Ten minutes later,Tara’s little red coupe careened to a stop near where Lance had been parked. “Whoa, hey, what’s wrong?”
Kaci scrambled into the car. “Let’s get that boar loaded up and dropped off.”
“I brought a friend.” Tara hooked a thumb behind her. “Mrs. Sheridan stops in at Jimmy Beans, and she got us visitor passes for the base and permission to put the boar under that big fighter jet on a stick right inside the main gate. Isn’t that fabulous?”
Kaci blinked at the other woman behind her.
Mrs. Sheridan. She’d come to a few events at James Robert. Always very nice. Always very official.
“You brought the base commander’s wife?” she hissed. Mrs. Sheridan’s husband oversawalloperations on the base, for all the squadrons and units and departments. Everyone could be in serious trouble, from Kaci to Lance’s squadron to who knew who else?
“Bob was in the refueler squadron who owned that boar once upon a time,” the older woman offered. “He’s highly amused.Unofficially, of course.”
Oh, lordy. This was getting bad. “So we’re gonna let the whole world know their mascot got stolen by some girls?” Kaci said. Oh, no. No, nope, not gonna happen.
Lance won.
She was done playing with that man. He had the royal flush, and all she had left in her hand was a pair of twos.
Forget her Jeep. If he wanted to, he could tell the whole world she was afraid to fly.
And then her trip to Germany would be under even more scrutiny.
“Kaci? They won’t seriously hurt your car. They can’t. Even they have to know how much trouble they’d be in.”
“Yourcar?” Mrs. Sheridan said. “They took yourcar?”
“Probably just took it out for a car wash.” Kaci had started this. She could own the consequences.
“Or they’re boxing it up to drop it off a ramp next time they’re in the air over the Eglin range,” Mrs. Sheridan said.
Kaci’s already overworked heart gave a whimper. Surely they wouldn’t…would they?
She knew about the range at Eglin. Down in the Florida Panhandle, probably not even an hour away by air, hundreds of square miles for nothing but target practice by big flying gunships.
If they dropped her car over the range, she’dneversee it again.
But…thiswasjust a prank.
Wasn’t it?
“If you girls got this covered, I’ll just help you get Gertrude out of storage, and then I’m gonna wait for those boys to bring back my car. Been a doozy of a day with the ex too.”
“You’re not seriously backing out, are you?” Tara asked.
Was she?
Her pride yelled no, but her inner redneck had gone in hiding. “Not enough room for the three of us and the boar on the way to the base.” She bit her lip. “And it won’t exactly look good tomyboss if he hears I’ve been fighting with the local military men.”
Twenty minutes and a helping hand from two neighbors later, she waved as Tara and Mrs. Sheridan headed to the base without her.
Was she a chicken?
Hell yeah.
But she needed Lance Wheeler out of her life more than she needed fun.
Besides, that was her pink lipstick that Gertrude was sporting.
