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“Okay, yeah. You’re right.” He pushed out a long breath. “I won’t have anything to go on until I can get to the hospital and talk to Crispin. Besides, I want to be there for you. Always.”
Nova tucked her lips together and nodded. She hadn’t been asking him to make some sort of life-altering commitment to her. Just to do his job by her side.
But their talk earlier had pulled down a few of her walls, and she was starting to open her heart to this man.
Whoever he was.
SEVEN
Booth was no expert, but he’d fought enough wildfires to know if the wind kept pushing, they’d be pulling an all-nighter. He’d dropped in with Nova a few hours ago and hadn’t stopped working since. Not even when the sun had sunk below the horizon and darkness had settled around them.
With each scrape of his Pulaski, he tried to connect the dots between Earl and Floyd to Crispin and the man who’d shot him. Sophie had texted to let him know that Crispin’s gunshot wound didn’t need surgery, and they were keeping him overnight for a concussion. At least Booth knew where to find him. Worse case, he still had the burner phone.
His team—Eric, Finn, Vince, and the rookie named Rico—pressed ahead, clearing brush and felling the most dangerous snags so a fire line could be built by the hotshot crews that followed.
Nova was out there somewhere, walking the line, checking on the other smokejumpers and barking orders as acting crew chief. She’d had questions about his witness protection, but they hadn’t had time to talk with the crew around. Frankly, he owed her an explanation after she’d stumbled into not one but two assassination attempts.
He scraped flaming debris away from the bottom of a dead tree six feet thick. The massive snag burned red hot clear to the top. Trees like this were called widow makers. Better they cut it down than it fall and crush someone. Booth wouldn’t let an assassin or a tree kill him if he could help it.
He paused and leaned on his Pulaski. “Good enough?”
“I think I can get in there.” Rico tossed his Pulaski down and picked up the chain saw. Firelight shimmered off his sweaty face. “Watch that hot mama right there. If she breaks off, I’m a goner.” With the tip of the chain saw blade, he pointed to a massive tree limb twenty feet overhead. It glowed hot and spat bits of burning bark at them.
Booth stood about ten feet back and acted as lookout while Rico buried the chain saw into the tree. The rookie jumper was an expert sawman from his days on the hotshot crew and had the tree down in minutes. They moved up to the next snag while Eric cranked up his saw and started bucking the log.
They made slow progress, but at least it was progress. One good thing—all this time scraping and digging had given him plenty of opportunity to berate himself for telling Nova he was in WITSEC.
She’d promised to keep it on the low down. Or was it down low? He could never remember.
He was pretty sure his cover was blown anyway, since Walsh had set fire to jump base. Then the man attacking Crispin, whoever that man had been. He’d been hired by Floyd to find something. To beat information out of Crispin.
Floyd had to know Booth and Crispin had been partners.
Which meant Floyd knew about the missing nuke and could tell the world who Booth really was.
If Crispin didn’t make it, then it didn’t matter who Booth had been. He’d stay here in Ember, unable to return to his job in Homeland, ever.
They were looking for someone to pin things on, and he made a great scapegoat.
“Booth, man. What’re you doing?” Rico clinked his Pulaski against Booth’s. “You’ve been breaking the same spot for a while, dude. Get your head outta the clouds.”
“Shut up and get on the saw,” Booth teased. “Unless it’s too hot in there. Maybe your delicate rookie skin can’t take the heat.”
“Whatever.” Rico nudged past Booth. “You just keep to your daydreaming. I’ll take care of the rest.”
The gall of that newb.
Nova seemed to think them doing their jobs was more important than his case. But she didn’t know the risks. The wildfire might destroy one town, but in the wrong hands, a nuke could destroy an entire state.
Crispin only had one partner, and he’d made it clear he’d rather have zero. But now that Crispin was in the hospital, who was going to stop Floyd from finding the missing nuke?
If Nova knew what was at stake, she might realize his skills as a federal agent were more valuable than his skills as a smokejumper.
He shouldn’t have come out here. He should’ve gone to work on his real job.
“Precious cargo coming through,” Eric said, coming to stand beside Booth. He lifted his chin at Rico. “Surprised you’re still on your feet, Rookie.”
“Someone’s gotta carry the weight around here. You look like you’ve been lifting more donuts than dumbbells, old man.” Rico brought the tree down. “And that is how it’s done.”
