Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

All the chill went out of the air on the bridge when Connor caught Drew’s surprised and hurt gasp. He tensed in the uncomfortable seat.

The engineer looked down at the Dustoff packet in her palm. “You thought…?”

Connor felt the color leaving her face like a punch in the gut. She had been an addict. There had been problems since hiring her back on. What was he supposed to think?

Except…that was a horrible way to treat someone.

He cleared his throat. “You were a Dustoff addict.”

“Were. I told you: I’m clean. No revel, no Dustoff.”

The lights coming off the consoles gave her a sickly hue. Her breathing rattled louder than the gentle murmur of the control systems.

This wasn’t what he’d expected. “But it looks—”

She shoved the packet at him. “Did you look at it? You say it looks…what? Bad?”