Page 32 of Burning Hearts

From behind, she heard someone say, “She some kind of genius or something?”

Someone else said, “Shut up, Vince.”

Logan eased up beside her. “Is this from the map at the compound?”

Jamie nodded. “I have no idea what it means though.” She turned to find everyone crowded around her. Great, they were all staring now. Looking at her like she was some kind of freak show exhibition. “I should go.”

She squeezed between Jade and Tori and grabbed her things.

Logan met her at the door. “I’ll walk you. There are wild animals out, so it’s best not to go off by yourself.”

She nodded, sniffing back the burn of tears in her eyes. She could present to the board of directors of her company without getting nervous. In front of a crowd of heroes and federal bigshots, she crumbled like this was her first science fair.

Her phone chimed and she looked at the screen.

Logan held the door open. “Another work thing you need to respond to?”

“No, just a dip in our stock price.”

The door never closed.

She turned to find him staring at her. Logan moved far enough to allow the door to click shut. “Jamie, what do you do for a living?”

“I told you I work in finance.” And that was all there was to it.

“I know what you said.” He touched her shoulder, and she turned to face him. “I’m getting the feeling that even though we were together for months, I don’t know all that much about you.”

Telling him wasn’t going to make things better.

Not after…

No, he didn’t want to know. Even if he thought she should tell him.

Jamie set off walking. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not a hero. I’m just me.”

EIGHT

Logan tossedanother log on the fire he had made. The one now starting to come to life in the firepit.I’m just me.

She’d said that like it was bad thing.

Logan hadn’t known how to respond, so they’d walked in silence across the runway, and he’d eventually figured out how to ask her to sit outside with him for a little bit. Rather than retreating to his room while she went to wherever the girls had set up for her to sleep, he just felt like they should actually talk.

Maybe for the first time.

Not that they hadn’t had conversations when they were dating before. It just seemed as if those might’ve been more surface level rather than real connection.

Lord, help me figure out what to say.

He had been a table over at dinner, letting her have her space after they’d spent all day together, most of which had involved running from gunmen shooting at them. Of course, he’d kept one eye on her like a total stalker, half listening to Orion’s story, seeing how she focused on Neil and whatever he’d been saying to her. The older man had some great stories.

Logan settled in a wooden chair close to the fire. “Neil didn’t tell you something scary, did he?”

She probably had a low threshold for fear right now, given the adrenaline of the day. Seated beside him in a matching chair, close enough he could reach over and hold her hand, Jamie shook her head. “Nothing like that. Mostly he was telling me about the people you work with and all the crazy things they’ve been through up here over the years.”

“Most of that was years ago. Before I came up here.” She didn’t need to worry about what had happened in Montana last year. All that had been taken care of.

She shifted her attention from the fire in front of them to him, one eyebrow raised. “Oh? I thought you said all that craziness happened with Bryce just a few weeks ago.”

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