Page 10 of Burning Hearts

Like he was here to save her? Butting in. Deciding how things should be—as usual. She shook her head. “I’m trying to rescue Tristan.”

Logan looked around the room. “He isn’t here. It’s time your brother saved himself.”

THREE

She didn’t takehis hand. And after he had hit that guy over the head? Total hero stuff—and she just stood there staring at him like he was the last person she’d expected to see in Alaska.

Logan figured they didn’t have more than a couple of seconds to get out of here. The minute the guys out front had mentioned Jamie, he’d covered his reaction with some inane conversation. Talked to them about evacuating and even made it all the way to a meeting in the boss’s office. Brian Howards dressed like all the rest, he was just thirty years older.

Decades of experience surviving apparently didn’t mean he would listen to reason.

Logan doubted these guys would even evacuate if the state police and local federal law enforcement showed up with riot gear and ordered them out. If that happened, it would likely only end with a standoff, Waco style.

All because these guys didn’t want to leave their stuff.

You think we don’t know about wildfires? We’ve done what we need to. Even if the fire gets close, we’ll be fine.

Or so the guy thought.

Logan had tried to explain about the dangers of smoke inhalation, but apparently, all the possessions they intended to protect were more valuable than people to this guy. Brian Howards probably figured he’d just go to town and recruit some more guys for his militia if he lost anyone.

That had to be what this place was. A shared compound of guys who all wanted the same thing—to live under their own rules and not the law of the land. Armed and looking for freedom in all the wrong places.

Jamie lowered her hands from her mouth. She’d been stunned into inactivity for a second, but now she said, “You seriously think I’m going to leave Tristan?”

He looked down at the man on the floor, then said to her, “Come on.”

He grasped her hand and tugged her from the room, down the hall. She was really here.Thank You.Because it seemed like God had brought him here right when she needed him. The perfect timing that could only be His.

Now they just had to get out of here.

Logan heard voices behind them.

Jamie whispered, “Someone is coming.”

And they would find an unconscious man in the hallway.

He grabbed the nearest handle, prayed there was no one on the other side of the door, and rushed in. An empty room with long metal tables against one wall. Stacked chairs. Maps all along another wall. A briefing room?

He turned to close the door, catching it before it clicked shut. In the gap between the door and the frame, he watched two men walk into the hall, saw the moment they realized their colleague was down. One crouched by him, saying something to the other, younger man before he nodded and left.

The guy by the door looked into the room where Jamie had been. Logan prayed they figured she had hit that guy herself and made a run for it. He eased the door shut as quietly as he could and went to her. Jamie stood in front of the wall of maps, looking at the markings. On the right side, down the margin, someone had written a long string of numbers.

“We should be okay here for now. But it won’t be long before they search every inch of this place for us.” He touched her shoulder.

The sweat-wicking shirt she wore stretched across her back. Cargo pants and hiking boots completed the outfit. She looked rumpled and tired, strands of hair now coming out of her braids, and it made him want to tug her to him for a hug.

Affection had never been the problem between them. The problem had always been other people. The fact that she’d drop everything to help her family, spend thousands of dollars she probably didn’t have on rehab for her mom and—case in point—put herself in danger to help Tristan.

“You’re sorry?” She stared at him, tears gathering in her eyes. “I feel sorry for you. I guess your family is so perfect that no one needs anyone. Must be hard, living up to the Crawford standard.”

“As soon as the coast is clear, we need to run.”

She turned to him, a frown creasing her brows. “I want to get out of herenow.Just say when.” She sighed. “I can’t believe Tristan wants to stay.”

“He’s here? I figured you were looking for him and these guys grabbed you.” He’d thought he was her hero, rescuing her from men who had abducted her. Dangerous men who probably cooked meth in one of those outbuildings. Who had a cache of weapons and a plan to destabilize…something on that map she’d been looking at.

He didn’t plan to stick around long enough to find out all of it.

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