more low-key, but he wouldn’t—that’s not how he rolls. I might be able to persuade Bianca to send someone to check it out on the sly, but by then I could’ve just gone myself.”
I did not mention that it was possible we had a high-level spy in our House. I trusted them, but only so far. Either way, my concerns were valid. If Father thought Rockhurst was hiding something valuable, he’d send in a fleet and that would be that. And with as fast as Polaris jumped, I could be in and out before Rockhurst even knew I was in the area.
But I also wouldn’t go without letting my sister Bianca know exactly what was happening—I wasn’t stupid. If I didn’t return in a few days, she would share the information with Father. And if anything changed while I was away, I trusted her judgment. If Father needed to know sooner, she would update him.
“If you are intent upon this madness, I will go with you,” Rhys said.
I looked at him like he was crazy. “I’m trying to talk people off of my ship, not on it, you dummy.”
Rhys shrugged. “War might be good for business in the short term, but it’s bad for everyone eventually. And while you would get picked up immediately, I happen to be a well-respected businessman-slash-smuggler. People expect me to show up in strange places.”
I rubbed my temples and prayed for patience. The hell of it was, he was right. Having him along would be better for me, but I tried not to use my friends like pawns, especially when it put them in danger.
“Plus, I’m dying to get a look at the ship,” Rhys said with a grin.
“I’m in,” Veronica said.
“Well, if you all are going to get yourselves killed, I’ll go, too. You’re going to need someone to bail you out. And I am quite looking forward to my next meeting with one particular Rockhurst,” Loch said with a feral smile.
Pleasure and panic thrummed through my system. I couldn’t decide if I was happy or terrified at the thought of Loch’s continued presence. My mind was very much against it, but my heart danced in joy. I was in trouble.
I sighed. “You all need to think very carefully about what you’re doing. We will be flying a stolen ship into a potential war zone where we are very much unwanted.” Rhys started to protest and I cut him off. “Just take a few hours to think about it. Anyone who still wants to go can meet me at the ship at sunset. For now, I have to get back, assess what supplies I’ll need to purchase, and update my sister.”
Veronica and Loch returned to the ship with me. Rhys promised he’d meet us at sunset. I half hoped he’d change his mind. I wasn’t used to feeling responsible for anyone but myself and now I had a whole group of people counting on me.
I swept the bottom level of the ship for trackers and cleared the ones I found. Then I dove into the result of yesterday’s diagnostic. The search with the new pattern for input had caught a couple more trackers deep in the ship’s system software, but I assumed that still wasn’t all of them. Richard was thorough, the jerk.
After I’d done as much as I could with the trackers, I started going through the ship’s manifest, looking for anything that needed to be resupplied. Nothing was terribly low, but I would need to stock up on more real food if Veronica wanted to cook. Otherwise, more ammo was always a good thing. I sent an encrypted request to Rhys along with promise of payment.
Next, I tracked down Veronica and tried to get her to give me a list of food she wanted. She changed it so many times while I was standing there that we decided it would be best if she just came with me when I went shopping.
Loch was in the fitness room when I found him. He was throwing punches at a heavy bag. He’d removed his shirt and sweat beaded across his back. I got lost in the mesmerizing movement of his muscles.
“Did you need something or did you just come down to watch?” he asked without stopping or turning around.
I shook myself out of my daze. I didn’t want to make things awkward between us. We would be stuck together on the ship for a few days while we checked out the Antlia system. I’d