I grinned. “I’m glad you’re okay. I shouldn’t have asked you to drive me to the ship.”
“Me?” he said, his eyebrows shooting up. “They’re not after me. If I hadn’t seen you over that hill when I did—well, I was about five minutes away from a full-blown freak-out. For a second, I thought you were in that ship with Cy. Either the ship would leave and I’d never see you again, or the soldiers would shoot it down and you’d get hurt. I wasn’t prepared for either outcome.”
“So, it wasn’t all an act then? You didn’t want the rock?”
Benji’s face compressed, and he leaned toward me. “I don’t care about the rock. You’re the only thing I’ve wanted since the day I met you.”
“But you wanted to get into the lab.”
“The only reasons I wanted in the lab were because you were there and to make sure Cy wasn’t hitting on you.”
I laughed and leaned in, touching my lips to Benji’s for just a moment, before Cy hit another bump, and we both banged our heads on the ceiling.
After half an hour, the Mustang finally came to a stop, and the engine turned off. I was relieved, but Benji looked a bit disappointed. The trunk popped open to reveal Cy standing over us. He held out his hand to help me out.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Sorry about the sharp turns. Helena is crawling with Humvees. We had several close calls. It’s not easy sneaking around in an orange sports car.”
“It was a little rough but not bad,” I said, stealing a glance at Benji.
We followed Dr. Z to the front door of the radio station. None of us were surprised that it was locked, but Benji successfully picking the lock with some wire from his trunk surprised us all.
“What?” he said.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Cy asked. “That’s a fairly expert move for a conservative engineering student.”
“My dad taught me. He also taught me how to shoot a gun, start a fire, hotwire a car, and filter water effectively. He’s seen a lot during his time in the Majestic Twelve program. He wanted to be sure we survived if something happened.”
“He didn’t show you how to stop a bloody nose?” I asked.
Benji shrugged and grinned. “Dad didn’t have to teach me how to play dumb if a beautiful girl was willing to take care of me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but his mischievous grin was contagious.
“Do you always carry a lockpick in your trunk?” Cy asked.
“It’s two paperclips, one bent like so,” Benji said, holding out his hand. “They were in my backpack in the trunk.”
“Amazing coincidence, that’s all,” Cy seethed.
A raggedy, skinny gray cat meowed and rubbed itself against the wall of the station and then against Benji’s leg.
“Aw, poor guy,” Benji said. He tried to pet him, but the cat maneuvered out from under Benji’s hand and kept rubbing his side against Benji’s other leg.
“Looks like you’ve found a friend,” I said.
“Animals and kids love me,” he said before smooching at the overgrown kitten.
We all started following Dr. Z into the radio station, but Cy motioned for Apolonia and Tsavi to guard the front door. The building was sectioned into two different-sized rooms with a wall and a single narrow door. The front section contained the DJ booth, speakers, a desk, neon signs, chairs, and a bathroom. The back, from what I could see, looked like storage. Both halves were dark and full of equipment and cobwebs.
The professor hobbled to the DJ booth and sat down, looking over the knobs and buttons. “Someone find a power source. I’ll try to figure this out in the meantime.”
The cables behind the DJ booth led down into a hole in the floor, so Cy, Benji, and I fanned out, searching for an electrical box.
Several minutes later, Cy and I met in the center of the back wall without finding anything.
“I’ll check outside,” Benji called to us.
“You do that,” Cy muttered under his breath.
“Why are you so hell-bent on hating him?” I asked.
“I’m just waiting for him to betray you.”
“You mean, us.”
“No, I mean, you. One can’t be betrayed by someone one doesn’t trust.” He sighed, frustrated. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer, “This is a bad idea, Rory. His father is Majestic. Benji has been raised with that allegiance, and you think one girl is going to make him switch loyalties?”
“Why didn’t you make him leave then?”
“Because you wanted him to stay.”
“Since when do you listen to me?”
Cy checked over his shoulder, and then his eyes met mine. “I do care for you. When Tsavi, Apolonia, and I leave this planet, I don’t want you to be alone. If Benji is what he says he is, then you’re going to need him even if it makes me physically ill to put any thought into that scenario.”
“So, you’re allowing Benji to stick around because you want us to be friends just in case he’s not a lying Majestic minion?”
“Precisely, but not friends, an asset.”
“We’re already friends.”
“Yes. This concerns me.”
“Why?”
“I’ve already told you, Rory.”
“You care about me.”
He nodded.
“Lame.” I walked away, but he gripped my wrist.
Cy kept his voice low. “Do you have any idea how difficult this situation is for me? I didn’t mean to…I didn’t come here meaning to get close with anyone.”
“Let’s be honest. You don’t get to deny me Benji because you’re jealous. If you choose Apolonia, then you can’t claim me, too.”
He released my wrist, clearly disgusted. “You’re wrong. I wouldn’t do that to you or to her.”
“I guess one girl can make someone completely contradict everything he thought was right.”
“Now you’re comparing me to him?” Cy said, his face twisting to anger.
“Are you saying you’re not jealous?”
“Jealousy is a human emotion, one I do not possess.”
“I thought you didn’t lie.”
Cy began to say more, but the lights came on, and Benji careened through the door with a huge smile on his face and that ugly cat in one arm. “Found it!”
In that moment, I realized how close Cy and I were. He noticed it, too. In unison, we stepped back, putting distance between us, fidgeting and failing miserably at appearing casual.