Fuzzy Logic. Science of Magic, #2

Birdie I was kind of halfway in love with Royce. Royce just wasn't aware of that, I didn't think. Sure, we went at it like cats and dogs verbally but I was pretty sure he didn't know I wanted to go at it like... things that go at it in a naked way. Marmots? Muskrats? Wasn't there a song about muskrats doing it? He didn't know I wanted to go at it like muskrats from a 70s yacht rock song.  Officially, I'm a research associate for Halloran and Reynard, a small but powerful magical research lab.
Unofficially, I work for Doctors Halloran and Reynard themselves, tracking down missing and runaway magic-users trying to stay out of the grasp of folks who want to control magic-users, turning us into lab rats and squeezing us dry before throwing us into the trash heap. I wanted to keep Royce out of it, keep him safe, so I broke things off with him as soon as I realized feelings had well and truly been caught. It wasn't my brightest move, really. When Royce decided to tag along with me on what was supposed to be a simple recon trip to check on a known rogue magic-user, everything went straight to Hell and my attempts to protect him by breaking off our burgeoning relationship were for nothing.
Now we're both running and I have no idea how I'm going to get him out of this before they catch up to me. Fuzzy Logic is a MM speculative fiction/urban fantasy romance of approximately 49k words with a happy ending. It is part TWO of a THREE part series and can best be read after part ONE. It features the prickly one soft for the soft one, friends to lovers to friends and back to lovers again, an unwilling road trip, and a seeming mismatch being a true match. Please see trigger warnings inside the book before reading.