatures and shoot anything that breathes. We’re not taking any chances of going back to Barnes empty-handed.”
Theo fumbled for his detonator, trying to remember Boom’s instructions, just as the shortest of the group lifted his wrist to tap on the view screen embedded in his flesh. His circuitry tattoos flickered and glowed. He held the screen up as he turned in a circle, projecting the readings out in front of him in glitching red numbers.
Theo’s heart stopped when he paused and scanned the crate in front of Theo again. “There. Picked up a signature. Definitely breathing.”
The man with a shaved head chuckled softly as he took a step closer to Theo, phaser aimed just to the side of his chest. “For now.”
Theo unlocked the detonator, thumb poised over the button as the man charged up his phaser. He started to press down, the plastic giving slightly before engaging, and—
Jun dropped down on top of the bald man, boots mashing his face into the ground. He kicked his phaser away, turned, and flicked his blade at the tallest man, embedding it in his wrist. The man shouted and dropped his weapon. Theo was so busy gaping at the running kick Jun aimed at the chest of the shortest man that he jumped in surprise when Jun slid over the crate, landed beside him, and snatched the detonator. “On the count of three, run for the door. Take this.”
Jun shoved his charged phaser in Theo’s hands and lifted him by the collar. “One—” He threw Theo over the crate in the direction of the door. “Two—” He let loose a hidden blade to pin the third man to a dilapidated crate by his loose jacket. “Three!”
Jun hit the button and dropped the detonator, swiftly gaining on Theo as they ran for the door. He hooked his arm around Theo’s waist, turning them around the corner into the alley. Jun pressed Theo back against the cold metal wall of the building, damp seeping through his clothes as Jun covered his body, Theo’s face tucked into his neck. The stun pulse gave a muted thud against the walls of the warehouse behind them.
Theo started to move, but Jun shushed him softly and took his phaser back with one finger held to Theo’s lips.
Theo pressed a kiss against it, adrenaline coursing through him in hot, jittery waves. “Jun, who were they? What—”
Jun’s quiet “hush” rustled the hairs on Theo’s neck, and, oh stars, he was suddenly rock-hard in his trousers.
Achingly so.
He carefully, silently shuffled his legs until he straddled Jun’s tense thigh, then let his hips slide, just once, against him.
Jun didn’t make a sound, but his breath hitched, and his finger moved to trace over Theo’s lower lip, then pressed just inside.
Theo swirled his tongue around the tip, and Jun pushed away from the wall and took Theo by the hand once more.
“They’re down,” Jun panted. “We’ve got to get out of here and off planet before they can trace us.”
Theo gave a breathless agreement and stumbled after Jun as he set a punishing pace out of the alley.
They took a shorter, more circuitous route back to the ship, with Jun hissing at Axel over the coms to get everyone on board and prepare for launch.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Theo
