Page 65 of Burning Justice

Crew crouched in front of a young woman sitting on the curb who was holding a napkin or cloth against her forehead.

Tristan was helping a lady out of her car, which had taken a header into a light pole.

She went to Crispin, standing by their vehicle, talking on his phone. She kind of ignored him, got the passenger door open, and sat with her legs out, her feet on the ground. She needed that anchor right now.

Crispin crouched in front of her, still holding the phone to his ear. “Yes, sir.” He touched her chin gently, turning her face so he could look at it. “Yes, sir.” He held a finger in front of her face and moved it to one side and then the other.

She followed his finger, then closed her eyes.

“Yes, sir. I will do, sir.” Pause. “Thank you.”

Maria needed to find her own phone, but she had no idea where she’d put it. The day hadn’t been a complete failure, especially if no one was seriously hurt.

“I’m sorry, Mr. President, I’m getting another call, and I need to take this.” Pause. “Yes, sir.”

She opened her eyes. Crispin was on the phone with President White? Never mind, of course he was.

He tapped the screen of his phone. “Hello? Oh, uh…yeah. Sure.” He held the phone out to her. “It’s Raine.”

“Put it on speaker.”

He tapped the screen.

“What’s up, Raine?” After the woman had pretty much tried to murder Tristan, Maria wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what Raine had to say. Even if they were teammates. Even if one day she’d understand why and maybe even sympathize. Tristan had stuck around to help Maria. He was across the Midnight Saloon parking lot, walking an elderly man toward the waiting EMTs.

Maria wasn’t convinced he’d done anything wrong.

“The smokejumpers are in trouble.” Raine let out a breathy exhale, audible through the phone. “My grandfather called me. He said Elias has it all set up. He lured the team out into a clearing so he could kill them.”

Crispin’s expression hardened. “Jade.”

And the rest of them. Maria gritted her teeth. “Where?”

“We can’t drive there. That’s why they were deployed, because it’s too remote to reach on foot or with a vehicle.”

“So we get a chopper and rappel in.” She would figure out how to do that with her hand.

Raine said, “Mack and Grizz heard the call. They said the train runs nearby, and they think they can get us close. They ran off to the other side of the base here that the BLM runs, yelling about the train.”

Maria frowned. “A train?”

“I think they’re gonna hijack it and go up the mountain. Try and save everyone.”

“Good.” Maria swung her feet in the car and grabbed the phone. To Crispin she said, “Get Crew and Tristan. And tell Rio that Skye is in trouble.”

Crispin raced away toward the destroyed restaurant.

“Why did your grandfather decide to tell you this now?”

“He feels bad. He doesn’t like what the Reddings are doing, but he had no choice. They would’ve killed him if he’d talked or even tried to get out. But Elias is crazy. My grandpa was a wildland firefighter years ago, when he was young. He doesn’t want the team to die.”

“Neither do I.”

In the background of the call, a train whistle rang out.

Raine said, “Can you meet us?”

“Where?”

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