Page 49 of Burning Secrets

And Crew just smiled.

So, his happy reunion with Rio hadn’t gone down quite like he’d hoped.

First, Rio’s “What are you doing here?” had started their conversation-slash-interrogation on the dark side when he’d walked up to where Crew was helping the team unload their chopper.

Then he’d dragged Crew away to his guest suite—nice digs. Kitchen and living room combo, a small bedroom and bath. Clean. A lot nicer than his digs at the SOR compound, even the one that had been torched. Maybe he should be a smokejumper. The thought had hit him more than a few times as he’d watched the crew douse the barn, working together to clean it up, keep it from spreading into the larger wilderness.

JoJo had kept the source of the fire under her hat—or bandana, as it were—and he was just fine with letting them believe it might’ve been lightning.

Confession would only raise more questions, and that would lead to classified conversations and…

Although maybe Rio didn’t care how classified the debrief, a.k.a. shouting, might be.

“Sit.” He pointed to a kitchen chair.

Crew pulled out the chair, turned it around, straddled it.

Rio walked away, shaking his head, then rounded. “Seriously? You’re supposed to be at the SOR compound.”

Crew held up his hands. “Calm down. I found the warehouse.” He cut his voice low. “And torched it.”

Rio’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I saved a container of the bioweapon so we could analyze it. It’s on the chopper.” He even got up as if to get it.

“Stay put.” Rio paced the cabin, his hand behind his neck.

Something wasn’t right. “What’s going on?”

He looked at Crew. “Please tell me you stuck around long enough for the big guy to show up.”

“As a matter of fact, I did.” He didn’t mean his snappy tone, but sheesh, Rio was treating him like…well, like the desperate and scared eighteen-year-old kid he’d met so many years ago.

Not that guy anymore. Even if he might be sick of this gig, he wasn’t going to run.

Not until he completed his mission.

Check.

“They showed up last night. Three guys. A couple fancy guys, and another they called Doc.”

Rio seemed to calm down a little, leaning on the arm of his sofa. “So, three guys.”

“Yeah, but the businessman was clearly the bossman. Jer knew him. Gave him a weird hug. They spent the night, then headed out to the farm early this morning.”

“You followed them.”

“I put a tracker on the bird—nearly got caught too—but yeah, found the warehouse.”

“You destroyed it all?”

“No. They left with a number of suitcases. I destroyed the rest.” He met Rio’s eyes. “Mission completed.”

Silence. Rio got up, walked to the window, shoved his hands into his pockets.

And Crew’s chest simply tightened.

Too much silence.

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