Page 74 of Burning Secrets

She whirled around and spotted him, running right at her, full out, even as Rio and his cavalry took down Viper. Hammerhad the man in his beefy grasp, a knee on his shoulder, Rio cuffing him.

In the chaos, the Sons of Revolution fled.

But all she cared about was Crew, the way he grabbed her, pulled her up, crushing her to himself, his body soaked through. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”

She clung to him, her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, and maybe he wasn’t as hurt as he looked because he just held on to her, holding her up.

“I’m okay.” Her voice broke. “I’m okay.” Then she pushed away, met his eyes. Water dripped from his hair, down his face, mixed with the blood on his mouth, a cut on his cheek. But his eyes drilled into hers, as if testing her words.

She swallowed, nodded, and shook her head. “But you’re—you’re—oh, I thought…” She bit back a moan. “I thought he was going to kill you.” She shuddered then and clung to him again.

“All that matters is you, Jo. I’m fine.” Although, his voice sounded strained, and she suddenly thought about ribs and internal bleeding and, oh?—

“Put me down.”

He slowly let her down, her feet on the ground, his arms around her, a bulwark in the chaos around them.

ATVs fleeing the yard, a few trucks motoring away, dogs barking, the law enforcement securing as many as they could.

She wiped her face, shaken, the adrenaline still hot inside her. “What just happened? I don’t—what are Vince and Hammer doing here?”

“Turns out they’re ex-military or something.” He turned her away from the mess, walked her back around the bus.

Tristan came running over. “You okay, man?”

Crew held up a fist, and Tristan bumped it.

Whatever. “You two are in this together?”

“We had a mission to complete. Vince is down but not dead. Good job there, Rocky.”

Crew smiled. Through all the blood, and a clearly impending black eye and broken ribs and whatever other trauma, he smiled.

And then she spotted Skye and Tucker coming in through the front gate.

“The team is here?”

“That’s Skye’s doing.” This from Rio, who’d come running up. “She called in the airstrike when we spotted the fire. You okay?”

She nodded.

“What took you so long?” Crew said, his tone a little sharp. “And you’d better get those charges dropped.”

“Deke’s taking care of it.”

“What charges?” Jo asked.

“We got lost,” Rio said. “I forgot where you said, and if it weren’t for the fire…anyway, I called Skye, she got the fire on radar and called in the drop. I had to wait until we had backup. I think Tucker sent in the team, just in case.”

He turned to Crew. “Good job setting that fire.”

“I didn’t set the fire,” Crew said.

“That would be me,” said Jo. “Sorry.”

Rio had already started to back away toward where Skye stood. “Good thinking. We would have never found you without it.” He turned and ran to his wife.

“Smart,” said Crew.

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