Bastien turned on the mute and glared at her. “Do you mind not interfering with my noble act of extreme stupidity, Major? Please?” Then he turned the mute off so that he could continue his conversation with The League. “Yeah, I’m on my way as soon as you pull back. I’ll be in my fighter. You can’t miss it. Sentella ship. Has The League flag with a big X going through it on a black field. Will need clearance to land it, though.”
Holding on to Rian, she ground her teeth, wanting to thrash Bastien. If he thought for one minute that she was going to allow him to do this, he was even more delusional than normal! Which was saying something.
And still Bastien ignored her as he made plans to die.
Her sisters were all gaping, too. But they didn’t speak until he had the coordinates and cut the link.
He blinked innocently at all of them while Ember made a sound of supreme disgust in the back of her throat. “What are you thinking, Bas?”
With a devilish wink, he headed straight for his fighter. “Not thinking at all. According to you and my father, I never do.”
“Bas! I’m not letting you do this!”
He gave her a coy glance. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”
“No, it means you’re an idiot!”
He tsked at her vim. “You know, that’s what I missed most all the years we were apart. Your unfailing support and sweet-talk. It humbles me.”
“Don’t be an ass.”
“See! That’s what I’m talking about. No one else could ever insult me the way you do. And I still have one testicle left you haven’t kicked.”
“Mom?”
Only then did Bastien take pity on them. “Don’t worry, champ. I’ve got this.” Without a word, he jogged to the fighter and shot up the ladder, but instead of getting inside it to launch, he opened the engine bay.
Following after him, Ember frowned as she watched him work on who knew what. Though as she saw him scrambling about she began to have some idea of what he intended.
Yet there was one major problem.…
“You know, they’ll scan for life forms. If you send it up on autopilot, they’ll detonate it before it can cause harm.”
“That would be true in most cases.”
“Meaning?”
“That I’ve had years and years alone to hone my skills and plot my revenge. They’ve no idea what they’re dealing with. But I’m about to set them up for some hostile lessons.”
Brand scratched at her ear as she watched him working. “You think he can do it?”
Ember shrugged. “We didn’t call him Ghost Gadget without cause.”
“True.”
Still, she did have doubts.
Pulling away from her, Rian ran to climb up the fighter behind his father. She started to grab him, but Bastien reached down to help him move to stand by his side so that they could work on it together.
The sight of them like that … of Bastien’s patience with their son as he explained to him what he was doing and why … it made her strangely weepy.
“So this will work?” Rian asked.
“It should. Or it’ll piss them off and they’ll kill us.” Bastien pulled out his link and handed it to their son. “Please, hold the light so that I can see a little better.”
“Okay. And for the record, I don’t want to die.”
“For the record, I don’t intend to let you. I’d never hear the end of it from your mom. And she really scares me most days.”
Rian glanced at her, then whispered, “She scares me, too.”
Ember sighed as that tweaked her heart, in a psychotic kind of way. Bastien made it so hard to stay angry at him. But then that was nothing new. The entire time they’d dated, she’d been on the verge of wanting to choke the life out of his body and then he’d surprise her with an act so incredibly kind or thoughtful that she’d instantly forget her rage.
His mother had complained of the same thing. And so had Lil. In fact, she could hear his sister’s voice in her head to this day—“It’s the only reason I didn’t drown him while he was still in nappies.…”
“So what are you doing now?” Rian asked excitedly.
“This is the heater for the ship. If we scramble things about, it’ll heat up the seat and make it appear as if there’s someone in it.”
“You can do that?” Rian gaped.
“Sure can. Then we need to rig the drive so that it can pilot out on remote. And the sensors so that they’ll think they see a phantom body in the seat.”
“That’s awesome. How will you land it?”
“Won’t have to. SOP for The League is they’ll tractor beam the ship in. They won’t chance my ramming their facility out of suicidal tendencies.” Bastien flashed a charming grin down at her. “Of which I have many, according to your mother.”
“Wow … how do you know all this?”
“Studied hard in school.”
Rian screwed his face up at his father. “Not what Mama says.”
This time, Bastien glanced down to her and smirked. “What lies has she been telling on me?”
“She says you’re where I get my slackness from. That you charmed your way through school and negotiated grades with your teachers like you were running for political office. You never studied for anything, other than how to avoid responsiblity.”
Bastien feigned being offended. “Why she tell you that?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know.”
Bastien grimaced down at Ember. “Why you tell my boy those stories?”