Page 79 of Burnin' For You
Wearing a black JCWF T-shirt, he looked up at them, his blond hair swept back into a cap. Conner’s expression suggested they looked worse than she thought.
“Holy cow, what happened to you two?” He came out of the cab and helped Gilly off Reuben, draping her arm around his shoulders.
She leaned into Conner, hoping to throw off the fact that she’d been perfectly comfortable snuggled up against the big sawyer.
Conner helped her over to the truck, and she braced herself on the driver’s seat while he checked out the bloody scrape on her cheek. “Where did you get this?”
“Patrick Browning hit her,” Reuben said, the slightest hint of exactly how he felt about Patrick in his voice. “Right before he tried to kill us.”
Conner whirled around. “What?”
“We think Patrick could be our arsonist—or at least he has something to do with the fires. Who knows—it could be his father—”
“Brownie and Patrick? Setting fires?” Now Conner looked at her, and wore the same expression that she probably wore only twenty-four hours ago when she realized Patrick had his shotgun pointed at them.
Only twenty-four hours ago.
“It’s all about Tom. They say his death is our fault,” Reuben said.
Conner drew in a breath at that, probably evaluating Reuben’s words. Not for a minute did Gilly believe that his team was to blame, but she could imagine the three survivors had spent the last year in sleepless nights trying to decide that for themselves.
Maybe not coming up with the same conclusions.
“He tried to burn us alive in his cabin—ended up torching the entire forest. Gilly would have died if she hadn’t found a way to hide from the fire.” Reuben held a hint of pride in his voice, and Gilly wanted to amend his words.
Because she’d done exactly nothing to save herself.
But Reuben just grinned at her, something soft in his eyes.
Oh boy. Because she smiled back.
She simply couldn’t help it when he looked at her like that.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” she said, turning to Conner. “I’m pretty sure Patrick sabotaged the plane. If he put sand or oil into the fuel tanks, I would have still read them as full. Which I did.”
Conner knelt in front of her now, examining her knee. “Is that what happened—you ran out of fuel? Because HQ lost you on the transponder shortly after takeoff.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he sabotaged that, too,” Reuben said. “Maybe he was hoping the entire team would be aboard.”
Conner had reached into his cab and pulled out a first aid bag. He dug around inside and pulled out an ice pack, cracked it, and placed it over Gilly’s knee. Secured it with a Velcro strap. “Get in,” he said.
She scooted into the middle while Reuben came around the side.
Conner was outside on the radio, calling in his successful retrieval of his teammates.
A few minutes later, he got in the truck, closed the door. “We’re headed back to HQ. The PEAK Rescue team out of Mercy Falls is headed up to search for the rest of the team by air. And Pete, Ned, Riley, and Tucker are headed up to hike in. Do you remember the coordinates, Rube?”
“No. But I can show you on a terrain map.”
Conner put the truck in gear and headed down the highway. “Satellite imagery suggests the Davis fire has grown to about fifteen hundred acres and headed east, through the canyon. We had significant wind increase this morning—”
“That’s why the fire grew so fast,” Reuben said, a tone in his voice Gilly didn’t understand. “The wind kicked up after I left for the tower.”
And then he did it. Put his muscled, protective arm around her in a very non-teammate move.
She stiffened, looked up at him.
He glanced down at her, gave her another one of those soft smiles.