Mace leaned forward and growled—not because he was annoyed but because he now knew what it did to her. “I have no regrets.”
Xaber nodded. “No regrets. Only orgasms. Do you think we should make that our new motto? We could put it on a plaque by the main hatch.”
She shot them a look of wide-eyed panic. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh, she’s daring us now.” Xaber waggled his finger at their female playfully. “You know what happens when you do that.”
“I’ll make some inquiries,” Mace stated as if it were the most reasonable idea in the galaxy. “Something like that should be easy to make.”
“If you do, I’ll put the food dispenser back the way it was. Chile powder and curry on everything, including dessert.”
Mace grinned. “Turns out, I like my dessert spicy. And you are my favorite dessert, little temptress.”
She hid behind her mug, but he could still see the way her skin temperature rose and her pulse accelerated.
“You’re both lunatics,” Tix declared.
Xaber leaned back in his chair, as relaxed and at ease as he’d ever seen his brother. “You’re the one who pickedourbedroom, mechanic. If we’re lunatics, what does that make you?”
“Lucky,” she answered without hesitation. “I’m the luckiest woman in the galaxy because I wake up every morning between the two of you.”
“I feel the same way about you.” The words left his mouth before he could think about them. “Accidentally blocking your escape that night was the best mistake I ever made.”
He set down the mug. “Which seems like a good introduction to the story of the day I made the worst mistake of my life.”
Tix made a soft sound in the back of her throat before speaking. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I want to. I’ve relived it so many times in my head, maybe it will help if I actually say the words out loud.” He didn’t know if anything would ease the pain that always came when he thought about that day. If anyone could help, though, it would be Tix.
“This wasn’t long before the Resource Wars ended. There weren’t many of us left. Just me, Xaber, Star, and Morning. Usually they kept us together, but for somefraxxingreason, our corporate overseer decided to split everyone up. Not just us, but all the other units. It was a mess.”
“Stupid bastard,” Xaber said.
“You were separated, but you still had contact with your batch-sisters?” Tix tapped her temple. “With your link?”
“No. Comms were jammed. We got sporadic messages but nothing more. They messed with our communication. We messed with theirs. It was chaos,” Mace said.
“As a bonus, it was colder than the void, overcast, gray, and the rain was mixed with snow to make a sort of frozen drizzle. Oh, and there were trees. Lots of trees. We couldn’t see anything,” Xaber added.
“Yeah.” Mace shivered at the memory. It wasn’t the coldest place they’d been, but it was the most miserable.
“Anyway. Xay and I were sent to an enemy encampment on the far side of the valley where the fighting was happening. They wanted pretty boy to sneak inside and find out whatever he could about their plans. Morn and Star stayed back at the base.”
“What happened while Xaber was inside?” Tix asked.
“He got some information that changed everything. Our side thought we had a few days before anything major kicked off. Our intel was wrong. The enemy intended to take out the entire camp. Rules of engagement be damned.”
Tix winced and reached across the table. Mace placed his hand in hers. It helped a little.
“I managed to get a message to Mace through our link. I couldn’t get one to command, though. There was too much interference,” Xaber said softly.
Mace heard the guilt in batch-brother’s voice. Until now, he hadn’t understood. Xaber blamed himself for what happened. Why? He didn’t know. His brother had succeeded in his part of the mission. Mace was the one who failed.
“Xaber told me to leave him and get back to camp so I could warn the others. I didn’t want to do it, but there was no other way.” He looked at Xaber. “If you’d been with me, things might have turned out differently.”
Xaber shook his head. “If you’d waited for me, we wouldn’t have made it back in time. I screwed up and tipped off security when I was poking around in their systems. I had to play hide-and-seek instead of making a clean exit.”
“How long did it take you to get back to camp?” Tix asked. She had a strange look on her face, as if she were trying to work through a puzzle but didn’t have all the pieces yet.
