“I knew you could do it,” Trask praised, and she felt those words all the way down to her toes.
“Thanks. That means a lot,” Jett responded.
He’d turned his comm back on, and she’d done the same.
“You’re one hell of a pilot.But,” he qualified, “itstilldoesn’t mean you’re off the hook for pulling that landing stunt earlier,” he added gruffly. “It was both reckless and ballsy.”
Jett laughed. “Ballsy, I’ll give you,” she agreed. “But reckless? Nope. I knew exactly what I was doing at every moment.”
“You knew whatyouwere doing, but what about the lake’s surface, huh? Theelementsmight not have gotten the message that you kicked ass,” he scolded roughly. “Admit it. You had no clue what was under that snow-cover, and whether or not your wheels would send you into a trench to…”
She heard him choke up.
Clearly, he couldn’t finish.
“Hey. Don’t borrow trouble,” Jett told him gently. “It’s over. It worked. The end.”
Trask snorted, regaining some of his aplomb. “Uh,somebody’s‘end’ will pay dearly for scaring the crap out of me,” he warned. “And that’s a promise.”
“Mmm. I can’t wait,” Jett giggled. “I just love it when you go all bossy on my ass.”
“Hey. I call no fairsies.” Buck’s voice sounded in Jett’s ear. “I can hearyourhalf of the conversation but not Trask’s. He musthave connected only to you, but you’ve got all of us, and we’re on tenterhooks.” His tone was gleeful. “What, exactly, is our bossy brother going to do to your ass?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Jett taunted.
“Who… Who are you talking to?” Trask’s confused voice entered the fray.
“Buck,” Jett let him know. “Apparently you went for a solo convo, but I hit group, so your brothers aren’t hearing what you’re saying, but they’re certainly privy to my responses.”
Trask growled. “Assholes.”
“He says you’re assholes,” Jett apprised Buck and Spence.
She got an earful of laughter.
“We heard,” Spence finally choked out. “He added us to the loop for that one. And just saying, Trask, it’s so much fun to rattle your cage.”
“Hah, hah,” he responded snarkily. “And now we’re done with that.”
“And if we aren’t?” Spence asked irreverently. Jett could almost see the man batting his eyelashes. “Will you make our asses pay, too?”
“Enough,” Trask ordered, using his best commanding voice, but unlike the dogs, his brothers ignored him.
“Oooh. I’m so scared that I’m trembling in my boots,” Buck snickered.
“Me too,” Spence cackled. “I’m going to go hide under my bed.”
“Umm, all joking aside now, gentlemen,” Jett interjected with a bit of seriousness. “I have eyes on the airport.”
She switched to her VHF communications.
“Control tower, this is Cessna 1297-Lima-Peru, requesting emergency landing.”
She’d already spotted the ambulance and a few other vehicles with lights flashing, below.
“Roger that, Lima-Peru,” the tower responded. “We’ve been apprised of the situation and you’re already cleared for landing.”
The air traffic controller named the proper runway she was to use, and within minutes she was on final approach.
