Page 57 of Burning Justice

“So now every introvert is a murderer.”

Saxon shoved his shoulder. “They’ll both be fine.”

“Only because I know those shadows. I was there. Maria with a gun? I have no problem. Someone like Raine? She needs a Bible study, not a weapon.”

Saxon chuckled. “Guess we gotta go be smokejumpers.”

Yeah, that was the problem, wasn’t it? “She said she was fine with it. No problems. Come back to me, I’ll see you later. Stay safe.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“She didn’t have to be so…fine with it.”

Saxon burst out laughing. “You want your woman to beg you to stay?”

“Shut up.” He shoved his buddy in return.

They caught up with Jade at the plane.

“Ready to go, boss.” Kane was happy to make this as quick as they could so he’d be back here watching out for Maria as soon as possible.

“Right. You know the drill,” Jade said. “I’ve explained it.”

Saxon said, “We’ve lived it.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “Blah blah, you’ve both jumped more times than the rest of us put together. War zones. Insurgents. Etcetera. This is fire.”

“We know how to fight a fire. We’ve been doing that for two seasons now,” Kane pointed out.

“That’s the only reason I’m okay with this.” Jade glanced in the direction of the group they’d left behind. “I’m less okay with the rest of them working the whole terrorism thing while we’re gone, but Crispin doesn’t usually need my help with that stuff.”

Kane frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jade shrugged. “The best way to resolve this is to call Rio, then have Sanchez contact Elias. Tell him she’ll give him the code if he leaves all the hotshots and smokejumpers and her father alone. She goes in because she insists he meet her in person, and they draw out Elias. Rio snaps the trap shut. Crispin and I figured it all out.”

Kane turned back to the group so he could march over and tell Maria in no uncertain terms to not do that. At least, not while he wasn’t there to make sure she was in no danger.

Or not much danger, anyway.

Saxon grabbed Kane’s jumpsuit and dragged him back toward the plane. “Ready to deploy, boss.”

“That’s what I thought.” Jade backed up and hopped on the plane, where everyone was already loaded and ready to go.

Lord…

He didn’t even know what to pray for.

“She’ll be fine. You think Crispin or Rio are going to let anything happen to her?”

Kane said, “I hate everything about this situation.”

Saxon clapped a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “Soon as we’re back, you can pitch in.”

Kane didn’t want to, but he settled into a seat on the plane. They had to get through this jump to get qualified as smokejumpers so they could do their jobs. No one was going to leave the crew high and dry without enough people to fill the teams.

Orion looked over from the seat in front. “You good, Kane? You look kinda nervous.”

“I’m not the one I’m worried about.”