Page 6 of Burning Hearts

Logan shoved off his helmet and got his chute gathered up, both of which he tucked in his packout bag.

He tugged the radio from the same bag and turned the dial. He couldn’t see anyone else on the team now. Had they all made it to the jump spot on the other side of that hill? “Jade, this is Logan. Come in.”

He stomped off the frustration by heading over to look at the car. Not even the same make and model as Jamie’s. Abandoned, like the cabin behind him. A wreck, with the roof caved in and half the porch under debris. No one had lived here in years.

The radio crackled in his hand. “Yeah, Logan. Can you hold, over?”

Logan frowned. “What’s going on, Jade?”

He leaned on the car and peered in the window. Not an abandoned vehicle. Someone who’d run out of gas, maybe?A terrifying thought in the middle of nowhere.He peered in the window and spotted a duffel on the backseat. The paperwork on the dash indicated it was a rental, but he knew that bag.

Oh no.

“Vince got hung up on a tree, but Hammer is cutting him down. You good?”

No, he was not good.This is Jamie’s car.He looked around, turning in a circle. No one in sight. Just the deadly backcountry of Alaska.

“Logan, you good?”

Her question jogged him out of his…blind terror? Pretty accurate. “I’m good.” Jamie was not. “There’s something I need to do. I’m gonna be late catching up.”

He’d never broken protocol like this before.

Lord, don’t let me regret this.He could only trust that God had led him here.

“Logan, what are you doing?” Skye.

He winced. “I’ll catch up. I promise.”

“You better. Over.”

Question was, after he’d been looking for her for weeks, how long was it going to take to actually find Jamie out here?

And would she be alive when he did?

Logan pulled off his jumpsuit, shoving the heavy material into his pack. He left the bigger bag by the car so he could look around the nearby area unencumbered by everything he’d brought. Though he did put a few things in his pants pockets. Slid the radio on his belt. Map and compass?

Nah.

He knew the area just fine. There was nothing out here.

Logan circled the car. Tried the doors. She’d locked it, which meant Jamie had intentionally parked here. At least, barring another circumstance he didn’t want to contemplate right now.

Should he report the abandoned vehicle to the local sheriff?

In the trees, about ten feet from the car, he spotted a path that snaked up the hill. Definitely not man-made. If Jamie was out here and she’d encountered a dangerous animal, Logan absolutely wanted to know. Even if it would only be so he had closure.

Lord, You brought me this far.

He figured it wouldn’t take long to climb the hill as the animals did when they wandered across the land. The team had raced up steeper hills than this, training hard for the grueling work they did. His muscles needed to move after being cooped up in the plane with all that gear on.

Logan took off running.

Halfway, he realized the path was longer than he’d thought, but he found the top of the ridge after nearly fifteen minutes of a solid nine-minute-mile pace, which was his usual easy run. When he bent over, hands on his knees, his legs shook. Laps of the runway in sneakers were one thing. Running uphill in boots was another.

He straightened, hands behind his head and his elbows splayed. From up here, he’d be able to send intel that could help the others fight the fire.

But instead of an open valley below him, he spotted some kind of compound. The fenced buildings bustled with people moving between structures. Two trucks drove in from the east, admitted through the gate, which was rolled closed behind them.

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