Page 29 of Lockout

“Do you want to fly?” I asked, grinning at the delight on her face. “Put your hand on the cyclic, that’s the one between your legs. Just your right hand, don’t grab it with both. That’s a movie thing. I’ll handle the other controls.” I pulled up on the collective, bringing our altitude up so that she wouldn’t be so scared being close to the river.

Her nervous laughter was adorable as she did what I told her. She was usually so put together and in control. Seeing her give up the tough exterior and just have fun was dangerous. Because fuck if I didn’t like this side of her. Not that I disliked the other half, but right now? I just wanted to do whatever I needed to in order to keep that manic grin on her face.

“What do I do now?”

“Just be gentle. Forward will make us dive, back will climb. Left and right will make us turn. Gentle,” I warned as I talked her through it. I kept my hand on the controls. I’ve flown with enough civilians to know that ‘gentle’ meant they would try to roll you into the ground. To her credit, she only tried a little to kill us. Of course, she didn’t know that. I just kept my hands on the controls and adjusted her attempts. Whenever she put too much pressure one way or another I countered it. I could tell where she was trying to take us.

“This is amazing,” she said, her blue eyes flashing over to me.

“Just follow along the river. Fight the urge to over control. Just nudge her along. She wants to go forward, so let her. Wherever you want to go, just be slow and smooth, but deliberate with your movements.” Together, we moved along the S curves of the river.

She turned the helicopter left and right, and I kept my hands close to keep her from over controlling. I was used to student pilots, so I knew how to anticipate their moves, and more importantly, how to stay on the controls without them realizing I was there. Between deployments, I taught a lot of new pilots to fly. This was second nature to me.

If I ever had time again in the future, I wanted to add a flight school to my business. I liked being an instructor. But there was a lot that needed to change—and calm the fuck down—with my club before I could even think about that. And Matt would kill me if I piled more on his plate. All of that would have to take a backseat for now.

As far as Keely was concerned, she was in full control of the aircraft, which was far more fun for her. So I didn’t say a word and I let her fly for a bit before taking over again. As much fun as she was having, I knew she’d start to get tired soon. The first flight was always exhausting for newbies.

Further up the river I could see some people in tubes floating along. “Want to have some fun?” I asked her with an evil grin.

“What are you going to do?” she asked, but she was returning my smile and nodding.

“You’ll see.” I lifted us off of the river and flew up the side of the ridge to our right and slipped over, out of sight. We flew around the hilltop and came around to the bend in the river where I slipped back down, low level again, and increased our speed. When we came around the bend in the river we caught the tubers completely by surprise. We must have been doing ninetyknots, and we were banked coming around the corner so that Keely could see their faces out the window.

“Oh my God, that kid just dove into the river! You scared the crap out of him, Lock!” Her laughter filled my ears and I couldn’t help but grin.

“I told you that helicopters were the best.” I liked that she was enjoying something that I loved so damn much. But most of all, I was glad to see that the sadness had evaporated from her eyes completely. That had been my goal for the day. The women had taken care of her yesterday—and into the night if the wine bottles had been any indication—but this time it was my damn turn.

CHAPTER 13

Keely

This was probably the best day of my life. Flying with Lock was amazing. It was better than chocolate, wine, maybe even sex. My eyes drifted over to him as he shut the helicopter down. Okay, probably not better than sexwith him.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Kearny,” he replied. We both got out of the helicopter and his hand slipped down to the small of my back as he guided me toward a car waiting on the tarmac. “We’re a little north of Tucson. They have a great little diner down the road.” His hazel eyes settled on me as we walked, making my heart flutter. “Figured we could get some lunch.”

“Wow, Lock.”

“What?” he asked with a frown as he opened the passenger door of the car for me.

“You really know how to treat a girl,” I said with a soft laugh. But despite the laugh, I wasn’t kidding. A thrilling ride on a motorcycle, then a once in a lifetime experience in a helicopter, and now he was going to feed me, too? He was a man after my own heart.

He chuckled as he got into the driver’s seat. “If I’ve learned anything from all the women living at the club, it’s that you’d damn well better feed them. Or they get cranky.”

I grinned. “That’s never a good thing.”

He gave me a pained look. “Tell me about it. You seen Isla angry yet?”

Tilting my head, I thought about it. “No. I actually don’t think I have.”

“Keep it that way. Safer for everyone.”

I settled back in the seat wondering how such a short amount of time could make such a difference. Yesterday it was like my life was ending. Between talking, and drinking, with my friends last night, and spending today with Lockout, it was as though my troubles were fading away.

We were quiet on the ride to the diner and as we walked inside and were seated. I smiled as the waitress did a double take of Lock. I couldn’t exactly blame her. He was gorgeous and this was a tiny town. They probably didn’t see many like him here. There weren’t many like him anywhere.

Well, fine, there was an exact replica of him back at the clubhouse. But anyone who knew them well would have no problem telling them apart. Even if they didn’t have different tattoos it wouldn’t be difficult. Lock was a thinker. A planner. He seemed to know everything about his brothers and was always a step ahead. Or that was how it always seemed.

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