Page 53 of Burning Hearts

“Crew can take care of himself.”

Unlike her brother? “You stayed behind. Look what happened to you.”

He opened the door. A rush of cooler air swept in and brushed her hair back over her shoulders. She shivered, even though she had a sweater on. They’d taken her pack. She apparently wasn’t going to get it back anytime soon, which meant the company needed to wipe her laptop and the satellite phone remotely so these guys didn’t figure out how to access her confidential information.

As soon as they got to safety, she needed a phone so she could call Samuel.

“Don’t worry about Crew, okay?”

Jamie gritted her back teeth. “Like I wasn’t supposed to worry about you? I’m supposed to not care about anyone. Just be selfish and ‘do me’ or whatever that phrase is.”

“Come on.” He stepped out.

Jamie caught a glimpse of wide blue sky, and her running shoe landed in…snow? She looked around. The place was a homestead.

“How high up are we?” There were at least four inches of powder on the ground, and she was not dressed for freezing temps. Even if this snow was old enough, it’d been repeatedly packed down. Her pants wouldn’t get wet.

“Shhh.” Tristan grabbed her hand, and they ran along the back of the cabin toward a barn. A plane passed overhead, red-and-white coloring but not close enough she could make out anything else.

“Wait here.” Tristan ducked inside, and she pressed her back to the aging wood beside the door. How long was she going to have to?—

An engine revved.

Tristan drove out of the barn on an ATV. “Get on!”

She pushed out all argument or rational thought from her mind and swung her leg over, climbing on behind him. Tristan gunned it, and they jerked forward, picking up speed on the snow. He headed for the peak of a hill in front of them.

As he slowed, she looked over her shoulder.

In time to see the cabin explode.

Above it, someone jumped out of the plane. Her heart skipped a beat.

Another.

Another.

Parachutes popped open above her, high in the sky.

Heat from the cabin rushed at her like a wave. Tristan propelled them over the edge, and she saw a valley stretched out before them. Endless green rolling hills, craggy cliffs, and trees dotted the landscape below the snow line. Such an expanse that it was like being able to see all of Alaska at once from up here.

The ATV wheel caught, and they started to slide downhill.

Jamie screamed.

TWELVE

Logan steered the toggles,fighting the wind the whole way down. Flames and heat licked up into the sky, pushing air currents toward him.

He could still hear the echo of Tucker yelling over the radio. But the boss knew that for the sake of saving an innocent, no one was going to sit back. As if they’d do what the deputy said and wait for the police to solve this.

Samuel had called back nearly fifteen minutes after they’d wrapped up on the street, having run out of people to ask what they’d seen. Or people who might know where to find Snatch. They’d been about to try a different tactic when Samuel told him Jamie’s computer was still connected via the secure satellite network their company used for remote workers.

They’d traced it to the side of this mountain.

A cabin.

So close he could feel what it would be like to hold her in his arms the way he used to.Lord, show me the way.He needed her back. For her not to have been…His mind could conjure up all kinds of things, horrible things that might happen to her while she was captive.

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