“I’m not following.”

“Someone at regional posted her here.”

“Huh.” Sarah raised her brows. “And what aren’t you telling me?”

“I don’t know all the details,” Mallory said.

“She’s got some pull somewhere, it sounds like.” Sarah’s eyes widened. “Oh! Russo. She told me her name was Russo. Her father…not…?”

Mallory nodded. “Yes.”

“Wow. Who would’ve thought we’d end up with his daughter here.” Sarah shook her head. “You know, when I first saw her I thought she looked familiar, but with her hair wet and—”

“I’m sorry?”

“In the shower. I ran into her in the locker room—in the shower, to be precise.”

An image of Jac naked, water streaming down her face and over her chest sent a bolt of lightning down Mallory’s spine. She felt her face color and caught herself before she twitched in her chair. “Oh?”

“Uh-huh. She seems nice.”

“I guess.” Mallory had a hard time thinking of Jac as nice. There were a lot of words she would use to describe her, but that was not the first one that came to her mind. Intense. Mysterious. Interesting. Gorgeous and sexy.

“You don’t like her?”

Mallory blinked. “No. I mean, no, I like her fine. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know, I just got a really strange vibe—is something wrong?”

Mallory shook her head again. Nothing was wrong, only her. “Nope. Everything’s fine.”

“I wonder if the guys know who she is. That can’t be pleasant for her.”

“What do you mean?” Mallory’s shoulders stiffened.

“Well she’s kind of notorious, you know, what with the girlfriend thing and all—”

“You know about that?”

“Are you kidding me? You know I’m a People magazine junkie. They picked up the story after those pictures showed up in the Star.” Sarah made a face. “I’d hate for the people I work with to have seen me naked. That way I mean.”

Mallory’s teeth started to ache they were so tightly clenched. “She was naked?”

“Oh yeah. Her and the girlfriend. The Star photo was grainy, but clear enough to see they were in flagrante delicto.”

Mallory lost what was left of her appetite. When Jac had told her about revealing pictures, she’d imagined a heated kiss or a hand in a compromising position. She hadn’t actually considered the photos were taken in the act. Was the girlfriend without pride as well as honor? She knew the seasoned veterans on the team, and trusted them to respect Jac’s privacy. She didn’t know the rookies.

“If you hear any scuttlebutt about her, let me know.” Mallory stood. She needed some air. She needed to walk off her fury before she said something in front of Sarah she’d regret. Jac could look after herself. She wasn’t responsible for Jac, not that way. Her only responsibility was to see that she was safe in the field.

Sarah collected her tray and walked with her. “So what are you going to do with her if I take the bunk in the barracks? Can she share your loft until my place is ready?”

Mallory’s heart lurched. “Oh, I don’t think so. No way. She’s not sleeping with me.”

Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “Who said anything about sleeping with you, huh? I mean, she’d be sleeping in the loft somewhere but—”

“You know what I mean.”

“I think I’m beginning to.” Sarah’s smile widened. “She is really hot.”

“And you’re really straight. Unless something else changed down there in Santa Fe.” Mallory looked over her shoulder, hoping no one was within hearing range.

“Ho ho. You’ve got a crush.”

“Oh my God, I do not. God. She’s a rookie.” Mallory stowed her tray. “I’ve got to get going. I want to talk to Sully, and then I need to check the tower.”

“You’re avoiding.”

Mallory turned her back to escape toward Sully’s office. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.” Sarah tagged along, laughing. “You’re avoiding your best friend’s nosy questions.”

“I am not.”

“So, do you think she’s hot?”

“Geez, Sarah. Is this high school now? No.”

Sarah grinned. “So where is she sleeping?’

Mallory imagined Jac’s quiet breathing in the dark, pictured her moving around in the morning, her thick dark hair tousled from sleep. Her mind skittered away and landed on a grainy image of Jac on the smeared and rumpled pages of a newspaper, naked and defenseless and unable to protect herself. The rage in her chest turned to ice.

“In the loft.” No big deal, right? She was way too old for a crush, and even if she wasn’t, she had more sense than to be seduced by a cocky grin and soulful eyes. Dark, intense eyes that saw inside her.

Mallory shivered. The wind had picked up. Ought to make the jumps challenging. She’d have to adjust the tension on the guidelines to counter the shear forces. Plenty to do, plenty to think about. None of those things were Jac.

*

“Hey, you want a spot?” Anderson peered down from the head of the weight bench. “You’ve got a fair amount of weight on there.”

Jac pushed out a breath and shoved the bar up, feeling her deltoids and chest muscles start to quiver. “Yeah, thanks.”

Anderson’s hands appeared next to hers, under the bar, waiting to catch it.

“What’s your count?”

“Ten,” Jac said, lowering the bar to her chest, stopping it just inches above her breasts. She kept her breath moving in and out, oxygenating her muscles, and shoved it up again.

“Eleven.” Anderson looked down at her, his expression calm and steady. “One more, and then let it rest.”

“Fifteen,” Jac grunted.

He grinned, looking amused even upside down. “I wouldn’t push it, not if you want to have anything left for the jumps this afternoon.”

“Blackmail,” Jac muttered and let him guide the bar back onto the hooks. Her breath was coming fast and a little ragged. She’d already done two sets before he showed up, and she still had a hard time blocking Hooker’s voice out of her head.

“I hear you did a solid with Ray out there today,” Anderson said quietly.

Jac sat up and toweled the sweat from her neck. “What do you mean?”

“Just that you got to him first, handled things, and sent him up to the helitack like a pro.”

“Word gets around fast.” Benny. Must have been Benny, because Mallory wouldn’t have said anything.

Anderson grinned. “Nothing else to do while sitting around waiting for a call. Don’t worry, it was all good.”

“If I worried about stuff like that…” Jac shrugged.

Hooker came into view, sauntering in her direction. He still wore the tight green T-shirt and had changed into sweats. He was husky, heavily muscled, and took up a lot of space.

Hooker gave her a grin as if they were best friends. “Got bad news for you, buddy.”

“Life’s full of it,” Jac said as if she couldn’t care less. Hooker was standing so close to the bench if she tried to stand her breasts were going to rub against his chest. His legs were spread, and she had no desire to end up with her crotch snugged up against his. So she sat, which put her eyes at about the level of his belly button. She tilted her head just enough to see his face. He was looking down at her, a look in his eyes that was all too easy to read. If the guy got a hard-on, she was gonna punch him in the nuts.

“I think you’ve missed your chance with the boss lady.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“In case you had any ideas of getting over on her, I think somebody’s got there first. Cute little blonde with big tits. I saw them getting cozy out in the yard before they went off together. Like lip-lock cozy.”

“Not interested in what you saw, heard, or think, Hooker.” Jac pushed up off the bench so fast, Hooker stepped back in surprise. Jac kept her hands at her sides, even though she wanted to slam him in the chest and knock him on his ass. Mallory and Sarah, it sounded like. Made sense. The two of them had worked together for a lot of seasons. If they were lovers, they’d want to be posted together. The two of them together—it shouldn’t matter to her, but it did. She wasn’t about to let Hooker know that. She looked past him to Anderson as if Hooker weren’t there. “Thanks for the spot. See you this afternoon.”

“Sure thing,” Anderson said with his usual even tone.

Hooker laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, babe. If things get really tough, I can take care of you.”

“The only thing I’ll need you to take care of is my back out in the field,” Jac said.

“Anywhere, any time,” he crooned. “I’m there.”

Jac ignored him and headed to the locker room to grab a quick shower and change. Mallory and Sarah. She could see it, but she didn’t want to.

Chapter Ten

Mallory strode into the main staging area in the central room of the standby shack and signaled for Emilio Torres, a thin, quiet man fifteen years her senior, to join her. Emilio was the loft master responsible for seeing that the necessary equipment was loaded onto the jump plane during a fire dispatch. He was also the rigging master, in charge of chute repair and preparation. She trusted him with her life.

“Ready, Emilio?”

“All set.” Emilio gestured to the group of rookies gathered around one of the forty-foot-long tables in the center of the room where a chute was laid out ready to be prepared. “You want me to do the demo first?”

“Yes. Then while I take half over the obstacle course, you can have the rest for rigging practice.”

“Sure thing, Ice.”

Mallory walked around to the far side of the table and pointed to the chute. “After today, the only person who should ever touch your jump pack is you or Emilio. I shouldn’t have to tell you that you can never check your chute enough times. During boot camp, you’ll clear the chute with Emilio before every jump.”