Page 26 of Reaper Flame

Rocky’s eyes sparkled, making my heart do a somersault. Damn, the way the setting sun almost made him look like an angel.

He pointed. “Look over there.”

I dragged my eyes away from him to see what he was looking at.

My mouth fell open. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

A helicopter waited in a field ahead. Despite my persistent efforts, Rocky hadn’t given me an explanation about what happened since we last saw each other. Our escape had been meticulously planned. There’s no way he pulled it off alone. He was good, but notthisgood. There was only one person who was.

After my encounter with West and the keypad code on the necklace, I already figured out they were involved. But it didn’t mean I could forget the past. Did this really make up for what Zander had done, or how he’d kept everything from me?

I pushed thoughts of Zander away as Rocky pulled on the brakes. He hopped out and raced around the car to hold the door open for me like a true gentleman. Right now, Rocky was my priority. Experiencing the crippling pain of losing someone, then the dizzying euphoria of finding them again, was an emotional rollercoaster. I’d been given a chance most people never got. I couldn’t take it for granted. I wanted to cling to the moment like my life depended on it and never let it go.

“How is this for a surprise?” he teased.

I punched him playfully on the shoulder as I got out.

“Not bad,” I replied as the helicopter blades whirred deafeningly to life.

Who was I kidding? This was the best day of my entire life! We were once two kids who’d come from the wrong side of the tracks. How was it possible we were stepping straight into a scene from a billionaire romance novel?

“Hey!” Rocky paused and frowned. He caught a tear falling down my cheek before I could stop it. “Are you okay?”

“It’s just the wind,” I lied, turning away and hoping my hair whipping around my face would hide them. “I’m fine.”

“Are you ready to do this?” he shouted over the high winds and held out his hand.

I sniffed, slipping my fingers through his. Hell, who cares where we were going? We were together again. It’s all that mattered.We abandoned the car on the roadside and trudged over the boggy grass.

“Shit,” I cursed, wrenching my foot upwards like it was caught in a puddle of syrup. Heeled boots were impossible! The damn things sank into the mud with each step.

Rocky yelled something, but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the helicopter.

“What?!” I shouted.

He shook his head, then sprang into action. He swept me off my feet and up into his arms like I weighed nothing. I held onto him as he unsteadily moved through the terrain.He gritted his teeth, battling against his recovering body and instinct to hold me.

He almost lost his footing, making me squeal. “Don’t fucking drop me!”

“Never,” he promised. “I’ve got you, C.”

My shoulders slackened. If I was with him, nothing else mattered.

Rocky was alive.

He was fucking alive!

The pilot was waiting for us. He opened the door for us to climb into the back and handed us headsets to wear, to protect our hearing and as a way of communicating with each other. I’d never been on a big airplane before, let alone a small chunk of floating metal! The pilot checked we were strapped in and headsets were on like we were about to go on a fairground ride and gave a nod. What use would the seatbelts be when we were plummeting to our deaths?

“I promised you an adventure,” Rocky said through the microphone as the pilot performed his final checks.

“Ready for take off,” the pilot said.

My heart dropped into my stomach as we rose from the ground, and my hand jumped to Rocky’s thigh. I wasn’t scared of facing scary gangsters, but heights? Well, they turned me into a nervous wreck. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to look down.

“It’ll be fine, C,” Rocky reassured me, putting his hand over mine and stroking my skin. “Just look out the window. Enjoy it.”

I gulped, opening one eye to watch the field and car disappear underneath the clouds. I looked over at Rocky, who wasgrinning from ear to ear like a kid visiting Disney World for the first time.

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