Page 2 of Burning Hearts (Chasing Fire: Alaska #1)

TWO

Logan gritted his teeth, steering with the toggles. He picked a spot on the ground before the tree line where something had flashed in the sunlight. He aimed for it like a beacon, aptly named because the red metal glinted in the sun. Not a house or cabin…

It was a car.

Same color as hers. As if God would land him right in her path.

Jamie.

I know You don’t work like that. I’m not just going to bump into her. Alaska is a big place, even if she’s nearby.

But the need to see her—to know she was safe—gave him what he needed to focus. To fight the wind with enough strength he landed just shy of the trees. His boots hit the dirt road hard, and he caught the tumble, only a little wince. Pretty glad no one saw that. It was the wind’s fault.

Logan shoved off his helmet and got his chute gathered up, both of which he tucked in his packout bag.

He tugged the radio from the same bag and turned the dial. He couldn’t see anyone else on the team now. Had they all made it to the jump spot on the other side of that hill? “Jade, this is Logan. Come in.”

He stomped off the frustration by heading over to look at the car. Not even the same make and model as Jamie’s. Abandoned, like the cabin behind him. A wreck, with the roof caved in and half the porch under debris. No one had lived here in years.

The radio crackled in his hand. “Yeah, Logan. Can you hold, over?”

Logan frowned. “What’s going on, Jade?”

He leaned on the car and peered in the window. Not an abandoned vehicle. Someone who’d run out of gas, maybe? A terrifying thought in the middle of nowhere. He peered in the window and spotted a duffel on the backseat. The paperwork on the dash indicated it was a rental, but he knew that bag.

Oh no.

“Vince got hung up on a tree, but Hammer is cutting him down. You good?”

No, he was not good. This is Jamie’s car. He looked around, turning in a circle. No one in sight. Just the deadly backcountry of Alaska.

“Logan, you good?”

Her question jogged him out of his…blind terror? Pretty accurate. “I’m good.” Jamie was not. “There’s something I need to do. I’m gonna be late catching up.”

He’d never broken protocol like this before.

Lord, don’t let me regret this. He could only trust that God had led him here.

“Logan, what are you doing?” Skye.

He winced. “I’ll catch up. I promise.”

“You better. Over.”

Question was, after he’d been looking for her for weeks, how long was it going to take to actually find Jamie out here?

And would she be alive when he did?

Logan pulled off his jumpsuit, shoving the heavy material into his pack. He left the bigger bag by the car so he could look around the nearby area unencumbered by everything he’d brought. Though he did put a few things in his pants pockets. Slid the radio on his belt. Map and compass?

Nah.

He knew the area just fine. There was nothing out here.

Logan circled the car. Tried the doors. She’d locked it, which meant Jamie had intentionally parked here. At least, barring another circumstance he didn’t want to contemplate right now.

Should he report the abandoned vehicle to the local sheriff?

In the trees, about ten feet from the car, he spotted a path that snaked up the hill. Definitely not man-made. If Jamie was out here and she’d encountered a dangerous animal, Logan absolutely wanted to know. Even if it would only be so he had closure.

Lord, You brought me this far.

He figured it wouldn’t take long to climb the hill as the animals did when they wandered across the land. The team had raced up steeper hills than this, training hard for the grueling work they did. His muscles needed to move after being cooped up in the plane with all that gear on.

Logan took off running.

Halfway, he realized the path was longer than he’d thought, but he found the top of the ridge after nearly fifteen minutes of a solid nine-minute-mile pace, which was his usual easy run. When he bent over, hands on his knees, his legs shook. Laps of the runway in sneakers were one thing. Running uphill in boots was another.

He straightened, hands behind his head and his elbows splayed. From up here, he’d be able to send intel that could help the others fight the fire.

But instead of an open valley below him, he spotted some kind of compound. The fenced buildings bustled with people moving between structures. Two trucks drove in from the east, admitted through the gate, which was rolled closed behind them.

The fire was to the west, where he could barely see the smoke, but headed this way. The occupants of this valley probably couldn’t even see how near it was. They likely had no idea how close to danger they were, as the air currents seemed to be sending the smoke over the top of the valley rather than down into it, acting like an inversion, where the cloud cover sat like a lid on a bowl and below was only stagnant air.

Logan keyed his radio. “This is Logan, does anyone copy?”

The response came a few seconds later. “I copy you, Logan.” That was JoJo. “We’re on the trail, headed for the fire. How long are you gonna be? I can give you our coordinates.”

He wouldn’t be catching up. Not with what he was looking at right now. “I found a compound in a valley to the north. Looks like a lot of people down there, and the fire is headed east, right toward them.”

After a long pause, Jade got on. “It’s not on the map.”

Logan didn’t remember talk about a compound in their briefing. “Should I head down and advise them to evacuate?”

Never mind if Jamie was down there or not. Logan wouldn’t be able to walk away without telling these people—whoever they were—that their lives were in danger if the fire spread to the valley in front of him.

“I’ll let the sheriff know there are people at your location. He might be interested to know since none of us were aware.”

“Copy that.” Logan would have to walk all the way down this hill to even get near enough to speak to someone. The closest people seemed to be a couple of guys with a woman between them. As he watched, one of the men shoved the woman to the other, who grasped her.

Logan winced. Not the kind of people he wanted to try and reason with, but everyone deserved to be warned if their lives were in danger. He could advise them to leave, but if they didn’t want to go, he couldn’t force it. He would need local law enforcement to roust them all out—or to at least do so with a little more authority than Logan had.

The man dragged the woman to a building and in a side door.

“Go ahead and advise them to evacuate, which they already should have done.” Jade didn’t sound happy. “But I want you with us by lunchtime, Logan. Got it?”

“Got it, boss.” Logan lowered the radio and set off down the hill. He was going to get written up for not heading for them right away after he landed, but the fact Jade hadn’t sent a rescue party to help him meant she trusted him, at least a little. “I’ll be there.”

“If you need backup, call it in. But we have a fire to fight.”

“Copy that. Out.”

He jogged a little, but mostly fast walked. Not just for the woman he’d seen being menaced by these guys. All of the people down here deserved a chance to live—to face the truth of the Bible and find redemption. Every person on earth got a shot at a second chance. He’d learned that the hard way after running from God for years. He’d finally surrendered his life on the same night his twin brother, Bryce, had. At a church service, where the pastor had talked about a shepherd who’d left ninety-nine sheep to find one lost lamb.

In a way, that was probably what Jamie thought she was doing for her brother. Wherever she’d ended up.

Down there?

What a horrifying thought.

Logan made it to the gate. “Hey, bro! Gotta talk to you.”

The guy took his cigarette out of his mouth, a rifle strapped to hang across his back. He slid the gate open enough for Logan to slip through. “Whatcha want, hotshot?”

He was a smokejumper, but this wasn’t the time to correct the guy. The uniforms were the same, with a Midnight Sun Wildland Firefighter patch on the left arm. “Fire is west of here, and it’s headed this way. Y’all need to evacuate while there’s still time.”

The guy took another drag on his cigarette, about to speak when another man joined them. The guy immediately launched into conversation about something funny, given the laughter in his tone. “Snatch claimed her. She told him her name is Jamie, which is a dumb name for a girl, but whatever.”

Logan glanced at the guy. “What did you just say?”

* * *

Jamie’s back hit the wall. Snatch had dragged her in here despite her protests and attempts to explain. And her trying to bargain with him. “I really need to find my brother.”

She didn’t have many options for getting herself out of this. They’d taken all her things. Except they had no idea the tracker on her right index finger wasn’t just an ordinary ring.

Too bad no one knew she was in trouble, but at least her colleagues knew where she was.

This was going to come down to the self-defense moves she’d learned in the class she’d taken after Samuel had found out she didn’t know how to fight off an attacker.

Snatch pressed against her. “We can talk after.” His breath wafted across her face.

“I need to talk to him.” Was he even going to listen to her? “You see, my brother just inherited money from our grandfather.”

Snatch hit the brakes on his attempt to woo her into whatever he had planned up against this wall in a random office. Because she’d mentioned money?

The room had a single metal desk. No shelves or books or artwork on the walls. A single bulb hung from the middle of the ceiling. For some reason, there was a fire extinguisher on the wall behind the door—minus the tag that meant it had been inspected. Logan was the one who’d taught her that they needed to be checked regularly.

Now back it on up there, buddy. She tried to smile. “I have to tell him how much he’s gonna get paid. That’s why I came here. To tell him about the money.”

“How about you don’t,” Snatch said, “and you and I split it?”

“Well, that wouldn’t be fair now, would it?” She tried to smile.

He grinned, teeth slightly yellowed from life in the wilds away from the plastic, bleached culture of suburbs, lattes, and shiny SUVs. Jamie didn’t fit in either and had given up trying to figure out why a long time ago. “Who said things have to be fair?”

The door opened. One of those guys from the hill poked his head in. Crew. He sure wasn’t going to rescue her. “Snatch, boss wants to talk to you. Says whatever you have going on can wait.”

Snatch whirled around. “Watch her. Make sure she goes nowhere.”

Crew nodded.

“Not like you have it in you to do anything.” Snatch strode out, laughing to himself. “Choir boy.”

Crew’s jaw flexed. He stared at nothing for a couple of seconds, then said, “T!”

Her brother came into the room, and Crew stepped out, closing the door behind him. As if they’d planned this entire interruption and got rid of Snatch with a distraction so he’d leave the room.

“Tristan!” She tried to keep her voice low but rushed to him with her arms open.

He held up his hand. “What are you doing here?”

Jamie stopped. “I came here to find out what you’re doing here, of course. To tell you that Mom is doing…better. To help you if you needed it.”

Why didn’t he look happy to see her?

“You shouldn’t have come.” He sniffed. A hunk of brown hair fell over his shoulder, and she had to resist the urge to smooth it back. She’d done that when he was little—fixed his hair for church. Made sure he’d brushed his teeth and that he always ate his breakfast before school and that he’d done his homework. All the while, her mom had been passed out on the bathroom floor—or not even home yet.

When their mom had been there, Jamie had still done all those things.

You shouldn’t have come.

“What are you talking about, Tristan? Of course I came.”

She always did, and no matter what Logan had said, it wasn’t codependency. Who else would reach out a hand to them when they were knocked down? She and Tristan had only ever had each other.

Sure, God had probably saved them from some huge disasters, but it was hard to be thankful when she had no idea what might’ve happened. What disaster He might have averted.

“You don’t understand who these people are, J.” Tristan shook his head, a scruff of beard on his jaw. He was dressed in the same Alaska backcountry uniform as the rest of them. Jeans, a shirt, and boots. “It’s not that you shouldn’t have come to Alaska or come looking for me. I figured you would eventually. But they took my phone so I couldn’t call out. I couldn’t warn you what would happen when you did.”

She’d been worried before, but this was a whole new level. “Who are these people?”

“You don’t wanna know.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I can’t leave right now.”

“Of course you can! They can’t keep you here against your will. We can both go.” Although, they’d shut her in this room, and it didn’t seem like she could leave anytime soon. If she pushed it, would they release her?

She’d done what she’d come here to do. Who cared about all the stuff in her pack? She could replace it all. But her brother? She couldn’t replace him.

“Come with me.” She touched Tristan’s elbow, everything in her screaming for him to believe they needed to go. Now.

“I’m not done here. I can’t leave.” Tristan sighed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t contact you in time to tell you not to come here.”

He’d known she would. That’s what it was like with family—they understood what you needed. In her case, it was seeing that the people she loved were okay.

But then he stepped back. “I’ll ask Crew to help get you out. He’s one of them, but he’s not the same. I can’t explain it, he’s just different. He’ll help us.”

“You think I’m gonna leave you here?”

Tristan’s expression hardened. “You can’t stay, and I can’t leave until I work out how to stop whatever they’re doing. I haven’t even figured all of it out yet! So I guess that means we’re at an impasse.”

“I didn’t come all this way to turn around and leave again.” She wasn’t going to go without him. If these people were into something, then no doubt it was dangerous.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I could give you a number. Call it twice and hang up. I’ll know you got back to town okay. Then I want you to go back to the Lower 48. Go back to Last Chance County and don’t come back here. I’ll call you when I can.”

“You can’t possibly?—”

“The longer I stand here talking to you, the more likely we’re gonna get caught.”

And yet, with all this talking, what had he actually told her? Not much. Barely anything.

Before she could argue, he stepped away. Jamie didn’t want to lose him again. She tugged the ring off her finger and hurried up behind him. “I can’t believe you’re staying.” She didn’t want to say this, but she had to get close enough. He really wasn’t going to leave this place. “You know you can’t trust these people, right?”

Jamie slipped the ring in his jacket pocket. Not perfect, but it would have to do. This was Alaska, right? He would keep his coat on.

Lord…

The prayer tasted stale in her mouth. She didn’t even know what to say and was only asking for help because she had nothing else right now.

“Wait for Crew. He’ll get you out.”

Jamie pressed her lips together.

Tristan gave her one last look and shut the door. Jamie whirled around. She shook out her hands, her heart pounding in her chest. He was seriously going to stay here? Because he had to do something ? Her brother made no sense—and it wasn’t the first time. He probably couldn’t leave because he owed someone money and he had to do a favor in exchange for payment.

Jamie fisted her hands by her sides. As if she was going to wait for a man she didn’t trust to come and save her. If she wanted something done, the only person she’d ever had to rely on was herself. And that was exactly how she was going to get out of here.

She flung the door open.

Crew stood in the doorway, the same look on his face as Snatch when he came at her. “Going somewhere?”

Shivers rolled down her spine. She lifted her chin. “I thought you were supposed to help me get out.”

His expression broke, just a fraction.

Then something swung out behind him and smacked him in the back of the head. Jamie covered her mouth with her hands, trying to muffle the scream.

Crew slumped to the floor, and another man stepped into view.

Logan.

What on earth…

The last man she’d expected to see when she was looking for her brother. Alaska was supposed to be a way for someone to escape the life they’d left behind. And here he was, with a determined expression on his face. One that looked an awful lot like the expression he’d worn that night at Backdraft.

It’s over, Jamie. I’m sorry. I can’t carry your whole family, and you shouldn’t either.

Logan stared at her. “Jamie!”

She shook her head. “What are you doing here?” This made no sense. He was working in Montana, not up here.

“Looking for you.” He held out his hand. “Come on. We’ve got to run!”

Like he was here to save her? Butting in. Deciding how things should be—as usual. She shook her head. “I’m trying to rescue Tristan.”

Logan looked around the room. “He isn’t here. It’s time your brother saved himself.”