Page 67 of Fireline

“Not really. Hey, can we sit? I’m pretty sure my ankle is broken?—”

“Broken? Why didn’t you say so?” Flustered, Booth helped her ease down in the grass. “Let me take a look.”

Nova rested her foot in his lap.

He lifted her pant leg and whistled. “That’s some splint. You do that yourself?”

“No. That’s where I was headed. Like I said, I believe you about Crazy Henry.” She cringed as Booth pulled her pant leg back down over her ankle.

“Sorry,” he said.

She dismissed it as no big deal and continued recounting everything from Finn crashing into her to being dragged off the cliff. “When I came to, the fire had blown up. I was trapped between a mountain and the forest. I stumbled around until I ran into a mountain lion cub.”

Booth’s eyes widened. “What?”

“The mama wasn’t too happy to see me either. I was backing up when I stepped on a piece of wood covering a pit or something. Before I knew it, I was falling down an old mine shaft that caved in behind me. That’s when I met Henry.”

He leaned back to study her face. “You really saw Henry? Out here? You spoke with him?”

Nova nodded. “Shortly after we met, I blacked out. Somehow, I ended up in his hidey hole. A cabin built into a cave, by the looks of it. He told me he knew about you and Crispin. Told me how he’d been hiding a nuke and that The Brothers wants to find it. And if that isn’t chilling enough, he said that Floyd has hired professional assassins to hunt you down and kill you.”

Booth gazed into the surrounding woods. Nova sensed him processing the information. Formulating plans she couldn’t begin to guess.

“I can’t believe he told you everything.” He ran one calloused thumb along her knuckles.

“Floyd is getting closer to finding Henry. He needed me to warn you. That’s where Abilene came in.”

At her name, the horse lifted her head from where she’d been grazing in the meadow.

“I walked away from that world to start a new life in a new place, but I kept looking back. Wanting to get my life back.” Sighing, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I should know better by now. The past always finds a way back around eventually.”

“Did you find Crispin?”

Booth nodded. “He’s safe at the hospital again. Sheriff Hutchinson put a guard on the door, and he’s investigating everything that happened. This man, Floyd, was behind it all. The kidnapping. The arson at jump base. The man who beat Crispin. That was all Floyd and his hired hands.”

“But why?”

“Partly to get his hands on the nuke, and partly for revenge. It was his brother, Earl, that died that day at the lake when they overran us all. Floyd blames us. But he’s not going to get away with it. We’re going to find him and stop him once and for all.”

“Good.” Nova leaned her head on Booth’s shoulder.

“Good? I thought you wanted me to stay out of it and let the police do their jobs.”

She cringed hearing him parrot her words. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know?—”

He kissed her. “I know.”

“So, now what? Floyd isn’t going to call off his assassins. He’ll never stop looking for Henry.”

“Can’t change what’s hunting me, but I can end it on my terms.” His mouth flattened. “I thought I was done with my old life, but seems like it’s not finished with me yet.”

The thump-thump of helicopter rotors sliced through the night sky.

In a few minutes, they’d be rescued. Probably safe from the fire crowding in on them, but with the assassin still on the run, they could be walking right into the crosshairs.

FOURTEEN

Today was the day. The day they’d find out who’d be the new crew chief.

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