Page 53 of Burning Justice

Maria would’ve said the Trouble Boys were family, but JoJo was talking about all the hotshots and smokejumpers. “I know. Dani, Grizz, Crew, Tristan, and Jamie are gonna meet me in the mess hall so we can figure out what we know. What we need to find out.”

“And you’ll tell Dani or Jamie if you need help with anything…personal? It won’t be easy trying to do it one-handed.”

“I’ll ask for help.” As much as it might irk her to do that.

“Speaking of…”

Maria frowned. “What now?”

JoJo chuckled. “I guess you’re feeling pretty off-kilter since that man kissed all the reason out of your brain last night.”

“You make it sound salacious. It was sweet.” In a very Kane kind of way.

“Mmm. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding has hidden depths we love in all honorable alpha males. It’s good to know he’s not messing around.”

He definitely hadn’t been messing around. “Just tell me what you were gonna say.”

She didn’t want to get distracted with thoughts about Kane. That happened plenty, including when she was supposed to have been trying to sleep last night. The man had driven her back to base camp, held her hand while he walked her to the cabin, and kissed her under the eave. Short and sweet, but it had reminded her of that drag-me-across-the-console, lay-one-on-me-like-you-mean-it make-out session in the car. Talk about hot and bothered.

She was going to blame it on the two broken fingers.

Maybe she had a fever.

JoJo said, “Jade told me Crispin is back from one of his super-secret missions. He might want to help out if y’all are going to save the world. I guess it’s still his thing now, like it was in Montana.” She skimmed her gaze over Maria’s hair. “Want a braid?”

“Do it fast.” Maria turned around, one knee bent on the bed.

“Shame we don’t have time for two full Viking war braids, because you’d look like one of those tough Hispanic MMA fighters. But we’ll make do with the time we have.” JoJo fixed her hair, then grabbed her things and headed out to join the smokejumpers.

Maria called out “Thanks!” a second before the front door slammed, shaking the cabin.

She got her laptop in her backpack all zipped up and swung it over her good shoulder. Outside, the sky had cleared, but she could see the haze of smoke in the sky. Lightning from last night’s storm had caused a few new wildfires to spring up, but the Bureau of Land Management had crews out working those. Their hotshots would join them this morning.

The smokejumpers were all in front of the hangar, across the runway.

She wasn’t going to look for Kane. He needed to do his job without worrying about her, and she had things to do herself.

He had been right that it was better to wait until this situation was over, but knowing he’d been harboring the same feelings for her that she had for him gave her enough peace to keep moving forward.

Not just that, but she’d broken down and gotten all emotional about what had happened, bleeding it off like pressure-cooker steam. He hadn’t freaked out and shut down or tried to fix it. He’d held her. Been there for her with that steady strength.

That was why she’d kissed him.

Because he’d been there for her since they met, sticking with her through it every day. On mission with her. For the first time, she’d felt like part of a team, even if the Trouble Boys were their own group and she was the one they were protecting.

The shift last night had been seismic in proportions. Maybe it had started with Hammer’s words, which she was going to hold close and cherish. Then Kane had drawn a dividing line between the two of them and Hammer and Saxon.

Because what she and Kane had was different from what she had with any of the others. Now they both knew it. They’d discovered why when she’d touched her lips to his and the fire nearly consumed them both.

“Great situational awareness.”

She took a step and nearly fell down the porch steps, turned at the same time and spotted a dark-haired man on the chair by the door, an open Bible on his lap. “Crispin. You nearly scared me to death.”

He set the Bible aside and stood. “Sorry. You were pretty deep in thought.”

“I’m headed to the mess hall for a meeting. Are you in?” She figured he knew enough about what was going on that she didn’t need to explain.

“Actually, I’m your bodyguard.”

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