Top Gun Guardian

by Carol Ericson

  The agent smirked and snapped the door shut.

  Buzz pressed his ear against the door for several seconds and then locked the deadbolt with a soft click. He pointed to the minibar fridge. “Can I have one of those five-dollar sodas?”

  Raven frowned at the door. Did Buzz think they were in danger from anyone in that room? Not likely.

  Tapping Malika on the head as she walked by, Raven said, “We’ve pretty much decimated the colas. Do you want a root beer?”

  “Sure. Give me a root beer for the road.”

  Raven swiveled her head around. “For the road? Where are you going? I thought you’d want to see this thing through.”

  “Not just me.” Buzz took two large steps to the minibar and snatched the can from Raven’s slack hand. “We’re all going.”

  “Yeah, well, once the suits in the other room find a secure location for President Okeke and Malika—” Raven slammed the door to the little fridge and pushed up to her feet “—we’ll all be going. And we’d better hurry because I have a hot date.”

  Buzz raised one brow and snapped the lid on his can. “We’re not waiting for them. We’re headed for that secure location right now, the three of us.”

  Biting her lip, Raven shot a glance at the locked door again. “I-is that the plan? We’re going there first and then the president will follow us?”

  Buzz dipped his head once and chucked Malika under the chin.

  Malika had already slipped into her shoes and had grabbed her doll from the bed. She didn’t seem surprised or alarmed at the news that they were leaving the hotel ahead of her father.

  Raven rubbed out the furrow between her eyebrows. But why did she have to come along? “Buzz, are you sure I’m included in this plan?”

  “Don’t you want to help Malika?” His brows shot up to his hairline. “You’re about the only one she trusts right now. Isn’t that right, darlin’?”

  Malika pinned Raven with her big brown eyes and nodded.

  Raven sucked in a breath and then blew it out, rolling back her shoulders. She was not going to allow Buzz Richardson to accuse her of disliking little children…again.

  She checked her Rolex. She could still meet her date on time. How long could it take to stash Malika and a few bodyguards in some safehouse?

  Rubbing Malika’s back, Raven said, “Of course I want to help Malika. We’re a team—at least until her father takes over.”

  “I knew I could count on your love of children to propel you in the right direction.” Buzz grabbed her handbag from the credenza and shoved it against her chest. “Let’s go.”

  “Shouldn’t we let them know we’re on our way?” She jerked her thumb toward the room next door.

  “They’re busy.” Buzz inched open the door to the suite and exchanged a few words with the Burumandan guard stationed there.

  The man trailed them down the hallway to the stairwell, and then followed them down four flights of stairs. When they burst through the final fire door, Buzz guided them away from the lobby and toward a side door. The door landed them in the middle of the busy kitchen, where they darted through a maze of counters, refrigerators and vats of churning food.

  When they hit the back door of the kitchen, their escort melted away and another intercepted them as they entered an alley on the side of the hotel. Their guard hustled them into a Lincoln Town Car with tinted windows.

  Despite the blacked-out windows, Buzz told Raven and Malika to slouch in their seats. Raven swallowed her complaints when she noticed Malika’s swift compliance. The girl had experience in this sort of subterfuge.

  The car shot out of the alley and Raven whispered to Buzz. “I’m glad this guy has diplomatic immunity or they’d throw the book at him for reckless driving.” The car squealed around the first corner. “And speeding.”

  The driver whisked the car down the FDR Drive and Raven peeked out the window. The safehouse must be outside of Manhattan. Maybe she wouldn’t make it to her date on time after all.

  That was probably for the best. How could she possibly concentrate on another man when she’d just spent an adrenaline-fueled day with Buzz? His larger-than-life presence eclipsed everyone. It just wasn’t fair he had to come traipsing back into her life, reminding her of what she’d thrown away.

  Malika had conked out and slumped to the side, resting her head against Raven’s arm. A little drool had trickled from the corner of Malika’s mouth onto the sleeve of Raven’s suit. Raven rummaged through her bag for a tissue and dabbed the girl’s lips.

  Raven met Buzz’s eyes above Malika’s head. “What? She’s drooling on my new suit.”

  “She really likes you.” He spread his hands in front of him as if he couldn’t believe it.

  “Yeah, well, I saved her life back there at the U.N. What would you expect?”

  He lifted one shoulder. “I would expect her to like you. Kids do.”

  “You’re crazy. I was never around them enough for you to gauge that.”

  “There was Eric and Grace’s boy.”

  Raven gave an exaggerated shiver. “You mean that horrid little monster who ran around putting tadpoles on everyone’s lap?”

  Buzz laughed and the sound filled the backseat of the Town Car, coaxing a grin from Raven. “Except yours.”

  “That’s because I warned him if he came anywhere near me with a tadpole, I’d take the critter and flush him down the toilet.”

  “And he fell in love with you on the spot. Followed you around for the rest of the party…without his tadpoles.”

  “Ha! He probably just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get my hands on any of his creatures and flush ’em.” Raven pressed her warm forehead against the cool window. “Where is this place?”

  “We’re almost there.”

  Several minutes later, the car exited the highway and pulled into a small parking lot next to a low-slung gray building.

  Raven tapped the window. “This is a secure location? It looks like, it looks like…an airplane hangar.”

  The car jerked to a stop and Buzz threw open the door.

  Raven clawed at the door handle, her heart pounding. Buzz. Airplanes. The two went together like…little boys and tadpoles. “Buzz! Buzz!”

  She clambered out of the car. “What are we doing here?”

  He dipped back into the car on the other side, and Raven ducked her head inside, too. Did he think he could avoid her that easily? They nearly banged foreheads over Malika’s sleepy form.

  Raven hissed. “What are you doing?”

  He tucked his arms beneath Malika and slid her across the seat toward him. “I’m kidnapping President Okeke’s daughter. And you’re coming with me.”

  Chapter Three

  “Bryan!”

  Buzz grinned. Raven must be really mad to use his real name instead of his nickname. He had to play this right because he needed Raven for the plan to work.

  He waved to the mechanic he’d called earlier. “Did you do the pre-flight? Everything ready to go?”

  “You’re good to go, boss.” The mechanic flashed him a thumbs-up.

  Clutching a drowsy Malika to his chest, Buzz strode across the tarmac to his Jetstream. Two steps up and he felt a tug at his shirt. He suppressed a grin and twisted his head over his shoulder.

  Raven’s dark eyes sparkled, practically shooting sparks. “Where are you taking Malika and why?”

  “I’m taking her to safety.”

  “Are you crazy? You’ll have the entire CIA, FBI and probably the U.S. Military after you, not to mention some of those huge Burumandan security guys.”

  He pointed to Naru, the Burumandan driver waving on the tarmac. “You mean like him? I’m not as crazy as I look, Raven. I have President Okeke’s permission to take Malika. We’d already discussed and planned it.”

  Her black, sculpted eyebrows collided over her nose. “But why? I thought that’s what you were all figuring out in the conference room. Are you telling me President Okeke doesn’t trust the United S
tates government?”

  “He trusts me more. And you.”

  “Me?” Raven ran a hand through her silky hair, the color of velvet midnight. “I just met the guy.”

  “You saved his daughter’s life.” Malika stirred in his arms, rubbing the back of her hand across her nose. “We can’t waste any more time out here. I have to get her in the plane and get going.”

  Raven took a step down, one heel digging into the asphalt of the tarmac. “I can’t come with you.”

  “President Okeke specifically requested that you accompany us. He wanted to ask you himself at the hotel, but the Secret Service agent interrupted him.”

  Buzz held his breath. Raven lived and breathed her career, and Buzz could imagine how she felt being relegated to babysitting duty. Now through a set of crazy circumstances, the new president of Burumanda needed her help. Buzz would have to keep pounding on that to convince her to come along.

  “The president believes his daughter’s safety rests with you. He never would’ve hatched this plan if not for his confidence in you, Raven.”

  She shook her head and pursed her lips. “I can’t rush off and leave everything, especially for some cockamamie scheme of yours. If you’re involved, trouble is not far behind. How do I even know you have President Okeke’s permission to take Malika?”

  “And why would I want to kidnap the president’s daughter?” Of course, he didn’t have to tell Raven about the link between the assassination attempt on President Okeke and Jack Coburn’s disappearance. That wouldn’t convince her of anything except his insanity.

  Raven’s right foot joined her left foot firmly on the ground. “I can’t do it, Buzz. You’re on your own.”

  Buzz clenched his jaw. That’s not the first time she’d said those words to him.

  Malika squirmed in his arms, lifting her head from his shoulder. “Raven?”

  “You’re going to be fine, Malika.” Raven flashed a fake smile. “Your father asked Mr. Richardson to take you someplace safe.”

  “I know. You are coming, Raven?”

  Raven’s shoulders slumped. “No. I can’t come with you, Malika, but you’ll be safe with Mr. Richardson.”

  A tremble rolled through Malika’s small frame and she choked on a sob. “Please, Raven.”

  “I’m sorry. I—I just can’t.” Raven clamped her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Buzz’s pulse leaped. Was that a quivering lip she was biting? Nah, this was Raven Pierre, career girl extraordinaire.

  “Say goodbye to Raven, darlin’. Let’s get you buckled in nice and tight.” Buzz turned to duck into the hatch of the Jetstream.

  Clawing at his arms, Malika wailed. “I want Raven.”

  She wasn’t the only one.

  Raven grabbed the handrails and leaned forward. “You’ll be fine, Malika.”

  “No, no.” Malika buried her face against Buzz’s chest, and he patted her back.

  Without Raven, his plan looked as though it was going to deteriorate rapidly. He liked kids, but this motherless little girl wasn’t going to be too happy with his male companionship.

  Raven sighed and launched forward, nearly barreling into his back. “All right. I’ll come along, at least to get you settled.”

  Malika sniffled and a big smile claimed half her face.

  Buzz narrowed his eyes as he transferred Malika to Raven’s waiting arms. The girl’s cries had done more to convince Raven to come along than Buzz’s assertions to her importance to President Okeke. Had he just fallen into a rabbit hole?

  He sat at the controls while Raven buckled Malika into one of several seats facing the cockpit and retrieved two blankets from a bin on the side of the plane. She tucked the blanket around Malika, twitched the girl’s pigtails and then buckled into the seat next to her.

  She let out a breath. “Where to, flyboy?”

  “Just relax and enjoy the ride.” Buzz adjusted his headphones and flipped a few switches. No need to tell Raven their final destination. She’d just gotten used to the idea of traveling along with Malika. He didn’t want her to go ballistic about the location just when she’d accepted her fate.

  Buzz gave a final wave to the ground crew and Naru waiting next to the car, and then taxied down the abbreviated runway. The meeting at the hotel had probably ended by now, and everyone would know he’d taken off with the president’s daughter.

  He scanned the darkening skies and settled back into his seat as he pulled on the throttle, sending the nose of his plane toward the heavens. He hadn’t filed a flight plan with air traffic control, since he didn’t want anyone picking up his trail.

  The CIA wouldn’t come after him, at least not yet. The Agency wouldn’t want to anger President Okeke and if the president trusted his daughter’s safety to him and Raven, the CIA would just have to deal with it…for now.

  The plane climbed to cruising altitude and Buzz stretched his legs. He could use a cup of coffee about now. Too bad he wasn’t flying one of the big commercial jets. He glanced over his shoulder at Raven flipping through a magazine she must’ve had stashed in that huge bag of hers.

  He preferred the company on this small plane to a bunch of overworked flight attendants anyway…even without the coffee.

  Raven peeked over the top of her magazine. “Are we in for a long flight?”

  “About seven hours.” He pointed to Malika curled up in her seat, the blanket tucked up to her chin. “You should follow Malika’s example and take a nap.”

  “Seven hours?” She dropped the magazine to her lap. “I guess I can’t just land and turn around then.”

  “I didn’t know that’s what you’d planned. You volunteered to get Malika settled, remember?”

  “Settled where, Buzz? Where are you taking us?”

  He took a deep breath and shifted his gaze back to his control panel of blinking lights. “Oklahoma.”

  Raven gasped and then laughed, but the sound held no humor. Buzz had noticed that about Raven before. She could laugh but it didn’t mean she was happy. That kind of laughter always made him uncomfortable, and it hadn’t changed.

  He twisted in his seat to find Raven’s head touching her knees and her shoulders shaking from the laugh that wasn’t a laugh. Buzz raised one eyebrow. “Why are you laughing?”

  Not that he minded. He preferred it to her throwing things at him, especially when he was trying to fly.

  Raven jerked her head up. “Come on, Buzz. Don’t play the slow cowboy with me. You know why Oklahoma is significant.”

  “Because it was my home. Because I wanted to take you there after we married. Because it’s where I wanted to raise a family…with you. But now it’s just a safe place for Malika until Burumanda’s political situation cools down and she can be reunited with her father.” He shrugged. “Not significant at all.”

  “It was your home?” Raven brushed strands of her hair from her face. “You didn’t return to Oklahoma after leaving Prospero?”

  “No. I live in Dallas now, but I still have my folks’ ranch in Oklahoma. I figure I can protect Malika there.” He patted the empty co-pilot’s seat next to him. “Do you want to join me up front? You were getting good at flying before…”

  Before she’d taken off like a scared rabbit once he mentioned marriage, family and forever. Raven had never had an example of any of those things in her life. Her wealthy family had lived abroad, dropped Raven off at boarding schools and stashed her with nannies.

  Obviously not wanting a trip down memory lane, Raven scrambled from her seat and lurched toward the cockpit. “Just tell me what to do.”

  “Nothing. Relax and enjoy the view.”

  After fifteen minutes of companionable silence as the Jetstream cut through the night sky, Raven tapped his shoulder. “Why didn’t you settle in Oklahoma? It’s all you ever talked about.”

  It’s all he’d ever talked about? No wonder he’d scared her off.

  He lifted the shoulder where her hand still rested. “Wasn’t ready.”

>   Once he retired from Prospero, he’d discovered all his plans for the ranch had become meaningless without Raven. And all the women he’d met since lacked Raven’s spunk, her beauty, her sexiness, her…

  She squeezed his shoulder. “Well, you’ll get there one day. I know the ranch meant a lot to you after your parents died.”

  The transponder beeped and Buzz flicked his radar screen. “There’s another private plane in the area. We’re too low for a commercial airliner.”

  Raven slouched to peer out her side window. “Is it close enough that we’d see it? It’s clear out here.”

  “It’s behind us. You might be able to see its lights if you went to the back of the plane, but it’s okay. He’s not going to run into us or anything. We both have transponders.”

  Buzz tried to contact the other plane on the radio, but the pilot didn’t respond. A muscle ticked in his jaw, and he clenched his hand on the steering wheel.

  Raven’s gaze took in his white knuckles and the straight line of his mouth. “Are you sure it’s okay? Could that be the CIA after us?”

  He shook his head. If it were the CIA, the pilot would be all over that radio giving him orders. If it were…someone else, the pilot might want to follow him silently.

  “Buzz, you never told me what a commercial airline pilot was doing at the U.N. during President Okeke’s address. And how did you get so chummy with the president that he’d let you fly off with his daughter?”

  Buzz blew out a breath. He might as well tell her the rest. “Jack Coburn is missing.”

  “Jack?” Raven gripped the arms of her chair. “What happened?”

  “We’re not sure. He took a job as a hostage negotiator after Prospero. He disappeared in Afghanistan while on a job trying to negotiate the release of some doctor.”

  “What does President Okeke have to do with Jack’s disappearance and why are you involved?”

  “It’s Jack.”

  She hugged herself, hunching her shoulders. “I know you guys would do anything for each other, but how is his disappearance related to President Okeke?”