Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,22
sounds were the three of them chewing and popping the lids on the drinks. He wasn't even sure how much time had passed before Huston handed up the reusable sandwich wrapper.
“I'm guessing you want to keep this?” Then she passed the empty sports drink bottle over the back of the seat to him. She’d eaten everything, no delicate flower pretending she hadn’t burned calories out there tonight. He was grateful, but didn’t get a word in before she added, “And I'm sure you have recycling for the bottle?”
Kalan had laughed. “Leo’s the sustainability guy.”
Was that a dig? Leo wondered. “I'm a park ranger. It's what I do.”
But no comment about it came from the back, only Huston’s voice asking, “So is there any chance you have anything hot?”
“Coffee.”
“What? You have coffee, and you're holding out!”
“It’s in the bag next to you,” he commented then talked her through getting into all the different compartments. He’d paid a pretty penny for the thermal bag that could store cold or hot in any pocket. “It’s the silver thermos.”
“What’s in the red?”
“Chicken noodle soup.”
“Damn, Evans. You are prepared.”
He shrugged. “It’s my job.” It was. If he didn’t feed them, who would? If they weren’t fed, they’d go home. There had to be some perks to this miserable night. “There are cups in the front pocket. Pour some for everyone.”
It took her a few more minutes to get everything found and then balanced. But she graciously handed him the first cup instead of keeping it for herself. Something about the way she offered it spoke of high tea, but Leo took the cup and sipped at it, grateful it was still almost too hot.
She offered another up to Kalan, but he didn’t take it. Somehow the two of them managed to look at the same time and see that Kalan Smith was out cold. Leo almost laughed if not for the fear that he would wake the big guy up.
“You firefighters really can sleep anywhere.”
“He worked a double before this,” Huston told him, and Leo felt his head automatically tip back hitting against the seat.
Jesus, just what he needed. He should have asked before they started. “I need to send him home, don't I?”
Once again, he hated the way this night had gone. But Huston didn’t answer, she just shrugged at him. So Leo asked his go-to question. “What would you do if you were in charge?”
“I would send him home.” She answered this time with confidence. And Leo nodded.
Her phone pinged several times in a row just then. Even that jarringly odd sound didn't wake Kalan up, confirming Jo's diagnosis of having been awake too long. She was rapidly sending text messages, raising Leo's irritation again.
“Are you missing a hot date?” he quipped.
For a moment, she didn't reply, and he felt his irritation grow.
Sure enough, when she did speak, her ire at his stupid and maybe sexist assumption came through her tone. “Because I’m new and I don't know the area, I asked the town librarian—”
He interrupted, though he shouldn’t have. “You know Ivy?”
“She’s a friend.” He could hear the grind of Jo's teeth and wondered how she was too new to know the area but had been here long enough to befriend the librarian.
Leo tried a different tack to cover for his error. “I'm sorry, I shouldn’t have said it that way. Ivy is amazing.”
“Yes.” But the grind stayed in Jo's words, maybe coming back harder. This time it was accompanied by a sarcastic or bitter undertone. “She's beautiful. She's smart, and she's sweet. I'm sure you're just as in love with her as everyone else.”
But the emphasis on the last words made him realize that, in trying to correct his first error, he only screwed up again. He thought about protesting that he wasn't in love with Ivy, but clearly now was not the time.
Jo was telling him with clipped words how far off base he’d been. “Ivy spoke with a handful of locals. And she's come up with three locations for us to check out—one of which is apparently a set of caves about eight miles northeast of here. I was double checking for exact directions.”
He'd fucked up. Jo Huston was his only surviving searcher and he couldn't go out alone. He’d insulted her, and it hadn’t been a mistake. He was mad that he’d been dropped when he was on the ropes and she’d been at the top. But so had Sebastian. Leo guessed that—because he knew Kane—he’d just assumed