Page 14 of Burning Justice

Grizz just chuckled. “I’d say enjoy the journey, but it’s mostly frustrating until you admit to God that you have no idea what you’re doing and you let Him lead.”

He clapped Kane on the back and then jogged on up the line. Past Hammer, talking to Mack and Raine. Saxon was behind him, bringing up the rear.

He spotted Sanchez all the way up in front, talking to Mitch.

Kane glanced back at Saxon, wanting to talk but also not. He’d never been super verbal. It was much easier to figure out the thoughts in his head before he spoke aloud.

The same reason she’d run off after he’d shut her out.

Fresh on the heels of not finding her father, he’d pushed her away. Literally and figuratively.

All that mattered was that they’d saved her. He hadn’t wanted her to know that the cost to get to her had been so high, but she’d found out pretty quickly. She knew what had happened to him, but neither of them needed the reminder of it right in their faces. Not when they were still so far from finishing this.

Grizz’s advice to swallow his pride wasn’t totally off base, but the guy didn’t know how much they all had at stake in this. Sanchez had to focus.

All of them did.

Once she found her father, they found the canister, and this whole thing was done…then Kane would see what was left between them.

Mitch called out orders to cut a line and clear the brush from beside the highway while he and Hammer lit a backfire to starve the blaze of fuel.

The fire would be here within a few hours, driven this direction by the wind. When that happened, if the flames found nothing to consume, they would die out.

It was their job to make sure that happened. To draw a line. Here and no farther.

Kane heard a truck to the north. A cement truck rounded the corner in the distance and headed their way. “Car!”

Raine gave him an odd look.

“You didn’t do that when you were a kid? You’re playing in the street with your friends, and then a car comes and you all move to the sidewalk for a second?”

Raine said, “No.”

“Well, what did you do when you were a kid?” She was one of the few Alaska natives on the team. Born and raised in Copper Mountain. “If you didn’t hang out with your friends.”

“I went to school. My mom worked, so I figured out how to make my own grilled cheese sandwiches.” She swung her Pulaski at the ground and dragged it through the tangled roots that would provide a network the fire would travel along unseen.

The cement truck buzzed past, riffling his hair and flapping his shirt against the wound on his side. Even through the bandage it smarted.

Up the shoulder of the highway, Sanchez watched him.

He lifted two fingers. She turned away and went back to her task.

Saxon dug his shovel in the dirt. “Keep trying. Maybe one day she’ll forgive you.”

Kane wanted to argue, but he wanted her to forgive him. Not that he thought he’d done something wrong. It was up to him who saw his scars.

“Hammer has his own reasons for wanting to come across as invincible.”

Kane glanced over at Saxon. “Says the guy who walked away from a plane crash.”

Raine said, “Actually, I think he was carrying Neil.”

Saxon rolled his shoulders. “All part of the job, ma’am.”

Raine shook her head. “You macho guys.”

“Admit you feel safer with us around.”

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