Page 77 of Deserving Lara
The two men were in great moods, which made Lara relax even more. Up here, they were at their happiest. And up here, no one could hurt her. No one could make her do anything she didn’t want to do or sneak up on her. She was free. Free from worries, free from fear.
Owl flew them for a bit longer, warning her every time he was going to test one thing or another, so instead of being terrified when the chopper fell abruptly, or when he banked left or right, she was exhilarated. She trusted Owl completely. Experiencing his skill as a pilot firsthand was much more impressive than watching him practice on the simulator back at The Refuge…and that was already pretty darn remarkable.
When he was satisfied with how the craft handled, Owl gave the controls over to Stone. Surprisingly, Lara could discern subtle differences between the two pilots’ skills. While Owl’s handling of the aircraft was smooth and she could barely tell when they changed altitude, Stone was a touch more heavy-handed, but not so much that it made her sick to her stomach. He was more prone to using the foot pedals to rotate the cabin back and forth, letting him see more of the area he was flying over simply by manipulating the tail rotor.
Lara didn’t prefer one technique over the other. With Stone at the controls, she didn’t have to alternate looking from the front of the chopper to the side window. Because of the way he continually turned the aircraft, she could simply look out the side.
Once again, Owl and Stone were talking shop, and Lara soaked in the moment. She had a feeling by the time they made it back to New Mexico, she would be more than ready to be done with flying for a while, but for now, it was a new and novel experience.
When they finally touched down again, Lara couldn’t help but share Owl and Stone’s excitement. They were more than pleased with how the helicopter handled and convinced everything seemed perfect.
They walked toward the main building at the airport and met back up with Ricky Norman.
“So?” the man asked. “Is she everything I told you she was?”
“She’s perfect,” Stone told him.
“Yup,” Ricky said with a smile. “Then we have a deal?”
“We have a deal,” Owl told him and reached out a hand.
The two men shook, and Ricky turned to Stone, who also shook his hand. “So, I’ll see you three in the morning then? You have all the info you need for the payment transfer?”
“We’ll get with our accountant and start the ball rolling as soon as we leave here,” Stone told him.
“Good, good. I’ll be here bright and early tomorrow morning to meet you and we can sign the paperwork,” Ricky said. “Then you three can get started back south.”
“Tomorrow,” Owl said with a nod, reaching for Lara’s hand.
If she hadn’t been looking at Ricky, she would’ve missed the way his gaze dropped to their hands and his lip curled.
She couldn’t imagine what offended him so much. Surely two people holding hands wasn’t a shock?
But before she could think too much about his odd reaction, Owl was turning and taking her with him as they headed for the doors. Stone was already on the phone with Brick, telling him all about the chopper and how perfect it was. From earlier conversations, Lara knew Brick would then get in touch with Savannah to start the wire transfer.
It was hard to believe it was really happening. The Refuge was going to own a chopper. She looked up at Owl as she squeezed his hand. “This is exciting.”
He grinned at her. “It is. Us having a helicopter will save so much time if we need to look for missing hikers or help with rescues. And I have a feeling we’ll start making money sooner rather than later with sightseeing tours.”
Lara nodded. “Stone was your copilot when you were in the Army, right?”
“Occasionally another Night Stalker, but mostly him. Why?”
She shrugged. “I just wondered how that worked. Did Stone operate the tail rotor while you did the other stuff?”
Owl chuckled. “No. The copilot assists the pilot when we’re in the air with things like radio communications and checklists.”
“Oh, so you both had controls at the seats, like with this helicopter?”
“Yup.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah. Stone and I…I loved working with him. He was always the calm one in situations. We had some close calls together, and you never would’ve known it by looking or listening to him. He has the ability to keep cool and go with the flow. When we crashed? He was damn near stoic. As we were falling from the sky, he calmly talked me through doing what I could to keep us from crashing uncontrollably.”
Lara was fascinated. Owl had told her some things about that awful time in his life, but the memories always made him tense. In contrast, he sounded relaxed right now. “Is there such a thing as a controlled crash?” she asked skeptically.
Owl chuckled. “Actually, yeah. Any crash where you don’t die is a controlled one.”
