Page 69 of Burning Justice

They weren’t dead. Maria refused to believe it.

“You get the feeling this is about boys and their toys?” Raine stood beside her in the open-air car, no windows and just a fiberglass roof above them. “They seemed a little too excited to take the train.”

Maria wanted to smile, because both Mack and Grizz had been overjoyed at the chance to ride a train. They’d convinced the conductor and some other guys to take them on a ride to save a group of smokejumpers when no one else could get to them. Tristan and Crispin weren’t far behind them in the open-air car, looking serious and talking quietly. Rio paced up and down the train car, talking on his phone and gesturing wildly.

The special agent still working his case. But he was all in to be here when his wife needed saving. He’d been insistent with his boss that he was going with them—and already in the car when he told his special agent in charge in no uncertain terms why he was leaving the suspect in the hands of the local sheriff.

Raine glanced over at Tristan.

Who just happened to be looking at her exactly at that moment.

“Please tell me you’re going to figure things out with him,” Maria said. “Before you get arrested for attempted murder.”

“I can’t believe he covered for me and told Tucker it was him.” Raine winced, turning to look out at the trees going by. They weren’t able to go as fast as Maria wanted to be going, but it was quicker than she’d be able to manage in this terrain on foot.

The train trudged up the side of the mountain, rounding the edge where this peak met the next and cargo could be transported between Copper Mountain and the more remote communities to the north.

Smoke hung in the air. Probably, if there was no fire, the view would be spectacular. “I’m glad we can’t see out that side.”

“Steep drop-off.” Raine nudged her elbow. “Long way down.”

Maria shuddered.

“It’s kind of funny that the big bad super CIA agent is scared of heights,” Raine said. “You never did that thing in the movies where they run across rooftops trying to escape the bad guys?”

“No.” She spotted something in the smoke. Where the mountain backed away from them and across a stretch of ground that wasn’t so steep, she saw a group of people. Too far to make out who they were. Huddled together, a glint of silver between them.

“Shame.”

“I see them.” Maria turned to the others. “I see them!”

Tristan ran to the end of the car and hit a button. “Stop the train!”

They were half a mile away at least, the smoke in the clearing dissipating enough that she could see more and more every second.

Crew and Mack continued spraying water on the fire around them.

The train brakes squealed. It would take time for the long, heavy vehicle to come to a complete stop. Maria wasn’t going to wait that long.

She went to the door at one end of the open-air car and unlatched it. The door swung open and clattered against the outside of the wall. She held on to the frame and stepped down onto the metal step. Still pretty high. Was she really going to jump?

The train continued to slow.

“Uh, Maria…” Rio came up behind her.

She jumped.

The ground came up fast. She landed, bending her knees, and didn’t go down. Thank You. She was going to ignore the slightly throbbing pain in her fingers.

Maria ran up the hill, picking her way over uneven ground and boulders set into the grass. Through the thick smoke, ash still falling all around them, the sun trying to clear the shadows.

It was them.

Kane spotted her running and set off toward her.

She found herself smiling, and as they collided in the middle, he picked her up and swung her around. Maria laughed. She rounded his head with her arms, hanging on for dear life before he set her down.

He was covered in dirt and ash, soaked through with sweat, and a little shell-shocked in his glassy gaze. But he’d never looked better.

---