Chapter 12
Lockout
Ihadn’t taken very many people to Skyhawk Aviation.
Not because I didn’t want to share my business with them, but because everyone was busy with their own damn lives.
And maybe because the kids were still at the ‘always sticky’ and ‘can’t keep their hands to themselves’ age and it was best to wait another few years before taking them flying.
Cleaning the inside of a helicopter wasn’t easy.
Toxic had been out the most. We were both pilots and we both had the same urge to get back into the sky that struck every once in a while. Despite his normally carefree nature, this was one area where I trusted him implicitly.
It was a sense of freedom that nothing else provided.
At least compared to anything else I’d ever tried anyway.
And despite having a shit father, losing my mother, and losing my sister, I wasn’t the type to drown my sorrows in alcohol.
Just wasn’t my thing. Especially not since my brother and I had mostly mended our relationship. We were working on it anyway.
I watched as Keely came walking toward me.
She’d changed out the skintight leggings for equally tight jeans that hugged her plump little ass, and had a new t-shirt on that was knotted at her lower back, leaving a strip of skin exposed.
She had white tennis shoes on and was wearing a beautiful smile. She was ridiculously gorgeous.
I hadn’t missed the way men had turned to check her out when we’d crossed the street to go to her law office.
And they hadn’t missed my scowl when I caught them staring.
Luckily for those guys, they’d fucked right off when they caught me looking at them.
I was going to have to get used to that, a certain level of that anyway.
She was a head turner, no way around it.
She stopped in front of me, all but bouncing in place in her excitement. Chuckling, I reached behind me and grabbed my spare helmet. I may, or may not, have purchased it last year. Just in case I needed one. For her.
“Come here,” I told her. Her eyes widened a little but she stepped closer toward me. I placed the helmet on her head and adjusted the strap. The backs of my knuckles brushed over her soft skin and I had to fight the urge to rip the helmet right back off and kiss her.
The visor was up, so I didn’t have any trouble hearing her when she asked, “I get to ride your bike, too? Is it my birthday?”
No. That wasn’t for another few months. My girl was a March baby.
“Figured I’d give you the whole experience,” I told her with a grin, as I shoved my own helmet on my head.
Arizona didn’t have helmet laws, but I didn’t like the idea of my brain matter being splattered all over the fucking roadway, baking in the sun.
It was low seventies today, even though it was December, so neither of us bothered with a sweatshirt or jacket.
But I had one in my office at Skyhawk Aviation if she got cold or the weather turned.
That was the nice thing about Tucson. Even in the winter it was usually warm.
Riding all year round was a huge bonus to this part of the state.
It was one of the reasons I’d decided to settle here instead of going anywhere else.
She climbed on Elenor behind me, and wrapped her arms around my waist without me needing to urge her to. She didn’t seem to mind getting close.
That worked for me, though I had to shift to adjust my suddenly hard cock. The way her tits were pressed against my back meant I’d be riding with a hard-on the rest of the way. “Ready?” I called out over Elenor’s pretty purr.
“Ready!”
Her laughter trailed behind us, whipped away by the wind, as I peeled out of the parking lot, slinging gravel.
None of the other guys’ bikes were parked near mine so I figured I’d give her a thrill.
Priest was scowling at me as he stood by the gate he’d opened when he noticed me and Keely getting ready to go.
He was a bit finicky about this place and I knew he was going to be out there with a rake, smoothing the gravel back out for the rest of the afternoon.
* * *
“This is your new helicopter?” she asked in awe.
“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’t have 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 more advanced 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 the ground, keeping us five feet high.
This was a fast bird, 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 right above 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…”
“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 ninety knots, 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.