Page 99 of The Reluctant Siren
He picked up their bags and let her go first.
She hoped they got there in time.
ChapterSeventeen
Niall stood back while the blades of the chopperslowed and a young man slid from the pilot’s seat. He wore jeans and a T-shirtalong with a headset he slid down around his neck. He had dark hair and lookedto be roughly sixteen, though he probably wouldn’t be flying a helicopter if hewas. He smiled and Niall knew this kid was going to bug the shit out of himbecause he was cocky and giving Harlow a long once-over.
He nearly glanced to his side so he and Jensen couldexchange a look that let him know they would protect their girl from overlyeager cowboys.
Jensen wasn’t there. He wouldn’t be there again because he’dwalked away without even bothering to leave them a fucking note.
He was so angry, and he had to tamp it down because theywere in a crisis.
“Hello,” the pilot said with a wave as he strode towardthem. He wore cowboy boots and an aw-shucks smile that would likely melt theheart of most women. “Harlow Dawson? My name’s Jasper Malone. My auntie sent meto pick you up, and she did not mention that you would turn out to be sogorgeous. Damn, girl. Do you work with my Aunt Vanessa? Ruby is the one whocalled, but you look more like you should be in Hollywood. Is this yourpersonal assistant?”
“I’m her Dom,” Niall said and put all of his will into thatone word.
“Hey, new friends,” Harlow said and then frowned the guy’sway. “Although he’s not really new since I met him a couple of times when hewas literally a baby trying to climb the bookshelves. I think Ruby babysat himat one point.”
“That would likely be one of my younger siblings since I’mnot a kid. Ruby’s only a couple of years older than me,” Jasper pointed out.
“Ten. She’s ten years older,” Harlow countered. “Niall, thisis the heir to Malone Oil. He’s also barely eighteen years old, so you can stopwith the caveman-possessive thing.”
“Well, I would if these cocky assholes would stop showing uplooking at you like you’re the last cupcake at the buffet.” He huffed butrealized he’d kind of outed them. “But I promise next time I’ll use the wordboyfriend.”
He was fumbling, and if he wasn’t careful he was going tolose her. It would be so easy for her to toss them both out, but he had nointention of allowing Jensen’s fuck-up to ruin his relationship with Harlow.
Jasper seemed perfectly non-plussed. “Nah, man. I can playaround the word ‘boyfriend,’ but Dom is a term I’m forced to take seriously.It’s a family thing. One of these days they’re going to let me into thatHideout place and I’ll figure it all out myself. I would go to The Club, but Icould run into my momma there. Let’s just say there are rooms in our house thatme and my siblings know not to enter if we don’t want too much information. NowRuby made it sound like this was an emergency.”
Harlow nodded. “We need to get to Dallas. How long will ittake?”
Jasper shrugged. “Depends. Dallas is a big place. Ruby saidsomething about getting to my Uncle Mike’s building. I’ve done that in lessthan an hour before.”
“You have a license to fly that thing? Did you steal it?”Niall was still having a hard time with the kid who looked like he should be inhigh school racing them to Dallas in a small tin can with blades that couldkill them.
Jasper grinned. “Buddy, I’ve been flying since I wasfourteen. This baby was my birthday present. Let’s say I had some parentalencouragement.”
“So your dad is super wealthy and likes to play with toys?”Niall replied as they started to walk toward the chopper.
Jasper snorted. “Nah, my daddy gets air sick if you mentiona helo. He can barely handle the corporate jet. My momma took up flying. Shewould be out here if she wasn’t in London dealing with some kind of businessproblem. Let me tell you, I prefer flying and working the ranch to dealing withall the oil business stuff. They want me to go to…business school. Hey, girl,you have a fun business going with Ruby. You need a pilot? I come with my ownchopper, and I know how to use it, if you know what I mean.”
Harlow picked up the headset on the passenger seat. “I thinkwe’re more a car-driven business, but thanks. And we’re not going to the MTbuilding. We need to go straight to a friend’s apartment building. Do you havea way for me to climb down without you parking this beast?”
Jasper hopped in his seat, and that left Niall on the backbench. He stored their gear and pulled his headset off the side of Harlow’sseat. The minute he put it on, the blades started up, and he could hear Jaspertalking over the headset.
“I have a ladder. I can probably put you down on top of abuilding,” Jasper explained as he pushed buttons and flicked switches. “I meanif the building is big and sound enough. Of course, people tend to freak out ifthey’re not used to it.”
“Harlow, I know you mean well, but I’m worried. This soundsdangerous,” Niall pointed out. He thought she’d given him the gun as aprecaution, but now he realized she meant to use hers. He wasn’t about to loseher to some wild scheme to save Jensen. “We should have that Big Tag guy handlethis.”
“Ian’s already informed,” Harlow said, and even over thetinny sound of the headset he could hear how tight her voice was. “But no onecan get in touch with Jensen or Jack. Jensen doesn’t have a phone, and Jackturned his off or he’s ignoring us because he doesn’t want to think about whathe’s doing. Niall, this is my area of expertise. I’m doing this my way. You’rewelcome to come with me or I’ll have Jasper here drop me off and then he cantake you to the McKay-Taggart building and I’ll fill you in later.”
Well, he knew when he’d been put in his place. That wasn’tfair. She was right. She was the one who did shit like this on a regular basis.“I’ll come with you. I’m not leaving you.”
She sighed as the helo took off. “It might be better if youdid. Niall, I don’t know what I’m going into. It could get dangerous, or wecould be making a complete mountain out of a molehill.”
“I’m going with you. I’ll follow all of your instructions,but I won’t let you go alone.”
The helo banked left hard, and he was almost certain thatfucker was trying to show off. Or make him hurl.
