Page 55 of The Heat is On

“The key to your safety is us finding Buttles. So…tell me where you would meet him.”

“It’s at a truck stop north of the Canadian border. I don’t know how they get…the cargo…across.”

The cargo. “You mean the trafficked girls?”

Alicia drew in a breath, and Rio glanced into the rear-view mirror. She was staring at Darryl with a sort of horror on her face. “What—what is he talking about?”

Huh. And Rio probably shouldn’t have enjoyed Darryl’s deep swallow, the way he looked at his wife.

Rio filled in the gap. “Darryl has been trafficking girls across the border, down into the Lower 48—”

“I only drove the truck!”

“That’s like saying, I only watched a little porn. Everything, anything you do to support this industry is enslaving these women.” He glanced at Alicia, then at her unborn child. “What if you have a daughter? Think that through for one moment. Imagine someone kidnapping her and taking her—to do whatever he or she wants with her.” He shook the image of Aggie from his mind, his voice cutting low so he didn’t do something crazy.

Emotional.

Stupid.

Darryl looked away from him. “I know. I…” He took a breath. “I kept thinking that maybe if I didn’t think about it, or told myself I was just doing a job…” He looked at Alicia. “I’m sorry. I justified what I did for…for us. But—”

“You can’t take what’s bad and make it good just by giving yourself good reasons for it,” she said quietly.

Her words found Rio, dug inside. No wonder he felt soiled down to his bones. Because he’d done exactly that—bad things for the sake of good. But it left a residue on his soul he couldn’t wash off.

“Do the right thing now, Darryl,” Rio said. “Buttles has to have a contact on the Canadian side. Or someone who can get them through border control. Think. Did you ever see anyone?”

“I don’t know. I switch trucks and drive back to Anchorage.”

“You never stuck around to see the handoff?”

Darryl had put his arm around Alicia again. She was crying.

“Yeah, once. There was a guy, another driver, I think. And Buttles was there. He was with a blond guy, hard jawline. Dressed nice—in a suit, like he was a businessman. That’s why I noticed him.”

“Did you get a name?”

“No. I went into the bathroom, and they were in a booth talking. When I came out, he was gone. But maybe he’s Buttles’s connection to the Lower 48.”

Darryl offered a small tug of a smile. As if he wanted to help. Really.

Alicia moaned again.

They hit the highway. “Which way to the clinic?”

“North. Just up the road—it’s closer than the Copper Mountain hospital. Hurry!”

Rio turned north, the fire in his view, and from here, he could make out the flicker of flames. They chewed into the blue sky, hungry.

“That’s a big fire,” Alicia said.

“I was fighting that,” Darryl said, with some pride in his voice.

Seriously?

“We were fighting it before a guy on our crew decided to make a break for it. Your husband decided to go with him,” Rio said.

Maybe if they had stuck around, the fire wouldn’t have resurrected.