Top Gun Guardian. Carol Ericson

president believes his daughter’s safety rests with you. He never would’ve hatched this plan if not for his confidence in you, Raven.”

      She shook her head and pursed her lips. “I can’t rush off and leave everything, especially for some cockamamie scheme of yours. If you’re involved, trouble is not far behind. How do I even know you have President Okeke’s permission to take Malika?”

      “And why would I want to kidnap the president’s daughter?” Of course, he didn’t have to tell Raven about the link between the assassination attempt on President Okeke and Jack Coburn’s disappearance. That wouldn’t convince her of anything except his insanity.

      Raven’s right foot joined her left foot firmly on the ground. “I can’t do it, Buzz. You’re on your own.”

      Buzz clenched his jaw. That’s not the first time she’d said those words to him.

      Malika squirmed in his arms, lifting her head from his shoulder. “Raven?”

      “You’re going to be fine, Malika.” Raven flashed a fake smile. “Your father asked Mr. Richardson to take you someplace safe.”

      “I know. You are coming, Raven?”

      Raven’s shoulders slumped. “No. I can’t come with you, Malika, but you’ll be safe with Mr. Richardson.”

      A tremble rolled through Malika’s small frame and she choked on a sob. “Please, Raven.”

      “I’m sorry. I—I just can’t.” Raven clamped her bottom lip between her teeth.

      Buzz’s pulse leaped. Was that a quivering lip she was biting? Nah, this was Raven Pierre, career girl extraordinaire.

      “Say goodbye to Raven, darlin’. Let’s get you buckled in nice and tight.” Buzz turned to duck into the hatch of the Jetstream.

      Clawing at his arms, Malika wailed. “I want Raven.”

      She wasn’t the only one.

      Raven grabbed the handrails and leaned forward. “You’ll be fine, Malika.”

      “No, no.” Malika buried her face against Buzz’s chest, and he patted her back.

      Without Raven, his plan looked as though it was going to deteriorate rapidly. He liked kids, but this motherless little girl wasn’t going to be too happy with his male companionship.

      Raven sighed and launched forward, nearly barreling into his back. “All right. I’ll come along, at least to get you settled.”

      Malika sniffled and a big smile claimed half her face.

      Buzz narrowed his eyes as he transferred Malika to Raven’s waiting arms. The girl’s cries had done more to convince Raven to come along than Buzz’s assertions to her importance to President Okeke. Had he just fallen into a rabbit hole?

      He sat at the controls while Raven buckled Malika into one of several seats facing the cockpit and retrieved two blankets from a bin on the side of the plane. She tucked the blanket around Malika, twitched the girl’s pigtails and then buckled into the seat next to her.

      She let out a breath. “Where to, flyboy?”

      “Just relax and enjoy the ride.” Buzz adjusted his headphones and flipped a few switches. No need to tell Raven their final destination. She’d just gotten used to the idea of traveling along with Malika. He didn’t want her to go ballistic about the location just when she’d accepted her fate.

      Buzz gave a final wave to the ground crew and Naru waiting next to the car, and then taxied down the abbreviated runway. The meeting at the hotel had probably ended by now, and everyone would know he’d taken off with the president’s daughter.

      He scanned the darkening skies and settled back into his seat as he pulled on the throttle, sending the nose of his plane toward the heavens. He hadn’t filed a flight plan with air traffic control, since he didn’t want anyone picking up his trail.

      The CIA wouldn’t come after him, at least not yet. The Agency wouldn’t want to anger President Okeke and if the president trusted his daughter’s safety to him and Raven, the CIA would just have to deal with it…for now.

      The plane climbed to cruising altitude and Buzz stretched his legs. He could use a cup of coffee about now. Too bad he wasn’t flying one of the big commercial jets. He glanced over his shoulder at Raven flipping through a magazine she must’ve had stashed in that huge bag of hers.

      He preferred the company on this small plane to a bunch of overworked flight attendants anyway…even without the coffee.

      Raven peeked over the top of her magazine. “Are we in for a long flight?”

      “About seven hours.” He pointed to Malika curled up in her seat, the blanket tucked up to her chin. “You should follow Malika’s example and take a nap.”

      “Seven hours?” She dropped the magazine to her lap. “I guess I can’t just land and turn around then.”

      “I didn’t know that’s what you’d planned. You volunteered to get Malika settled, remember?”

      “Settled where, Buzz? Where are you taking us?”

      He took a deep breath and shifted his gaze back to his control panel of blinking lights. “Oklahoma.”

      Raven gasped and then laughed, but the sound held no humor. Buzz had noticed that about Raven before. She could laugh but it didn’t mean she was happy. That kind of laughter always made him uncomfortable, and it hadn’t changed.

      He twisted in his seat to find Raven’s head touching her knees and her shoulders shaking from the laugh that wasn’t a laugh. Buzz raised one eyebrow. “Why are you laughing?”

      Not that he minded. He preferred it to her throwing things at him, especially when he was trying to fly.

      Raven jerked her head up. “Come on, Buzz. Don’t play the slow cowboy with me. You know why Oklahoma is significant.”

      “Because it was my home. Because I wanted to take you there after we married. Because it’s where I wanted to raise a family…with you. But now it’s just a safe place for Malika until Burumanda’s political situation cools down and she can be reunited with her father.” He shrugged. “Not significant at all.”

      “It was your home?” Raven brushed strands of her hair from her face. “You didn’t return to Oklahoma after leaving Prospero?”

      “No. I live in Dallas now, but I still have my folks’ ranch in Oklahoma. I figure I can protect Malika there.” He patted the empty co-pilot’s seat next to him. “Do you want to join me up front? You were getting good at flying before…”

      Before she’d taken off like a scared rabbit once he mentioned marriage, family and forever. Raven had never had an example of any of those things in her life. Her wealthy family had lived abroad, dropped Raven off at boarding schools and stashed her with nannies.

      Obviously not wanting a trip down memory lane, Raven scrambled from her seat and lurched toward the cockpit. “Just tell me what to do.”

      “Nothing. Relax and enjoy the view.”

      After fifteen minutes of companionable silence as the Jetstream cut through the night sky, Raven tapped his shoulder. “Why didn’t you settle in Oklahoma? It’s all you ever talked about.”

      It’s all he’d ever talked about? No wonder he’d scared her off.

      He lifted the shoulder where her hand still rested. “Wasn’t ready.”

      Once he retired from Prospero, he’d discovered all his plans for the ranch had become meaningless without Raven. And all the women he’d met since lacked Raven’s spunk, her beauty, her sexiness, her…

      She squeezed his shoulder. “Well, you’ll get there one day. I know the ranch meant a lot to you after