Following after him, Ember frowned as she watched him work on who knew what. Though as she saw him scrambling about she began to have some idea of what he intended.

Yet there was one major problem....

"You know, they'll scan for life forms. If you send it up on autopilot, they'll detonate it before it can cause harm."

"That would be true in most cases."

"Meaning?"

"That I've had years and years alone to hone my skills and plot my revenge. They've no idea what they're dealing with. But I'm about to set them up for some hostile lessons."

Brand scratched at her ear as she watched him working. "You think he can do it?"

Ember shrugged. "We didn't call him Ghost Gadget without cause."

"True."

Still, she did have doubts.

Pulling away from her, Rian ran to climb up the fighter behind his father. She started to grab him, but Bastien reached down to help him move to stand by his side so that they could work on it together.

The sight of them like that ... of Bastien's patience with their son as he explained to him what he was doing and why ... it made her strangely weepy.

"So this will work?" Rian asked.

"It should. Or it'll p.i.s.s them off and they'll kill us." Bastien pulled out his link and handed it to their son. "Please, hold the light so that I can see a little better."

"Okay. And for the record, I don't want to die."

"For the record, I don't intend to let you. I'd never hear the end of it from your mom. And she really scares me most days."

Rian glanced at her, then whispered, "She scares me, too."

Ember sighed as that tweaked her heart, in a psychotic kind of way. Bastien made it so hard to stay angry at him. But then that was nothing new. The entire time they'd dated, she'd been on the verge of wanting to choke the life out of his body and then he'd surprise her with an act so incredibly kind or thoughtful that she'd instantly forget her rage.

His mother had complained of the same thing. And so had Lil. In fact, she could hear his sister's voice in her head to this day-"It's the only reason I didn't drown him while he was still in nappies...."

"So what are you doing now?" Rian asked excitedly.

"This is the heater for the ship. If we scramble things about, it'll heat up the seat and make it appear as if there's someone in it."

"You can do that?" Rian gaped.

"Sure can. Then we need to rig the drive so that it can pilot out on remote. And the sensors so that they'll think they see a phantom body in the seat."

"That's awesome. How will you land it?"

"Won't have to. SOP for The League is they'll tractor beam the ship in. They won't chance my ramming their facility out of suicidal tendencies." Bastien flashed a charming grin down at her. "Of which I have many, according to your mother."

"Wow ... how do you know all this?"

"Studied hard in school."

Rian screwed his face up at his father. "Not what Mama says."

This time, Bastien glanced down to her and smirked. "What lies has she been telling on me?"

"She says you're where I get my slackness from. That you charmed your way through school and negotiated grades with your teachers like you were running for political office. You never studied for anything, other than how to avoid responsiblity."

Bastien feigned being offended. "Why she tell you that?"

He shrugged. "Don't know."

Bastien grimaced down at Ember. "Why you tell my boy those stories?"

"'Cause he's little Bastien, all the way. Just look at him. He's not your son so much as your clone."

Rian was digging around the engine, toying with various belts. Just the way Bastien tinkered whenever he had a new toy. He looked up with a charming smile that was identical to the one his father used whenever he got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to.

Bastien grinned proudly.

Ember groaned and then had to smile at the two of them and the trouble she was in while facing their combined force.

Cin wrapped her arms around her. "I like seeing you with that expression on your face."

She leaned back against her sister. "It's not happiness. I'm imagining creative places to hide Bastien's body should my child be harmed."

Brand laughed.

Until Badger returned, with Kindel in tow, hauling enough explosives that it made her sick to her stomach. Ember couldn't believe how much he'd found.

Or how quickly.

Good Jake, you are Bastien's brother.

How had their family ever survived to become rulers of anything?

Bastien forced Rian down the ladder and away from the ship while they wired the explosives.

Against the child's protests, she had Brand take him home so that if something went wrong-like she maimed his father over this "brilliant" plan, he wouldn't be here to witness it.

Or worse, get caught in the blast range.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she watched the men running around to rig the explosives. Bastien was a little too cavalier with the highly volatile compound for her tastes. As was Badger. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Not at all," Bastien said with a laugh. He scowled at Badger. "Is it the red and green wires you're not supposed to cross?"

"Um, yeah. So please don't forget that. Especialy while I'm in range."

Bastien nodded. "I guess this would be a bad time to tell you I'm color blind?"

Badger turned stark white. "Are you effing kidding?"

"He's joking, Xander." Ember laughed.

Bastien flashed that evil grin. "You feel more alive now, though, right?"

The expression on Badger's face said that he wanted a place to hide Bastien's body now. "I swear I'm going to murder you."

Bastien laughed again as he finished wiring the ship.

Once they'd jumped down, Bastien scowled at the remote. "Boy, I hope I didn't f.u.c.k up those connections."

It was her turn to go pale. "Meaning?"

"You might want to stand back a few miles while I do this."

"Bastien..."

He calmly flipped the switch. "Oh hey, it's all right. I'll be d.a.m.ned. Works. That's a first!"

Xander screwed his face up. "He always like this?"

"Yes," she growled. "You should have been in the field with him."

"I'm surprised his own troops didn't shoot him ... in the back ... of the head."

"They tried," Kindel said with a laugh. "b.a.s.t.a.r.d moves fast for an aristos."

Meanwhile Bastien continued to chuckle at them while he launched the ship. "Time for that spectacular enema."

A few minutes later, they heard The League commander telling Bastien to drop shields.

Bastien's face lost color. "Ah, minsid h.e.l.l, I forgot that part...."

"Ha, ha," Badger mocked. "You're not funny, Cabarro."

"He's not joking this time." Ember stepped forward. "What do we do?"

Bastien glanced around at all of them. "Run!"

"Not without you."

He grimaced at her. "You don't even like me."

"I know. But it would traumatize my son if I let you die right now."

"Great." Bastien started to argue, but there wasn't time. He met Badger's gaze. "Don't scramble fighters. Withdraw everyone into whatever bomb shelters you have. Tonde!"

Issuing orders, everyone evacuated in expectation of a League a.s.sault.

Ember took Bastien's hand and ran toward the condos where her sisters lived with Rian. There would be shelters there.

They heard the fighter detonation over their links.

It was followed by sirens blaring to warn them of an impending strike.

"Cabarro!" The League MCO shouted. "You've d.a.m.ned them all by your actions!"

Bastien cursed under his breath.

An instant later, bombs fell against the station, jarring them off their feet.

Bastien grabbed Ember and threw her under a reinforced beam as another shock wave went through the building and brought down sections of the roof and walls around them. "You always rocked my world. Nice to know things haven't changed."

She moaned at his cheesy lines. "Not the time."

Suddenly, there was a ma.s.sive strike against the base. One that lit up the sky like a nuclear device had detonated. The wave from it was so fierce that it knocked all of them from their feet.

The whistling sound of engines and bombings deafened her.

Amidst the smoking debris, Bastien rose slowly and helped her up.

Terrified of what was going on, Ember grabbed him and held fast. She let the scent of his skin ground her. But most of all, it was his strong arms and the slow gentle beating of his heart that soothed her.

That was one of the things she'd missed most about him. His calmness when everything was falling apart. Nothing ever rattled him. Not even a bombing run. It was just like the day they met when he'd jumped headfirst in after Alura.

His gaze warm, he kissed her forehead and gave her a light squeeze to rea.s.sure her. "It'll be fine, Ember. I'll die before I allow them to harm you or Florian."

She fisted her hand in his hair and let his whiskers sc.r.a.pe against her cheek. Tears filled her eyes as she realized that they might not make it out this time. And if they died, she didn't want him to go not knowing the truth of how she felt for him.

How she'd always felt about him. He'd lived too long doubting her and that was her fault.

No more.

"I still love you, Bastien."

"I know." He pulled back with a playful grin. "How could you ever stop loving all this s.e.xiness?"

Snorting, she wanted to beat him for his facetious humor, which she didn't appreciate right now. But it did succeed in making her laugh. "You're a beast!"

Bastien winked at her. "But I'm your beast."

And he wished he believed the lies he was spewing for her benefit. The truth, however, was that he had no idea what was going on or how to help her or her people out of this disaster. How could I have brought this down on them? He should have remembered that d.a.m.n shield....

"How many fighters can we scramble?" he asked her.

"You said not to."