Chuckling to myself, I pull the bedsheet over his mattress and secure it in place. Xavier watches me make his bed, his laughter dissolving into a ragged breath.
“You’re an idiot,” he informs me. “You shouldn’t have advocated for me.”
“Would you prefer to be in a cell?”
“What’s the difference?” He waves his wrist. “I’m still a prisoner.”
“Yeah, but now you’re a prisoner who gets to hang out with me all the time.”
“Gee, can’t wait.”
“You’re all set,” I say, fluffing his pillow before I walk to my own bed and flop down.
“Are you sure we can speak openly?” He looks around the room as if someone might materialize out of the walls at any second.
“It’s fine. I jam the signal whenever I’m in here.”
His eyes meet mine. “Have you spoken to Cross?”
“Not since last night. We rendezvoused in the city.” I pause. “At Haven.”
“Wow, Darlington. I’ve been crying myself to sleep in a cell every night and you’re off banging my best friend in brothels?”
“You have not been crying.”
“I notice you didn’t deny the banging part.”
My cheeks grow hot. “We can skip over everything except for the fact that he lied to me. He was covered in bruises. They beat him a lot worse than he let on.”
“Travis?”
“Roe. They were punishing him for his stupidity. You know, because of the evil Aberrant woman he unknowingly allowed into Elite.”
“But they don’t know that he’s…?” Xavier trails off.
I’ll never say it out loud, either, so I just shake my head no. “They stripped him of his command,” I reveal.
“Fuck off. They didn’t.”
“Yep. Radek is running Silver Elite now. At least until Cross can regain Travis’s trust.”
“Cross must be fucking pissed.”
Uneasiness washes over me. “That’s the thing. He isn’t. He seems…resigned.”
“Resigned to what?”
“I don’t know. But he’s talking like shit is hopeless. Like society is doomed and trying to fix it is futile.”
“Maybe it is,” Xavier says glumly. He examines his surroundings again. The gray walls and sparse furniture. “So, what? This is our life now?”
“For now,” I say.
“I don’t trust these people.”
“So you trust the Command, the people who issued a red threat for you? You trust Travis?”
“No. I don’t trust any of them, either.”
