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After a few more moments of self-satisfied glaring, Sebastian’s expression dropped into contrition. “To be fair, it’s not like I exactly tried to be friends.”
Garrett huffed. “No, you didn’t.”
Sebastian chuckled. “So, we’re both assholes. Maxwell will be so proud of us for coming to that conclusion.”
Garrett winced at the fresh lance of fear. “Do you think we’ll get him back?”
Sebastian looked down at the tablets and then shrugged a shoulder. “I have to believe we’ll save him. But I don’t know if that means we’ll get him back.”
“What do you mean?” Garrett reached out to Sebastian but stopped his hand by curling it into a fist on the table. “What does that mean?”
“He’s been outed.” Sebastian looked back up at Garrett with a pained expression and another shrug. “Every torvar I’ve ever known would run if that happened. That’s how they’re raised. That’s how they live their lives. That’s how they stay alive.”
A cold dejection settled over Garrett’s body as he stared down at the table.
It made sense. It really did. Garrett swallowed. And Maxwell had to do what he had to do to protect himself. Garrett would support him in that. And besides, whether or not Maxwell would leave him after Garrett finally got him back didn’t matter.
All that mattered was saving him.
“Right.” Garrett nodded and reached for one of the tablets, more to give himself something to look at than because he could actually see it. “That makes sense.”
“I’m sorry, Garrett.” Sebastian put a hand on Garrett’s arm.
Garrett jumped. He licked his lips, shook his head, and shook off the hand. “Don’t be. Let’s just find him. That’s all that matters.”
Sebastian sighed as he took his hand back. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
Garrett forced himself to focus on the map on his tablet. Charting out trajectories wouldn’t get him anywhere, but maybe he could find a place that looked promising. Maybe on Carta since Tava was still uninhabitable.
“Here’s something.” Sebastian’s musing voice broke through Garrett’s fruitless search. “Looks like Buck got moved between prisons pretty frequently. He was a bit too good at making friends, and the Klah’Eel worried he might put together a group big enough to cause problems.”
“Any of those friends look suspicious?” Garrett reached out, and Sebastian swiped a copy of the reports he was looking at to a nearby tablet for him to grab.
“They all look suspicious,” Sebastian snorted. “Some of these people were Cartel members, though.”
Garrett frowned as he scrolled the known list of associates. “He never mentioned that, and we’re practically living with the Cartel now.”
“No, he didn’t, did he…” Sebastian murmured, and his brows furrowed. “I wonder if—”
They both jumped as the door to the hut slammed open to reveal a wide-eyed Joan.
“Oh, thank god I found you two.” Joan heaved a sigh, but the knuckles of the hand she wrapped around the door frame still strained white. “I don’t know where Hess is.”
Sebastian swept his eyes up and down Joan’s practically vibrating frame with a frown. “He’s fighting with Patrick. Why? What’s wrong?”
Garrett cocked his head. “Why is he fighting with Patrick?”
But Joan just ignored him and grabbed both his and Sebastian’s arms. “You two are good enough for now.”
“Joan, what’s wrong?” Sebastian asked again as Joan hauled them out of the room.
Joan didn’t loosen her grip as she frog-marched them toward the sky port. “There’s a Qeshian recon team landing right now, and they’re asking for Hess.”
Garrett’s mouth fell open. “A Qeshian what?”
But Sebastian spoke over him. “Did they say what they want?”
Joan shook her head rapidly. “Just that they need to speak to Tava’s security leader, that it’s urgent, and that he would know what it was about.”
