Page 58 of Burning Justice

Through the window, he saw Maria out in front of the mess hall. She lifted her good hand and waved. He lifted his and pressed his palm to the window. He had to trust God, that He had Maria in His hands. There was no other option.

He’d stuck close, believing God had put him there beside her to make sure she was safe.

Now he had to trust God for real in a way he realized he didn’t like.

Because he wouldn’t be there.

Twelve

Maria had been tucked into the passenger side of Crew’s truck. Crispin drove, Crew and Tristan in the back. She’d gone from having a three-man team of ex-Delta Force guys watching out for her to having three men of dubious background and an entire team of cops.

FBI. State police. The local sheriff.

All of them were going to be here for this.

“I know why you didn’t tell me what we were doing before Kane left.” In fact, she figured it was entirely by design that Jade was the smokejumper boss and in charge of their training today while Crispin—her partner in crime in all things except her job—told Maria what the plan was.

Crispin pulled into the parking lot of the Midnight Sun Saloon, full of cars since it was nearly lunch. The local crowd looking for a break mid-shift. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too rowdy. Then again, the fewer people were in there, the higher the cop-to-civilian ratio would be. Something Elias would notice.

Crew said, “Dani just texted me. Elias is gonna be here in half an hour. He agreed to meet.”

“Thanks.” Crispin shut off the truck and turned to her.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to say it.”

“Your boyfriend needs to fight fires.”

“I know that. I told him to go do it.” She wanted to brush hair back from her face, but her right hand was no-go right now with all the bandages. Geez, it hurt just lifting her hand up. And leaving it in her lap. And when it was by her side. And when she moved.

“The others need to go do their jobs. That leaves you with us.”

Tristan leaned forward from the backseat. “The poor man’s Delta Force.”

Crew chuckled. “I’m not telling JoJo you called us that. She’ll tell Jamie, and then we’ll be in trouble.”

Maria said, “Seems like Tristan might already be in trouble, even if Raine and the other hotshots were moved to a BLM crew.”

Tristan waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Tucker banned me from the base camp, but I wanna be out here working anyway. We can’t find this guy and the canister by sitting around in the mess hall.”

“And Raine?” Maria needed to know what his intentions were. After all, it had looked like Raine tried to kill him since she knew now that he’d killed her father. Even given the circumstances, she had every right to be upset. But finding a gun and trying to shoot someone was entirely different.

“Don’t worry about Raine.” Tristan’s jaw flexed. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Good thing Tucker didn’t call the sheriff.” Maria wasn’t the kind to call cops, but Tucker was friends with the local lawman. A good guy by all accounts.

Which he needed to be if she was supposed to trust him with this operation.

Tristan said, “I explained the situation. Tucker is cool.”

“We need to get in there.” Crispin lifted his chin.

Maria spotted Rio across the parking lot, dressed in plain clothes. A lot like a local who worked in construction, wearing dark blue Dickies pants with cargo pockets, and a gray T-shirt with short sleeves showing off his tattoos. The ink had persuaded guys in jail he was one of them and not a Fed.

Crew had met Rio in prison and had become his confidential informant after Rio went back to the FBI in Anchorage. Tristan had been a CI for an agent with the DEA, but that guy had turned out to be dirty.

She eyed Crispin. “Maybe one day you can tell me what you do for a living. I’ll tell you some stories from when I was a CIA agent.”

“Maybe I’ll set up an interview, and you can come and work for my company.”

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