Page 5 of Burning Justice (Chasing Fire: Alaska #6)

Three

Maria dropped to her knees beside Kane. He grabbed her arm. “Get down.”

Thunder in his gaze.

Trying to protect her.

“You’re the one who got shot. You stay down.” She took the gun from the floor by his side and tucked it in her waistband. “Let me see.”

The side of his shirt had a rip in it, soaked with blood.

He pushed at her hands. “It’s just a graze. Don’t worry about it.”

Maria stared at him, then lifted the book she’d been holding. “Don’t worry about it?”

His gaze flicked to the thick hardback, and she saw the moment he realized what she was saying.

The fact that the round had cut his side, then embedded itself in the book.

No wonder she’d been knocked back a step. She’d managed to catch herself before she went down.

“Don’t worry about it, huh?” She turned the book so he could see the crumpled lead embedded in the cover.

He frowned. “Just stay down.”

“Let me see it. You might need stitches.” She laid the book down and started to lift his shirt.

“Don’t.” He shoved her hands away. “Saxon can look at it.”

Maria just stared at him.

Saxon said, “Gunfire stopped.” He moved to the side of the splintered window and whistled loudly.

A matching whistle replied from outside.

Kane sat up and moved away from her. As if that wasn’t a giant “don’t touch me” to her.

She’d noticed over the summer that he didn’t remove his shirt when the other guys did, but this was the first time he’d rejected her touch.

Maria turned, still sitting on the floor, and looked at the room. Talk about being closer than they had been in months…or years, probably. Her father had been here. He’d been held here. A captive.

This wasn’t a retreat. It was a glorified prison cell.

Outside, the gunfire started again. She flinched and looked at the window, but nothing hit the cabin.

“They’re aiming at the team,” Kane said.

Saxon’s head was bent to his task, his back to her so that she couldn’t see Kane’s side or how bad the wound was. “You’ll live.”

“No duh.”

They’d shut her out, effectively. Not part of their team. Not privy to the things they knew.

After all that talk of being in this together, their fates intertwined and all that.

It was true, right up until they decided there was something she didn’t need to know. Then all that solidarity talk went out the window.

Maria took the book—and Kane’s gun—and headed for the front door.

She swung it open and stepped out right as Kane said, “Sanchez!”

Another dividing line—not calling her Maria. Trying to keep things professional.

She scanned the sky and found the source of the engine noise.

The rotor. Military grade, private chopper.

They’d already known these people were connected.

That they had the kind of funding that meant they had far better equipment than the stuff the state and the Bureau of Land Management gave the hotshots.

She ducked her head and raced across the clearing, drawing the weapon. As if she was going to stand around in that cabin and let these bad guys shoot at her friends.

They’d already hit Kane.

Shot at her.

Someone could be dead already. And the fact no one had lost their life this summer almost made her drop to her knees and thank God for mercy.

Don’t let it be my father.

She wanted to beg God, but that would be far too self-serving.

Kind of like asking for no land mines between her and a good spot to take a shot at that chopper.

She raced between the trees, weaving in and out. Finding the trail that elk had been wandering with her babies. Sprinting along it until she spotted the chopper overhead, the steady rat-tat pinning down the hotshots so there was nothing they could do but cover their heads and pray.

Running for it meant stepping on a land mine.

No way was she going to let that happen when she was the one who had brought them all out here.

Maria slowed to a stop, planted her feet, and held the gun in both hands. Aimed up between the branches of the spruce.

The shooter?

No, the tail. She inhaled, held her breath, and squeezed off a shot.

The helicopter listed to the side before the pilot corrected. The shooting stopped, and a second later, the chopper turned and flew away with the tail smoking.

Now they just had to get back on the trail and back to work. There was still a fire to deal with.

“No muss, no fuss, huh?” Hammer strode over to her, no humor in his eyes. His lips in a thin line. That impossibly square jaw softened by a thick growth of beard.

“Kane got shot.”

Hammer flinched.

“Probably just a graze, but I wouldn’t know because they didn’t let me look at it.” She didn’t like that she sounded disgruntled, but how else was she supposed to feel about it? They’d shut her out. “How about you guys? Anyone hit?”

Hammer never gave much away in his expression. “Everyone is good.”

“Great. No harm, no foul, then.”

“And your father?”

“He was here, but he isn’t here now.” Maria strode past Hammer, heading for the fire road the hotshots had been walking on. Before Mack had thrown that rock. Before they’d approached this cabin. Before the helicopter. Before Kane had been shot.

She sniffed back the burn of tears, refusing to feel sorry for him when he clearly didn’t want her sympathy.

Maria picked her way through the brush to the tree Mitch had directed her to cut down. Grizz and Mitch were crouched, deep in conversation. Mack and Raine huddled by another tree.

“Everyone good?” She walked the trunk like it was a balance beam. “Anyone hurt?”

Mitch shook his head. “We’re good. I’m going to report in to Tucker about the mines and the chopper. I don’t want anyone walking around when we have no idea if there are more mines.”

She nodded, jumped off the trunk, and headed for Mack and Raine. “You guys okay?”

They stood together and made their way to the middle of the trail. Given the mines, it was probably one of the few safe places now that the chopper was gone.

Mack looked a little pale, but Raine nodded and said, “We’re good.”

Maria slung her arm around Mack’s shoulders and tugged him over in a side hug. “Something to text your girl.”

He laughed, but it sounded nervous.

“Maybe later though. When the urge to barf goes away.”

“How’d you know?” He looked up at her, all dark eyes and dark hair. The kid was adorable but would never have made it in the world of international intrigue she’d lived in. Or in the military with his brother and the other Trouble Boys.

“I remember well enough my first few firefights. And I didn’t have a team to back me up.”

Raine said, “Did anyone see who it was on that chopper?”

Maria glanced around. Grizz just shook his head. Behind the burly mountain man, Mitch spoke into the radio, gesturing with one arm.

“I didn’t. Not sure about Hammer.”

“He jumped the berm and ran toward it.” Mack shivered. “Maybe he saw something.”

Grizz lifted his chin. “How about you guys?”

“No sign of my dad in the cabin, but he was there. Kane was grazed but he said he’s fine.” She shrugged, as if it was no big deal. That was how Kane acted about it, so why couldn’t she? “We should get to the fire. Aren’t we supposed to put it out before it can jump the highway?”

She was ready to get this show on the road and all that. Do this teamwork thing she hadn’t signed up for…while the guys shut her out and didn’t let her help them.

Grizz snagged her elbow. “Not so fast, Sanchez. We need to talk.”

She bit her lip where no one would see it.

He tugged her away from the rest of them, back the way they’d all come. “I’m sorry you didn’t find your father.”

She cleared her throat. “It’s been fifteen years. Why would today be the day I got him back?”

“I know what it’s like to lose people.”

She wanted to shrug, but a thing like that wasn’t something you brushed off.

“I know what it’s like to wish you could’ve done more. But all you can do is the next right thing—while you pray that no one else gets hurt before this thing is over.”

She lifted her chin. “I’m not here because I need help. I’m here because the world is in danger, and I’m the one who gets tasked with stopping the threat.”

She managed to turn away before any tears spilled down her cheeks, then found her pack, tucking the book away but keeping Kane’s gun handy.

Maria slung her pack on. “Let’s go fight this fire.”

“Dude, she is so mad at you.” Grizz glanced over. “What did you do?”

Kane winced. “You don’t want to know.”

His side smarted, but it really was only a graze. The problem? Having Sanchez look at it—which would’ve been nice, actually—would’ve led to her seeing all the scars on his back. She knew they were there, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to see them when he was hurt.

“Yeah, I do want to know.”

Kane said, “It’s complicated.”

Grizz chuckled. “Pretty sure I said that to Dani. What I meant was that I didn’t want to talk about it.

Turned out she was right about everything.

Not that she didn’t have to change. We both did.

God had us do the work to take those steps toward each other.

Which might mean swallowing your pride and letting her in. ”

Kane just kept walking. Ignoring how his pack sat pretty much over the wound on his side. The pain reminded him of the risk inherent in all of this—and also, that he was alive.

“Thanks for the tip.”

Grizz just chuckled. “I’d say enjoy the journey, but it’s mostly frustrating until you admit to God that you have no idea what you’re doing and you let Him lead.”

He clapped Kane on the back and then jogged on up the line. Past Hammer, talking to Mack and Raine. Saxon was behind him, bringing up the rear.

He spotted Sanchez all the way up in front, talking to Mitch.

Kane glanced back at Saxon, wanting to talk but also not. He’d never been super verbal. It was much easier to figure out the thoughts in his head before he spoke aloud.

The same reason she’d run off after he’d shut her out.

Fresh on the heels of not finding her father, he’d pushed her away. Literally and figuratively.