He was headed for Jullien. Another reason he’d been unable to accept their offers of aid. The one time he’d brought up Jullien’s name, Nyk had almost torn his head off.
He’s a bastard and a snake. I wouldn’t trust him for shit! If I ever meet him again, I’ll hand him his testicles and laugh while he bleeds out at my feet.
While extreme, that threat wouldn’t mean much coming out of the mouth of the average person. Coming from the mouth of one of the most lethal assassins ever trained by The League…
It was as much a promise as the words Bastien had delivered to Barnabas.
So for now, he wouldn’t even attempt to cross-pollinate those two. Nykyrian obviously needed more time to forgive his brother.
Few more decades, at least.
After breaking atmosphere, Bastien let his thoughts wander to where they always went when left unchecked.
Ember. Against all common sense, he’d tried to trace her from the Sentella’s computers, but there had been no records for her over the last few years. Her sisters either. Only Alura showed up.
His gut drew taut in fear that something bad had happened to them during Barnabas’s takeover. Had Ember married, there would have been something to mark it.
But the last movements he could find on her were about a year after he’d been made Ravin. The Gyron Force logs had her and her sisters and mother listed as MIA.
Yet he knew better. KIA would be most likely. Because if she were still alive, she’d have returned to duty.
Unshed tears choked him at the thought of her dying in the field with her sisters by her side. If Barnabas had been behind it, then he would gut him with his bare hands.
Closing his eyes, he could still feel her touch on his flesh. Hear her laughter in his ear as he made love to her for hours on end.
Going home without her there would be excruciating. In fact, he could still remember the first time she’d taken him to meet her parents.
“Areyounervous? Captain Ghost Gadget?”
He’d given her a droll stare. “Of course I’m nervous. Never met parents before. At least not intentionally.”
She’d scowled at him. “Meaning?”
He’d flashed his most charming grin at her. “Well… there was this one time when Dad came home early while I was at university. Wouldn’t have been so bad had he not been one of my professors.”
“Oh my God! Bas, tell me you weren’t?”
“What? Naked? Of course I was. Her, too. Needless to say, flunked that class.”
Her laughter had ended in a sympathetic groan. “Well, keep it in your pants, flyboy. I’ve already warned them about you.”
“Meaning?” he asked, using her favorite phrase she had anytime she wanted more information on the given topic.
“Oh, c’mon. Like you don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That you’re the friend everyone has to explain before they meet you and then apologize for afterward.”
“Oh gee, thank you.”
Bastien smiled at the bittersweet memory. Ember had been the only person he’d ever met who could make him laugh while she insulted him. Tell him to go to hell and make him look forward to the trip.
You were ever a woman of multiple, unique talents.
And he would love her forever.
She was still on his mind when he finally reached the main Gort base and asked the hostile controller for permission to land. Obviously not something they granted out of routine procedure like most bases. And judging by the amount of time between their communications, it must be taking an act of the gods for them to clear him.
