I nodded, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Thank Christ. I thought you’d learned your lesson last time.”

“I was out on the fire line. The wind changed. Maddox and the rest of them came to warn me. We got separated from the others.”

“They’ve been out here all night looking for you.”

“You win, I guess,” he said, touching my cheek.

“Wasn’t going to go home without you.”

Zeke’s smile faded, and he leaned in. Just an inch from my lips, he paused at the sound of Maddox’s order.

“We gotta go!” Maddox whirled his hand in the air. It was hard to tell the twin brothers apart anyway, but covered in dirt in the dark, it was impossible.

“I’m with you,” Zeke said, gesturing for me to climb onto the ATV.

Jew and the Aussies loaded up into Harbinger’s Jeep, Maddox rode with Martinez, and we kicked up dust as we hauled ass toward the Complex. The fire ripped through everything in its path. Zeke pointed me to a narrow route of escape.

“There!” he yelled. “We can slide right through if we can get there in time.”

The Jeep turned to make a straight line to the point Zeke had said to go. The rest of his crew were on the same page. I turned too, and twisted back the throttle, sending the ATV flying over the rocky hills and past the last of the unburned trees for hundreds of acres.

The Jeep slipped through the opening in the fire, but it was clouded with smoke, and I couldn’t see what was on the other side.

Zeke patted my thigh. “You’ve got this!”

I readjusted my feet, ready for the possibility of impact on the other side, and surged forward through the smoke. When the haze cleared, the Jeep was just a few feet in front of me. I tapped on the brake and banked left, then caught up with everyone until we reached the fenced perimeter of the Complex. We followed Harbinger through the check points to the entrance where Interagency trucks were waiting, ready to take the boys home.

Zeke crawled off the back of my ATV, glancing at his crew before returning his attention to me. “Not to complain, but you’re going to make us look bad if you keep this up.”

I unbuckled my helmet, wiping the smoke from my eyes. “We served as a glorified taxi service this time.”

“We’d dug a line and holed up in that crevice waiting for the fire to roll over, but we probably would’ve suffocated to death. We’re lucky you came when you did.”

“Not on my watch,” I said, hugging him, pressing my cheek against his.

“Told ya,” Martinez grumbled.

I raised my middle finger behind Zeke, making sure Martinez got a good look.