Top Gun Guardian

“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 States 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?”