Page 28 of Light My Fire

Tucker didn’t know why, but the news that Rio had been in on the escape felt like a punch, deep in his gut. He’d wanted to like the guy.

“And—why’d you come back?”

Evan glanced at his brothers, then back to Stevie, something of fear in his expression. “Because March is crazy. Like, nut job, he’s-going-to-kill-everyone crazy. He took the girl—for a second, I thought—” He swallowed.

“He had a gun to her head,” Bran said. “And a crazy look on his face.”

Tucker’s entire body went numb, his heart a full stop in his chest, his breath flushed.

A gun to her head.

Skye!—

“And then Rio went up to her and just… He just stood in front of her, between her and the gun, and March changed his mind. Told her that if she didn’t keep up, he’d shoot her, then they all took off and…”

“We decided we didn’t want to die,” Bran said quietly. “Not for no reward money.”

“Where’d he get the gun?” Riley asked.

“It’s mine,” Seth said. “I always carry a bear gun in my gear. He must have seen me securing it in my PG bag last night.”

Stevie drew in a breath. Looked at Tucker.

“I’m coming with you,” he whispered. “That’s my teammate, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

She tightened her mouth but gave him a nod.

Tucker grabbed his radio and turned to Riley. “Call the BLM, tell them what happened and where we’re going. Then put that fire out and get everyone back to base as fast as you can.”

Riley nodded, his jaw tight.

Tucker ground down against the pain in his knee and strode over to Stevie, picking up his PG pack on the way. She’d fired up the bike, and he didn’t give a thought to arguing with her. Just threw his leg over the bike. Set his hands on her hips.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

She must have lefther brains back in Anchorage. Because from the moment she arrived in Copper Mountain, Stevie had made one colossal mistake after another.

Okay, so meeting Tucker might not have been a mistake, but walking into the Midnight Sun Saloon had turned dark, fast. Which caused her to have to sleep in her truck. Which left her tired and crabby, so when she arrived at the Copper County facility she hadn’t called in for backup or even an update.

Instead, she’d arrived at her mother’s house, half out of her brain with fury. She’d simply jumped on the bike—barely checking the fuel level—leaving her Glock, walkie, and her overnight supplies in her truck, along with all her training, clearly.

Because how could she have not seen that March would have figured out who her father was? Of course the CCCF would be populated with inmates who knew him. Whom he’d put away.

He didn’t have a cover to blow.

And now March had her father. And Skye.

If she were a praying person—and once upon a time, she had been—she might start now. In fact—Please God, save them. Help us get there in time.

Stevie gunned the bike up the ridge, aware of the hold Tucker had on her, his thighs pressed against hers, hands bracketing her hips. He leaned into the momentum, as if he knew how to ride. Still, she didn’t want to throw them. Neither of them wore helmets—never mindthatpiece of stupidity.

Yeah, she was racking up the bad decisions like old boyfriends. Not that she had many, but her small list had done enough damage to warn her into happy singlehood.

Something she should keep in mind, given the way her sidekick was holding onto her.

They topped the ridge, and she got a good view of the fire that had ravaged over twenty acres of beautiful boreal forest. Once-glorious black spruce now jutted blackened and shunted, the landscape ashy gray as it rolled over hills into valleys.

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