Page 27 of Burning Secrets

He raised an eyebrow.

“I tucked it into my waistband pouch when I heard the ATVs.” She indicated a space in her waistband.

“Smart. Okay, so here’s the deal. We need to get you back to the jump base.”

“Not without finding the pups.”

He stared at her. “Have you lost your mind? The longer we hang out in SOR territory, the more they get suspicious. I barely got Viper to let you leave.”

She picked up her pack, strapped it on. “How did you get him to let me leave?”

Oh. And he didn’t want to tell her, but, shoot. He was tired of lying. He cut his voice low. “I told him that I’d come back with information about how to ambush your team.”

She froze, stared at him.

“Never would I do that, JoJo. But I had to tell him something believable.”

She swallowed, her mouth tight, what looked like wariness in her eyes.

Shoot. “Fine. We’ll track down the pups if we can. And then we’re done with this game. You’re going back to safety.”

“Okay.”

He reached for the doorknob. “And on the way, you show me that greenhouse.”

She nodded.

Ghost, a guy in his mid-twenties, an ex-military bearing about him, guarded the vehicle shed.

“Security sweep,” Crew said.

Ghost glanced at JoJo. “And her?”

He cut his voice low. “Viper told me to get rid of her.”

Ghost just nodded.

Oh, he hated these people.

He commandeered a truck, and JoJo climbed in the passenger side. Security let him through the gate, the guys eyeing him. But he’d invested over twelve dark months of his life earning trust. Time to cash it in.

He gunned it away from the enclave, down a rutted road. “Where’s the pups’ den?”

“I need a map.”

“Glove compartment.”

She opened it and spread out the topographical map. Found the dirt road that led along the Copper River, ran her finger up it, then west along a tributary that fed into the river. “I think it’s around here.”

“And the greenhouse?”

“Here.” She pointed to an area south of the river, maybe two clicks north. “Looks like a dirt road leads to it from this one.”

“Could be an old homestead,” he said. “Let’s keep an eye out for the road.”

The sky had turned a deep cerulean blue, the clouds high, the forest lush and green—a beautiful day in Alaska.

Or maybe he had simply, ever so briefly, escaped the darkness that clung to him back at the SOR compound.

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