Page 14 of Burning Hearts (Chasing Fire: Alaska #1)

FOURTEEN

Logan had heard the sickening sound of Jamie’s head hitting something hard—not the ground he was currently smashed against.

The guy on him punched Logan in the back, then on his side. Logan couldn’t get up. He tried to push away from the ground with his hands under him. He flipped his attacker off to the side and rolled, turning around to face the guy.

He reached for his gun.

It wasn’t there.

Logan looked for it on the ground around them. Hard-packed dirt and grass, the soil partially frozen. He lifted his knee and planted his foot so he could stand.

A gun cocked.

Logan froze like the ground in winter. Held his hands up. Not moving. Don’t shoot me.

The man who’d tackled him pointed a pistol at Logan’s face. “Don’t even think about it.” He spat to the side and called Logan a foul name.

Beyond him, another man had come into view. Neither was the man he’d hit with that plank at the compound, the one Jamie said had helped her and Tristan.

The third man on the ground stirred.

“Get up, Snatch. We got ’em.”

He clambered to his feet. “What about Tristan? Where is that scum?”

Logan said, “Hopefully as far from here as possible by now.”

Snatch chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him. The boys will run ’em all down, shoot ’em, and finish this.”

Logan’s stomach clenched. “You don’t need to kill them. They have nothing to do with this.”

“How about that?” Snatch grinned. “Guess you better explain it all to me and I’ll know for sure.”

But would that cause him to call off the hunt for the rest of the smokejumpers? Logan doubted it, but this might be the only shot he had for them to be free. Even if he and Jamie weren’t.

He was even willing to ask God that Tristan be safe.

Logan needed His help to protect Jamie, or both of them were likely to end up killed. “Explain what?”

Snatch said, “Playing dumb will get you a bullet in the leg. That was your only warning.”

“You want answers, tell me what the question is!” Logan gritted his teeth, breathing hard.

Jamie hadn’t moved yet.

He had no chance against these three men.

He had a feeling Hammer or Vince might’ve come in handy right about now, but their presence here would have meant more innocents in danger. Could he get to the gun before this guy hit him with a bullet?

It was much too far, at least four feet away.

Diving would leave him short of grasping the pistol Saxon had given him, making it worthless. At least the guy wouldn’t ever know it had all been for nothing.

Grief wrapped steel bindings around his chest.

Logan gasped.

Snatch came over, stomping to Logan, where he kicked him in the stomach. Payback, probably. Logan doubled over. Both hands planted on the ground. He coughed and sucked in air. Ouch. The guy had kicked him right on the bullet graze on his side.

What he needed right now was a way of escape.

Seemed like that was the kind of business God was about. Help us, Lord.

“You were at the compound,” Snatch yelled at him, even though he was standing over Logan. “What did you do to the files?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“So it was her?” Snatch pointed at Jamie, intent clear on his face. “Guess we’ll find out when she wakes up.”

One of the other guys sneered.

“None of you are going to touch her!” Logan yelled at them. His voice rang in the clearing, its backdrop of trees cutting them off from the rest of the world. Making these guys feel like no one would witness what they were doing. As if they could commit any crime, do whatever they wanted for their own ends, and no one would see it.

And yet Logan would witness it all.

His chest rose and fell, his hands still up. His knees on the ground. Three against one.

“Tell me,” Snatch said. “What did you see at the compound?”

Logan’s mind was still on the clearing and the trees that surrounded it. He thought back to the files. “We have no idea what your plan is, assuming you even have a plan.”

He glanced at Jamie.

Still unconscious.

She’d written those numbers on the map on the wall in the mess hall. Marked locations. Even with that, he was pretty sure she had no idea what it meant. She’d seen it as a puzzle to solve. Probably because everything else going on was too much to comprehend—all the running and shooting.

Getting kidnapped.

Now this.

“Easy for you to say,” Snatch said. “But is it the truth?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Logan needed to talk him down. “If something got out, wouldn’t you know by now? Surely this place would be swarming with cops or the ATF or something.” He looked around under the guise of checking for hiding federal agents.

His brother-in-law would come in pretty handy right about now.

Snatch walked behind the guy holding that gun on Logan. He swiped up his knife off the ground—a big ugly thing probably designed for hunting.

What was he going to do with it?

Logan fought against the shudder, not wanting to find out.

“Get them up. We’re going to catch up with the others.” Snatch watched while one guy lifted Jamie over his shoulder like she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes.

The one with the gun motioned with it. “Stand up.”

Logan got to his feet, trying to think what he had in his jumpsuit or any of his pockets under it. The thing was cumbersome but kept him alive when he jumped. The helmet with its wire face shield usually protected his face from tree branches, which was why when he swiped his cheek now, his fingers came away with blood on them. His helmet was somewhere back in the snow.

He hadn’t cared at the time. He’d only been thinking about getting to Jamie as fast as he could.

The guy with the gun shoved him forward. He poked Logan in the back with the gun, causing him to stumble. But he kept his feet under him, hands out to the side as he followed the guy with Jamie over his shoulder.

Would she regain consciousness soon?

She could need medical help, but they were too far from it to save her. He might wind up losing her out here because he’d walked the team into a trap.

Logan’s young faith in Jesus had never been tested like this before.

But he believed God had it all in His hands.

He prayed as he walked, following the guy ahead of him down the side of this mountain as he picked his way down a deer trail. Snatch got on his phone, but Logan couldn’t learn anything from the pieces of one-sided conversation.

The one behind him, holding him at gunpoint, wasn’t going to answer any questions.

He needed a way to convince these guys that he knew nothing. But would that even help? They’d probably kill the two of them out here and leave them for the animals. “Where are we going?”

They had no leader.

Logan glanced back at Snatch. “Are you in charge now that Howards is dead?”

The guy behind Logan shoved him forward. “Shut up and keep walking.”

As they did, Logan scanned the trees. The terrain. At one point he spotted what looked like a cave entrance in the hillside. But unless he could grab Jamie from the guy in front and run without getting shot in the back for his trouble, it was of no use.

Hiding didn’t mean safety.

He had enough faith to trust the outcome, but if he did move fast, it needed to be because he felt a strong nudge from the Lord to move.

The guy carrying Jamie made a quick direction change, going around something. Not an obstacle. It was a crack in the ground, where part of the hill had separated. Logan didn’t like the look of it, wanting nothing to do with a potential landslide.

It was only inches wide.

If he used it as a distraction to get the gun from the guy behind him, could he fire it at Snatch fast enough to not get stabbed? The scenario played out in his mind, and as far as he could see, his two options were to suddenly become an action hero or wind up getting himself killed.

Logan didn’t feel a strong nudge from the Lord. Or the adrenaline from before had worn off and his nervous system was fried from being overloaded. Maybe he would feel nothing at all and there would be no nudges.

Just a tiny sound.

The crack of a branch to his left, several feet away in the trees.

He didn’t look at it or react to it in any way. He just kept walking. Praying. Wondering.

Had help come?

* * *

Jamie had been awake for at least a minute, snippets of conversation swirling around her. She was definitely over someone’s shoulder, which, given the bone poking into her stomach, hurt a lot. Just not as much as her head.

The splitting pain in her skull wasn’t the worst thing though.

Lord, I don’t think things have ever been this bad.

She stared but saw nothing. She listened but couldn’t discern what was going on. Everything in front of her eyes was black. Because she’d hit her head? She was blind.

Someone, a man, yelled, “Hey!”

She heard a heavy thud. A gun went off. Jamie flinched, whimpering at the thought she might be shot any second with no way to defend herself against it.

The man carrying her listed to the side. She fell off his shoulder and cried out, disoriented. She hit the ground and rolled.

No.

If she hit her head again, things would be even worse.

But the momentum only rolled her away. She stopped, aware she lay on the grass. Someone was in a fight. Maybe more than one person. “Logan.”

“Jamie!”

He was here. And alive—at least for now.

Jamie tried to push herself up. Get her legs under her. She could stand, but what then? How would it help her to be upright?

Someone landed in front of her.

She flinched again and shifted back.

“No, don’t!” He grabbed at her hands. “Don’t go too far. There’s a steep hill behind you.” He touched her face. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”

She blinked.

“Jamie, what is it?”

She held on to his arms. “Logan, I can’t see.”

It was black. Total, complete black. Just…nothing.

He pulled her to himself, his arms encircling her. The quick motion disoriented her, causing everything to swim around her and her face to smash against his shoulder. Pain cracked across her head, and she cried out.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We’re gonna get you out of here. I promise you’re safe.” Logan held her gently. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Head,” she managed to say. “Hurts.”

“We’ll go slow. Tristan is here, and Hammer. You don’t need to worry about those guys anymore. We took care of them.” Logan’s strong arms helped her to her feet.

Jamie pushed back the need to vomit. She’d never been a fan of being helpless, and this was no exception. “I can’t see where I’m going.”

Someone came up to her.

Thick fingers touched her face. She flinched. Hammer said, “Hold still.”

Nothing happened.

“Do you see anything?”

She shook her head, which caused a new wave of pain to jackhammer through her mind. Jamie blew out a breath.

Logan said, “How bad is it?”

“I’m not a doctor, bro. But sudden trauma to the head can cause temporary blindness. So why don’t you use some of that praying you do to ask for that. It’s pretty much the best-case scenario at this point.”

Logan said, “Thanks, Hammer.”

She sensed more than felt him move away, and heard him say, “I’ll see what they had on them.”

“Are we just leaving them here?”

Jamie gasped. “Tristan!”

He didn’t sound good at all, but at least he was awake again.

“Hey, sis. Sorry I’m out of it.” He squeezed her hand, but she didn’t allow him to let go. “We’re gonna get you out of here. Don’t worry.”

She bit her lip.

“Time for someone to save you for a change.”

She could’ve collapsed right then she was so relieved. Jamie didn’t want to hang on to Logan if he was injured though. He didn’t need to carry her. “My legs work just fine.”

Tristan said, “Good, because you’ll need them to walk out of here. Unless Hammer has an ATV in his pocket.”

“Sorry, don’t,” he called over from far away, giving her a sense of the space they were in. But with nothing but black in front of her face, it wasn’t exactly helpful.

She was relying on her hearing in a way that made her feel the need to pause and thank God for what she’d always taken for granted.

Logan shifted his grip on her waist, rubbing up and down her side a little. Just enough to let her know he was with her.

She turned to him, no clue what she was looking at. “Are you okay?”

After this, she would have far more respect for people with vision restrictions. She had no idea how long this terrible blackness would last. Some people lived with it their whole lives. She wanted to do something to help them.

What it took to face the world without being able to see what was in front of her face told her exactly how much strength they possessed. Now that she had an inkling, Jamie had a new goal—a new avenue to funnel her money into.

If they got out of here.

“Don’t worry about me.” Logan’s voice was soft. Close. “You don’t need to take care of us. We’re going to take care of you.”

“And the fire.”

“Huh?”

She said, “Can’t you smell smoke on the wind?”

“That’s probably from the plane, not a wildfire.”

“We’re not going that way,” Hammer said. It sounded more like he didn’t want to than they shouldn’t. “We’re going east because that’s where the jump base is.”

“What about the others?”

Logan said, “We need to get Jamie to a doctor.”

She bit her lip. That didn’t sound good. “Am I going to die?”

Logan shifted her around, and she felt his breath on her face. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

She found his shirt with her hands, absorbing his strength for a second before she lowered her forehead and touched it gently to his shirt. If she turned her head, she would be able to hear the beat of his heart under her cheek. That would hurt way too much, and she needed to be awake, not passed out again, so she just imagined she could hear it.

That she could hear hers as well. That they beat in the same rhythm, full of love for each other and love for Jesus.

Maybe she’d hit her head harder than she thought. Jamie let out a tiny chuckle.

“Nothing about this is funny.”

She didn’t have time to respond to that, because her brother said, “Ready to go.”

“Let’s move out,” Hammer ordered.

Logan walked her around something, holding on to her. As long as he led her, she wouldn’t worry about where she was going. She trusted him to get her to safety.

Jamie held on to him, taking deep breaths of crisp Alaskan air—even with the scent of smoke. The terrain changed. Her brother took over from Logan after a while.

“Look at you, the one who needs saving rather than the other way around.”

She wanted to quip back that he shouldn’t get used to it, but the heart to say it aloud wasn’t in her. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.” Tristan cleared his throat. “I should probably explain. Not that I didn’t want to before, it was just that we weren’t safe. Anyone could’ve been listening.”

“Explain what?”

Tristan held on to her as the terrain changed and they clambered up a hill. “I came up here for a reason, not just to get in trouble somewhere new.” He sighed. “Jamie, I’m a confidential informant for the DEA. I have been for a few years.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jamie couldn’t believe he’d kept it a secret. He was doing something good, even if it was crazy dangerous.

“I knew you’d try to talk me out of it,” Tristan said. “I’m not good at much. I don’t have that many options. Things haven’t been perfect, but it’s a decent gig.”

“And you’ll be able to take what we downloaded and turn it over to the DEA?”

“Maybe some good will come out of this mess after all.” He slowed them to a stop.

The air smelled cleaner, and it was cooler. Had they reached the summit? Jamie couldn’t see it, though she did feel as if the dark wasn’t quite so black. Probably just her imagination wishing for things to be different. But then, her brother was safe, and Logan was here.

Maybe things didn’t need to be different.

She heard the rumble of a small engine and flinched.

“It’s just Logan and Hammer. They found a couple of the ATVs, must’ve belonged to Snatch and his friends.”

The engines neared.

Tristan led her to one, and she climbed on. Logan tugged her arms around his waist and said, “You good?”

She clung to his strength. “I love you.”

Logan twisted around in her arms, touched her cheek and kissed her. It felt different than it ever had before, maybe because her vision was being denied her and everything else seemed so much more vibrant. She could focus on the touch of his lips on hers so much more than any other time.

“Don’t let go.” His voice was husky, and she could hear the worry in his tone.

Jamie wasn’t going to do that.

Not ever.