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 were identical to 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 for years. 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 to them, 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.
This was the last thing he’d expected, and it ranked right up there with his unknown son. What other surprises did Ember have in store for him? At this point, he was getting punch drunk from being slapped in the head with them.
Stunned and unsure of how to proceed, Bastien stepped forward. “I don’t know what went on between you and my fath—”
“Our father,” Iskander corrected between clenched teeth. “Though he wasn’t much of one to me, for damn sure. I never saw him again after my mother died.”
Bastien held his hands up. “I meant no slight with that. Slip of the tongue, mate. I would never insult you that way.”
Iskander scoffed and rolled his eyes.
Damn, he was hostile. But then Bastien did the math in his head … Odile had died during his first year in the military. Given Iskander’s present age … A bad feeling went through him. “How old were you when she passed away?”
“You mean when she was murdered and I was left as an orphan? Seven. Barely.”
No wonder he was pissed off. Bastien couldn’t blame him, and he didn’t understand how his father could have done that to him. So much for all the lectures his dad had given him on taking responsibility.
There was no way he’d have ever abandoned a child of his.
“Icky! Mama!”
Bastien scowled at that high-pitched squeal that was followed by the sound of a heavy, slapping footfall of a boy around the age of nine who came running across the bay like a frazzled blur. It wasn’t until he launched himself into Ember’s arms that Bastien realized the boy hadn’t said “Icky Mama,” but rather had been calling out to Iskander and Ember.
Disbelief filled him for the second time since he landed as he stared at the small, dark blond boy whose hazel eyes matched his and Badger’s.