“Hey, no problem. So long as you send him back in one piece, we don’t mind. And speaking of, Ture wants me to ask you about Maris.”

“Tell him he wasn’t even shot this time.”

“Oh thank goodness,” a man said from off camera. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I said I wanted to marry a soldier. I must have been insane, delirious, or stupid.”

Dancer laughed at Ture’s high-pitched hysteria. “I’ll make sure and send them both back to you as soon as we land.”

“We love you, Hauk.”

“Love you, too. Take care of each other and I’ll be by soon to meet Cezar in person.”

Darling turned it off and put it in his pocket. “So where are you recuperating?”

“I was thinking home.”

“Alone?”

Dancer looked at Sumi. “I hope not.”

Her heart stopped as she realized she hadn’t thought this far ahead. Everything was moving too fast. But there was one thing she had to take care of ASAP. “I have to get to my daughter before Kyr finds out that I no longer have a transmitter. There’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“I’ve already got Syn on locating her.”

Darling frowned. “Whoa… What? What daughter?”

“Sumi has a little girl in League custody,” Hauk explained. “I’m going after her and bringing her home.”

Darling gaped at Sumi. “Was he planning to do this without us? Really?”

Dancer sent a piercing look to Darling. “You need to get home to your son and wife.”

Darling shook his head in denial. “Strong alone. Stronger together.”

She saw the reticence in Dancer’s eyes, but he must have recognized the determination in Darling’s. There was no way the Caronese emperor was planning to give in on Dancer’s request and let him fight alone.

Dancer sighed heavily. “Zarya’s going to kill me.”

“Zarya would kill me if I let you go alone, buddy.”

“And I’d help.” Syn grinned. “Don’t worry, Darling, I wasn’t going to let you leave without telling you what Hauk was planning. I haven’t found her daughter yet, but I will. I have the search running. I should have her location in a couple of hours.”

Sumi’s heart raced at the prospect. Could it be that easy? “Really?”

Darling placed a comforting hand on her arm. “We take care of our own, Sumi. It’s what we do.”

She nodded as tears choked her. Their kind of loyalty was rare indeed. Not to mention unexpected.

And it reminded her of something extremely important. “Speaking of… Mari’s brother, Safir? Maris said that they knew —”

“That Kyr was using him for a punching dummy?” Syn asked. “Yeah. His family took care of that as soon as they found out. Saf’s at home on Phrixus now.”