Page 38 of Burning Secrets

“Excuse me, who is this?” Tucker had come up behind them.

Jamie turned. “It’s okay, Tucker. He’s not with the SOR. He was at the compound. Helped Logan and me escape.”

The realization punched JoJo. Oh no. She’d blown his cover bringing him here.Sorry, Crew.

“Long story,” Crew said to Tucker. He turned back to Jamie. “I’ll keep my eye out and let you know if I hear anything.” He reached out and touched her arm. “But he’s smart. And capable. I’m sure he’s okay.”

“Thanks.” Jamie lifted her tablet. “But I have a question. I saw a map in the office when I met with your leader, and I recreated it.” She seemed to be pulling it up and now turned the tablet toward him. “Do you recognize it?”

He stared at the tablet, then up at the map on the wall. Back to the tablet. “Can you print this for me?”

“Sure.”

A moment later, the printer spat out the print, full color. He picked it up, studied it again.

Jamie looked over his shoulder. “The only thing I recognize is the Refuge, a community the team evacuated in the path ofa fire. Oh, and your compound.” She pointed to two markers. “They were marked on the map, along with these others. I colored them in according to what I remember. Black, green, yellow.”

“Good memory.” He folded the paper. Looked at Jo. “I need to go.”

Right. She looked away.

“Thanks,” he said to Jamie, then Tucker. Then he walked past her.

But he hooked her hand on the way. And shoot, if she didn’t hold on.

He brought her out of the front doors, then around the side of the building, away from the cabins and the mess hall. Just the administrative building to her back, the faraway hills behind him, a few planes and hangars, quiet under the blue sky.

Her heart banged as she looked up at him into his dark eyes, the way they held her. “What?”

“This is a map of all the SOR compounds.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure what the other places are but…maybe the warehouse is on this map.”

She put a hand to his chest, his heart banging against it. “So you can find it?”

“Maybe. Hopefully.”

“And then get out.”

He nodded.

And then come back to me.And she didn’t say it—or maybe not—but she thought it, and maybe…aw, maybe he saw it in her eyes.

Because his gaze dropped to her mouth, back to her eyes, and he swallowed, and she just couldn’t stop herself.

She put her hands on him, pulled herself up, and kissed him.

And maybe he’d seen her intention in her eyes, maybe anticipated it, because he was right there, meeting her halfway.

All in.

He put a hand on the wall behind her, the other around her waist, and pulled her against himself, even as she slid her arms around his neck.

All in.

She kissed him like a girlfriend, like she knew him, tasting him, wanting him, as if they had a past and a future, but also as if right now might be everything.

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