In the meantime, I’d talked to Lynn, and Lynn had then contacted the company for me to get details.
When it was realized that Trouper would, indeed, be able to fly for them, and not only would he get to do what he loved to do all over again, but also get to continue to do what he’d started in Souls Chapel, I’d signed him up.
And now, a year and a half later, he was flown via helicopter to the closest Air Force base once every couple of weeks, and from there he would try out all the new toys. Work out kinks. Offer suggestions on what to fix. And then do it all over again when they’d worked out the previous week’s kinks.
When I’d first brought Trouper here and explained what we were doing, he’d closed down.
He’d, reluctantly might I add since I might or might not have illegally signed him up for a contract that was three years long, gone inside and done what he had to do.
I didn’t feel bad.
He’d needed it.
Flying had always been something he loved.
And, even though he got to fly for Lynn on a regular basis, he still didn’t get to go fast. Didn’t get that adrenaline rush that he used to get while going fifteen hundred miles an hour through the sky.
“Hey, did I miss it?”
I looked over at Kansas.
“No,” I said. “He’s just about to go up. They’re doing a pre-flight checklist right now.”
“Hey, State!”
When Trouper had first been called ‘State’ again by Kansas, he’d bucked the name. But Kansas hadn’t relented.
Now Trouper was known as ‘State’ again and would continue to be known by it in his Air Force circles.
The ‘badass State’ that had gone to prison for beating someone up that had hurt his girl, lost his Air Force commission unjustly, and still come out on top.
On top meaning he got to fly super-secret planes at super-secret bases all around the world.
Trouper turned around at Kansas’s bellow.
“Don’t be a pussy! Give it all she’s got!” Kansas ordered through a yell.
Troup gave him a thumb up and then started to climb into the cockpit.
When he was situated, and everything was in place, the plane powered up.
“Damn, that gives me a boner,” Kansas breathed.
“Boner!”
Hiro, my quickly picking up all kinds of bad words son, slapped me against the neck.
Hiro was in a carrier on my back so I didn’t accidentally lose him like I did the first time I was out here watching his father.
“You want me to hold him for a bit?” Kansas asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “He’s good for now.”
He looked at Hiro, then down at my belly.
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes.
I grinned. “How’s Traci feeling?”
Traci and Kansas had just found out that they were having a baby two months ago. And in those two months Traci had realized just how awful morning sickness was.
“She’s ready to be through this morning sickness phase,” he grumbled. “Cannel was over there when I left. But Traci was in the bathroom puking.”
Cannel had left Toot.
She still loved him, but she hadn’t been able to stand him.
Which sucked for her because she was between a rock and a hard place.
Toot had been reassigned to a different base out of the country, and I had a feeling that Lynn had a lot to do with that.
“There he goes.”
Heart in my throat, I stared as Trouper hurtled the plane down the runway.
Seconds later, it was in the air, and taking off so fast that I felt the blowback.
“Fuck, that’s hot,” Kansas sighed. “I hope they get that out before I’m too old to fly it.”
I snorted. “I think they said they still had at least another year of testing on it before it went anywhere. Didn’t you say that you were getting out soon?”
Kansas sighed. “Traci’s tired of being stationed around the country,” he grumbled. “She wants to put down roots.”
I didn’t blame him.
“Shit, sorry we’re late.”
I looked over to see Trick, Hunt, Sin, Laric, Bruno, Zach, and Lynn sidle up to the gate.
“He buzzed us on our way in, though. I swear to Christ. I almost shit myself,” Zach groaned. “Swear to God, I saw him laughing.”
“Sure you did.” I rolled my eyes.
Zach, having been the closest to me, reached up and took Hiro from my back, tucking him in close to his chest.
“Hey, Hiro,” Zach said as he tickled my boy lightly.
“Hey, Zach.” Hiro smiled.
God, that smile was exactly like his father’s.
One that his father was wearing when he walked toward me a