Page 16 of Burning Justice

Their former teammate.

Their brother. Their friend.

The teammate who had betrayed them.

Now it was up to them to make sure he didn’t betray this country.

Four

Soon as the hotshots showed up back at the base camp, Tucker pulled them all into a briefing about the chopper and the cabin. The smokejumpers, Tristan, and Jamie were there, along with Dani and Crispin.

Seemed like everyone on the Midnight Sun crew—along with their significant others—was invested in the outcome of this one.

After Maria took a shower, most everyone had already gone over to the mess hall to eat. She found an Adirondack in front of the firepit and sat, staring at the charred wood under the grate.

The base dog wandered over and curled up by her leg, his chin on her tennis shoe. She reached down and scratched his head. “Hi, Jubal.”

His tail wagged, but he didn’t move otherwise.

She sat back and looked at the sky. How many times had she done this with her parents? Laid out bedrolls under the stars. Now she had an app that told her what all the constellations were. As if she needed someone to tell her. But she used it anyway to find their favorites.

Even if it meant sitting out here the rest of the night, until dark fell. Or what passed for dark up here in the summer.

“Not hungry?” Raine slumped into the chair beside her, eyeing the dog. Eating a protein bar. The girl thought wings were gourmet, and going out for pizza was the highlight of her monthly budget. But Raine was all backcountry, and there was no other hotshot female Maria wanted to fight a fire with.

“I’ll get something later. When the line dies down.”

Raine snorted. “Right. Anyone that thinks Kane is the broody one isn’t paying enough attention.”

“No one needs to pay me attention. That’s the point.”

“Is that what you use your super-secret spy skills for?”

Maria looked around. “You’re not supposed to say that word out loud. I told you in confidence.”

“Relax. No one is out here with us.”

Raine had no concept of surveillance technology, but that was probably a good thing. She had no need to hide her thoughts or her feelings either, usually.

Still, despite being able to read her, Maria was convinced Raine was hiding something. Probably just paranoia, but she hadn’t been able to let go of the fact this woman had a secret. Maybe a dark one.

It just didn’t have anything to do with international security, terrorism, or people trying to destroy the US and start a war. Likely, it was a lot closer to home.

Kind of like everything else right now.

“So, your father was in that cabin?” Raine chomped down a huge bite of her protein bar.

“At some point. Might’ve been last week, and it might’ve been months ago.”

“But you’re close.”

Maria said, “Not close enough that I know he’s safe. He might as well be on the other side of the world.”

“Why is it that the people we don’t want anything to do with seem like they’re always around and the people we want in our lives are out of reach?”

Maria glanced over. Raine watched the sky where a tiny plane disappeared into the clouds, a wistful look on her face.

“Want to talk about it?” Maria asked.

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