Page 12 of Burning Justice

She ducked her head and raced across the clearing, drawing the weapon. As if she was going to stand around in that cabin and let these bad guys shoot at her friends.

They’d already hit Kane.

Shot at her.

Someone could be dead already. And the fact no one had lost their life this summer almost made her drop to her knees and thank God for mercy.

Don’t let it be my father.

She wanted to beg God, but that would be far too self-serving.

Kind of like asking for no land mines between her and a good spot to take a shot at that chopper.

She raced between the trees, weaving in and out. Finding the trail that elk had been wandering with her babies. Sprinting along it until she spotted the chopper overhead, the steady rat-tat pinning down the hotshots so there was nothing they could do but cover their heads and pray.

Running for it meant stepping on a land mine.

No way was she going to let that happen when she was the one who had brought them all out here.

Maria slowed to a stop, planted her feet, and held the gun in both hands. Aimed up between the branches of the spruce.

The shooter?

No, the tail. She inhaled, held her breath, and squeezed off a shot.

The helicopter listed to the side before the pilot corrected. The shooting stopped, and a second later, the chopper turned and flew away with the tail smoking.

Now they just had to get back on the trail and back to work. There was still a fire to deal with.

“No muss, no fuss, huh?” Hammer strode over to her, no humor in his eyes. His lips in a thin line. That impossibly square jaw softened by a thick growth of beard.

“Kane got shot.”

Hammer flinched.

“Probably just a graze, but I wouldn’t know because they didn’t let me look at it.” She didn’t like that she sounded disgruntled, but how else was she supposed to feel about it? They’d shut her out. “How about you guys? Anyone hit?”

Hammer never gave much away in his expression. “Everyone is good.”

“Great. No harm, no foul, then.”

“And your father?”

“He was here, but he isn’t here now.” Maria strode past Hammer, heading for the fire road the hotshots had been walking on. Before Mack had thrown that rock. Before they’d approached this cabin. Before the helicopter. Before Kane had been shot.

She sniffed back the burn of tears, refusing to feel sorry for him when he clearly didn’t want her sympathy.

Maria picked her way through the brush to the tree Mitch had directed her to cut down. Grizz and Mitch were crouched, deep in conversation. Mack and Raine huddled by another tree.

“Everyone good?” She walked the trunk like it was a balance beam. “Anyone hurt?”

Mitch shook his head. “We’re good. I’m going to report in to Tucker about the mines and the chopper. I don’t want anyone walking around when we have no idea if there are more mines.”

She nodded, jumped off the trunk, and headed for Mack and Raine. “You guys okay?”

They stood together and made their way to the middle of the trail. Given the mines, it was probably one of the few safe places now that the chopper was gone.

Mack looked a little pale, but Raine nodded and said, “We’re good.”

---