Chapter 28
Colton
Colton attacked the switchbacks as fast as the gravel road would let him.
White-knuckling the steering wheel and fishtailing through one curve after another had his adrenaline surging all over again.
Every blind corner carried the threat of a head-on collision, but defensive driving wasn’t on his priority list.
The smoke thickened as he climbed the old access road. Whatever had happened at the cabin, he prayed they’d all made it out alive.
He heaved out a sigh of relief when the first county cruiser appeared from the haze, then another, then three more lined up along the narrow road. One sat directly in front of the cabin, doors open, light bar flashing. Sergeant Mills stood beside it, talking into his radio.
Colton slammed the truck to a stop and jumped out. “Are Deanna and Kylie . . .?”
“Both are fine,” Mills assured him, holding up a hand. “It’s over.”
“What happened?”
“Your girlfriend has more guts than half my department.” Mills motioned toward the cabin. “Both women are around back, getting fresh air. Bear spray deployed inside and they’re feeling it.” He gestured toward the open front door. “Crime scene team is on their way.”
Two officers came around the corner of the cabin, with Ed Rader between them. His face was swollen and red, eyes streaming, hands cuffed behind his back. The officers helped him into the rear seat of the cruiser.
Reeva followed, also cuffed, her clothes rumpled and dirty. She met Colton’s eyes.
“Colton,” she said, her voice small. “What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same thing. Didn’t take rocket science to figure it out.” He didn’t hide his disgust. “Was it worth it? The money? The revenge?”
“You don’t understand...”
“I understand perfectly,” he cut in. “You aided in the kidnapping of an innocent woman and the sabotage of aircraft that could have killed firefighters.” He paused. “And you nearly got me killed.”
“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“Save it for your lawyer.” He stepped close, his voice dropping. “And to think I considered marrying you.”
As the officers loaded Reeva into the cruiser, curiosity tugged Colton toward the cabin. Mills caught the direction of his gaze. “You can look from the doorway. Don’t step inside.”
Colton stopped at the threshold. The interior of the cabin suggested a history of sorrow.
A framed photo of a man in a yellow Nomex shirt rested on the mantel above the stone fireplace, the glass cracked in the middle.
Tom Rader, from the resemblance. Beside it, a folded American flag in a shadow box.
Next to the door on a small table lay a half-written letter to Precision Aviation. The unfinished letter read: Your settlement offer is an insult to my brother’s memory. Tom gave his life . . .
The rest trailed, the pen lying across the page.
Colton’s stomach twisted. None of it excused what Ed had done. But for one uncomfortable moment, he understood where it started.
The bear spray residue still hung in the air, stinging his eyes after a few seconds. He’d seen what he needed to see. He backed away and rounded the corner of the cabin to the back.
Deanna sat on a log behind the cabin with Kylie, both bear-spray-orange and dirt-streaked. And both were very much alive. A female officer crouched in front of them, handing each a fresh bottle of water. Kylie had tape marks on her wrists, her eyes flat with stress and fatigue.
Deanna launched herself at him, and he caught her, squeezing tight as she trembled in his arms. “Your distraction worked perfectly.”
“You went in there alone with only bear spray?” He stared at her, as if waiting for her to tell him she was joking.
“Note to self. Never use bear spray indoors.” A shaky laugh escaped, words coming out raw. “My eyes are burning, and I coughed up a lung.” Her fortitude tossed Colton off balance.
“Damn. You’re serious.” His head moved from side to side in disbelief and wonderment. “You’re insane, you know that?”
“Kylie is all right. That’s what matters.” She motioned to her friend, sitting on a log, rubbing her wrists.
Mills appeared around the corner, notebook in hand.
“Reeva wants a plea deal. Kidnapping’s federal, so that goes through the U.S.
Attorney, not us. The FBI’s running that side of the prosecution.
We hand them what we gather and let them run with it.
According to her, Ed dated her to get insider knowledge about Precision’s insurance policies.
The plan was to sabotage aircraft, trigger insurance payouts, and redirect the money as ransom. ”
“And Zeb was the inside man,” Deanna said from her perch on a log.
“Those texts to Kylie were Zeb’s.” Mills flipped a page in his notebook.
“He had her crew schedule and knew when she’d be alone.
The lovesick-admirer act was a calculated misdirection.
He wanted it to look like a creep with a fixation, so the minute she went missing, we’d focus on a jealous stalker instead of a kidnapping for ransom. ”
I’ve watched you sleep.
Zeb’s perverse, intimidating texts enraged Colton, and he had an urge to punch something. Every word had been engineered to point them the wrong way.
Mills removed his hat and brushed his hair back.
“Contaminated fuel, poisoned water sources, monitored radio frequencies. Reeva also claims the contaminated pond that brought down her helicopter wasn’t part of their plan.
Says Zeb acted on his own, freelancing for maximum disruption.
She didn’t know she’d be drafting from a contaminated water source until too late.
Tara’s crew cornered Zeb up on the ridge.
One of her hotshots flattened him, then sat on him until my officers took custody.
He’s in the other cruiser.” Mills tilted his head toward the road.
Colton stared at him. “Reeva’s own people nearly killed her?”
“That’s what she’s claiming. Whether the prosecutor buys it is another matter, but she was shaken up about it. Might be why she’s talking.” Mills glanced toward the cruiser where Reeva sat staring at her hands. “She also asked me to give Deanna a message.”
Colton snapped his head up. “What kind of message?”
“She never forgot who got her out of her crashed helicopter. Said if Deanna hadn’t dragged her clear, she’d have burned alive, and the people she was working with wouldn’t have cared.”
It hit harder than Colton expected. He studied Deanna, and her face gave nothing away.
“The Rader brothers’ betrayal will hit the fire community hard,” said Mills, closing his notebook. “Firefighters are people everyone trusts.”
Ace showed up, his eyes wild until they found Kylie. She stood on shaky legs, and he crossed to her in three strides.
“Never scare me like that again,” he said, his voice gruff as she collapsed into his arms.
“I’m chill,” Kylie said, though tears ran down her cheeks. “Just dehydrated and hungry. I’ve only had crackers.”
Ace’s mouth became a straight line. “We’re going to the hospital.”
“No hospital. I only want food and sleep and to forget this ever happened,” said Kylie.
“We have to do it as a matter of protocol.” Ace bit his lip, as he always did when he was stressed. “Not letting you out of my sight until I know you’re absolutely okay. Even then I won’t.” He escorted Kylie to his vehicle.
Colton motioned to his truck. “Ready to go, Brooks?”
“Sure, Sky King. Lead the way.” As they drove down the mountain, they passed several county law enforcement vehicles heading up to secure the scene.
“The media’s going to have a field day with this.” She shook her head. “People from within the firefighting community, betraying all who work in it.”
“It’ll be rough.” He kept his eyes on the road. “Especially for Westlake, since he was the IC for these fires, and in charge of fire crews and other staff. The investigation, the trial, and the questions about how we didn’t see it coming.”
“I feel terrible about the whole thing. Wish I’d spotted it sooner.”
“Not your fault. None of it.” Colton reached over and took her hand. “The brothers came from a family with ties to a firefighter who died. They had legitimate access. They knew our procedures. No way we could have prevented this.”
“I keep thinking about Tom Rader. He died doing this job, and his brothers used his death to justify what they did.” Deanna shook her head.
Colton pictured the photo and flag on the cabin’s mantel. “Sometimes grief makes good people do terrible things.”
“Anyway, it’s over, and Kylie is safe. That’s the important thing,” she said.
“Yep, it sure is.” He squeezed her hand. “We can all breathe again.”
They drove down the switchbacks toward the valley floor, the fire burning in the distance, its smoke column a monument to what had gone wrong over the past several weeks.
His phone buzzed. He recognized a 406 area code, so he put the caller on speaker.
Susan Marsh’s clipped tone wasted no time. “Davis, it’s Marsh. This is a heads-up. Need to meet with you first thing in the morning at Bowman Airfield.”
“I’ll be there,” said Colton. “Thanks for calling.”
“Sure thing.” Marsh ended the call. She wasn’t one for conversation.
Deanna stared at the phone.
“The NTSB investigator from Helena.” Colton dropped his phone into the chest pocket of his flight suit. “Hope she has good news.”
He thought about the first morning in the hangar, Marsh lifting the vial of contaminated fuel as she explained how sugar crystallizes in combustion chambers. She’d told him then it didn’t qualify as vandalism. She’d been right about everything.
As they pulled into base camp, the exhausted faces of firefighters told him the news had spread. One of their own had turned on them. The flames weren’t the only enemy. Another had worked beside them on the fireline, someone they’d trusted with their lives.
That wound would take a long time to heal.