Page 53 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

I sighed and closed my eyes briefly. My thoughts swirled inside my head with the force of a tornado. I was so damn confused. My heart and my mind were battling each other and I wasn’t sure what I wanted more, Mark, or to keep myself safe. Except there was no keeping myself safe without him, was there? I was already too far gone. Breaking things off with him permanently would hurt. It didn’t matter that I’d been trying to protect my heart. Somewhere along the line he’d slipped past my defenses and wedged himself inside me.

When I opened my eyes again, they landed on Mark. He was still talking to the others, but those mesmerizing eyes were watching me. A shiver skated down my spine at the look on his face. If I had to guess, I’d say he wasn’t feeling conflicted about his emotions. I wished I could just make a choice and live with the consequences. Something told me he’d be worth whatever trouble came my way.

CHAPTER 30

Mark

Ispun around the corner, slinging gravel and dust up into the air while jerking the wheel to keep all the tires on the ground. “Whooooo! Yeah!” Ty hollered in excitement. We were tearing up gravel on the roads around the base. After our mission with Rage and Hammer, the whole northern sector of the country had quieted down. Ty and his team decided to take advantage of the lull, and were letting us play with their toys and have fun at the range. I’d decided that before we went shooting, I wanted to take their armed Polaris out for a spin.

It was a lot like the Polaris side-by-side off road vehicles you could buy back home, except that it was better in every way. The roll cage was stronger, with a rifle mounted to the passenger side and another mounted on top for someone to sit in the back seat and shoot. The whole thing was painted desert brown and overall looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

I was cruising through the perimeter roads inside the base, taking the opportunity to jump every pothole and sling gravel through every turn. Ty was riding shotgun, and probably just enjoying the fact that no one was shooting at him for once.

“How are you not out playing on this thing every day?” I asked him. I turned at the corner, power sliding before continuing down the perimeter.

“Because every time I take it for a spin, someone tries to blow me up. I’ve decided it’s bad luck for me to be behind the wheel,” he laughed as he said it.

“Good point, maybe I should leave you behind, just to improve my luck.”

“Fuck that, I’ve seen the way you fly. I’m not letting you drive this thing unsupervised.” We took another corner, then I gunned it down the eastern road that would lead past the barracks. In the distance we could see two people walking along the road. It was Jen and Laura. “Looks like Laura and your girlfriend are out for a walk.”

I gave him a sharp look. “Not my girlfriend. At least, not yet, don’t start any rumors.” She was still holding out that we should ‘just be friends’. Hearing the word ‘girlfriend’ would send her running. Now that I knew the game, I knew how to draw her in. This would take finesse, ironically aggressive finesse.

“Right, sure, perfectly normal for you to ogle a chick and argue endlessly. So in character for you.”

“Fuck off,” I told him. “Although you bring up a good point, I haven’t fought with her in days. I’m overdue.” I gave him a huge grin.

“That’s the spirit,” he said laughing.

An evil idea ran through my mind. I looked over to Ty and grinned menacingly. He returned the grin and quirked a brow; it was all the acceptance I needed. I turned towards them and gunned it, cutting the wheel at the last second and sliding to a stop less than a foot in front of them. Jen let out an exaggerated scream while lifting her hands to cover her face and turning away from us.

I looked at Laura. “She flying now?”

“Nope,” Laura responded, with a knowing grin.

“Good,” I said, reaching out of the Polaris and grabbing Jen by her belt. Her eyes popped out of her head and she squealed playfully when I dragged her into the Polaris, over my lap. I shamelessly took a second to enjoy having her body squirming over mine while pulling her in. “Grab her,” I yelled to Ty, who had already jumped into the back seat and was now helping me drag Walker into the passenger seat. Before she could protest, I gunned it down the road.

“What the hell, Sheppard,” she cursed at me while pulling herself upright in the seat. “I have work to do; you can’t just kidnap me.”

“Bullshit! Laura already ratted you out. You have nothing better to do. Besides, it’s range day! We get to play with all the guns! You look like you could use a day of fun. Have you ever had that? Fun?” I looked over and smiled at her wide eyes. Something must have clicked because she relaxed and stuck her tongue out at me. “But first we need to get your gear.”

We swung over to her helicopter where her gear was hanging by the door. “Ty, grab her vest, I’ll hold her here in case she tries to escape,” I said, throwing my arm across her chest and gripping the roll bar on the other side, effectively pinning her into her seat. Ty jumped out while I turned to watch Jen. She folded her arms across her chest under my arm and stuck her tongue out at me again. Before I could stop it, the thought of that tongue pressed against mine inserted itself into my imagination. Soon.

Ty jumped back in with her vest. “Let’s roll!” he yelled, banging his hand on the turret for effect. I cut the wheel hard away from the copter and gunned it. We peeled out and spun, Jen letting out a strangled yelp as we straightened out onto the road down to the range. It was clear that she didn’t like giving over control of a vehicle, or anything else for that matter, to someone else because she was hanging onto the roll bar with a white knuckled grip. Her smile, though, was stretching from ear to ear. She wouldn’t give up control freely, but once you took it from her, then you got to see the real Jen.

The Jen that wasn’t guarded, jaded and paranoid. Instead you got to see a woman that was fun, caring and kind. A woman with a smile that you would go to any lengths to see again and again.

We pulled into the range and I gave one more dramatic sliding stop, mostly to see Walker’s reaction. She let out another yell, but she was smiling while she did. She’d finally relaxed sometime on the ride over and had submitted to having some fun.

Finally getting through the armor shell that is Captain Jennifer Walker.

We hopped out and walked under the awning. The range was laid out better than most others in Afghanistan. They had a large awning for shade, probably thirty feet wide and one hundred feet long, with picnic tables and benches spread out underneath. Most of the tables had rifles and ammo laid out already. The area in front of the awning was about one hundred yards long, with dirt walls on either side and a much larger dirt wall at the end.

In between were several barriers making individual lanes. It meant that we could shoot rifles and pistols and had plenty of space to maneuver for various tactical drills. It also meant that several groups could fire on the different lanes without getting in each other’s way. There were already several man-sized target stands set up, we just had to grab guns, ammo, and shoot.

Some of Ty’s guys were spread out around the rifles and ammo. As we walked up, they all looked at us. Before anyone could say anything, Ty gave the subtlest movement of his head, nodding to the left, towards the other lanes. “We’re going to start our drills down at the end,” Jeremiah declared. He and the rest of the team gathered their things and moved off.

Jen, not catching the subtle glances, followed me to a bench in the center that still had several rifles laid out. “When was the last time you did any serious tactical drills with your rifle?” I asked Walker.

---