Page 14 of Burning Justice (Chasing Fire: Alaska #6)

Saxon did the same across the aisle, facing him, but looked at Maria. “You good?”

She leaned back on the seat and closed her eyes. “So tired.”

Kane smiled. “I dunno. I could go for a run when we get back.”

Saxon grinned. “Four miles. No, let’s go for six.”

Kane chuckled.

She and Mack both groaned. Mack said, “My feet hurt just thinking about it.”

Maria opened her eyes and pinned Kane with a stare. “You aren’t really going to go on a run, are you?”

“Am I a smokejumper?” If she didn’t go, it wasn’t happening.

Saxon said, “Whatever that means.”

But it didn’t need to make sense to the rest of them. It only mattered to her.

She said, “I’m afraid I have a date.”

Kane stiffened. When had she made time to—“A date?”

“Yes, with a pizza and my pajamas.”

Saxon laughed under his breath.

“Right,” Kane said. “Pizza sounds good.”

“I’d invite you, but I’m probably going to eat half a slice and then fall asleep.”

He returned her smile. “Fair enough.”

Saxon turned to the window, where the land arced up away from the road so that it seemed to crest like a wave above their heads.

Mack looked like he’d already fallen asleep.

Kane turned in his seat to face her. Not as close as he wanted to be—like outside the office this morning. But he’d settle for this.

He knew he’d pushed it a little. He wanted to get under her skin, so why hold back? But it didn’t help either of them focus on what they were here to do. “How are you doing?”

She leaned forward, pressed her forehead against the seat, and turned her head so he could see her cheek. So she could say “I can’t stop thinking about him” and only he would hear it. “Whether he’s scared. If he’s running for his life, or if they’ve got him locked down so he can’t go anywhere.”

“I know what that feels like.” Kane shut his mouth. Why had he said that?

She scrambled his brain—especially when she was this close.

“I’ve been praying for him,” he said, trying to change the subject away from him knowing what fear felt like.

She lifted her head. He should’ve known she wouldn’t let it pass. “Do you mean when you were captured in Syria?”

He didn’t think about that and certainly never talked about it, so he didn’t have to lie. Because that wasn’t what he’d been referring to. “It happened when I was a kid.”

She frowned. “What did?”

Kane had to take a breath. He didn’t want to talk about it, but if it helped her, he would.

“We were riding in the car with our grandpa, my cousin Ridge and I. Our moms are sisters, and Gramps was the only grandparent we had worth anything. He used to take us to baseball games, and we’d get hotdogs. ”

The memory made him shiver, even though it never really got fully dark up here. That was a small mercy he’d thanked God for.

“We were driving home, and it was late. He had a heart attack.” Kane cleared his throat.

“Oh no!” She whispered it, but it still seemed far too loud. Only because he rarely told anyone this.

“The car went off the side of the road into a ditch. He died, and I broke my leg. Ridge broke his collar bone. We couldn’t move.

We were stuck in the car, and Grandpa was dead.

” He sucked in a breath. “The Last Chance County rescue squad showed up and cut us out of the car, so when I say I know what it feels like to be helpless, I mean it. I know.”

She laid her hand on his arm and nodded. “I can’t imagine that. I’m so sorry you lost him.”

“He was the best.” He smiled. “Ridge and I made a pact to always do what Gramps would’ve been proud of.”

“So you joined the Army.”

“And he became a firefighter. The same crew that cut us out.”

She squeezed his arm.

“I’m praying for your dad. I know you don’t believe but?—”

She cut him off. “You do, and there’s power in that.”

“Gramps expected us to go to church. Eventually it stuck, then after it was a habit, I started actually listening. I found what I’d been missing. Hope. Peace. For an angry teenage boy, that counted for a lot.”

“Sometimes I feel like my life stopped that day,” she said.

She didn’t talk about the day her father had been captured much, and spoke of her mother even less. “Tell me what happened.”

She rubbed her nose. “We were in New York. At a symposium for scientific research into…something. I don’t remember what it was.

We walked out of the front onto the sidewalk and…

all of a sudden there was so much noise.

Squealing tires and shouting. It sounded a lot like that FBI raid last night, but it wasn’t cops.

All these guys just ran over to us, and my dad yelled and got in someone’s face.

Trying to protect us. One of them shot my mother.

” Her eyes filled with tears. “Right in front of me. She just…fell down. Dad was yelling at all the men like he didn’t even realize she was dead.

I ran to her, and I didn’t see what happened.

A door slammed, and all the tires squealed again.

He was gone. She was dead on the sidewalk. ”

Kane reached over the back of the seat and touched her cheek. “I’m sorry you lost her.”

“The police called my aunt in Boston. I lived with her for a year, then went to college. But it wasn’t really living. I was only going through the motions.” She winced. “Maybe I’ve been doing that ever since.”

And if she opened up her heart to the Lord, or to Kane, she would have to feel again.

Kane’s heart squeezed in his chest. Lord, keep her heart safe. If it was a choice between not having her in his life the way he really wanted, or watching her have to grieve everything she’d lost, he wasn’t sure he could ask her to fall in love with him.

“Heads up.” Saxon shifted on his seat. “Crew!”

Mack moaned on his seat.

“I see them,” Crew yelled back. “Everyone buckle up.”

Maria said, “This thing doesn’t have seatbelts. What is it?”

Kane could see out the back window. “Two trucks, and they’re coming up fast behind us.”

Before he’d even finished telling her, the first truck rammed into the back of the school bus.

They swerved on the road. Mack rolled off the seat and scrambled back up. “What’s happening?”

“Keep your head down,” Saxon told him.

The truck came at them again.

Mitch yelled, “I’m calling the sheriff. Everyone hang tight.”

“He won’t get here in time.” Kane dug in his pack and pulled out his gun.

Saxon did the same. “Plan?”

“I’m thinking.” Mostly about using the emergency door at the back and jumping from a moving school bus onto the hood of a truck.

Or, you know, just firing some warning shots.

“Think fast,” Maria said. “Before I do.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. The CIA came up with some off-the-wall ideas sometimes.

The truck hit them again, followed by the second vehicle.

The bus swerved across the highway, where a semi headed toward them.

“Hold on!” Crew dragged the wheel back the other way.

Kane’s body pressed against the window. He held on to the seat and his gun.

The bus bumped off the side of the road and down an incline. It went airborne for a second before bouncing down, throwing them all out of their seats.

The bus listed over and hit the ground on its side.

Kane shook off the daze, not knowing how long he’d been out for. Being unconscious, that night in the dark with Ridge fresh in his mind, wasn’t good. He was liable to panic.

Someone stepped on his hand. Mack lay across his legs, blood on his temple.

“Hey—”

The butt of a gun slammed into his head, but not with enough force to knock him out right away.

He was awake long enough to see two guys lift Maria and take her.

Before he could do anything, the whole world went black.