We kept running, taking cover in the darkness, until we reached a small valley. Not a place you wanted to get stuck in. The shrubs and low trees didn’t provide protection.

“Do you hear that?” Danny asked, out of breath.

I did. Now that he’d mentioned it. A helicopter. I looked up and scanned the sky, but it was impossible to see anything. Then we couldn’t hear it either, because the air raid began. We watched from afar as our jets lit up the town.

I would never get used to that sight.

It would never sit right with me either, even though… Nope, not going there now. We had to make it to safety.

Danny tugged on my hand, and I followed his gaze.

I’ll be damned. Our pickup was actually a helicopter. We were used to rusty Jeeps from the last bloody war.

“Let’s go home, baby.” I picked up the pace. God knew how long we’d get to stay at home. Probably not for more than a couple of months.

We ran for the center of the valley, where the helicopter touched down.

I ducked for the blades and squinted as we kicked up a surge of desert sand.

“Holy shit,” Danny laughed over the roar.

He jumped in first, and I followed.

Only then did I see who was in the front. Oh, fucking hell, it was good to see the twins. It’d been months, for chrissakes.

River handed us helmets and communication devices while Reese got us up in the air again. But not on his own. River was doing his part too. What the fuck?

“I didn’t know you were in the area!” Danny exclaimed.

“Everyone’s in the area now,” River chuckled. He had a point.

I strapped myself in and double-checked that Danny was secured too.

“I have a better question,” I said. “Where the fuck did you steal a Black Hawk, ’cause Iknowyou didn’t get certs to fly it.”

In fact, it wasn’t feasible. The amount of training required, not to mention flight hours in other helicopters?—

“You know how you’re always tellin’ us to acquire skills we don’t advertise?” Reese hollered. “Yeah, this isn’t one of those.”

Danny cracked up.

I rolled my eyes.

“Let’s just say Reese is good at networking,” River drawled. “We have thirty flight hours, though. We’re not brand-new.”

Thirty? Thirty?! I was flying across the desert with two newbies who didn’t have pilot certs or a coordination crew?

Fuck me, put me down right now. I wanted to walk back to safety.

“So, what’s new?” Reese asked happily. “How’s the farm? How’re the animals? How’s the kinky sex?”

“This is how I’m gonna die, isn’t it?” I asked no one in particular.

Danny laughed and grabbed my hand. “You’re too funny, Daddy.”

Oh, there was nothing funny about this at all. Two young men simply did not fly a Black Hawk on their own. Couldn’t they have found a Cobra or something?

“Don’t worry. We’re four minutes away from our hideout,” Reese stated.