Page 10 of Deserving Lara
Every muscle in Owl’s body tensed, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and not reject her words. “Then we’ll just have to make sure when hedoesmake his move, we’re ready for him.”
Lara turned to stare at him with wide eyes. “You aren’t denying that he’s going to come after me? That I’m not safe here?”
“No,” Owl said simply. The thought of Carter Grant coming within ten feet of this woman made him feel homicidal. But Lara needed him to be level-headed and calm right now.
She bit her lip and her brows furrowed before she said, “I think that’s the first time anyone’s admitted that I’m still in danger.”
“Carter Grant is insane,” Owl said. “And he’s smart. He used to be special forces. He has the skills and the patience to wait out the renewed interest in finding him. Pipe should’ve killed him when he had the chance, but I understand why he didn’t. He was more focused on getting all of us out of that house alive. I can make you a promise, though.”
“What?”
“If I come face-to-face with that bastard,I’mnot going to hesitate to kill him for you.”
Lara’s lips twitched.
“That’s funny?” Owl asked.
“No,” she said immediately. “I’m amused by my gut reaction to hearing you say that. Most women would be appalled by knowing a guy wants to kill someone. But it just makes me feel safe. Safer than I’ve felt in several months. God, I’m so messed up.”
“No, you aren’t,” Owl countered. “You’re human. And honestly, I think this is the healthiest you’ve been since you’ve gotten here.”
“Yeah,” Lara agreed. “I feel like I need to thank you for—”
“Nope,” he interrupted.
She frowned. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Don’t care. You don’t need to thank me for anything.”
“Owl, I’ve been glued to your side for months. Hell, for a while there, you could barely go pee without me completely losing it.”
Owl leaned a tiny bit closer. So many things were on the tip of his tongue that he wanted to tell her. But he settled for, “I haven’t done anything I didn’twantto do.”
The air between them was charged, and Owl wanted more than anything to lean forward and put his lips on hers. But that would be wrong on so many levels. She was just beginning to regain some of her confidence. By leaving his cabin, she’d gone from being petrified to the beginning stages of healing. He didn’t want to do anything that might undermine that.
Eventually she’d move on. Go back to her life. She’d probably remember her time at The Refuge with mixed feelings. She’d feel grateful for what he’d done for her, and for him and his friends letting her stay in New Mexico, but this place would also bring up bad memories of a time when she felt lost and scared.
Lara licked her lips, and the strength it took for Owl to ease back was almost superhuman. “I heard Robert tell Cora that he was going to make maple pancakes this morning. You feel like heading up to the lodge to try them out?”
Lara blinked as if she’d been in a trance, but he had to be projecting his own feelings onto her. Hoping to see something that simply wasn’t there.
“Will you come too?” she asked.
“Of course,” Owl said. Hiking out to Table Rock was enough of an accomplishment for one day. He’d never make her go to the lodge alone.
“Can I watch you play your simulation game after?” she asked.
Owl stood…and realized he was grinning. In the space of minutes, things between them felt so much lighter than they had over the last few months. The threat of Grant was still out there. He felt it, and he knew without a doubt that Lara did too. But for this moment, he could pretend all was well.
“Game? I’ll have you know, woman, that the flight simulator is no game.”
“It looks like a game. You have two joysticks and even pedals, and you put on that headset and you get to mock-fly around the desert, cities, through storms, and other dangerous situations,” she said with a wry look.
He and Stone had both purchased flight simulators a few years ago—the same ones that the Army used to help train their Night Stalker pilots and keep them sharp between missions—when they’d decided to keep their flying licenses up-to-date. And now that Brick and the others were seriously considering purchasing a helicopter for The Refuge, it was even more important to keep their skills sharp.
“You wanna play?” Owl asked.
“Me? Oh, I couldn’t. I’d crash,” Lara said as they started heading back down the trail toward the cabins.
