Page 40 of Burning Justice

She’d been taken.

Crew stood at the end of the bed. “Okay, take it easy.”

Kane started to argue.

Tristan said, “Do you want to know the situation or what?”

Kane held his tongue.

“Good,” Crew said. “Grizz, Mitch, and Raine are fine. Just bruises. Mack regained consciousness, and he’s texting. The smokejumpers are too far into dense wood on treacherous terrain. They can’t be airlifted out. Hammer said to ‘do what you need to do’—whatever that means.”

Kane nodded.

“Okay, fair enough.” Crew sighed. “Saxon is getting his arm stitched. It was cut on the edge of the seat.”

“Thanks.” Hopefully it wasn’t bad, because he needed his buddy for this. “What about finding Maria?”

Crew said, “Tucker has the password to the system that will locate all of our tracker rings. He’s going to call when he has a location for Sanchez.”

Tristan’s eyes flared. “Is her name really Maria? Because everyone just calls her Sanchez, so I didn’t know what her first name was.”

“Her name is really Maria.” Kane had figured they all knew, but maybe she’d never told them.

Crew said, “Rio is on his way. He wants an ID on the guys who knocked over the bus, but he’s at least an hour out.”

“Right.” Kane didn’t plan on being here that long. Not when they were going to have a location soon and needed to get out there and get her back.

Kane swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“Someone is going to check you out before you leave.” Crew eyed him. “You’re not back on the hotshot team until you’re cleared by a doctor, so don’t take off before you get signed out by the doc. That’s what Tucker told me to tell all of you. Almost like you guys have a tendency of not sticking around long enough to get checked out.”

Kane said nothing.

“Once that happens, Tris and I will go with you to get her back.”

Kane glanced between them. “Sure?”

“We know what we’re doing, bro,” Tristan said. “We’re good to go, and we want these guys taken down as much as anyone. We’re in this for the long haul. Something you should know by now.”

Crew just stood there, as if what Tristan was saying wasn’t surprising. Maybe they’d talked about it while Kane was out.

He felt like he’d been hit by a truck—or a bus. Saxon was getting stitches. Neither of them was in any shape to go alone. “Help would be good.”

But only because Hammer wasn’t here. That guy was worth four guys put together, even guys like Kane. It was why he’d been their Delta Force team leader.

“It’s settled, then.” Tristan nodded.

“I want her location. Tell Tucker to hurry up.”

Crew nodded and stepped out of the bay.

Kane turned to Tristan. “How is Logan?”

“The doctor keeps using terms like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and Jamie is getting all teary-eyed.” Tristan cleared his throat. “Apparently it’s been bad for a few weeks, but he didn’t tell anyone.”

The guy talked a good game, but Tristan was probably just as nervous as Jamie, considering his sister was upset and the man she loved had a medical problem.

“Too many traumatic brain injuries. I’ve seen it before, and if it’s this bad, he’s probably not going to be fighting fire anymore.” Kane winced. “Is Bryce here?”