Page 12 of Burning Escape

“Maybe you should sit again,” Tori said.

He didn’t fight it. He gingerly sat and leaned his back and head against the tree. Took a moment to listen. “I don’t hear the ATVs.”

“I guess that’s one benefit to falling down a mountain. There’s no way they could get those vehicles down here.”

“There are better ways to find a good hiding spot.” He bit back the groan building inside. Better to focus on her. “How’s the ankle?”

“I’ll live.” She released a short breath, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes.

Orion looked around them. It wasn’t bad as far as hiding spots went, and as dizzy as he was, he needed the rest, as much as he hated to admit it.

“Can you call the team?” Tori asked him. “We need to see where they are.”

She probably meant to see if Neil and Saxon had made it as they’d tried to pilot a plane with a fuel leak. Smoking. Going down. It would be a miracle if they’d survived.

“I lost my phone in the jump. Where’s yours? I can make the call if you give it to me.” She held out a hand.

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his phone. The screen had shattered, the back cracked and broken. “Guess this isn’t going to help us much.”

“What about the tracking rings Jade gave us?” Tori looked at her hand. “Mine is cracked. Will it still work?”

“I don’t know. I left mine on base since this wasn’t a fire call.”

Tori swallowed. For the first time since he’d met her, he saw a hint of vulnerability in her eyes as they shifted and took in her surroundings. “We’re on our own.”

* * *

Sure, Tori and Orion had gone head-to-head more than once this season, trying to prove each was worthy of the smokejumper badge. And maybe as he’d beaten her across the finish line on their daily run or gotten a faster time on their drills, she’d had a moment of weakness and wished he’d developed a sudden fear of heights or an allergy to wildfire smoke.

But she didn’treallywant to see him hurt.

And he was definitely hurting now. But just as she thought they might be out of danger, the faraway engine sounds came from the ridge above.

Her breath caught. “We have to move. They’re back.”

Her ankle hurt more than she let on, but she still grabbed Orion’s good arm. She draped it around her shoulders and hooked her own arm around his waist. “Let’s go, Montana.”

He grunted as they moved. “You haven’t called me that since?—”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s not go there.”

The pain must be bad. He didn’t say anything and simply leaned on her as they took tentative steps around boulders and tree roots. They followed the ravine away from the place he’d landed.

Heading east from what she could tell. “Once we lose these guys, we can head south, back to base camp.” She hit her ankle on a rock and sucked in a short breath. Man, that hurt!

“You okay?” Orion asked.

“Mm-hmm.” She bit down on her back molars, hard. The pain didn’t pass though. She hobbled another step. Great. She’d injured it more, could hardly put any weight on it. Orion dropped his arm and took a few steps without leaning on her.

He found a sturdy branch and handed it to her to use as a crutch. “We’re quite the pair. Your ankle. My shoulder and head.”

She stared at the makeshift crutch a moment. Did she give in to pain, or pride?

Pain won. She took the branch. “Who are these militia guys anyway, and why are they trying to kill us when they were only after Jamie and Logan?” Maybe she could direct her anger and ire toward the bad guys to push through.

“From what Logan said, Jamie’s brother Tristan infiltrated the group that was using that burnt compound we searched a few days ago. I guess she downloaded some financial information or something when they had her captured earlier. And now we just helped Jamie and Tristan escape them. They’re probably trying to cut loose ends or think we know something.”

“So they shoot down our plane and are now hunting us like prey. Great. Like I didn’t have enough creeps making my life miserable—” She clamped her lips tight. It wasn’t Orion’s problem. Why was she even bringing this up?

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