Page 3

Three

Cadee couldn’t stop her grin. “So, can you hear the river?”

He grinned. “Of course. Must be near.”

“Yep.” She laughed. “I’ll let you have the honors.” She waved ahead at the last clump of fireweed.

Vince pushed his way through, and she followed him.

“This is a great river,” he said. “So perfectly clear.”

“Yep. This is the river Dad would take Emma and me to for fishing. If he got off work early.” She knelt and filled her canteen. Sucked down water. Sometimes this part of Alaska was actually hot.

Vince knelt beside her and filled his own canteen. She wanted to tell him about Ingriq, but it seemed like her voice clogged with him around. Ever since his father had died.

Eventually she’d have to tell him exactly what had happened.

Then their business would be done.

Over.

She could take her broken heart and walk away from Vince Ramos forever.

She took out her ponytail, reset her elastic. Ingriq was a cool Alaskan place. Beautiful, of course. She’d liked Montana but didn’t want to live anywhere but Alaska. And her Midnight Sun job sort of near Ingriq was perfect. She didn’t want the fire to take its people, her people.

She scanned the sky. She didn’t want to smile until she knew it was worth a smile. “Hey, Vince, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

His head popped up to scan the sky with her. “Nice. Looks like the wind has shifted the fire from Ingriq and it’s not as fast.” He pulled out his Kestrel. “Windspeed is down, and it’s headed east, not south. Away from your village. Humidity is even up a bit. It ought to be safe there.”

They fist-bumped, but he looked into her eyes with a frown. The lines around his eyes softened. “Don’t worry. We’re still heading to Ingriq. Wind and humidity could change any moment.”

She hadn’t seen the soft facet of Vince in…well, a long while. It had been hiding behind those dark eyes, under the dark waves of his hair. “Yes. Any fire, anytime, could go crazy. But I’m not as uneasy as I was. For now. It’s still too close.” She pointed east, up the river. “Ingriq built a bridge down a distance. Maybe a two-minute walk from here. Wait till you see it. Jake Larson built it with his son, who was twelve at the time. It is architecturally awesome, I have to say.”

He leaned down and filled his canteen with more water. Cadee did too. “With a twelve-year-old?”

Curiosity instead of silent anger? Another reminder of what used to draw her to him. “Yeah. Paul graduated from architecture school a couple years ago, being paid around the country for different projects.”

“That’s cool. You ready to go?” he asked.

“Ready.” She slid her canteen into her gear bag and stood.

“Good. Let’s head out.” He headed downriver, and Cadee followed him.

He pulled out a baggie of orange slices as he walked. “Want some?”

“You and your fruit. You always have fruit.”

“Or veggies. Health, you know.”

Cadee laughed. “Of course I’ll have some orange.”

He tossed the baggie to her. She pulled out a couple orange slices and sped up to walk with him. She handed the bag back.

“I have a question,” she said.

He popped an orange slice in his mouth. “Okay.”

“That Kestrel. That was your dad’s, wasn’t it?”

“Of course you recognize it.”

The burnt-orange handheld device had a silver wheel at the top, and under the small screen, it had arrows to choose what aspect of weather you needed to know.

She nodded, pointed at the scratch mark by the silver wheel.

He chuckled, spoke around the orange slice in his mouth. “‘Who needs a weatherman?’ Dad used to say. After he died…” He cleared his throat. “It was the only thing of his I kept.”

She caught his glance, held it.

He blinked fast, and she put her hand on his shoulder. He stood there for a long moment, but something changed about his eyes. Something unsettling that she couldn’t read.

His cell phone sounded, and he rubbed his nose. He stepped away from her with a grin. “We’re in cell service.”

He pulled the phone out of his pocket, clicked it on speaker. “Hey, Jade. Cadee and I are here.”

“Vince,” came Jade’s relieved voice. “You and Cadee all right?”

“Ran into some trouble, but so far it’s been all right. Been trying to reach you. Everyone there okay?”

“I’ve been trying to reach you too. Took us a while to gather, but we’re all good. Saxon got Neil out of the plane, but he’s in bad shape. We just don’t have Orion and Tori. Yet. Where are you?”

He looked over at Cadee, eyebrows raised.

Wow. Vince was looking to her for an answer. “We’re at the Ingriq River,” she said. “A couple miles from where we saw the plane smoke. Headed to Ingriq Village. I know a shortcut path from here. The fire’s close to it.” She glanced over at Vince. “I, uh, know my way around this area.”

Jade said, “That’s wonderful. I just now got a message. The wind keeps shifting.”

Vince handed Cadee his phone, pulled out his Kestrel. Frowned at it. He looked back at her, nodded. Her stomach soured.

Jade continued. “The wildfire will track toward Ingriq Village, then suddenly turn. The hotshots are already en route to the village, but they’ll need help. We’ll try to meet you there.”

Cadee leaned into the phone. “Are you sure the wildfire is staying away from the village, Chief?”

“Yes. Except, like I said, it does keep shifting. Get there as soon as you can, help them evacuate. I’m sending a warning to the trooper post.”

“Copy that,” Cadee said. “It’s about an hour to the village. We’ll follow Ingriq River.” Her stomach grumbled, and she grimaced. She just hoped Jade couldn’t hear it. “As long as none of those militia people on ATVs find us again, we’ll be okay.”

“ATVs? Were you shot at?”

“Yeah. No hits though,” Vince said, moving the phone back to himself. “We hid until long after they were gone.”

Jade huffed a breath. “Thank God. If you see them, keep running. That had to have been the militia. Law enforcement hasn’t found all of those guys yet. I’m going to call Rio Parker, Skye’s husband. He’s local FBI, running point on the hunt for them. Be safe, both of you. Let me know when you get to the village. Later, you can both brief us on the militia.”

“Copy that.” Vince stowed his phone and his Kestrel in his pocket. Turned to Cadee, took a breath. “Cadee, why didn’t you save my dad at the Aktuvik fire?”

Vince saw her tense.

Her eyes widened, her mouth opened, and she let out a gasp. “Vince Ramos, what on earth do you mean by that?”

He kept his voice even. “You were right there with Dad on the east spur of the fire. Why didn’t you try to save him?”

Cadee swallowed. Turned away, kept walking. “Leave me alone,” she whispered.

“What—are you kidding me?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She kept walking.

“Well, I do!” He didn’t mean to thunder. He cut his voice down. “Cadee, I…”

“You really don’t know?”

Vince stared at her. “What?”

“I loved your dad. He was…amazing. And everything. And…” Her eyes filled. “I can’t believe you actually think…” She held up her hand. “Clearly, you don’t know me at all.”

“What do you mean? You were there!”

“So was the rest of the team?—”

“But you were—we were…” He swallowed, not sure he wanted to say the rest. “I thought we meant something to each other. I thought…”

She swiped her cheek, which was wet. Stared at him, her eyes fierce in his. “Yeah. Me too. Enough that you wouldn’t for a second believe that I would abandon your father.”

“Why not? You abandoned me.”

Her mouth opened. She hurled words at him. “I abandoned you? You broke up with me right outside the church, right after Cap’s funeral…your dad’s funeral.” Her voice softened. “You were grieving. I was grieving. I thought we’d be there for each other.”

The grief almost drowned him. Again. He couldn’t say anything.

Then her eyes grew hard as flint.

And his words forced their way out. “You abandoned my dad, so you abandoned me. Plain and simple.”

Cadee’s nostrils flared. She growled. “I. thought. we’d. be. there. for. each. other. But outside the church, you abandoned me .” She crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes at him.

A buzz from his pocket. Not now.

It buzzed again, and he pulled it out.

A text from Tucker at the Midnight Sun admin office.

Tucker: Vince, I was glad to hear from Jade that the crew is okay. But I just got a phone news alert. The DEA has a warrant for your arrest. What’s up?

He clicked on the link. Something about drugs and money laundering through real estate. He still had no clue.

But the DEA wanted to arrest him?

What on earth was going on?

Maybe the answer to his question didn’t matter.

He looked over at Cadee.

Maybe he had bigger problems to solve.