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CHAPTER FOUR

The next afternoon, Laryn wasn’t any closer to figuring out what she was going to do about Tate than she’d been last night, after he’d left.

It had taken every ounce of willpower she had to get off that couch when he’d practically been nuzzling her neck, and she’d totally lied when she said she’d never sleep with him.

Hell, it was everything she’d ever dreamed about…

which made what he’d done even more confusing.

Why now? Why had he randomly taken an interest in her? Nothing had changed. She was still just the mechanic who worked on his choppers. And out of the blue, he’d suddenly had some epiphany that he wanted her? She didn’t trust that, not for a second.

It was out of self-preservation that she’d kicked him out last night. It had been way too nice having him there. Talking with him. Having him make her dinner. She definitely couldn’t get used to that. To him. Someone else would come along and he’d lose interest in her. Of that she was certain.

But she couldn’t get the feel of him sitting so close out of her head.

She hadn’t meant to tell him about the job offers she’d received. Thankfully, she hadn’t let slip just how insistent the Turkish representative had been about her joining their team.

Altan, the guy who’d contacted her about working for him, was upbeat and friendly at first. But after she’d put him off a few times, he’d gradually become more demanding. Emailing every day, even calling her, despite her never giving him her number.

Recently, his demeanor had changed from cajoling to downright threatening. Which was completely out of line. He’d contacted her in the first place, and she’d been willing to listen to his proposal. When she finally expressed her firm disinterest, as was her right, he became borderline abusive.

Thinking about what Tate had said the night before about torture, she shuddered.

It was crazy that she was in the middle of this kind of situation.

She was literally nobody. Laryn Hardy, daughter to the biggest redneck she knew.

Her daddy wouldn’t’ve stood for anyone harassing his little girl…

but he wasn’t around to protect her anymore.

Besides, he’d taught her how to protect herself, how to stand up for herself, especially since she worked in such a male-dominated industry.

Which was why she hadn’t hesitated to tell Tate to leave.

She wasn’t going to be taken advantage of, no matter how much she wanted the man.

How much she wanted to lead him to her bedroom and have her wicked way with him.

She couldn’t handle the letdown if she slept with him and he returned to mostly ignoring her afterward.

The sleep she’d planned to catch up on last night hadn’t happened, and she felt even more tired today than yesterday. But work wouldn’t wait. She needed to get to the base and make sure everything was good to go with the chopper before the trials.

Tate had said he’d be there, which she wasn’t looking forward to.

Sighing, she shook her head. She was lying to herself. Even though she had no idea how things would go between them now, of course she wanted to see him. It was a sickness. A flaw within herself.

“Laryn!”

She jerked at the sound of her name being called the second she entered the hangar.

Surprised, she looked up to see Tate standing near the MH-60, along with all of his fellow Night Stalker pilots.

She hesitated for a beat, before straightening her shoulders and walking toward them with all the confidence she could muster.

Just because things had taken a weird turn with Tate, that didn’t mean she was suddenly a different person.

She had shit to do. Most importantly, a machine she had to make sure was not only one hundred percent safe, but would pass all the tests it needed to pass in order to be used in a dangerous mission in a week or so.

She never knew the details of the Night Stalker missions, just enough to know it wasn’t as if they would be taking a pleasure cruise up and down the coast of whatever country they were in.

No, their job was to transport special forces into dangerous territories and perform maneuvers that would have most people, herself included, throwing up as they delivered and retrieved those troops.

“’Bout time you got here!” Buck called out as she neared.

Tate smacked his friend on the back of the head. “Shut up,” he told him.

Buck simply grinned.

“You look like shit,” Obi-Wan chimed in, frowning.

“Jeez, man, enough!” Tate scolded.

Laryn smirked. “Good to see you guys too,” she told them dryly. “And I might look like shit, but you guys smell like it…which I think is worse.”

“She’s not lying,” Chaos said, as everyone chuckled.

“The SEAL team we’re being deployed with challenged us. Said we couldn’t outrun, out-push-up, or out-burpee them. Taunted us by saying we were nothing but a bunch of pansy-ass pilots. Of course, we had to show them how wrong they were,” Obi-Wan explained.

Laryn grinned. The six pilots were covered in sand, as if they’d taken turns burying each other at the beach like kids did when they were little. Their hair was sticking up in spikes on their heads and it was obvious they’d been sweating like pigs in the not-so-distant past.

“Who won?” she asked.

“Are you kidding?” Edge asked, sounding affronted.

“We kicked their butts,” Pyro said with pride.

Looking at the men she’d worked damn hard to keep safe for the last few years, Laryn couldn’t help but feel pride well up inside her.

They were conceited, but they deserved to be, since they were amazing pilots.

The best. They were a little rough around the edges, but then again, so was she.

They worked hard and played hard. But none of them were hard on the eyes.

They were all incredibly good-looking. Stereotypical jock pilots.

And she cared about each and every one of them.

True, she might not hang out with them when they were off duty, but she quietly celebrated their triumphs and was devastated when something went wrong on their missions.

She knew them, maybe not like a true friend did, but they were a big part of why she hadn’t seriously considered any of the job offers she’d received.

Tate might be the biggest reason she hadn’t left, but the other five men were a collective close second.

“That fast-rope rig you installed is sick!” Pyro told her, the excitement in his voice making Laryn’s grin grow bigger.

“And I heard the new infrared camera can see a bug farting from three thousand meters. When are we getting that system?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Personally, I like the drink holder she added,” Chaos said with a smirk .

“It’s not a drink holder, jeez,” Laryn teased with a roll of her eyes.

“What is it then?” he challenged.

Fine, he had her. It was totally a drink holder. She’d added it as a joke.

Thankfully, before she could respond, the colonel in charge of the Night Stalkers, Asher Burgess—and to whom she reported, as far as the military went—entered the hangar. The six men around her all turned and saluted him as he approached.

“At ease. Where do we stand on getting this bird in the air?” he asked impatiently.

Laryn stepped forward and began to debrief the officer in charge. It took almost ten minutes to satisfy him that the chopper was truly ready for the trials. He turned to the pilots.

“Debrief in thirty minutes. My office. We have a lot to go over before leaving next week for the Middle East.”

“Sir.”

“Yes, Sir.”

All the pilots answered in tandem as they once again saluted their commanding officer.

It wasn’t until the colonel left that Laryn let out a breath of relief.

She’d been around plenty of officers before, but something about the colonel had always made her uneasy.

He was a good guy, had his pilots’ best interests at heart, but he had a forceful and no-nonsense presence that always kept her on edge.

“Darn it,” Pyro grumbled. “I was hoping we’d be able to take her up this afternoon.”

“No time,” Tate told him. “Not with the colonel wanting to meet with us.”

“I know.”

“You want to go up with us tomorrow night?” Tate asked Laryn.

Her eyes widened. “Um…no. ”

“No? Don’t you want to see how your baby handles firsthand?”

“Nope. No. Uh-uh. Forget about it.”

Tate and the other men all grinned. “Why not? Don’t you trust Pyro and me?”

“Yes. I know you’re good at what you do. But I don’t do helicopters. Or small planes. I actually don’t like planes in general, but they’re a necessary evil when we need to get to a ship in the middle of a far-off ocean.”

“Are you scared of heights?” Buck asked incredulously.

“No. I’m scared of crashing,” Laryn hedged.

Now all the men laughed.

“We don’t crash,” Obi-Wan informed her.

“We sometimes land hard, but that’s not the same thing,” Chaos said with a perfectly straight face.

Laryn rolled her eyes. “Still not happening.”

“I would never let anything happen to you,” Tate said, sounding completely serious. All signs of teasing were absent from his words. Which was unusual for him. “None of us would. We’d bend over backward to make sure you were safe.”

“Because who else would keep your babies purring for you?” Laryn joked, feeling uneasy with the intensity behind his words.

It was going to take a while for her to get used to this new Tate.

The man who actually paid attention to her, who didn’t just joke lightheartedly with her about “his” helicopters.

“I’m serious,” he insisted.

“Yeah, you’re one of us,” Edge told her.

Looking at the oldest of the pilots—because it felt safer than looking into Tate’s blue eyes—she swallowed hard. “Thanks.”

“I can’t believe you’re afraid of heights,” Buck said with a small shake of his head.

“I told you, I’m not afraid of heights. Only of falling to my death,” she corrected.

“So I guess zip-lining is out. ”

“Or skydiving.”

“Or tightrope walking.”