Page 4 of Burning Justice

Kane would have to wait until less people were around before reading and responding to it, something Ridge knew well enough. His cousin never called. He let Kane call him when he could do it without anyone knowing. Even if it didn’t matter that these people knew he and Ridge were related.

What mattered was that the world kept believing Kane, Hammer, and Saxon were dead.

Juggling all the secrets was becoming tiresome. Although, his feelings for Sanchez weren’t a secret. Everyone knew how he felt about her, and most of the people they worked with presumed she felt the same about him. But the need to maintain focus and not cross any lines meant he worked hard to compartmentalize it all. She would never be Maria. She would always be Sanchez.

Once he tumbled off that cliff, it would be a long way down. Kane would never get back up.

Kind of like Mack with the young woman he’d fallen for, the timing had to be right.

Still, Kane had never been a fan of “yes but not yet” from the Lord.

Waiting sucked as much as having to search locations one by one, eliminating each in turn. Narrowing down the search for her father. The search for a canister of dangerous toxin their enemy—the man who had betrayed his team—wanted to use to destabilize the US.

Mack jogged up to walk beside his brother, Hammer. Saxon chatted with Raine, the two of them walking beside each other.

Grizz and Mitch were in the lead.

Sanchez stepped off to the side and looked at the sky. She’d pulled her dark hair back today, and it shone in the morning sun. High cheekbones. A slender figure but with so much strength packed into it from fighting wildfires that it sometimes seemed like she could withstand anything. When he’d caught up to her, she joined him at the back of the line. Like it was no big deal to stop and wait for him. Almost like she wanted to be near him.

Kind of like the way he wanted to be near her.

“So where are we headed today?” He didn’t glance at her. Play it cool and no one gets burned.

“Because you weren’t listening to the briefing, you were talking to Mack?” She motioned to the kid, up ahead, tossing rocks off the trail every twenty feet or so.

Really? The kid was just walking through the backcountry, chucking rocks like this was a stroll?

Kane focused back on Maria—and caught the disgruntled look on her face. He chuckled. “Hit me with the highlights.”

She kept pace with him, her strength clearer in the lines of her muscles now than it had been when they met. She’d always been strong, but the physical nature of this work had brought a lot more of that strength to the surface.

It was enough to make a guy think he had heart problems.

If the woman ever dressed up to go out, he wasn’t sure he’d survive.

“The North Fire is zero-percent contained. It’s headed for a thirty-acre patch of trees that got infested with some bug that ate them all from the inside out. There’s no moisture and a bunch of dry tinder. If the fire swallows that, it’ll grow, and the whole place will go up like a barn full of hay.”

“Is that right?”

She shoved his shoulder. “I can speak backcountry.”

“You were born in San Diego.”

“There are farms there!”

Kane busted up laughing. “Sure, sure.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you’re a regular blue-collar guy from Last Chance County? Because I’ve met more than one of those the past couple of years, and you’re…something different.”

“Is that right?”

“Commendations. Medals. The only reason you don’t have a Purple Heart is because you’re supposedly dead.”

“Mmm. Shame.” He rolled his shoulders, more of a reflex than anything else. “I don’t want recognition over what happened. This is far from done.”

But in his heart and mind, he had to acknowledge it, because he knew better than anyone that ignoring stuff or burying it just meant more trouble later.

Their team had been betrayed.

---