Defending Raven (Mountain Mercenaries #7)(83)

“Hi, beautiful. We’re okay.”

Then she turned to her son. “Hey, buddy.”

“Mamá! Look! It’s Papá! He found us!”

“I see that,” Raven said.

“Del Rio took me to a really small house with an old lady. She wasn’t mean, but she wasn’t very nice either. Then Papá showed up with Mr. Gray and Mr. Black and some other friends and rescued me! We climbed up on a really high wall, and Papá made del Rio mad. We jumped off the wall and walked and walked and walked. Then we climbed a tree and slept on the roof of someone’s house! Under a tarp! It was fun. Papá and I looked up at the stars, and he told me stories. Then he dropped me off the roof, and we were in a car zooming here and zooming there. Mr. Ball was driving, and Daddy said a bad word. Now we’re here, and we’re going to the United States!” David’s words were all jumbled together as he did his best to recount everything that had happened to him in the last several hours.

“Wow, that all sounds very exciting. Were you scared?” Raven asked.

David shook his head. “At first. But when Papá got there, he told me that he wouldn’t hurt me and I’d get to see you soon and we could eat together and all live in the same house!”

Raven nodded and took a deep breath before resting her forehead against Dave’s chest once more.

He knew she was doing her best to keep her composure, and while he didn’t like the fact that she was crying, he did like the fact that they were happy tears.

“I’m here!” Ball said as he entered the plane. “We need to get the hell out of here. Now.”

The two flight attendants shut the door as Dave urged Raven to sit in a row with David. He leaned down and kissed the tops of both their heads. “I’ll be right back. Tighten your seat belts.”

“Is everything all right?” Raven asked, her voice quivering.

Dave nodded. “Of course.”

He turned to walk away, and Raven caught his hand. He looked down at her, and his heart turned over in his chest. He could hardly believe this wasn’t a dream. That he’d finally found her, and they were going home. He squeezed her hand, then turned toward the front of the plane and the cockpit.

He nodded at Zara and Gabriella as he passed them and pushed through his team—who were all ignoring the poor flight attendants telling them they needed to be seated—to get to the door of the cockpit.

He stuck his head inside and said, “I’m Dave Justice. And while I’m very glad to see you, I’m hoping like hell you aren’t intimidated easily, because I have a feeling the shit’s about to hit the fan.”

The man on the left nodded his head. He was probably in his fifties or so. “I’m Captain Mark Brown. That’s my copilot, Porter Hilliard. We both flew over a hundred missions in the Gulf War. We know what your story is, sir, and you can count on us. Your wife and child have been through enough. It’s time you all got home.”

Dave nodded at both men, as glad as he could be that he had two combat veterans at the helm.

Mark lifted a hand and pressed the radio headset at his ear—and every muscle in his body tensed. He whipped the headset off and began flicking switches and pushing buttons. “You should probably go sit down and buckle up. This is most likely gonna be a rough takeoff.”

Seeing lights from the corner of his eye, Dave looked over at one of the windows—and saw a police vehicle heading their way with its lights whirling.

“Shit,” he muttered. Then, turning back to the pilot, he asked, “Can we take off if we haven’t been given clearance?”

“Fuck yeah, we can,” Porter said to Dave’s right. He turned and told Meat, who was standing right behind him, “Things are about to get dicey. Go tell the women to hold on, and everyone else needs to strap in as well.”

“Will do.” Meat turned to go. “What about you?” he asked Dave.

“I’ll be there in a second,” Dave told him.

He nodded, then hurried to relay the information to the others. Before he could leave, Dave stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Meat?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for looking after Raven for me and getting her and the others to the plane.”

Meat nodded. “Of course.” Then he turned and headed for the rows of seats.

Dave saw Raven’s concerned face as she leaned out into the aisle of the plane, watching him. He gave her a quick chin lift, then turned back to the cockpit.

They were now barreling down one of the access roads to the runway. He couldn’t see behind him, and asked, “Are they following us?”

Mark chuckled. “Never thought I’d see the day when a police car was chasing a fucking plane, trying to pull it over. But don’t worry, we’re not stopping. After everything I’ve heard you and your wife have been through, they’ll have to do more than flash a few lights to get me to stop.”

“What about clearance? What are they saying on the radio?” Dave asked as he looked to Porter, who was still wearing a headset.

“They’re not happy, sir, but it’s really too bad that I can’t understand them very well with their accented English.” He winked. “They gave us approval earlier, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re just making sure we’re good to go.”