Page 31 of Burning Hearts

“Is everything really okay?”

“Worried about your bottom line again?” She tried to play it off. Right now, the melancholy feeling seemed to seep into her skin. Surrounded by friendship and yet not part of it. Uninvited. But she didn’t need it, did she?

It wasn’t like she was staying.

“You know I care more about you than the company. Even if you don’t think youarethe company.”

Jamie wasn’t going to argue that point. “Everything okay with that?”

He said, “I turned on the software and tracked your ring. You said you slipped it in your brother’s pocket?”

“Which means there’s a possibility it fell out.” But it was the best she’d been able to do at the time.

“It’s pinging live at the compound. Hasn’t moved.”

Either her brother was still there or just the jacket was. “Did you get the files I sent over?”

“I’m having accounting look over all the financials. We’ll figure out where they transferred the money to.”

“And the rest?” She’d sent over the contents of the entire network. “I’d like to know if there are any indications what their plan might be. Tristan seemed to think they were up to something or involved in something.”

At face value, she’d have assumed them to be part of a drug operation or domestic terror group. But what did she know? She wasn’t close to being like these people. She wasn’t a federal agent or hero firefighter. Jamie was just good at math and had a knack for computers.

Talk about in over her head.

“I’ll call when I have something.”

“Thanks, Samuel.” She hung up, aware of someone standing across the table.

“Sorry.” Logan hesitated. “Didn’t realize you were on the phone.”

“Just talking to a colleague of mine.” She set the phone face down by her bowl and finished her glass of water. “They have access to the tracker technology. Apparently, Tristan hasn’t left the compound.” She bit her lip.

She’d left her brother there.

Logan sat. “You’re not going out there. A storm is coming in, and there are supposed to be high winds tonight. No one is leaving base camp.”

“So I have to pretend he’s not in trouble, even though it’s possible he’s being tortured for information?”

Logan glanced over. “That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Maybe. They probably just shot him for betraying them.”

“We have no idea who those people are. And we’re not cops, so it’s not like it’s on us to investigate them. We both have jobs to do.”

Just because she didn’t like what he said, didn’t mean he was wrong. The chalkboard on the wall saidHIGH WINDS.The math beside it looked like miles per hour.

Which was when she remembered the numbers on the map in the compound.

“What?”

She must’ve made a sound.

Jamie got up, waving him off. She went to the wall where someone had pinned a map of Alaska just slightly above her eye level. Someone taller, who didn’t need to reach the way she did with the pen she found.

Jamie wrote the numbers from memory, then marked the spots on the map that had been indicated. Not that she knew what any of it meant. Coordinates? No, not enough digits. If they had a letter at the beginning and end, they might be airplane tail numbers.

She had no ideas, only guesses.

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