Page 65 of Deserving Lara
“Uh-huh. How can I pass up the chance to see you behind the wheel…wait…it’s not a wheel, is it? The controls?”
Owl chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Pass up the chance to see you behind the controls of a real live helicopter? I mean, the simulator is great, but I’m thinking it’s much different in the real thing.”
“It is and it’s not. Stone and I bought the best simulator out there. The foot pedals feel a little different in the real thing, and you can’t feel the wind buffeting the chopper in the sim, but the controls are pretty accurate.”
Lara smiled at him.
He grimaced. “Sorry. I’m a little excited. And I’ve already talked to Brick about security for you during the trip. We’re staying in a place Tex recommended, and we’re not going to dally. We’re going to go up there, check this chopper out, and come home. And we won’t file our flight plan until the last possible minute so if anyone is out there watching, they won’t be able to track us. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. No way in hell.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
Lara nodded.
“You hungry?” he asked.
At the mention of food, Lara’s belly growled. Loudly.
Owl laughed. He leaned in and kissed her, letting his lips rest on hers for a long moment. Then he pulled back. “I have one more question. Who the hell is Jack?”
Lara giggled.
“Seriously, Cora told me I was your Jack, but I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you’re mine,” she said with a small smile.
“Damn straight,” he said before swinging his legs off the mattress and holding out a hand to her.
Lara took it, and she felt a tingle inside when he didn’t drop it as he started for the door.
She was happy…but in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but think about what Sandra Bullock had said in the movie. The line about relationships starting under extreme circumstances not working out.
She hoped she was wrong. Because if she lost Owl, she’d never recover. She instinctively knew he was her one and only chance at a deep, true, forever kind of love, and she was going to do everything in her power to hold onto it,him, for all she was worth.
* * *
Carter Grant couldn’t stop grinning.
It was nearly time!
Everything was in place.
In less than a week, he’d have his property back where she belonged. And this time, he’d make sure she couldn’t escape.
He’d planned as many of the details as possible. He didn’t know exactly when she and the assholes from The Refuge would arrive in Seattle, or on which flight, but it didn’t matter. He’d briefed his accomplice thoroughly, and the man would deliver Lara to his new lair. It was remote, and even if she did manage to escape the room he’d prepared…she wouldn’t be able to get off the island.
It was going to take almost all the money he’d saved up—okay, stolen from the Michaels family—to secure the house and pay off his accomplice, but it would be worth it. He’d gotten a new identity and changed his appearance. Despite the eye patch he wore, no one would immediately suspect he was a notorious serial killer being hunted by the FBI. His blond buzz cut had grown out in the last few months and was now dyed almost black. A colored contact hid his hazel eye.
He was also smarter than all his enemies. He’d live out the rest of his life on the island he’d bought, with his special toy.
Thinking about Lara being at his mercy once more made his cock harden. He ignored it. He had more important things to do, and he wanted to save himself for what was to come.
Chuckling at the play on words, Carter relaxed into his chair as he ran over the plans for the next week in his head once more. Lara and the two assholes would arrive in Seattle and spend the night. Then they were scheduled to meet with his accomplice, who was posing as the helicopter’s owner. He’d allow the trio to take the chopper up for a test flight, they’d complete the financial details…
And after getting his money, the accomplice would kill the two assholes and fly Lara straight to the island.
