Harder for them?
And in that heartbeat, everything broke. Sobbing uncontrollably, she doubled over with the pain of all she’d lost. Brand, Ashley, and Kindel gathered her into their arms while Cin and Tasi placed their hands on her head.
“We’ve got you,” Kindel whispered against her ear. “We will stand together. You know that.”
It was what their parents had taught them to do. Why Alura hadn’t learned that lesson, she had no idea. But what killed her deep inside her soul was that she hadn’t given Bastien the same loyalty.
She’d wanted to go after him to help him after his conviction, and her father had talked her out of it.
Now …
I hope wherever you are, Bastien, that you’re safe. Happy would be an unreasonable request given the nightmare he’d been through. Alone. And if she could have one wish right now, it would be for Bastien to find someone he could trust.
Someone who would help him.
Why didn’t I do something?
He would never have left her and she knew it.
Choking in her grief, she reached for the necklace Bastien had given her that for some reason she’d never taken off. It was a small heart-shaped piece that held a lock of his hair. She couldn’t count the times she’d started to jerk it off her neck and toss it in his face. Yet every time she’d considered it, his words had returned to haunt her.
“Keep this snuggled between your breasts, Ember. And whenever I’m not with you, remember that you have a piece of me here. More than that, you carry my heart wherever you go. The universe can take any and everything from you, but no one will ever take my love away. It’s yours alone to have and to hold. Forever.”
In fact, that last bit was engraved on the back of it.
Yours alone.
To have and to hold.
Forever your Bastien.
And though she might not be with him tonight, she was there in her thoughts.
Someday, if she survived this nightmare, she would find him. And either kick his ass. Or kiss his lips.
CHAPTER 5
THREE YEARS. THREE MONTHS. FIVE WEEKS. SIX DAYS.
Bastien sighed as he marked another day of his fun-filled vacation in hell.
“Not dead yet.” Though that wasn’t quite as thrilling an accomplishment these days as it’d once been. Because at this point, death might be a welcomed distraction from the boredom.
Suddenly, he heard the rumbling sounds of an engine descending.
That can’t be good.
Dumbass! You knew better than to mention boredom … be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
His heart racing, he grabbed his gear and weapons and went to scout out his visitors. Don’t panic, Cabarro. Might be nothing more than another group of Andarions.
For some reason, those crazy bastards came here a couple of times a year to scale the mountain range. They didn’t stay long. Just enough to get to the top and go. He never made contact with them and they assumed the landscape too inhospitable for humans so they didn’t look for people out here in the desert.
Occasionally, they left behind some supplies he could salvage.
But as he moved into his sniper position, and focused his distance goggles, he realized this was a different kind of vessel than the shuttlecraft they preferred.
A standard R-class runner by the looks of it. An older one, too, though it’d been meticulously kept up.
He wasn’t sure what to make of that. Other than the occupants definitely weren’t from The League, either. League military craft were easy to spot and stood out.
No, this style of cargo ship was normally used by merchant shippers or pirates. Sometimes freelance assassins, though that was rare. But then you never knew when a pirate or merchant would hold an assassin’s license or when they might be willing to pick up some easy creds by killing a fugitive or Ravin.
Better take a closer look.
Bastien scooted down and stealthily made his way toward them.
Not that he had to go far, as they came off the ship and headed straight for him like he was their target.
Minsid hell. Tavali, by the looks of their impeccable black battlesuits that were marked with gray skulls. Gorturnum Nation would be his guess, given that. Pirate bastards, probably here to scavenge the base. They might have even detected a life form. Though three had left the ship, there could be more onboard.
Bastien took cover.
Two men … huge effing bastards at that. One of them could make two of him. Damn! What planet were they from and what the hell had their parents fed them to make sons that tall and muscled?
For that matter, the woman wasn’t small. Even she was taller than Bastien. And she was old enough to be their mother. Given their height and the fact that they all had various shades of blond hair, it would be a good bet.