Page 40 of Burning Secrets

Hammer came up, huffing hard, sweat rolling out of his dark-blond hair. He had a military bearing, a military build, all hard planes and thick arms, strong legs. He wore a pair of compression shorts and a T-shirt, glanced at her. “Hey.”

She kept running. “Hey.”

He fell in beside her. “You should take someone with you when you go running. Bears.”

She glanced at him. “You’re not afraid of bears?”

He smiled at her. “I am the bear.”

She rolled her eyes. He gave a low chuckle. Weird, but okay.

They ran to the barracks, and she veered into hers, cooling down into a stretch at the steps, then headed inside.

Tori was up, already dressed, and Jamie’s bunk was empty too as JoJo walked down to her room. Cadee came out of their space, drying her hair with a towel, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. “Hey, Jo, you got a call while you were out.” She pointed to the cell phone on her bunk.

JoJo picked it up. Peyton. She dialed as she pulled off her shoes.

“Jo. Hey,” Peyton said, and clinking sounded in the ambient noise. So, probably at breakfast at her parents’ B&B. “The pups survived. Anuk found an antidote that counteracted the poison, but yes, she traced it to nightshade in their systems, along with a few other substances. Salmon in their stomachs. She’s sending them to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Anchorage. Good job.”

“Thanks, Peyton.” She sank onto her cot as she hung up.

“We’re repacking chutes after breakfast.” This from Tori, who was lacing up her boots. “But Jamie said she wanted to see you in her office, when you could.”

“No fires?” She stood up, grabbing her towel.

“Antsy for a callout?” Cadee said, pulling on a sweatshirt.

Maybe. She couldn’t put a finger on it, but…

Aw, who was she kidding? She was antsy to hear anything about Crew.

She showered, stopped in the mess hall, loaded up coffee in her insulated mug, then carried it over to Jamie’s office.

The woman had sort of set up camp at the fire base. Apparently, she had taken Jade Ransom’s idea about the tracker ring and manufactured them. And she was loaded—she’d purchased the team a new jump plane after theirs went down during the rescue to save Jamie’s life. She also, apparently, ran a billion-dollar finance business. So what she was doing at the Midnight Sun base camp seemed…

Well, there was Logan of course.

And her missing brother.

So maybe it wasn’t so strange to see the woman sitting on a molded vinyl chair at a folding table, staring at her laptop, charts and maps tacked to the wall of her cubicle.

She looked up when JoJo came in. “Hey.” She got up and pointed to the map on the wall. “So, I did an overlay of the fire map and the map I showed Crew.”

“The Sons of Revolution map?”

She nodded. “These three fires came from places marked in yellow on the SOR map.” She pointed at yellow circles drawn around the places indicated in green on the fire map.

“Limited management areas.”

“Yes. Places the FS wouldn’t attribute to arson.”

She took a sip of coffee. “You’re saying they set those fires.”

“I am.”

“Do we have proof?”

“No.” She stepped back. “But this one could be.” She pointed to a yellow circle near a red pin.

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