Next time I’ll murder the bastard and hide his body where they will never find it.
And she couldn’t imagine anything worse than to be saddled with a womanizing pig prince for a wingman. He’d be like a kid in a candy store with her all-female family. Never mind what Alura would do if she ever saw him …
Yeah, this had all the makings of hell for her.
As they approached the training field, she swept her gaze over the soldiers there. Two dozen were running maneuvers.
Well, almost two dozen … one who should be among them stood off to the side with a cocksure grin as he made time with a corporal.
Oh, let me guess.…
That had to be Cabarro. He fit what she was expecting to a T. Tall, gorgeous, and more than aware of it. What a scabbing piece of work.
She felt sick just to be this close to him, and he was across the quad. Last thing she wanted was to be near enough to look into what would no doubt be a pair of smug aristo eyes. “Please, Colonel. I’ll do anything to get out of this.”
“Beg all you want. Cabarro is yours till the binary suns of Ritadaria freeze over.”
Of course he was.
Just as she started to curse her CO out loud and get that court-martial so that she wouldn’t have to worry about this, she heard a high-pitched squeal. At first, she thought it her imagination.
Until it came closer.
Louder.
“Incoming!” she shouted a few seconds before a bomb struck home. And this wasn’t a drill. It hit the building to the east with such force that the percussion and aftershock knocked her from her feet. Fire and shrapnel exploded as the bomb disintegrated the north arsenal and set off every piece of ordnance kept inside its facility—causing even more damage and mayhem.
The playboy cried out and dashed off to hide.
Of course he did.
The aristos would never sully their hands with helping the wounded. Or trying to dig out survivors.
Furious, she ran to the training field, where a number of their younger soldiers had been injured. As quickly as she could, she checked on them and assisted the medics.
Until a frantic cry drew her attention toward the offices on her left that had partially collapsed during the aftershocks. “Lieutenant Wyldestarrin? Can you hear me?”
No … please God, no!
Her heart stopped as she realized one of her younger sisters was inside that building. A building that was about to come down completely, which would probably render a rescue impossible.
Then she heard the voice beneath the rubble that begged for help. One that cried out for their mother and father.
Tears welled in her eyes. “Alura!” She ran toward the rescue workers with everything she had as she forgot all about the fact that minutes ago she’d wanted her sister dead. That Alura had betrayed her. All that mattered right now was that her sister needed her and that she couldn’t let her baby sister die.
That was her blood in that hole.
And she was the big sister Alura relied on.
By the time Ember reached them, she saw there were several soldiers trying to dig Alura out of the rubble.
One in particular stood over the tenuous remains with calm confidence as he secured a line to the ground. “Listen to my voice, Lieutenant, and breathe. I’ll get you out in a few minutes. You with me?”
Alura answered with pain-filled whimpers.
Ember scowled as she saw what the tallest soldier there was planning to do. Dressed in a drab olive-chip battlesuit that kept his features completely hidden, the captain intended to rappel to her sister’s side in the hole where she was trapped. “You can’t reach her like that.”
The captain scoffed at her concern. “’Course I can, Major. Been climbing and rappelling my whole life. Certified for rescue. Now, stand back. We don’t need anything else falling in on the lieutenant. Especially not her older sister.”
And with that he literally jumped straight down into the hole at an extremely reckless pace.
Convinced he was going to land squarely on top of her sister and kill her, Ember bit back a scream. But with expert skill, he stopped his descent a few inches from Alura’s position and then, in a most amazing feat, flipped himself upside down so that he could begin shifting debris from Alura’s body.
“Hey gorgeous,” he said teasingly as he huffed to dislodge a beam. “Come here often?”
“Are you insane?” Alura snarled at him.
“Yeah. Good thing for you, too, otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be off somewhere where it’s safe.”
Alura laughed, then groaned in absolute misery.
Terrified and shaking, and mad at herself because there was nothing more helpful she could do, Ember tried to see what he was doing, but it was extremely difficult. Instead, she heard the steady, patient tone of his voice as he explained to Alura what he was doing while teasing her with light banter in spite of the danger.
“Now, hold your breath. This is going to pinch a bit. But as soon as it’s moved, we can get you out of here.”