Page 37 of Deserving Lara
“Shut up. You know there isn’t anyone I’d rather have in a copilot seat than you.”
“You mean pilot seat.Youcan be the copilot.”
Owl grinned at the banter. The truth was, they were both perfectly capable of being pilot or copilot, but it was fun to argue about it.
“Okay, that’s settled then. I’ll call a contractor in town and start discussions on clearing some land and getting the plans drawn up for the hangar and pad. If we get a bite on a good deal before it’s done, we can probably rent a space at the regional airport in Los Alamos.”
“Wow, you aren’t wasting any time, are you?” Spike asked.
“Since when do we waste time on anything once we’ve made up our minds?” Brick asked.
“True. Look at us. Married, kids on the way, we don’t fuck around,” Tonka quipped.
When their laughter died down, Brick turned to Owl. “I’m gonna need you guys to take the lead on this. Which means traveling to check out any potential choppers. Take them on test flights, things like that. We could arrange to get it transported back here to The Refuge, but I’m thinking maybe the two of you wouldn’t mind flying her back here from wherever we buy one. But that means…” His voice trailed off.
“Lara,” Owl said, knowing what his friend was getting at.
“Exactly.”
Owl’s first thought was that there was no way he could do it. He couldn’t leave Lara, not when she was still so vulnerable.
“I can do it,” Stone volunteered without hesitation. “Owl can stay here.”
But the thing was, Owl didn’twantto stay here. He wanted to run his hands over the bird. Do a proper inspection. Feel her rumble under him. Buying a helicopter wasn’t exactly like buying a car, but close in many ways. He needed to see how she handled. And every pilot was different; things he discovered in test flights wouldn’t be the same things Stone noticed. It would be smart if they both made the decision on such an important purchase.
“Lara is doing much better. We’re not talking about leaving tomorrow to go check out a possible helicopter, are we?”
“No,” Brick said. “I mean, Tex is on the hunt for us, so I’m guessing it won’t take too long, but we need to talk to Savannah as well, make sure our numbers are good so we can do this. I don’t foresee a purchase happening immediately.”
“Let me talk to Lara,” Owl said. “I’m thinking she might be all right in a couple of weeks, enough that I can go with Stone.”
The expression on Stone’s face told Owl that his friend wasn’t so sure.
“I have faith in Lara. I think she’ll be okay,” Owl told his friends.
“What if she goes with you?” Tiny suggested.
“That’s a great idea,” Stone said immediately.
“She’s been here since we found her. It might do her good to get away. See some new scenery,” Spike agreed.
“What about Grant?” Pipe asked quietly. “We all know that threat hasn’t been neutralized.”
Owl frowned. He knew his friend was still blaming himself for not killing the man when he had the chance—and he hated that. Taking a life was something none of them had ever done lightly. But the man was a literal serial killer, and Pipe regretted leaving him alive. There was a better-than-average chance the man had already killed again since they’d rescued Lara. They all worried about that very thing.
“There’s no way he’d know where she was,” Tiny said. “I mean, he probably knows she’shere, but it’s unlikely he’d know where Stone and Owl might go to pick up a chopper. Hell, by the time he realized Lara wasn’t at The Refuge anymore—if he somehow even learnedthatmuch—she’d be back.”
Owl liked the option of taking her. He wasn’t thrilled at the thought of leaving Lara, but having her come? Being able to share what he loved with her? Yeah, he was definitely on board with that.
He refused to think about the possibility of her not liking to fly. She’d been unconscious when they’d left the house in Arizona and had no recollection of that flight, which was probably a good thing. And flying for pleasure was way different than being in the middle of a life-or-death situation.
“I think that’ll work. She can give you her opinion from a layman’s perspective,” Spike agreed. “You know, if the seats are comfortable, how loud it is, if she can understand what you’re saying in the headsets. That might seem silly, but if we’re going to be giving tours and people are going to pay big bucks for them, we don’t want bad reviews because the seats suck or they couldn’t hear a damn thing.”
“That’s a good point,” Brick agreed. “So…Owl and Stone, you’re okay with this? You want any of us to come with you?”
Owl thought about the offer for two seconds before shaking his head. He saw Stone doing the same. He wasn’t going to ask Tonka or Spike to accompany them, because their wives were pregnant. Brick was the heart and soul of The Refuge, and no one wanted to take him away if they could help it. Pipe and Cora were just starting their lives together, and Tiny hated flying.
A small part of Owl was scared shitless about being off The Refuge property and completely responsible for Lara’s safety, but if somethingdidhappen, he had no doubt he’d do whatever it took to make sure she was protected.
