Chapter 1 (Cole)
The evening had been a fairly typical one. I was out with the guys, listening to the deafening whirl of helicopter blades over my head as I surveyed the mountainside for any unusual activity. “Looks like it’s going to be a quiet one,” I said. “Haven’t seen so much as a bear.”
“Time to head back?” Kai looked back, already guiding the copter back towards headquarters. “No point in wasting fuel if no one’s up here.”
Ranger clipped his binoculars to his belt, announcing the end of our daily patrol. I was about to do the same when a spot of movement caught my attention. I zoomed in to get a better look and to my surprise, I saw a trio of girls. My pulse quickened as I was drawn by the lovely creature trailing the back of the group. Even from hundreds of feet in the air, there was no denying the bounce of her ass and the swing of her hips. She had the curves of a coke bottle and damn, with ebony waves falling to her waist, she was a fucking sight to behold.
The helicopter veered to the right and I lost my view. “Hold up,” I said. “Turn back around.”
“Did you see something?” Kai asked. “I thought you said even the bears were sleeping tonight.” The joke was lost on me as I shot him a glare.
“Well, obviously, I was wrong. Turn back around. Three girls are hiking through the thickest part of the mountain and I want to take another look. They might need our help.” It might have been a lame excuse but it was all I could think of at the moment.
Ranger laughed and I knew he hadn’t bought the excuse either. “Sure, sure. They might need our help. Keep telling yourself that.”
“Cole’s just desperate to satisfy his hero complex,” teased Kai, chuckling.
“Or, he just hasn’t gotten laid in so fucking long that he’s begun to hallucinate. Seriously, Cole, do you even remember what it’s like to be with a woman?” Ranger snickered. “I’m surprised by the blue balls you’ve got to be suffering from. We haven’t had to airlift you to the nearest hospital.”
“Quit it. Both of you.” I barked, not in the mood for the joking. I wasn’t hallucinating. I knew a beautiful woman when I saw one. That curvy creature hiking down in the mountain might have been my dream girl come to life, but I would bet anything she was real. As vivid as my imagination might be, an ass like that was more than I was willing to give myself credit for. “Stop being a couple of certified pricks and turn this fucking thing around.” I was done. I wanted my orders obeyed and I glared at the other men until Kai finally sighed.
“Fine,” said Kai, disgruntled as he began the process of turning the helicopter around, “but only to prove you wrong.”
Ranger took the binocular out of my hands and surveyed the area that I had pointed out before. “I don’t see anything, Cole. And if you’re pulling our leg here, we don’t have time for this shit. Some of us have got lives to lead.”
“Maybe if you looked with your eyes instead of your ass, you would see something.” I was about to snatch back the binoculars when he whistled.
“Damn, alright, Cole, you were right. There are girls down there – three of them – and fuck, are they smoking! You should see the bodies of these girls. I didn’t know Victorian Secret moved its runaway up here. Damn.” He was leaning out of the helicopter to an almost dangerous degree. I knew he wasn’t stupid enough to fall out of the chopper, but he was doing a good job of making me nervous. Before he could slip even further over the edge, I quickly grabbed him by the arms and pulled him back in.Grabbing my binoculars from him, I returned them to my belt, intent on the sight below.
“We should land the chopper,” I said impatiently. “Now.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Kai. “I mean, I like myself a fine piece of ass as much as the next guy but it would be insane of us to land for a couple of girls who don’t seem distressed. In fact, they seem to just be hiking.”
“Kai’s right,” Ranger said. “It’s unfortunate but he’s right. We’d be breaking every protocol. I mean, trust me, I would love to sweep those gals off their feet but now is not the time or the place. Kai, let’s move out.”
The chopper inched forward before I steadied Kai’s hand. “No. We can’t leave.”
“Cole, lay off. You’re going to get us all killed if you keep acting like some lovesick idiot. Those girls are fine. They’re just out there hiking so there’s no justifiable reason why we need to attempt a rescue. Now, I don’t know about you, but I hardly need HQ to rip me a new one.”
I stood my ground, daring either one of them to challenge me. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight but my gut was telling me that we needed to go down there and help those girls, and my gut had never steered me wrong before.
“Those girls need us,” I reiterated. “Nobody hikes out here unless they really know the mountain and tell me, do these girls look like they’ve ever hiked in their lives?”
Ranger grabbed my binoculars with a heavy sigh. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re stubborn as hell?” Ranger focused on the girls intently, his eyes narrowed. “They certainly aren’t dressed much for hiking. One of them keeps swatting at her arms, so they probably forgot to put on some proper bug spray. And I suppose they’re wearing the wrong shoes. But hey, it shouldn’t be skin off my nose if these girls came unprepared.” Nevertheless, Ranger continued to watch them. “But damn, those booty shorts on that last one.” He whistled and slapped his thigh.
“Land the copter,” I growled. “We don’t have time for Ranger to jerk one off up here. He just admitted that they weren’t dressed like hikers so there’s no way that they meant to be up here. They’ve got to be lost and what are we going to do? Just let them wander around until they die?” The thought really bothered me, and I refused to analyze why at that moment. Something was telling me to get down there and I wasn’t ignoring that intuition.
“Look, I hear what you’re saying,” said Kai, trying to be reasonable. “But even if I wanted to land this thing, I can’t. The trees are too dense. No open ground – no way for me to land. You know that, Cole. You don’t need me to tell you.”
He was right. I wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe it was the sight of those lovely curves screwing with my head or the gut feeling that I just couldn’t ignore. Those girls were in trouble and I wasn’t about to be the reason why they failed to make it off the mountain.
“I’ll go down in the bucket,” I volunteered, thinking fast. “If you guys are right, the girls will just tell me to bugger off. But if I’m right, you two are going to regret it.”
Ranger laughed, still not believing the risks I was willing to take for some females. “Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that? Sweep the hottest one off her feet? Well, the joke’s on you because they’re all smoking.”
“Quit playing around,” I said angrily. “The longer we wait –”
“Fine, fine,” conceded Ranger, the smirk disappearing from his face. “We’ll go check them out but I’m going in the bucket.” He grinned. “Nothing against your bucket skills – just playing my rank card here because honestly, I want the first slice of the pie.” He winked and slapped my shoulder like this was all one big game to him. I had half a mind to push him right out of the chopper, but I put a cap on my temper before it could get me into some serious trouble. HQ was the pain Kai didn’t want to mess with and I could agree with that. “You can stick around to hoist us back up,” he said with a laugh that got right under my skin.