Page 8 of Burning Justice

Hammer had a knife out and was carving something into a tree that hadn’t been cut down.

The Trouble Boys didn’t need any enhanced interrogation techniques. They had the silent treatment down like it was an art form. Those disapproving stares.

Maria wanted to spill the rest of her secrets.

But if her father really was in that cabin, she was going to get him out. When that was done, it would only be a matter of time before this was over.

She could keep her secrets. Kane would go back to his life.

Whatever they had?

It would be over before it ever began.

Sanchez might think fear was a tool to use, but it had only ever paralyzed Kane. Sent him right back to that night when he’d been locked in his seat by that belt, listening to Ridge cry. Staring at the back of their grandpa’s head, frozen there, surrounded by darkness.

It didn’t matter what the enemy threw at him now or anytime, or what had been done to him in Delta Force training to prepare him to face missions. Nothing in his life would ever feel like that moment.

Saxon grabbed his arm. “Don’t kill her.”

Two years and she still acted like she worked alone. But then, she could’ve walked away. They had made a pact to stick together because they were brothers, and that’s what they did. She was supposed to be on board with it.

“Sanchez!”

She turned to look at him. “He’s my father.”

Kane’s heart would’ve broken right then, hearing her say that. Her eyes so dark and sad he didn’t know what to say. But his heart didn’t break, because that organ had been shredded a long time ago.

Over the last two years, she had been slowly healing it, putting the thing back together.

And then breaking it all over again.

He managed to bite out the words “We go together.”

She didn’t like it, but she didn’t move.

Kane made his way to her, where the clearing in front of the house didn’t look like anyone had buried land mines all over it. In fact, if he had to guess, there was a spot to the right like an expansive lawn where a helicopter could land.

“Follow me. Step where I step, just in case.”

“You really think there could be land mines here too? This close to the cabin?”

Behind the two of them, Saxon said, “Makes sense they’d be between the trail and the clearing, but it’s still overkill.”

“These people aren’t known for their subtlety.”

“And yet they’ve gone under the radar until now. This is a huge operation.”

Saxon had a point. Kane said, “The senator should’ve spilled his guts by now, but he hasn’t. So he’s likely more scared of the guy in charge than he is of going to prison for the rest of his life.”

Maria said, “He probably figures he’ll mysteriously die in his cell if he talks.”

Kane smiled slightly, because he actually thought her cynicism was cute. She’d been a CIA agent—cuter. In a stone-cold fox kinda way, as his grandpa would’ve said.

Something moved at the edge of his awareness.

He stopped and tried to catch what it was.

Saxon said, “Two o’clock.”

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