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My mouth fell open. “What? All three of them?”
“Yeah.” He grinned.
“But they have college.”
Blair rolled his eyes. “They’re students. Missing a few days won’t be the end of their career.”
The warmth blossoming inside me grew. Yeah, I was pretty damn lucky.
ChapterFifty-Two
KENNEDY
“We all haveto squeeze intothat?” Mina asked, staring at the helicopter dubiously. She was probably running through collections of data on helicopter crashes in her head.
“Come on, Meens.” Jamie slung an arm around her shoulders and squashed her to his side. “It’s safer to fly than drive.”
Her face scrunched and she eyeballed him like she wished he’d let go, but I knew she secretly loved her little brothers giving her a hard time. “How do you even know that?”
“You said so,” he replied. “Must be true.”
Her jaw dropped. “You actually listen to me?”
Joel poked her rib cage playfully. “You were muttering it to yourself the whole time we were on the plane. After that long, it got through even our thick skulls.”
“You’re not thick,” she protested, shoving him. He made a big show of falling away, clutching his chest as if wounded, and his blond hair flopped into his eyes. I hid a smile. Sometimes my brothers reminded me of goofy golden retrievers. Silly and obsessed with food, but very loyal.
“This is going to be a long two hours,” Blair said quietly.
Liam nodded in agreement.
It was Friday—four days after the kidnapping—and we’d chartered a helicopter back to Destiny Falls. The Braddocks had returned a couple of days earlier, taking their vehicle with them. We could have gotten a rental car, but I could afford to charter a private helicopter, and it would make for a smoother and quicker ride, so why not?
Still grumbling, Mina climbed aboard. Blair sat beside her, and the twins took the front row. I crossed my fingers and hoped they wouldn’t try to lean out the door to get a better look at the view. They’d already announced they wanted to go skydiving in Queenstown while they were here, and who knew what other brilliant ideas they’d have. Liam and I sat in the back. He took my hand and clasped it tight.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He raised my knuckles to his mouth and kissed them. “Love you too.”
“Get a room!” Joel called, having glanced over just in time to see our intimate moment.
The pilot ran through a spiel about safety, giving the boys in the front row a particularly stern look. He closed everything up, settled in, and we rose into the air.
This helicopter trip was far more memorable than the other—although since I’d been shot, I thought I could be forgiven for not remembering much of the previous one. Sweeping green paddocks passed beneath us, gradually giving way to mountain ranges and turning green again as we traveled further south.
Eventually, we came down on the landing pad behind Destiny Falls Medical Center and clambered out. Despite the fact that the boys were in front, Mina was the first one through the door, collapsing to the ground with relief. Max hurried to Mina’s side to check on her, but straightened after she’d explained about her travel-induced anxiety and general preference for being onterra firma. When everyone else had cleared out, Liam helped me down the steps.
Max greeted me with a smile. “I’m so glad to see you looking well.”
“Thank you for everything. I hear you and Asher are responsible for making sure I was taken such good care of.”
Max laughed. “It was a team effort. Everyone did their part—including, from what I’m told, you. Nate said they wouldn’t have been able to take down Tyler so easily if you hadn’t broken away from him. Apparently the kid was so shaken from shooting you that he went meekly as a lamb, although he lawyered up as soon as he was in custody.”
“Of course he did.” His parents would make sure he had the best legal representation money could buy. I’d be surprised if they weren’t already in the country, throwing their weight around.
“Are you the doc?” Jamie asked, joining us.
“This is Max,” I said quickly. “He’s the local doctor and also Liam’s brother. Max, this is Jamie.”
