Page 92 of Keeping Laryn
Laryn sighed. She looked around at the other five men in the helicopter. “You all put your lives, and maybe careers, on the line for me. I know better than most that it wasn’t a matter of simply flying in to get me. There had to be a ton of red tape, and I’m still worried about relations between Turkey and the US going sour because of all this.”
“No one’s career is on the line. And we were never in any danger. Hell, most of the men in that hangar were just like you, Laryn. They weren’t there of their own volition. The second they had a chance to get the hell out, they did. I think when the Turkish government hears what Osman was doing, and how he was going about it, there won’t be any ramifications,” Edge told her.
“Are you being honest with me? Or telling me what you think I want to hear?” she asked.
“I try not to lie,” Edge said earnestly.
It wasn’t exactly a straight answer, but Laryn realized it was the best she was going to get at the moment. She took a deep breath, then turned back to Tate. “How are those two SEALs doing? The ones you and Pyro had to go get?”
“Is she serious right now?” Pyro asked no one in particular.
Laryn glanced at him and said, “Yes, I’m serious. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe because you were just rescued after being kidnapped and having who the hell knows what done to you for the week ittook us to get to you, and you want to know how the Navy SEALs are doing?”
“Well, yeah.”
“They’re good,” Obi-Wan said from his copilot seat. “Mustang and Pid are back in Hawaii, being spoiled by their friends and family.”
“Thank God. And they’re okay? They’ll be able to continue doing…SEAL stuff?”
More chuckles sounded in her ears through the headphones. “Yeah, sweetheart, they’ll be just fine.”
She nodded. Then she glared at Tate. “You wrecked another chopper,” she said sternly, falling back into the comfortable sniping they were so good at.
“Oh no, I did not. I landed perfectly.”
“Did you or did you not have to destroy that MH-60 I slaved over? Spent hours upon hours getting flight ready?”
Humor made Tate’s eyes sparkle.
“We couldn’t let it fall into the wrong hands,” Pyro said, defending his friend and fellow pilot.
“I about died when that asshole shot it up,” Laryn admitted with a sigh. “I guess I have more long days and nights to look forward to, huh?”
Tate nuzzled the side of her head. “Guess so. But am I allowed to admit that I’m not entirely upset about this turn of events?”
“Youlikewhen I’m overworked and stressed out?” Laryn asked, feeling more and more like herself. This was what she needed. A bit of normalcy to overpower the horrible memories of the last week.
“No. I like when we’re stateside. Without a chopper, it’s not likely we’ll be sent on any missions anytime soon,” Tate said.
“Not to mention the Army probably isn’t so keen to see us lose another chopper so soon after the last two,” Pyro said with a chuckle.
“We’re out of Turkey airspace,” Buck informed them all through the headset.
Laryn sighed with relief. She hadn’t realized how tense she’d been, but she was grateful for everyone’s attempt at distracting her until they were well and truly out of danger.
As Buck and Obi-Wan flew them all back toward the destroyer, Tate said softly, “You did good, Laryn. I’m proud of you.”
“You have no ideawhatI did. What I went through. Maybe I was in a three-room suite with food piled high on trays and everything I asked for at my disposal,” Laryn countered.
Tate looked at her, his expression serious. “You’ve lost at least ten pounds from when I saw you last. You smell like soap, but it doesn’t completely disguise the scent of mustiness and decay in your hair, which tells me you were probably in the dungeon under that hangar. And I can tell just by your body language that it’s going to take a hot minute for you to get over what happened.
“I’m here for you, baby. I’m a good listener, and I want to know everything you survived from the second we left to pick up the SEALs, until we found you in the hallway with that asshole. And if you don’t want to tellme, you’ll talk to a psychologist. Because I plan on us having a long, happy life together, and in order to have that, you can’t be constantly thinking about what happened back there.”
He was scowling by the time he finished speaking, and Laryn couldn’t help but grin up at him.
“Nothing is funny about this,” Tate growled.
