Skye wasn’t unaware that she should probably be going back with him to fight the fire, that the very last thing he wanted to do was chase after Rio.
Rule number nine: Maintain control of your forces at all times.
She was clearly way out of control—a fire torch lit, that he couldn’t do anything about.
Yeah, well, for the first time in a long time, she knew exactly what she wanted.
Rio. And rescue for all those women he’d talked about.
Seth’s voice came over the radio with a grim report. The winds had kicked up, the fire tripled in size, and the team had withdrawn to the Boy Scout camp to call in fire drops and wait for reinforcements.
“Has the camp been evacuated?”
“Yes. We’re the only ones here.”
Tucker shook his head, his jaw tight, and he probably wanted to throw the radio.
Instead, “Okay. Hang tight, but keep your safety zone in mind. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
He signed off, and Skye didn’t look at him. He tapped his fingers on the dashboard. “How much farther?”
“GPS won’t work for these off-grid places,” Skye said. “I think we passed the road. We need to turn around.”
Stevie’s phone rang and she passed it to Tucker, who answered it. “Marshal Mills’s phone.”
He listened, then turned to Stevie. “It’s one of the other marshals. He says he has the fugitives in custody.”
Skye leaned up from the back seat just as Stevie pumped the brakes. “Tell him we’ll be back.”
“But Rio’s not—”
“We’ll sort it out when we get there.” Stevie executed a U-ie that left a little rubber on the pavement and headed back to the hospital.
Breathe. Because…maybe she hadn’t actually seen Buttles. Maybe he hadn’t a clue where Rio was. Which meant she’d followed her heart and had wasted precious time that they could be using to fight a fire.
“We need to get back to the fire, Skye,” Tucker said. “I’m going to call Barry and see if he can come get us and drop us in.
“Not until I see Rio,” Skye said.
Tucker said nothing but pulled out his radio.
Barry Kingston came over the line.
Tucker relayed their situation, their position.
“Sorry, Tucker. All the pilots are busy with bomber drops. And Larke—she left with Riley, your injured smokejumper, to check on one of her patients who went into labor. I’m fresh out of pilots.”
“If we get back, can you chopper us in?”
“I’m just leaving to fly the bucket brigade.”
“Can you wait for us?”
Skye reached forward and grabbed Tucker’s arm. “Not until we see Rio.”
Tucker’s mouth closed in a tight line. “Listen. The Denali Clinic has a chopper pad. Can you pick us up? And we’ll need fresh gear—grab a couple extra PG bags, okay?”
Barry confirmed, and when Tucker clicked off, he turned to her. “Listen, Skye. I get that you want to check in with Rio, but we have a job to do—”
“I just need to say goodbye, okay? Five minutes.” And she didn’t mean to put that much pleading in her voice, but…well, she couldn’t leave without telling him…
Oh.
Uh. Well, maybe that he’d made her feel brave and capable and that maybe she didn’t have to be overwhelmed. That she believed him—that God would give her everything she needed.
After all, He’d given her Rio when she most needed protection.
And what if…what if after this was all over…
Tucker glanced at Stevie, then back to Skye, and maybe he got it because he nodded.
They pulled up to the clinic beside a Jeep. Skye barreled out of the SUV and ran into the clinic.
The bigger of the two US marshals, the beefy linebacker, sat in a chair beside a door. The other paced the hallway, looking up as they entered.
“Where is he?” Skye demanded.
The pacer frowned—she remembered his name from the ride over. Kennedy. He put his hand up, but she wasn’t slowing. She headed for the door next to the other marshal. “Is he in here?”
“Ma’am—”
“He’s not a fugitive. He’s a federal agent, just like you!” She went to slam her way into the room, but Beefy got up, blocking her path.
“Let her in, Warner. She’s telling the truth. And if you have him cuffed in there, let him go.” Stevie’s voice emerged from the down the hall. “Has my dad been transported yet?”
Skye heard the “No. We’re waiting on the chopper,” as she pushed past Marshal Warner into the room.
And there he sat. On a chair, hands secured behind his back, head back, eyes closed, legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. He’d changed into a clean white T-shirt and a flannel shirt, looking very Alaskan, with his tousled, albeit grimy black hair, the growth of his beard.
“Rio?”
She said it softly, not sure if she should wake him, not sure if…
Oh, she’d probably dreamed up the way he looked at her when he threw her into the river. Like he wanted to dive in after her.
And sure, he’d kissed her, twice, but maybe that had been about the heat of the moment, and now that they were all safe…
Then he opened his eyes. Golden brown like the fire at night, they settled on her with surprise, then a molten desire that had her stopping short, her breath catching. A dangerous smile tugged up one side of his face, and even though she knew he wasn’t a bona fide criminal, she felt something downright lawless about the way he rose to his feet, his shoulders impossibly wide, the smell of the woods and fire emanating off his skin.
She breathed him in, barely resisting the urge to put her hands on his chest even as he took a step closer to her, standing a breath apart, his voice low. “Skye Doyle. I thought I threw you into a river.”
Then Agent Warner was uncuffing him, offering a sort of apology.
“Go keep an eye on my prisoner,” Rio said, turning back to Skye.
Clearly with something besides justice on his mind.
The door had barely closed before Rio drew in a breath, his gaze running over her from her toes to her eyes, landing at her lips. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” she said, putting a hand on his chest. His heart thundered under her touch. “Are you?”
“Now I am,” he said and slipped a hand around her neck.
He kissed her with so much force, it nearly knocked her over, his other hand going around her waist, pulling her roughly against him. He wasn’t a criminal, but he kissed her like she might be freedom and light and everything he’d escaped to find. She hung on, her arms around his neck, softened her mouth, and let him unloose his heart.
Because she was gloriously, deliciously in over her head.
He picked her up, set her on the table, and slowed them down, taking her face in his hands as he leaned away. He was breathing hard, his eyes glossy when he looked down at her. “I…I was afraid I’d lost you. That you were back fighting that fire, and…” He touched his forehead to hers.
She wound her hands around his wrists. “About that. I gotta go. Tucker’s called in a chopper to take us back to the fire line.”
Rio’s mouth tightened, but he nodded. “And I have to bring Darryl back into custody. I’ll probably end up at the Copper Mountain sheriff’s office, for now, but…wait. What are you doing here?”
Oh, that. “Um…well, I thought you were in danger. I thought…I thought I saw Wayne Buttles in town a couple days ago.”
Rio frowned at her. Backed up. A heartbeat. “Why?”
“I saw a guy with the scar Darryl mentioned.”
“Where?”
“At a bar and grill called the Midnight Sun. We had dinner there. He was at the bar.”
Rio reacted a little like he’d been punched. “Oh wow. Okay…uh.” He rubbed her arms. “Yeah, you need to get back to that fire line, and I need to get Darryl out of here.”
�
�What?” She slid off the table, following him out the door and into the reception area. Archer Mills was being ushered out of the building on a gurney. Not far behind, Darryl had his arm around a very pregnant woman, also walking her out.
“What’s going on?” Rio asked.
Stevie came up to him, following the ensemble out the back of the clinic to the ambulance bay. Her gaze fell off Skye and onto Rio. “They’re transferring my dad and Alicia Salmon down to the Copper Mountain Regional hospital. Darryl’s claiming you said he could go with her.”
Rio blew out a breath. “Yeah, well. He’s…an informant.”
“And a fugitive. My team can take Darryl into custody.”
Rio shook his head. “He stays with me.”
“Right, well, that’s fine. You can come with us. We’ll be following the ambulance.”
Alicia was loaded into the ambulance, Archer next to her. “I’ll be right behind you, babe,” Darryl said.
Skye just stared at them, then back to Rio. “You’re letting him go to the hospital?”
Rio reached up and rubbed his thumb along her cheek. “Someone told me that compassion should always win.” He kissed her forehead.
“I’ll be in the car,” Stevie said. “Get Darryl and meet us there.”
Skye noticed that Tucker walked her back into the building.
“C’mon, Darryl,” Rio said, even as he slipped his hand into Skye’s one last time. “Let’s get that arm looked at and then we’ll take off.”
“I’m fine.” Darryl walked away from the ambulance, now pulling out.
“Now,” said Rio, folding his fingers through Skye’s as they followed Darryl into the clinic.
“He was shot in the arm. We just need some fresh packing,” Rio said to one of the nurses. She directed them to a fresh exam room and Rio pushed Darryl toward it.
“Get on the table and don’t move,” he said.
Darryl obeyed, his mouth in a tight line. Rio turned his back to the door, one eye on Darryl before he looked at Skye. “You be safe out there. That fire is big.”
She pressed her hand to his chest, again feeling the warm beat of his heart. “You won’t go back to prison, right?”
“No. But…I don’t know when…”
He just stopped talking. Lifted his hand to her face and ran his thumb down her cheek. “I want…”
She captured her breath, seeing the emotion in his eyes.
“Me too,” she whispered.
He kissed her again, maybe feeling, too, that the words weren’t enough.
But maybe she didn’t need answers. Not yet. Just Rio, right now, here. This amazing man’s arms around her.
He finally loosened his hold on her, his lips soft as he let her go.
“So, this isn’t goodbye, then, right?” she said, too much terrible hope in her voice.
He shook his head. Smiled.
“Oh, not so fast, Agent Parker. I think this is definitely goodbye.”
Rio froze in her arms.
Skye looked up.
One moment she was in Rio’s arms, the next in a headlock, cutting off her breath.
Darryl held something sharp to her neck and spoke to the man holding a gun to Rio’s head. “Kill him and I promise I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“Deal,” Wayne Buttles said.
9
It took Rio a full second to figure it out. The gun barrel to his head, Darryl’s smile, Skye’s wide eyes.
Darryl had been playing him the entire time. The man wrapped his good arm around Skye’s neck, yanking her back against his body, his eyes on Rio.
“Let her go, Darryl,” Rio growled.
“Shut up, FBI,” said the voice behind him.
Wayne Buttles. Of course.
“Don’t move,” Darryl added. He held a small scalpel to Skye’s throat as he backed her up. He must have picked it up while the doctors were working on his wife.
Rio simply froze, his breath cutting out. He could only stare at the line of blood pricking Skye’s neck. It ran down into the well of her throat like a tear.
“Stop—stop, Darryl. Stop!” Rio’s voice shook.
“On your knees, FBI. Or he slits her neck.”
Rio wanted to kick himself for not…for being so stupid as to listen to compassion.
You’re stupidly good. Like, inside. It’s probably going to get you killed.
Yeah, probably. He was better off as a criminal.
Rio held up his hands, went down to his knees, meeting Skye’s eyes with apology in them, hearing his stupid, arrogant words. Stay with me. Nothing will happen to you as long as you’re with me.
“Found these in the lunchroom,” Buttles said and cuffed Rio’s wrist, then the other behind his back.
He only had pleading left. “Let her go, Darryl.”
“I’m walking out of here.”
“Buttles will kill you.”
Darryl bumped against the table, spilling supplies onto the linoleum floor. He backed up against the wall. “No. You promised—right?”
Buttles pushed Rio away from the door. “Yeah, sure, Darryl. I’ve got your back. Didn’t I say I would look out for you? I went to your house to check on your wife and read your little note. Said you were here. I thought you might be in trouble, so…”
“Darryl, he’s lying to you.” Rio kept his voice low, even. “You know Buttles will kill you. He doesn’t want you to talk. You come with me, and I’ll keep my promise.”
“No FBI keeps their promise,” Darryl said. He jerked Skye against him.
Skye used the movement to lower her head, tucked her chin inside his arm.
“I do. I keep my promises.”
“Right. You are the biggest liar of all.”
Yeah, well.
“I told you to shut up,” Buttles said and cuffed him across the back of the head.
Rio wished he’d gotten a good look at the man—just Skye’s intake of breath, the flicker of recognition on her face warned him that indeed, he’d found them.
Just as she’d said he would. Because Skye took the time to figure things out. She didn’t rush into things blindly, emotions first.
“Look at my actions, not my words, Darryl,” Rio said. If he could just keep them talking, maybe Stevie would wonder what was keeping them, come back. “I kept you safe, I got your wife to the hospital. You can trust me.”
Skye met his eyes, solid in his, and he heard her words to him. There’s still light inside you, Rio. I see it.
Oh, Skye. But yes. She’d helped him see it.
Just because he looked like a criminal on the outside didn’t mean he didn’t have light and hope and—and forgiveness on the inside.
And God on his side, in the valley of the shadow.
“I’m going to keep my promise to you, Darryl. I’m going to take you to your wife. But Buttles only tracked you down here to kill you.”
“Naw,” Buttles said. “Darryl’s my friend. He knows that’s why he didn’t die in prison.”
Darryl nodded. “That’s right.” Still, he seemed to be considering Rio’s words. Until he looked at Buttles. “You shoot him, and we’ll take her with us. Just in case. There’s a chopper on the way—we could take that.”
Rio went cold.
“That’s my boy. Always about the transportation. But shooting him will create too much attention. I have something better.”
Buttles grabbed the blood pressure cuff off the nearby wall unit and Velcroed it around Rio’s throat. Started to pump.
Oh no.
Darryl smiled. “Nice. So, while you choke, I’m going to just walk out of here with your girl.”
And then Darryl kissed Skye’s neck.
Rio let out something feral and dark, but the hold on the blood pressure cuff had tightened, cutting off the blood supply to his brain.
He wasn’t going to last long.
Rio’s gaze flickered to Skye’s just for a second, and…what?
Skye had stepped to Darryl’s side and only
then did Rio realize that…she’d listened to him. Back at the cabin, when he’d told her how to get out of a choke hold. Except, well, even then he’d been hoping that she wouldn’t need the information.
Yes. Except—no. Because even if she got away from Darryl, Buttles would shoot her.
There was no stopping her, however, because her hand balled into a tight fist.
Right in the soft parts, honey. Make it hurt.
His air had left him, the room going hazy.
He met her eyes and she looked at him with the expression she’d had in the woods one moment before she kissed him. Deliberate.
Brave. Strong.
He renews my strength.
Rio reacted just as she swung her arm back. Heard Darryl cry out as Rio rolled, landed on his back, and slammed his foot into Buttles’s knee. Heard a crack, but didn’t wait for Buttles to fall, just kicked hard up, connecting with his chin.
Buttles slammed back into the wall.
The gun dropped to the floor.
Rio wanted to scrabble for it, but his vision had started to splotch, big gray, black swatches.
He heard grunts and saw Buttles struggling up.
With everything he had, he flung his foot at Buttles’s face.
The man howled, blood spurting.
Behind him, Skye screamed.
Skye!
The blackness closed in, and he flexed his neck, gulping, a fish without air.
Oh—oh—
God gives us everything we need…so we’ll have peace. So we won’t panic…
He closed his eyes. Maybe that’s what grace is—peaceful streams in the middle of danger.
Somewhere inside, he heard his voice, a pleading. God, save us. Only You can bring justice. I give it to You—
He heard a door slam, voices, but they fell away, far from him.
Then, Velcro ripping, and in a second, the rush of glorious air swept into his lungs. He gulped hard, opened his eyes, expecting to see Stevie—
Skye looked down at him, her hands unwinding the cuff, crying so hard she couldn’t speak.
“Shh,” he sort of managed, then pushed himself from the floor, still sucking in sweet air. “Shh, I’m okay—” He wanted to grab her, calm her down, but she just wrapped her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and held on.
Okay, this worked too. He turned his head, kissed her cheek. “Skye—it’s okay.”
Summer of the Burning Sky Page 25