Page 7 of Burning Secrets

And as he pulled out across the bumpy terrain, all he could think was…I hope not.

TWO

She might be hurt morethan she let on. And the ride on the four-wheeler hadn’t helped, bumping over rocks and tundra and forest and up jagged hills. By the time they’d gotten to the dirt road where she’d parked her truck, everything hurt.

Even her teeth.

She made the mistake of groaning as she got off the ATV and then nearly dropping her end of Brutus’s carcass, which, of course, her hero had to grab to put into the truck.

She gripped the end of the tailgate and tried not to let her knees buckle.

Crew had taken one look at her, then grabbed her elbow and led her to the passenger door.

“What are you doing?”

For the first time, really, she noticed his eyes. Dark brown, with gold at the iris and the tiniest hint of concern in them.

Maybe not so tiny. “I’m driving you into Copper Mountain.” He reached for the door handle.

She slammed her hand on it. “No. I can?—”

“You’re still shaking.”

Oh.

“Get in. I can get a ride back to my ATV.”

She frowned even as she let him open the door. “Really?”

“Please. You can’t live in Alaska without friends.” He then winked at her, and she had nothing for that.

He closed the tailgate, moved his ATV off the road, into the brush, hidden, and got into the driver’s side.

She handed him the keys, leaned her head back.

And promptly fell asleep. Or would have if he hadn’t jostled her awake.

“No sleeping.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed, sitting up.

“You might have a concussion.”

“For the love—I got up at three a.m. And it’s now?—”

“Six p.m. So yes, I get that, but you’re still not sleeping. And why so early?”

She’d hiked in from the road, a couple miles to her lookout over the river, the spot a good ten miles north of Copper Mountain, and now she spotted civilization amid the deep green forest that hugged the road. Dirt roads led back from the main road north of town to quiet housing areas—log cabins and timber homes set upon the bustling Copper River. Now and again, a sign designating a road mark—Starr Lake and Mulligan Way and Bowie Road. He slowed as they came closer to town, passing the airfield with its multicolored Cessnas, De Havillands, and Cubs. A couple choppers also sat on the tarmac.

Her base also had an airfield, as did many private homes here in the bush. Truly the last frontier.

“Because it’s my only free day, and I needed to get as much observation in as I could.”

“Free day?”

“Day off. Head into the ranger’s station. Hopefully Peyton is still around.” She pointed down Main Street to the ranger’s station at the end, just before the park and the river.

And across the street from Northstar Pizza. As if wishing, her stomach growled.

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