Page 5 of Keeping Laryn
“Nope. She’ll be too irritated that I forgot to give her necessary intel to worry about that, anyway.”
“Okay. She said she wasn’t going to come back in until tomorrow afternoon, hopefully you can hold her to that,” Chuck said.
“I will,” he vowed.
Someone called Chuck’s name from across the hangar.
“I gotta go,” the mechanic said.
Casper nodded and braced as the young man walked away. Sure enough, Pyro immediately laid into him.
“What the hell, man? Something was wrong and you didn’t say anything to me or Laryn?”
He turned to his copilot. His friend. One of his verybestfriends, who he trusted one hundred percent to always have his back. They’d been in more than one fucked-up situation and every time, Pyro had come through. “Nothing’s wrong with the chopper,” he said.
Pyro frowned. “Then what was that all about?”
“I don’t know,” Casper said honestly.
“Dude,” Pyro drawled.
“I just…something’s up with Laryn and I want to check on her. That’s all.”
Pyro stared at him for a solid twenty seconds without saying a word. Long enough for Casper to want to squirm. He didn’t, he’d been trained better than to let what he was thinking or feeling show. But it was extremely difficult to hide what was going on in his head from one of his best friends.
“You’ve never felt the need to check on her before,” Pyrofinally said. “You aren’t going to fuck over the best mechanic the Army has ever hired, are you? Because we need her.”
Irritation swept through Casper, but weirdly, he was glad Pyro was looking after Laryn. “No.”
“What’s changed?” Pyro asked with a tilt of his head. “Because for the last three years, you’ve never felt the need to check up on anyone other than Obi-Wan, Chaos, Edge, Buck, or me. And your brother, of course. Not that I think you’re unfeeling, you’re just…focused. Your only old lady has been the choppers we fly. Does this have anything to do with your brother getting engaged?”
“No. Maybe. Look, I’ll admit that the mission to pick up Nate shook me. And seeing him with Josie made me think about what I could be missing out on. But that’s not why I want to check on Laryn. Not entirely. She’s been with us for three years now, and we know nothing about her. That’s not right. I knoweverythingabout you and the guys. She’s literally worked her ass off to make sure our choppers are top of the line, and we never have to worry about anything mechanical when we fly. I feel as if I’ve been a dick for not knowing her better than I do now. That’s all.”
Pyro gave him another long look. Finally, he said, “You’re right.”
Casper’s tense muscles relaxed. Then tightened again with his friend’s next words.
“I’ll go with you.”
“No!”
The denial came out a lot harsher than Casper intended.
“I mean…thanks, but that’s okay. I’m just going to stop by real fast and make sure she’s good, then I’ll go home and rest up. The next couple of days will be intense with the flight trial coming up. And you know if everything goes all right, we’re being deployed to the Middle East again.”
A grin formed on Pyro’s face—and Casper realized he’d hadno intention of going with him in the first place. And he’d walked right into his copilot’s little trap.
Then the grin faded, and Pyro got serious. “If you’re just looking for a quick lay, there are lots of women at Anchor Point who would gladly hop into your bed. Hell, if you wanted some excitement, you could bring one of them back to the hangar and do her in the chopper. Don’t fuck with our mechanic,” he warned. “We need her.”
“I’m not looking for a fast fuck,” he told Pyro in irritation. “I’m just going to check on her.”
“All right. Call if you need a wing man,” Pyro said with a wink.
Casper rolled his eyes and did his best to relax his shoulders, which had hunched up defensively at his copilot’s warning. “If I did, I’d call Edge.”
Pyro fake gasped and laid a hand on his chest. “I’m offended,” he said.
“Whatever.”
