Chapter 36

Nan returned ten minutes later, carrying a bulky retro-looking transmission device that Darren guessed ran on the same protocols as the one he'd had in his possession before his capture. In her absence, the news reporter had finally made the announcement of a second inmate's escape, believed to be an accomplice to the ex-warden.

"Look, Nan, I'm on TV!" Nyle chirped, pointing at the picture they'd pulled from his prison file. The one with the sultry smile and the quirked eyebrow.

"Oh, my! Ain't you a looker!" she beamed, pulling a snort out of Darren. "Mr. Howe." She handed him the radio device. "I assume this will do?"

"Yes, Nan. Thank you."

She squeezed his arm in a motherly gesture. "If you need some privacy, you can use any of the rooms down the hall."

"Thank you. I'll let you two have some space."

He went to the first room on the left, where a massive bed with lace linen occupied an elevated platform in the middle. Perching his ass on the edge, he called his contact and gave a quick rundown of his situation. As much as he wanted to stay on the phone until they were both caught up with each other, he kept the call short, hanging up as soon as they'd set up a meeting spot. On his way back to the lounge, he ran into Nan and gave her the coordinates.

"I'll go prepare a shuttle, then. As much as I'd love to let you three rest, we should leave before our uninvited guests show up," she said, not sounding at all worried even though Nyle was now part of Darren's mess.

"Sorry, Nan. For dragging Nyle into this," he apologized. He'd tried to keep Nyle out of it, sort of, but the twink had simply refused to listen.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Mr. Howe. Nyle might look all sweet and innocent, but that child is a devil in disguise." She laughed, her entire face lighting up. "Always gave his parents such a hard time."

Darren could see it. Nyle was cunning and seemed to always find ways to get what he wanted. On top of that, he had an unexpectedly dirty mouth, didn't care about the rules and was probably one of the best hackers Darren had ever encountered. The combination of those traits probably made the twink a pain in the ass to more than a few people.

"I can imagine."

Nan gave him another squeeze of his arm and walked off. He watched her until she disappeared down the stairs past the reading nook, then he slipped back into the lounge.

As he walked in through the double doors, his attention skimmed over Nyle sprawled on the sofa and veered to the kitchenette, where Aiden was propped on elbows at the breakfast bar, wolfing down a sandwich. Gone were his ruined shirt and slate trousers, replaced by a cream ruffle-front blouse and a pair of ass-hugging black jeans that left very little to the imagination. And damn if Darren's dick didn't jump at the sight. He wanted to grope Aiden's ass, to feel it, to squeeze it and leave marks. To take Aiden and fuck him until he was a mess for an entirely different reason than the one currently making him so.

"Darreeen," Nyle drawled, hopping up from the sofa. He came over and ran his slim fingers up Darren's shoulder, pressing gently as an impish smile settled on his face. He'd gotten a change of clothes, too, though his were cargo pants and a comfy-looking hooded jacket. "Nan said Marcus' goons will be here within the hour, but we have time to stop by my room while she gets the shuttle ready."

Darren gripped Nyle's hand and moved it away. The twink pouted his lips, but didn't fight him on it.

"You got a location?" he asked and followed Darren's gaze.

"Yeah… Kepler outpost. Ran into Nan and already told her," Darren said, doing his best to stomp down the indecent images of Aiden his brain was flooding him with.

Nyle hummed, and it sounded like something between agreement and amusement, meaning that he had probably not missed Darren's ogling. "Apparently, all my other stuff was too small on him. Which, unfortunately, means that you are out of luck, too."

"I've got some stuff where we're going." It wasn't much and while it would fit Aiden, it was probably best that they swung by a shop at some point soon to pick out a few things for him.

Nyle licked his lips, his gaze turning scorching. "Perhaps you'd let me borrow some of it?"

Darren laughed at the image of Nyle wearing an oversized shirt and then had to withhold a groan when Aiden replaced the twink in the fantasy. Aiden in Darren's shirt—maybe the black one with the dark purple lotuses—and nothing else, jerking himself off on Darren's bed.

His dick strained against his pants. Well, shit.

Clearing his throat as he discreetly adjusted himself, he threw Nyle a pointed look. "Or you could pick some of your own stuff on the way out now?"

Nyle blinked innocently, the smile not dropping. "Didn't cross my mind."

Leaning in, Darren whispered, "You're not fooling me, Nyle. Not after you figured out who both Aiden and I were before he even tried to off me."

"Uh, excuse you? I figured out more than just that."

Darren shook his head. If not for Nyle refusing to back out, they probably wouldn't have made it out of Horizons. And that was before Darren even attempted to figure out how Nyle had sourced that network chip. "And we'll have a long discussion of how exactly you accomplished these things a bit later."

"Aye, aye, captain." Nyle mock-saluted and sashayed into the hallway.

"Howe, are we ready to go?" came Aiden's voice from the kitchenette just as the doors closed.

Had Aiden been observing them? He'd finished eating by the looks of things, cradling a glass of water with both hands. Despite the food, he still looked a little off. Tired, yes, but also as if something was on his mind and he was doing his best not to think about it.

"Yeah, Nan's waiting outside already."

"Then what are we still doing here?"

Crossing his arms, Darren tipped his chin at the sandwich platter. "You looked hungry."

"I could've eaten later," Aiden scoffed, brushing past Darren. He marched out of the room and Darren had to jog to catch up.

"No, you couldn't have, Kesley. You'd have probably passed out from hunger before we even arrived," he argued, huffing air out of his nose. "When was the last time you ate?" Or slept, but he kept that to himself.

"Where are we going?" Aiden hedged, punching the elevator button.

The doors opened, and they entered. The glass walls offered a view of the maintained garden to the side of the house and the convoy of vehicles parked up front.

"Kepler outpost on the inner side of the asteroid belt," Darren said, deciding not to annoy Aiden further by probing about his eating habits. He'd noticed though. He wasn't sure how, but he'd caught onto the fact that Aiden was a little strange around food, more often than not frowning at his lunch rather than eating it.

"Then Sara's hideout, I presume? Your contact will take us there?"

As much as Darren wanted to do exactly that, they couldn't go there straight away. It was safer to wait for things to calm down some place where Marcus wouldn't think to look. "No. It's too dangerous to go there now. We'll pick up some supplies, then hop back to this side of the belt and lie low for a while."

Aiden pinned his gaze on the garden outside. Darren watched him as he seemed to analyze the reasons behind the decision. After a few moments, Aiden nodded. "Yeah, I agree."

Darren let the conversation die there. Neither of them said another word, but he didn't mind it, finding the silence comfortable rather than awkward. It accompanied them in the shuttle too, courtesy of Nyle occupying Nan with stories from Horizons. Aiden fell asleep about an hour into their flight, though this time there was enough space so that he and Darren didn't sit with their bodies pressed against each other.