Page 23 of Burning Justice (Chasing Fire: Alaska #6)

Twelve

Maria had been tucked into the passenger side of Crew’s truck. Crispin drove, Crew and Tristan in the back. She’d gone from having a three-man team of ex-Delta Force guys watching out for her to having three men of dubious background and an entire team of cops.

FBI. State police. The local sheriff.

All of them were going to be here for this.

“I know why you didn’t tell me what we were doing before Kane left.” In fact, she figured it was entirely by design that Jade was the smokejumper boss and in charge of their training today while Crispin—her partner in crime in all things except her job—told Maria what the plan was.

Crispin pulled into the parking lot of the Midnight Sun Saloon, full of cars since it was nearly lunch.

The local crowd looking for a break mid-shift.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be too rowdy. Then again, the fewer people were in there, the higher the cop-to-civilian ratio would be. Something Elias would notice.

Crew said, “Dani just texted me. Elias is gonna be here in half an hour. He agreed to meet.”

“Thanks.” Crispin shut off the truck and turned to her.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to say it.”

“Your boyfriend needs to fight fires.”

“I know that. I told him to go do it.” She wanted to brush hair back from her face, but her right hand was no-go right now with all the bandages. Geez, it hurt just lifting her hand up. And leaving it in her lap. And when it was by her side. And when she moved.

“The others need to go do their jobs. That leaves you with us.”

Tristan leaned forward from the backseat. “The poor man’s Delta Force.”

Crew chuckled. “I’m not telling JoJo you called us that. She’ll tell Jamie, and then we’ll be in trouble.”

Maria said, “Seems like Tristan might already be in trouble, even if Raine and the other hotshots were moved to a BLM crew.”

Tristan waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Tucker banned me from the base camp, but I wanna be out here working anyway. We can’t find this guy and the canister by sitting around in the mess hall.”

“And Raine?” Maria needed to know what his intentions were. After all, it had looked like Raine tried to kill him since she knew now that he’d killed her father. Even given the circumstances, she had every right to be upset. But finding a gun and trying to shoot someone was entirely different.

“Don’t worry about Raine.” Tristan’s jaw flexed. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Good thing Tucker didn’t call the sheriff.” Maria wasn’t the kind to call cops, but Tucker was friends with the local lawman. A good guy by all accounts.

Which he needed to be if she was supposed to trust him with this operation.

Tristan said, “I explained the situation. Tucker is cool.”

“We need to get in there.” Crispin lifted his chin.

Maria spotted Rio across the parking lot, dressed in plain clothes. A lot like a local who worked in construction, wearing dark blue Dickies pants with cargo pockets, and a gray T-shirt with short sleeves showing off his tattoos. The ink had persuaded guys in jail he was one of them and not a Fed.

Crew had met Rio in prison and had become his confidential informant after Rio went back to the FBI in Anchorage. Tristan had been a CI for an agent with the DEA, but that guy had turned out to be dirty.

She eyed Crispin. “Maybe one day you can tell me what you do for a living. I’ll tell you some stories from when I was a CIA agent.”

“Maybe I’ll set up an interview, and you can come and work for my company.”

Before she could respond, he pushed out of the car.

She used her left hand and kicked the door open. Closed it with her hip.

“You good there, slick?” Rio strode over.

“Good to go.” Did he want her to snap a salute?

Rio’s brows lifted.

“Fine. I didn’t take a pain pill this morning, just some over-the-counter stuff.”

“My wife gets grumpy when she’s in pain. Or tired. Or when she’s hungry. Or when I don’t let her help take down bad guys.” He frowned. “That sounds like it happens a lot, but it doesn’t.”

Maria grinned. “Skye is great. Don’t worry about it.” Sounded like the woman was human rather than the superhero she came across as. Then again, all of the smokejumpers and hotshots were something…more than the usual person. It was why she and the boys had fit in so easily.

She looked over at the screen door to the saloon, wondering if today they’d manage to capture Elias Redding. Kane and the boys probably wanted to do it themselves, but as far as she was concerned, she could save them the trouble.

That way, no one would be able to say they’d come after their former teammate in an act of vengeance. Their names would be clear.

The FBI could track down the canister and it would be over.

“Sure you’re good? We can have someone else be here in your place.”

Maria shook her head. “Elias knows me. If it isn’t me, alone at the bar, he won’t show.”

“All right.” Rio ushered her to the front. “Thanks for the intel on the man who hurt you, by the way.”

“Hammer passed it on?”

Rio nodded, stopping by the door to say, “He’s on the Ten Most Wanted list. A Chinese Triad hitman. A really nasty piece of work. I’ve got agents tracking him, and they’re close to taking him down.”

Maria forced her body not to shudder, even though that’s what it seemed to want to do. Liquid courage sounded good right now, but what she needed was to keep her wits about her. “Tell me when you have him in custody.”

“Will do.”

She opened the door herself; he caught it and held it for her as she went in.

“Stay frosty.”

Maria headed for the bar alone. Behind the counter, the bartender wore a tank top. She had sleeves of tattoos on her arms and wiped the bar top with a towel. Her hair was dark and shaved close to the side of her head on the left.

“Hey.” Maria slid onto the stool, proud of herself for not looking up at the sky when she’d been outside. The name of the game was gonna be focus, like the missions she’d gone on as a CIA operative.

Not as a hotshot with a smokejumper boyfriend.

“Drink?”

“Soda and an order of sweet potato fries.”

“Got it.” The bartender grabbed a glass and sprayed soda into it.

Maria kept her injured hand in her lap, but no one was going to miss the bandages on her fingers. She was halfway through the fries when a guy slid onto the stool beside her. “I’m expecting Elias. Not you.”

“He sent me. That’s as good as.” A short guy with dark hair.

She slid off the stool, glancing at the militia guy. Pretty sure he was the guy Rio and his people had identified as the person who had stolen the canister the day the senator had been arrested. If he was here, then he probably didn’t know where it was now.

But the cops spread all through the room were probably on edge just waiting to grab this guy.

“I don’t think so.” She started to turn away. As if he wasn’t high enough in the bad-guy food chain for her to even consider talking to him.

He grabbed her elbow. “Thought you were here to make a deal.”

“I was here to meet Elias Redding,” she said quietly. “And in a second, I’m gonna be gone and disappointed.”

“You think he’d meet you in a place like this?”

She eyed him. “I’m not going anywhere with the guy they hung out to dry. The guy about to get arrested by the cops.”

His eyes flared.

“Yeah. Surprise. This place is crawling with cops waiting to arrest Elias. Guess they have to settle for the guy Elias threw to the wolves.” She moved her arm from his grasp and set it on the edge of the bar, leaning in a little.

“So talk fast. Elias told you to come here? The cops aren’t going to settle for anything but you telling them everything you know.

They don’t give deals out when it’s national security.

Unless you know where that canister is, where to find Doctor Cortez, and where Elias is right now. ”

She could sense movement in the room, a shift in the air like growing tension around her, and knew she didn’t have much time.

“Where is the canister?”

“Doesn’t matter. You’ll never find it.” His expression shifted, and he looked all smug. “Elias will get that code one way or another.”

She said, “I guess he should’ve come here himself and asked for it.”

“They ain’t gonna find him. He’s too smart to show his face. Guess you should’ve known that when you asked for a meet.”

A niggle of instinct settled itself in her mind. Some of her training, refusing to let her walk away from this guy without working out what was bothering her.

“He sent you. Guess you’re a loose end.”

Skin around his eyes contracted. He didn’t like that. “I’m your warning. You can’t stop him.”

“Message received.” Maria straightened, grabbed her glass from the bar, and finished her drink. She told the bartender, “The FBI will pay my tab. And probably pay for the damage that’s about to?—”

Rio strode up to them. “FBI. Wilson Cartwright, you’re under arrest.” He looked at Maria. “What damage?”

The front door of the saloon flung open, and Crew rushed in. “Everyone get down!”

Automatic gunfire exploded outside.

The windows beside the door shattered, blowing glass inside. Rio dragged the militia guy to the floor.

Maria grabbed the counter and clambered over the bar one-handed, landing on the far side, where she grabbed the bartender’s arm. “Get low!”

She clapped her hand over one ear and listened to the steady rat-tat of bullets eating into the front of the saloon.

Lord, don’t let anyone get hurt.

Lord, don’t let anyone get hurt. Kane was trying to give it to God, to let go of control. Do what You need to do to get her attention.

The plane leveled off, shuddering as it caught an air current.

“Should’ve let me fly.”

Kane glanced over at Saxon. “You’ve thought about being a pilot for real, right?”

Saxon shook his head. “I don’t wanna be told what to do. And I definitely don’t wanna file a flight plan. It’s no one’s business where I’m going.”

Kane chuckled.

“Got your landing in sight?” Jade stuck her head between their shoulders and looked out. Streamers floated down in the wind.

“Got it, boss.”