Page 31 of Burning Secrets

Anuk took the wolf from JoJo. “Gunnar, can you get the other?”

The big man came over to Crew, took the animal.

JoJo followed them back into an exam room with a stainless-steel table. Anuk put the pup down. It lay there, and she pulled out a stethoscope, listened, then tested its pulse. Breathing. “Let’s get them into oxygen cages, and then I’ll draw some blood.”

Gunnar picked up his pup and carried it out of the room.

Anuk turned to them. “I’ll let you know what I find out. Is there a number I can call?”

“I’m not leaving them,” JoJo said.

“Jo,” Crew said quietly. “Let’s get you back to your base.”

She rounded on him, ready to?—

What? He stood there, his gaze in hers, frowning, clearly worried. And maybe not just about the dogs.

And probably she looked as frayed as she felt, still grimy, still buzzing a little from the last twenty-four hours—the fire, the kidnapping, the pups…

Girlfriend.

Except she wasn’t the girlfriend anymore, right?

“Give her your number, Jo,” he said softly, touching her hand. Squeezing.

She didn’t know what to think. “Okay.”

While Gunnar retrieved the other dog, she left her contact information—and Peyton’s—with Anuk.

Then she climbed back into the truck, her bones suddenly turning to liquid.

He joined her. “You okay?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should stop in town on the way and talk to Peyton. And then I should probably check in with the base.”

“I’m surprised they haven’t sent out a search party. Your buddyHammer.”

She looked at him, grinned. “Hammer is just a friend.” And then her eyes widened. What? What did she just say? Oh…no…“Not that it matters.”

He eyed her, then turned back. “Right. Not that it matters.”

She leaned back, closed her eyes. Not that it mattered at all.

But as he pulled out and drove north, as he hummed along to a country song that came on the radio, his voice a deep tenor, thrumming through her, as she recalled Crew holding on to the wolf pup, fighting to save its life, she sort of wanted it to matter, very, very much.

SIX

Truth was,he didn’t want to return to the SOR camp. Crew stood outside the National Park Service office, leaning against his truck, hands in his pockets, fighting the urge to just…keep driving.

Okay, yes, he’d meet with Rio first and deliver the information about the nightshade garden and his suspicion that it was used in the bioweapon the SOR was manufacturing.

And then…keep driving.

Aw, to where, exactly? Because he had to bring JoJo back to the fire crew base. He couldn’t just drive into the sunset with a woman he’d only known for twenty-four hours.

Right?

“Okay, Peyton will check on the pups. I’m ready to go.”

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