“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 gratitude.”
But the surly expression on his face said the only thing he wanted to give Badger was a kick in the ass.
“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 Armstitch 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 ass-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 wereidenticalto 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.”
Fuck me…
Zeki… he should have known. That had been the unmarried name of the bitch his father had run around with foryears. 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 tothem,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 assholes 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.
