The cockpit of theDartwas small, so it was a tight fit for all of them, but Nissa paid no attention to her team rematerializing at her back.
Instead, her gaze was on the tall man in front of her. She saw some look cross Justyn’s handsome face. Guilt, she decided.
She flicked a look at the smaller man sitting at Justyn’s feet, his arms resting on his knees and his face bruised. Hewett Kenth.
Justyn stepped forward. “I can explain?—”
“Where is it?” She spoke with a ruthless calm she didn’t feel.
Justyn grimaced. “Well, there’s a story?—”
“No crap, Phoenix. Where is the Constitution?”
“Captain Smooth?—”
She strode up to him, her hand resting on her holstered pistol. “Now is not the time to test me. Where. Is. The. Document?”
Justyn eyed her pistol, then shrugged his broad shoulders. “It isn’t here.”
Damn him.Nissa’s jaw ached from clenching her teeth so hard. She was so angry at him and something in her chest ached. Wine, tobacco, luxury goods, she could forgive. But this…not even she could forgive him this. “Commander Tryker, arrest both these men and escort them to theFreedom’sbrig.”
Justyn’s silver-gray eyes flickered, but for once there was no careless grin on his face. “I can explain, Nissa.”
She turned away from him and speared her head of security with a look. “Get more people over here. Tear this ship apart. I want the Constitution found.”
Nissa strode out of the cockpit. She’d thought that finally locking Justyn Phoenix in the brig would make her happy.
It didn’t.
Justyn layon his back on the low bunk, hands clasped under his head, staring at the ceiling of his cell.
He’d spun his wheels in quite a few brigs in his time. Nissa’s really wasn’t that bad.
Still, he felt…unsettled. That look she’d given him in the cockpit of Kenth’s ship had seared through him and left him feeling shredded inside.
He heard voices in the corridor outside and turned his head. There was a large synth-glass window and a solid metal door beside it. The GSS didn’t muck around with force fields that could fail if the power systems went down.
The door swung open and when Nissa entered. Justyn swiveled to sit up, his hands resting on either side of him on the bunk.
“You can go,” she spat.
Fuck, she was mad. Her voice was as cold as Perman ice and her lovely body was rigid as steel.
“That’s it?” he asked.
Her yellow eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a joke, Phoenix.”
No, it wasn’t. “I take it your search didn’t uncover the Constitution? And that you learned, like I did, that someone had already relieved Kenth of the document.”
She didn’t say anything, but he saw the truth of his words reflected in her face.
“He tell you who took it?” Justyn continued.
“Jonas Solomon.”
“Treasure hunter. Cheeky upstart, from what I hear.”
“That moniker suits someone else I know.”
