Page 99 of Deserving Lara
“And Grant’s dead?” he asked, needing to circle back to that.
“Very. He and that asshole he hired to double-cross you and Stone killed each other. You’re lucky you only got hit byonebullet, if what the detectives say is true.”
“What do they say?” Owl asked.
“That the house is so full of holes it looks like Swiss cheese.”
“Thank you. But if you do that again, I’m gonna be really mad,” Lara told Owl.
“Do what?”
“Take a bullet for me,” she told him.
“Don’t you know? I’d do whatever it takes to make sure you’re safe. And I’m so, so proud of you. You flew,” he said softly.
“And landed,” Lara said. “Not very gracefully though.”
“Anytime you get on the ground and can walk away, it’s a perfect landing.”
“You didn’t exactly walk away,” she said dryly.
“But that wasn’t because of anything you did,” Owl countered.
He didn’t take his gaze from hers. He was in awe of his woman. He remembered taking off, but nothing beyond that. He was kind of pissed he didn’t get to see her fly. He bet it was glorious. Forcing himself to break eye contact, Owl looked at his friend. “He’sreallygone?” He needed to be sure. Absolutely sure.
“Yes. I went to the morgue to ID his body myself, since I’m one of the few people who’ve had the displeasure of meeting him in person. It was him. He’s really dead.”
Relief surged through Owl, but on the heels of that was trepidation. If Carter Grant was dead, that meant Lara was free. She could go back to DC. Pick up the pieces of her old life if she wanted. And that scared the crap out of him.
As if reading his mind, she said, “I can’t wait to get back to The Refuge. I think I’ve had enough people-ing for a while. I wanted to stay until we found Stone, but Brick promised me that he’s gonna find him, and it would be better if I was back home so no one had to worry about me too. Oh! Wait until you hear what Cora told me about Ryan! You aren’t going to believe it. And the FBI has confiscated the chopper until their investigation is over, but they swore they’ll release it back to us as soon as possible. And they said they’d get back the money you paid for it, so we’ll get afreehelicopter! Oh, and I invited Lucas to come to The Refuge so I could meet him, and you can too. He’s the guy who answered my mayday plea and helped talk me through flying and landing. I told him I’d name our son after him—I hope that’s okay. I’ll let you pick a middle name. Our suitcases were still in the chopper, so when you’re discharged, you’ll have something to wear. The staff said they’d bring a bed in here for me so we can be together…”
There was a lot to unravel, and a lot Owl wanted to talk to Lara about, but all he could focus on at the moment was the fact she wanted to go back to The Refuge…and that she’d called it home. The rest could wait. Especially since she sounded off. Almost hyper.
“You have a hotel room?” he asked Pipe.
“Of course.”
“Take Lara there and sit on her until she sleeps. Better yet, letCorasit on her.”
“What? No!” Lara protested.
“Sounds good to me,” Cora mumbled with a grin.
“At least eight hours,” Owl insisted.
“Owl! I want to stay here with you,” Lara complained.
“You need to sleep. I’m okay. Grant is dead. You’re safe. Pipe will make sure you’re good. I need you healthy, sweetheart. If you get sick because you’re worrying over me, that won’t be good.”
Lara closed her eyes and slumped in the chair.
“When you’ve gotten some sleep, and more food, and a shower, we’ll talk. I want to hear all about what happened when I took my little nap in the chopper. I want to know about Stone, Ryan, and this Lucas person. But not until you’re a little more coherent. Okay?”
She opened her eyes and frowned.
“Please?” Owl begged.
Lara reluctantly nodded.
