Page 38 of Burning Hearts

JoJo smacked Vince up the backside of his head and said something to him Logan didn’t hear.

Skye caught up to Logan, walking alongside him.

Logan said, “How is Rio?”

Skye had a soft smile on her face when she said, “Fine, thank you.”

She’d been gone since before dinner, heading home so she got to see her husband during the week and not just between fires—reprieves that didn’t last long or come often during an intense wildfire season.

Skye said, “How about you? Jade said you were pretty cozy with Jamie by the fire.”

“I’m just realizing some things about our relationship before.”

Skye tipped her head to the side. “Like what?”

Logan shrugged. “Like how maybe I saw what I wanted to see. I never actually got to know her. Who she is. The kind of things she wants out of life and why she does what she does. I just passed judgment on the things I didn’t like.”

Skye winced. “You know Rio was undercover when I met him?”

Logan had heard the story but mostly just highlights.

“He was with a prison detail assigned to fight the fire with us. A couple of the inmates used it as an escape, and Rio got caught up in it. I thought he was a convicted criminal. Turned out he was on an operation.”

“But you figured out eventually who he was.”

“He protected me even though it put his job at risk,” she said. “I might not have appreciated it at the time, but looking back, the fact that he pushed me into that river probably saved my life.”

“I don’t think Jamie is going to see it the same way.” And hopefully he wouldn’t have to shove her into a rushing Alaskan river the way Rio had done with Skye.

“Sometimes, being together is a little bit about being there to save each other, and it’s a lot about trusting God with what you can’t do. The parts that are beyond our strength to achieve a victory.” She paused. “You know that verse ‘for such a time as this’?”

“I don’t think I’m a girl who is supposed to save a nation.”

Skye snorted. “True. However, God has His perfect timing. There’s a reason both of you are here now. God always has a plan, but it’s up to us to choose whether or not to submit to it.” She slapped him on the shoulder and set off toward the plane at a jog.

Logan double-timed it and caught up just as Jade was saying “…drop retardant on the compound.”

JoJo said, “Do we know what caused the buildings to catch on fire?”

Logan gaped. “The compound is on fire?”

Jade shot him a scathing look—because he didn’t already know the answer to that question. “As I said before you joined us, Neil and Mark went out early this morning. They reported that the compound is fully engulfed and seems to have been for some time. Probably all night. Our job is to make sure the fire doesn’t spread beyond the fence.”

I started that fire.

He didn’t want to say it out loud, but at some point, someone was going to connect the dots between his report and this fire. Probably when he explained in his report at the end of today that he was the one who’d started the fire.

Logan squeezed his eyes shut and prayed no one had lost their life.

He left off the part about this being his fault, because he wasn’t ready to admit that it probably was. He needed to get a look at the compound for himself.

Vince glanced over. “Did you see anything like hoses when you were there? Might be good to fight this residential style.”

Logan shook his head.

“How big is the fire?” Orion asked. “Does it encompass the entire compound? How do we know it wasn’t the wildfire that moved in?”

Logan said, “I thought you guys cut a line so the wildfire burned out yesterday.”

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