Jordan seemed to sense her struggle. He stood up from his chair and inched toward her. When she didn’t object, he took another step and reached out as if to cradle her face in his hand. Though it was only an illusion, the skin on her cheek flushed at the phantom contact. She was about to take a step backward when Renny strode in from the pilothouse and walked right through Jordan’s hologram.
“Oops,” Renny said, and then backed up and did it again. “I didn’t hear anyone talking, so I thought the conversation was over.”
Jordan awkwardly cleared his throat, cheeks coloring as he peered at her over the top of Renny’s head. “Maybe you should call me when you find your band.”
“I will,” she agreed.
Then he vanished.
Cassia whirled on Renny. “What’s your problem?”
The captain didn’t apologize. Far from it. He wrinkled his nose and fanned a hand in the air as if to dispel any remnants the general had left behind. “I don’t like that guy.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“I know enough.” Sabotage complete, Renny turned and made his way back to the pilothouse. “I know he’s overstepping his bounds, and if you let him get away with it, you’ll lose everything you’ve worked so hard to build.”
“What?” She charged after Renny. “I’m not losing anything. We’re friends. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“There is when he stands to gain an entire planet by getting in your pants.”
Getting in my pants? She was so thunderstruck by Renny’s logic that she couldn’t speak. She dropped into the copilot’s chair and flung a hand toward the ceiling. Thankfully, her silent frustration was a language he seemed to comprehend.
“The way I understand it,” he said, “Eturia was formed by four dynasties. Two of them surrendered to Marius during the war, leaving him in control of their lands. Then you married him and merged all those kingdoms into one.” Renny glanced at her. “Am I right so far?”
She nodded.
“Okay. So now, if anything happens to Marius, which it probably will, control of the whole planet passes to you—until you share it by taking another husband.”
“And you think Jordan’s vying for the job?”
“I think that’s his first choice. But if it doesn’t work, he’s in a perfect position to stage a military coup. It happens all the time.”
“But you’re missing a huge point. My parents abandoned the throne a long time ago. If Jordan wanted to take over, he could’ve done it already. But he didn’t. He used his influence to put me in charge.”
“And I promise he had an agenda. Men don’t surrender their power for nothing.”
Cassia knew the captain’s heart was in the right place, but his conspiracy theory about Jordan was starting to feel like a personal attack. She’d made plenty of mistakes, but trusting Jordan wasn’t one of them. Renny could criticize all he wanted. He hadn’t been there when Marius had locked her in a dungeon cell. Jordan had been there. Renny hadn’t whisked her away from Marius’s suite and then helped her steal and dismantle a dozen enemy missiles. Jordan had done that. Since her return to Eturia, no one had supported her more fiercely than Jordan—not even her best friend.
She picked at a smudge of dried food on the console. “Is it that hard to believe he likes me for me?” She hadn’t meant for her voice to sound broken. “Not everyone is working an angle.”
Renny softened, turning to her with a gentle smile. “Of course not. You’re an amazing girl, Cassia. You’re strong and smart and incredibly brave. I’m only trying to open your eyes. This general is shiny and new. He says all the right things and probably gives you butterflies in your stomach. But that’s because you don’t know his flaws. One day the glow will wear off, and I think you’ll look back and regret letting go of the person you really loved.” Renny reached out, covering her hand with his. “The one who was there for so long you stopped noticing his shine.”
She pulled her hand free and tucked it beneath her thigh. Maybe she had taken Kane for granted once, but her kidnapping had changed all that. She would be with him right now if he hadn’t betrayed her.
“It’s not that,” she admitted, because she needed to talk to someone, and the words flowed easier around Renny. She told him about all the times the rebels had learned information she’d shared only with Kane, and then about the transmission he’d sent two nights ago. “I caught him in the act. How am I supposed to ignore that?”
Renny didn’t answer at first. He took the time to clean his glasses and then reposition them on his nose before he said, “Maybe you’re not supposed to ignore it. Maybe you’re supposed to understand it.”
“Understand that he betrayed me?”
“Understand that you’re not the center of the universe, Cassia,” he corrected. Despite the gentle delivery, his message heated her cheeks. “There are other people in Kane’s life, too. Did you expect him to put your feelings above the life of his own mother?”
“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to Rena.”
Renny slid her a disbelieving look.
“I wouldn’t have!”