Theo didn’t bother to right himself beyond skimming a hand through his hair to shake it out. “Well, Captain, it appears your plan to be rid of me will have to wait. How tragically inconvenient for you.”
Jun squared his shoulders to meet his glare head-on, hands held at his side as if they were preparing for a duel at twenty paces. “I’m trying to keep you safe. I don’t want to be rid of you.”
There was little Theo could do about the unruly celebration of those words clamoring around his head, sending a rush of relief through his chest, so he chose to ignore it. He put some bite in his words, teeth snapping.
“No? Then, tell me, what do you want with me, exactly? Because it seems you’d quite like to kiss me, despite your blasted rules. I’m beginning to suspect you have tender feelings for me beyond that of a convenient bedwarmer, and your continued silence on the matter does nothing to uphold your lofty ideals. Valor, indeed.”
Not long ago, he had witnessed Jun face several armed men with less visible trepidation than he did this conversation.
“Theo—I—”
“Now, Captain!”
They both winced at Boom’s distorted voice shouting overhead. The mechanical squeal of the coms shutting off went through Theo’s head like a spike.
He gave Jun two more breaths to say something, and then he threw his arms up in exasperation. “Oh, sod this. I’m heading back. You can stay here and wade through your bottled-up emotions on your own, Captain Park.”
Jun gave him several paces’ distance before following after.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Boom fixed Theo with a long, hard stare when he entered the bridge, scanning him from top to toes, and then she gave a huff and went back to her screens.
Jun walked in with his shoulders back, not even glancing Theo’s way as he went directly to Boom’s console. “What is it? Security breach?”
She shook her head, dark curls bouncing as she tapped on one screen to make it larger and zoomed in on a low-quality vid feed. “Not exactly. Got a ping. Facial recognition code for Dr. Campbell. Something’s screwy, but it’s only off by a small margin. Take a look at this. It’s a live feed.”
Jun leaned over the feed, and then pivoted to give Theo the same scanning treatment. His face was guarded as it hadn’t been since they’d left the dinghy to board his ship. “Explain this.”
Theo was just as puzzled as everyone else. Why in the stars would a live vid feed send his code? Unless—
But that would be impossible, right?
“Out of the way, let me see.” Theo squinted at the grainy feed, heart jumping into his throat with instant recognition. Drumming impatient fingers on Boom’s arm, he hip checked Jun farther out of his field of view. “Can’t you make it any larger? I need to know if it’s— Oh stars! It is, it’s him! But how?”
Boom worked steadily on the picture quality, the vid feed stretching and zooming in jerky increments until the figures moving across the screen became as clear as possible.
Undeniable.
Theo swatted Jun on the shoulder, ignoring the glare he received in response. “It’s really Ari! Look, Jun, that’s my twin brother! Where is this; can you find the origin? Why is he out here? This must be coming from beyond the Verge, correct? How could my sweet Ari possibly get all the way out to the Restricted Sector? He once had to take a breathing break because we needed to frequent a different post office than our usual.”
He finally turned to Jun when he got no response, taken aback by Jun’s slack-jawed, shocked expression. “You have a twin?”
They didn’t have time for this. Ari was alone somewhere out in deep space, for some unfathomable reason. Ari was as gentle and timid as he was level-headed. He needed Theo to jump in and save him. This was the time for action.
He flapped his hand in Jun’s face to convey the urgency of the situation, bones itching with the need to do something. “Yes, of course, which should be obvious by now from our very close resemblance, do keep up. I know I’ve mentioned Ari to you before, Jun.”
A small line appeared down the center of Jun’s forehead as he thought very deeply about something that, frankly, Theo did not have time for right now. “I thought—I thought Ari was your husband.”
Boom recoiled from the console with a soft hiss. “Yikes.”
Axel and Marco spoke over each other from the pilot’s chair and over the static-bitten coms:
“Shit, Park.”
“Oh, Captain. That’s tragic.”
A bubble of affront rose above the seething ocean of concern for his brother to pop in an explosion of words, index finger digging into Jun’s solid chest. “I beg your pardon? You thought I was married? You genuinely thought I was a married man, who would comport myself in such a way with you? You insult me, Jun.”
It wasn’t the first time Theo had been assumed to be woven of loose moral fiber by one of his lovers, but it was the first time the assumption had hurt so badly. He felt a real connection with Jun, something deeper than physical attraction. He was even beginning to convince himself that his feelings might be returned.
Jun wrapped a careful hand around the finger drilling through his sternum, his face open and contrite. “Theo, I didn’t—”
Yanking his hand out of Jun’s grip, Theo spun back to the screen, teeth gritted. “No, I don’t suppose that you did. I don’t have time for this; can you find my brother, please? Quickly. He sets much stock in punctuality, and I would hate to be tardy for his rescue.”
The light, jovial lilt to his words did little to disguise the way his voice shook, fear running ice-cold through his veins. He had
