Page 10 of Burning Justice (Chasing Fire: Alaska #6)

Kane said a prayer for Logan, who was in the hospital having tests done.

Everyone was worried about him. Logan’s family in Last Chance County were finding out he was under the weather.

After Kane had prayed for them as well, he prayed for a way that they could figure this out without Jamie having to worry right now or step away from Logan’s bedside to help them.

They needed a break—a way to end this.

No more searching or running down leads or ideas for leads. Just results.

He scrubbed his hands over his face.

Saxon tapped his shoulder. “Chopper.”

Kane said, “Any idea who’s on it?”

Sanchez didn’t answer. She probably couldn’t risk talking aloud right now. Saxon grabbed a pair of binoculars and zoomed in on the inbound aircraft. His buddy said, “Who knew our little Raine was part of all this?”

“Can’t choose your family,” Kane said. “She hasn’t left the base in weeks except to fight a fire. Maybe she only did now because we needed a lead.”

“I don’t like that her comms are down. Seems like she might’ve shut them off.”

“She probably just wanted a private word with her grandfather.” Kane wasn’t going to worry until there was a reason to. “Wanna stay here? I’ll sneak closer, check out the helicopter and who is arriving.”

Saxon shrugged. “I’ll reboot and try to connect with Raine.”

Kane pushed the door open and closed it quietly.

In his ear, Sanchez said, “You should stay with the truck. It might not be safe.”

He raced across the street and snuck around a house. “Safe is relative, isn’t it?”

None of these mansions had backyards. What they did have were exterior lights and motion sensors, so he’d have to be careful.

“I mean it, Kane.” She sounded serious now. Maybe even worried about him. “Stay in the truck. I’ve got this handled.”

Kane eased past the neighbor’s patio and ducked behind a hot tub with a good view of the backyard. She was really shutting him out? “We’re gonna need to talk about this.”

“No, we don’t—Oh, hi. Didn’t see you there.” She giggled.

Kane frowned. He’d never heard her make that sound.

“Just talking to myself. Don’t mind me.”

The back door opened, and she stepped onto the lit patio. Strings of fairy lights had been hung in the trusses of a covered porch. A chef at the far side worked the outdoor kitchen, and Kane had to admit the scent of citrus and chicken smelled amazing.

A man followed her onto the porch, taking her arm.

“Let go of me.”

He was close enough to her that Kane heard him say, “Don’t think I will. You’re going to explain why you’re wandering all over Mr. Howards’s house.”

“Well I never. Treating me like this.” She morphed into some kind of high-society snooty…

Kane thought it was cute. As long as he wasn’t the one who had to deal with that drama. He switched his comms to the channel where he’d be able to hear both sets of earpieces. “Saxon, anything from Raine?”

“Not yet.”

The guy manhandling Sanchez dragged her around the side of the house, behind a little storage shed that was nicer than the house he’d grown up in. He shoved her up against the wall behind it.

Kane had to get out from this spot before someone saw him creeping around and called the local sheriff. And he had no intention of leaving her with this guy.

“Who are you, and why are you at this party?”

Sanchez cowered a little, but not much. She wasn’t so good at acting helpless. Not really in her nature. “None of your business…and because I go wherever I want.”

Kane raced between the houses.

As he approached the guy’s back, she whipped out one hand and jabbed it into the guy’s throat. He choked and started to go down.

Kane caught him and laid the guy behind the shed, where no one would easily see him. Tucked away in the shadows.

“I didn’t ask for an assist.”

He got his first close-up look at her outfit and nearly swallowed his tongue. Tall heels. A skintight black dress. Every curve he’d been ignoring for two years seemed to shimmer in the light. And she’d done something to her hair that left it wavy and loose.

Sanchez set a hand on her hip. “Like what you see?”

Before he could rewire even two brain cells, she spoke again.

“Looking for some of this?” She waved at the guy she’d throat punched.

He fought back the raging fire and said, “We should get Raine and get out of here.”

“You’re the one who needs to leave, Kane.”

She might as well have tossed a bucket of ice water over his head. “I’m your backup, remember?”

“There’s a chopper coming. You shouldn’t be here when it gets here.” She motioned to that dress again. “I’m the one who blends in.”

She didn’t seem to understand how much attention she drew. The woman was a knockout, as Grandpa would say.

“Raine is off comms. We need to go. You’ve already been discovered, and any other security will be looking for you…and this guy.” He wanted to take her arm, but it would probably feel too much like that guy manhandling her. “Can we go? Please?”

She looked over his shoulder, up into the sky.

Wind kicked up, ruffling his hair and flapping his jacket against his sides. The sound of the inbound chopper had been a low rumble, but it was much louder now. Kane glanced over his shoulder and saw it slow as it lowered toward the ground.

She wrapped her fingers around his arm, just above his elbow. Her very cold fingers. “I need to see who is on the chopper, but you don’t. Two of us run more risk of being seen than one.”

He turned to her, stepping close. Shielding her from the wind. “Why are you trying to push me away?”

She lifted her chin. With her face upturned, he could see brown in her eyes where in shadow they would look almost black. “I’m not pushing you away. You got hurt today.”

So she was protecting him?

Was that it?

“I don’t need you to look after me.”

Indecision flickered in her gaze. “That isn’t…we should just go. This whole thing might’ve been a bust, but I have the flash drive. I copied files from the computer, but if it’s Raine’s grandfather’s, I don’t know what it could have on it.”

“Yeah, we need to talk to her about that. She dropped a bomb on us, and for what?”

Her attention shifted over his shoulder.

She touched his arm again, holding on like she needed solidarity. He started to turn to look at the chopper so he could see who was getting out.

“Kane—”

He had never heard that tone from her before.

She tugged on his arm, drawing him back to face her. But where at least part of him had been expecting to see affection or even that she might draw him close and kiss him, that wasn’t what he saw. She was trying to distract him. Because she didn’t want him to see who’d climbed out of that chopper.

“What are you doing?”

She winced. “Don’t look. Just give me your gun. I’ll take care of it.”

Kane reached back and clasped the butt of his gun, drawing it from his waistband. “Saxon, Redding is here.”

She grabbed a handful of his jacket. “Give me the gun, Kane. I’m going to kill him.”