"Borrowed, or stole?"

Ember bit back a groan at his endless inquisition. Seriously, they all wanted to beat him at times when he started doing this. But then, when you wanted to annoy someone, he was definitely the man to call, for he did it well. And with panache.

Worse?

He actually enjoyed watching people's temples begin to throb.

"Own," Bastien said to her.

Ember didn't bother repeating that to Badger, as it would raise his suspicion levels even more. "Borrowed. And no, he doesn't have a blaster trained on me. There's no need in being alarmed. Drop your weapons. It's all good here."

"Then why's there no video?"

Bastien quirked a playful smile. "Yeah, Wildstar. Why's there no video?"

"Shut up, both of you! Badger, stop being a knttr. I swear to the G.o.ds ... it has to be genetic!"

"What?" Bastien and Badger asked simultaneously, thus proving her point.

Ember barely caught her slip before she exposed something she knew would p.i.s.s Badger off to no end. They needed to get on the ground before that bomb was detonated.

Closing her shirt as quickly as she could, she turned around in the seat and took over communications.

"Take the lead, Badge. Get us home."

"Fine. Do your sisters know you're headed in?"

"Cutting the comm, now." She flipped it off and let out a frustrated sigh.

One not helped as she realized how tense Bastien was. "What's wrong with you?"

He fell into that horrible quiet that only came whenever he was seething about something. "Badger your boyfriend?"

Was he serious? She couldn't believe he'd even ask that. Let alone be so p.i.s.sy about it.

How dare he!

"You better be glad you have your helmet back on. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to slap you for that."

"Why?"

"Obviously, I don't have a boyfriend. If I had, I wouldn't have just had s.e.x with you! Saint Jake, Bastien! That's your territory, not mine!"

He bristled at that. "I've never in my life cheated on someone! You know that better than anyone!"

She did, and it was a sore topic for him, as he'd been accused of it repeatedly. Not just by the press, but by his own family. And apparently Alura, too. It was what had made them so good together. Her worst fear had been a cheating boyfriend, and he would never cheat because he couldn't stand being blamed for it.

Not to mention, he'd seen the damage cheating had caused for his parents. And while he'd loved his father, that had always been a very, very touchy subject for them. In fact, Bastien had been arrested in his late teens for a.s.saulting his father when he'd first learned of it-it was what had caused him to be sent into the military.

After Bastien had lifted a skimmer that belonged to a friend's parents, his father had shown up with his mistress to bail Bastien out. His mother thought Bastien's enlistment had resulted from the theft.

Neither of them had ever told her the real reason. His father because he'd always lied to her about his affairs. Bastien because he'd have sooner died in war than hurt his mother in any way. Which made no sense, as his death would have been the worst tragedy of all for her.

But Bastien's thoughts had only been on sparing his mother's feelings, any way he could. It was why he'd always been her favorite child.

Ember sighed. "Sorry." She sighed as she thought over everything she'd learned about him. "Did my sister really accuse you of having an affair with me?"

He growled low in his throat. "You. My sister. h.e.l.l, she'd even speculated I was sleeping with the pool boy."

She burst out laughing at the thought. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah. She was convinced I was chasing everything that moved. Female. Male. Fluffy bunnies. Even pack animals. If it breathed, she accused me of jumping into bed with it."

She shook her head at Alura's stupidity. "Again, sorry."

"It's all right. Besides, I aggravated her suspicions out of principle."

"Meaning?"

He laughed evilly. "During one of her more stellar tirades, I asked if she'd mind me having a three-way with Cinder and Tasi."

Oh, that had to have been rich. Ember could hear the screams in her mind. "You didn't!"

By the sound of his voice, she knew he was still grinning. "You know me better than to ask that question."

Of course she did.

And of course, he did. It was a vintage Bastien move. Why just aggravate a situation when you could annihilate it and bomb it up a few levels?

"Your mouth has always gotten you into more s.h.i.t, Cabarro."

"I know. Can't help myself. I have this moment of reason where my inner sense tells me to bite my tongue. Then my 'f.u.c.k-it list' kicks in and I'm doomed." He cleared his throat. "By the way, your jacket's not fastened properly. You might want to fix that before we land."

Looking down, she cursed as she realized he was right. "Thank you for noticing."

"There's nothing about you I don't notice."

Her brow shot north as she felt him growing hard against her hip again. "You cannot be ready for another go 'round. Surely..."

"Elskamun, you have no idea. All I have to do is catch a whiff of your scent and I swear I could hammer in a nail with what you cause down there."

"Hammer a nail? I might test that theory later."

"Again, don't tease me."

Oh yeah, there was no missing the way his voice deepened. Or how much she'd missed j.a.ping with him like this.

Ember fell silent while they followed after Badger, and noted what Bastien was doing. "He won't turn you in, you know."

"Pardon?"

She inclined her head to where he was entering notes into the fighter's system. "That's why you're logging his serial on the ship and its markings, is it not?"

When Bastien answered, he kept his tone flat and even. "Doing my due diligence. Wanted to know what and who I was dealing with."

"He's DR. What more do you need to know?"

"What he is to you."

She leaned back so that she could stare up into Bastien's face. He had the shield lightened on his helmet so that she could smirk at the suspicion in his eyes. "He's a pesky little brother who's like a father to your son, so play nice even if he is a member of the outlawed Dread Reckoning."

Bastien ground his teeth as a fierce wave of jealousy went through him over those words. "Father?"

"Don't even get that look on your face, Bastien Cabarro. He's Tasi's cousin, who was orphaned young and raised like her brother, and they were very kind to take Rian in for me. We owe them a debt of grat.i.tude."

But the surly expression on his face said the only thing he wanted to give Badger was a kick in the a.s.s.

"You will love him when you meet him."

"Doubtful."

She tsked at him. "Careful with those absolutes ... they have a nasty way of coming back to bite you."

He scoffed at her words and remained churlish until they landed on the small outpost where the leader of the Dread Reckoning made her home-or at least as close to a leader as the DR came. Which wasn't saying much. It basically meant Tasi's mother was the nastiest of them all.

Inside the fortified bay, Ember climbed out of the fighter first.

Bastien was much slower, especially once he saw Badger heading for her. Dressed in his all-black Armst.i.tch suit, Badger was almost as handsome as Bastien. But he lacked that je ne sais quoi that Bastien had mastered from the cradle. Something about Cabarro was infectious and charismatic.

And she was grateful every day that their son had inherited that trait from his father. Even if it did lead the boy astray from time to time.

Just like Bastien.

Eerily quiet as he tagged along behind her, Bastien had that tenseness to his body like a coiled spring while he approached Badger. It usually heralded an a.s.s-beating for whatever male had caused it.

Wanting to head it off, fast, before it exploded into something deadly, Ember gave Badger a hug and whipped his helmet off so that she could kiss his dark, whiskered cheek.

Bastien froze the moment he made eye contact with the young man. His breath left him as if he'd been sucker-punched. And that's exactly what it felt like as he stared into eyes that were an identical match for his.

And his father's.

More than that, while Badger's features were similar enough to Bastien's, they were identical to Quin's. It was like staring into the face of his brother's twin, especially since Quin hadn't been much older than this kid when Barnabas had murdered him.

Ember stepped back. "Iskander Zeki, meet Bastien Cabarro."

f.u.c.k me ...

Zeki ... he should have known. That had been the unmarried name of the b.i.t.c.h his father had run around with for years. The same woman who'd been with his father when Bastien was arrested his last year of university.

Even now, he could see her standing behind his father in that sterile office when he'd shown up to bail him out. Never in his life had he been angrier.

And this was their offspring....

Recognition flared in Badger's eyes a moment before he let fly an audible curse that matched the silent one in Bastien's head, and started away from them.

"Badger!" Ember barked as she pulled him to a stop. "Don't you dare leave here."

"I've got nothing to say to them, and you of all people know it."

"Bastien had nothing to do with your father's actions. It was Newell's choice to walk away from you when you were a child. And right now, neither of you has enough family left for you to be a.s.sholes to the only brother you have."

Indecision played across Iskander's dark brow. It was an expression so close to the one Quin had whenever he was perplexed or undecided that it sent a chill down Bastien's spine.

There was no doubt in his mind that they were brothers, just as she'd said.

Unbelievable.

This was the last thing he'd expected, and it ranked right up there with his unknown son. What other surprises did Ember have in store for him? At this point, he was getting punch drunk from being slapped in the head with them.

Stunned and unsure of how to proceed, Bastien stepped forward. "I don't know what went on between you and my fath-"

"Our father," Iskander corrected between clenched teeth. "Though he wasn't much of one to me, for d.a.m.n sure. I never saw him again after my mother died."

Bastien held his hands up. "I meant no slight with that. Slip of the tongue, mate. I would never insult you that way."

Iskander scoffed and rolled his eyes.

d.a.m.n, he was hostile. But then Bastien did the math in his head ... Odile had died during his first year in the military. Given Iskander's present age ... A bad feeling went through him. "How old were you when she pa.s.sed away?"

"You mean when she was murdered and I was left as an orphan? Seven. Barely."

No wonder he was p.i.s.sed off. Bastien couldn't blame him, and he didn't understand how his father could have done that to him. So much for all the lectures his dad had given him on taking responsibility.

There was no way he'd have ever abandoned a child of his.

"Icky! Mama!"

Bastien scowled at that high-pitched squeal that was followed by the sound of a heavy, slapping footfall of a boy around the age of nine who came running across the bay like a frazzled blur. It wasn't until he launched himself into Ember's arms that Bastien realized the boy hadn't said "Icky Mama," but rather had been calling out to Iskander and Ember.

Disbelief filled him for the second time since he landed as he stared at the small, dark blond boy whose hazel eyes matched his and Badger's.

It'd been one thing to see his son in pictures. In the flesh ...

Bastien had no grip on this moment. Dropping his helmet to the ground, he went to the boy and Ember, and wrapped his arms around the two of them and held them tight. All he wanted to do was keep them there for the rest of eternity.

Ember couldn't breathe due to Bastien's crushing embrace. Still, she sank her hand into his unbound hair and held him while he kept Florian wedged between their bodies.

"I. Can't. Breathe!" Florian growled as he struggled for freedom like a fish that had been dumped on land.