Page 72 of Deserving Cora
“I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind having a chopper,” Stone said as he laughed.
“Right? Think about how fast we could get to Albuquerque if we had one. Maybe we can convince Brick to add a landing pad and hangar,” Owl agreed.
“Tax write off!” Stone exclaimed. Then he got serious and said, “You know, I hadn’t thought I would ever want to fly again. But after that mission to save Reese from those asshole drug dealers, I realized how much I’d missed it.”
“Same,” Owl said with a nod. A look passed between the two men. They’d been through hell together, and it was obvious they were on the same page now.
Pipe turned back to Cora. “If you aren’t comfortable with this, Owl and I can talk to Michaels and his goon by ourselves.”
“Nope. No way. If there’s even a one-percent chance this will work and they’ll let us see Lara, I’m not missing it.”
“That’s what I thought, but I had to offer.”
Cora stared at him and bit her lip.
“What?” Pipe asked.
She shook her head and asked quietly, “Is this what it feels like to have family? I mean, to have people willing to help you when shit goes south? To have your back no matter what?”
“Yeah, love. This is what it’s like,” Pipe told her, his heart breaking that she’d never had this kind of support before.
“Yep, we’re your brothers now,” Owl told her with a grin.
“Annoying older bros who’ll meet your date at the door with a shotgun and make sure he knows that if he doesn’t return you before your curfew, he’ll haveusto answer to,” Stone added.
Cora’s eyes were twinkling when she looked at Pipe.
“I’mnot your brother,” he told her with a small growl.
Her grin widened. “I would hope not.” She giggled.
Owl and Stone laughed at them both.
“All right, no more sitting around,” Pipe said, as he stood and held his hand out for Cora. “We have work to do.”
“Hey, some of us were working late into the night,” Owl retorted.
“Oh, we were working too,” she replied, her smile huge on her face. “Workinghard.”
Pipe couldn’t help but love how unembarrassed Cora was about the two of them. It boded well for their future relationship.
“Happy for you guys,” Stone said. “And it’s about time.”
At that, Cora’s smile slipped. “We haven’t known each other that long,” she hastened to add.
Stone waved off her trepidation. “When you know, you know. And if you’re thinking we’re going to judge you, stop,” he told her. “With guys like us, with the shit we’ve been through, when we find the right person, we aren’t gonna hesitate to act. Life’s too damn short to not go after what you want.”
“Damn straight,” Owl agreed.
“Right,” Pipe added with a nod.
For a moment, Cora looked a little surprised, but relief crossed her face. “Right,” she finally said.
“On that note, let’s get going. I’m not feeling comfortable with the fact that Michaels didn’t follow his usual routine last night by going to the Blue Moon. If he’s panicking, he could be packing right now to head out of town, and that’s the last thing we want,” Stone said.
Pipe was in full agreement. The sooner they made it clear that they weren’t going away, and that the jig was up and Michaels might as well produce Lara, the better.
He squeezed her waist before reaching for her hand, loving that she didn’t shy away from holding onto him. “Let’s do this,” he said firmly. “Owl and Stone, we’ll meet you at the car. I need to stop and get my pistol before we head out.”
