Page 28 of Lockout

“Yup. Sikorsky S-76. Think of it as a luxury Blackhawk. That’s what I flew for the Army. This Sikorsky is a little smaller, but since it’s not doing the types of missions that the army would have it do, I can turn it into a limousine. Still fast, faster actually, and still maneuverable. Civilian passengers won’t notice any differences, and more importantly, it’ll handle mostly the same for me. Best of all, I can fly it by myself, which means I don’thave much of a learning curve to get used to when it comes to flying it.”

“So you’re planning to fly it all the time?” Keely asked.

I chuckled, but shook my head. “No. I hire pilots to do most of the flying. That would be too much time away from the club. But my pilots won’t have any issues with it while they fly our passengers around either.”

“It’s beautiful. When can we go for a test flight?” she asked.

I liked that she was eager. There wasn’t an ounce of fear in her eyes. Her courage was incredibly attractive, even if it meant that sometimes she did stupid shit—like refusing to tell me she was in trouble—in the midst of that bravery. “Right now.” I held the left door open and motioned for her to get in.

She let out a little huff of excitement. “Yes! Your bike and your new helicopter all in one day.” She gave me a sultry look. “You must really like me.”

“Something like that.” I wasn’t about to go there with her. Not when her fucking life was in shambles. Once I took care of the LoS—and Agent fucking Hill—I’d figure out a way to get her career back in order, then we’d talk about shit like who liked who.

I held my hand out. She took it, and I helped her climb inside, taking advantage of the opportunity to cop a feel of her ass as I pushed her into the seat. She let out a little squeak, but didn’t protest.

Normally, with a new helicopter you go through half a day of maintenance checks, running up the engines and doing a lot of boring and redundant work. Things that I paid Matt to do. When he called me earlier, he wasn’t just telling me the helo was here, he was telling me she was ready to fly. My guys knew their jobs inside and out. I paid for the best of the best.

Keely’s eyes went wide trying to make sense of the switches and gauges as they darted around. The S-76 was decades moreadvanced than the Blackhawk, but it still had a lot of shit in the cockpit if you weren’t used to it. I didn’t bother to explain any of it because I knew she was too much in awe to retain any of it. “Here, put these on.” I handed her a set of headphones with a microphone on the end. “All you have to do is talk whenever you like.” I went through the startup procedures, and got my new baby running.

“Well, you ready?” I could tell she was. She was practically beaming with excitement. The rumble of the engine was like coming home. As much as I loved Elenor—my motorcycle—the skies were where I belonged. My bike was the only thing that came close to the feeling of soaring through the clouds.

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, a huge smile on her face. What I wouldn’t give to see her like this, every day.

I made a radio call and started to taxi us over to the runway. We were hovering about five feet off the ground. She started to bounce up and down in her seat, and I had to reach over and put a calming hand on her leg. “You’re rocking the helicopter.”

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay, you’re not the first one, trust me, everyone does it. These things are sensitive when hovering this low. Try to contain your excitement.”

We got to the end of the runway and I made my takeoff call on the radio. I gave her one last look, she was sitting on her hands—as though that was the only way to keep herself still—and looked like she might burst with happiness. And of course, she was biting her lower lip in that way that drove all men crazy. I could land right now and drag her into the back of the helicopter and just fuck her into oblivion.

Instead I opted for a showy takeoff, or what we called a cavalry takeoff. I pulled in maximum power, but instead of letting the helicopter leave the ground and take off at a normal angle, I pushed forward on the cyclic, accelerating across theground, keeping us five feet high. This was afastbird, we were already pushing a hundred knots and still accelerating.

“Whhooooo!”

Her whoop of excitement was all I heard from her. A glance from my peripheral showed she was leaning back into her seat. We didn’t have the G forces that a jet would have, but you wouldn’t know that the way Keely was pressing herself into her seat.

Seeing that huge grin on her face, after watching her nearly burst into tears yesterday, was helping the psychotic rage inside me that made me want to track down her bosses and end them for hurting her. I was spending too much fucking time with Butcher…and Isla. They were a goddamned menace and bad influences.

When we got to the end of the runway I cranked back on the cyclic quickly, and that did press us hard into our seats. She laughed like a madwoman while we rocketed into the air, then squealed happily when I leveled us off and let us fly normally.

“Whew. You uh, always do that?”

The breathy sound of her voice made me shift in my seat as my dick hardened again. “Only when I want to show off.” I glanced at her again. She tried to smooth herself out. “You always fluster that easily?”

“Only when I’m trying to show off.” She winked.

I decided to head for the Catalina’s, the mountain range to the north of Tucson. We slipped around the north end and across the desert to the Gila River. Once there I dropped us down right on top of the river.

“Oh wow! You can just do this? Like, we’re practically in the river!” She was pressing her face against the glass, looking down.

“Yup, helicopters are the best because they can go damn near anywhere. Look.” I pulled back on the cyclic and up on the collective, slowing us down and bringing us to a hover rightabove the river. “We can just stop wherever we want. Look at whatever we want. See up there? Here comes the train, let's go pace it.”

I pushed forward on the controls and brought us up alongside the train. The tracks ran next to the river, so it was always a fun flight to snake along them both. It would be more fun if it were a passenger train, but it turned out to be a cargo train. Still, right now I don’t think she cared much.

“Want to give it a try?”

“What?” She turned to face me, eyes bulging with fear and excitement. “You mean…”

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