Chapter Three
Quinlan and Cheyenne had been officially engaged for a month, and as they prepared for their wedding day, life continued in most of its mundane existence.
Several times in the summer months, Quinn planned to go up to the Circle C Ranch, his brother’s ranch in Montana for a few days or accept a loan out to the forestry.
He shook his head. Cheyenne never failed to earn a butt-burning when he returned home. Quinn saw it for what it was, her need for assurance in the form of his declared ownership and love, best shown by his taking control. He accommodated her neediness, and she practically purred in response.
His goal was to have her ask for what she wanted, not only in one area, but from him in general.
That girl rarely did so. When he saw she was misbehaving to gain the attention she sought, he made sure she was punished for not being open with him instead of the acts she resorted to.
That was not always possible when her health or safety was at risk.
These days, when Quinn was out of town and she was not hard at work, she was planning the wedding or playing hard with her friends.
That was the situation she found herself in today.
One of those times came while Quinn loaned out to the Forest Service.
He returned from the service loan out during forest fire season.
It was the first time Quinn had left since they had been engaged.
He encouraged Cheyenne to visit her friends more than she had recently.
That little harmless encouragement found Quinn when he returned early to surprise her, going on an intense search through the woods for his woman.
“She’s not here, dear. I don’t know where she is,” replied Mrs. Sterling when Quinn landed on her doorstep, having been unsuccessful so far. “Have you tried her phone?”
“Yes, it goes to voice mail. What time did she leave this morning?”
“Oh, she must have forgotten to charge it. She didn’t go today, though, she left yesterday.
She said something about going out with her friends.
She’s done this enough times that I don’t worry.
She usually calls about two days later.” Mrs. Sterling looked at her soon to be son-in-law for a moment.
“Now don’t you get upset because I know she thought you were going to be gone until next week. ”
“I wouldn’t be worried if I could find her to check on her.
Her phone goes straight to voicemail, she left yesterday, you don’t know where she is, and she didn’t leave me a message.
These are all things she and I have talked about before.
If you find her before I do, will you have her call me?
Better yet, you both call me. If I find her first, I’ll let you know. ”
“Well, all right, dear, but don’t get too worked up over it. This is typical for Cheyenne. Or it was until she found you.”
Quinn called home to check and see if she had called yet, but he knew she hadn’t.
His mother would have let him know right away.
Before leaving on this Forest Service trip, he moved back in with his parents.
His lease was up, and he expected to be married before the end of another lease year, so saving money and making his life easier was a smart move.
Unfortunately, Cheyenne’s lease wasn’t up this summer, and so she stayed in her own place unprotected. Unmonitored. He called Josh and had him ask his submissive Sue if she heard anything, and neither had. Lunch was over, so he went back to her office and found Jacquie back in her appointed spot.
Jacquie Blakely and her husband, Ace, were members of The Sting and had become good friends.
Ace was a corporate attorney who assisted in creating the different types of contract templates for the club and was its sole attorney.
He also worked with the O’Connors to incorporate, allowing all of their various businesses to come under one umbrella.
He had agreed to take on Cheyenne’s business over a year ago after Jacquie had started as her assistant and told Quinn that Cheyenne didn’t think she needed an attorney.
“You can have a different attorney, but you need to have one you identify with. I hope you never need one for more than mundane things, but if you do, you’ll know whom to call. Are we good, Miss Sterling?”
“Yes, fine, but it’s my business, why did you call Quinn? Isn’t that a breach of some kind?”
“Nope. He’s my client, but you were not at the time I spoke to him. He brought you up, I just steered the conversation after that.”
“I think that’s pushing it but thank you. I still say I’ll never need you.”
He grinned and shrugged his victory. “Great. I’m busy enough.” He kissed her cheek, and the deal was struck. She had a corporate attorney at her disposal. That sounded nice, the at your beck and call part, anyway.
“Jacquie, have you seen Cheyenne?”
“You’re back early. No, Cheyenne went on a trip with a few of her friends.
It surprised me because I didn’t think some of her friends would go anywhere there wasn’t a nail salon and a bar.
Why?” Jacquie looked at Quinn for a moment, and her eyes grew round.
“She didn’t tell you? Surely she left you a message.
Are you sure? That doesn’t sound like her. Here let me call her cell.”
Quinn didn’t tell her that he had already tried. He let her call and watched as her brows drew tight across her now furrowed forehead.
“Did she tell you anything about where or what they were going to do?”
“Well, I did help her look at the map. They were camping. I told her it was too dry to have an open fire, and she said she would get a camp stove, and she had a lantern. I mean, isn’t that what you’ve been doing?
Fighting forest fires this last month?” She waited until he nodded his head, and then, satisfied, she continued, “Here, let me get the map we were looking at.”
Quinn stalked out of the office with Cheyenne’s three choices on the map that Jacquie had used and slammed into his truck.
He stopped for a radio in case he couldn’t find her easily and a few supplies in case it took longer than he expected.
At least she’d chosen a spot that was on the established trail if she did choose one of them.
The first camping area was lightly populated, probably due to bear sighting posters strategically located on trees, and he felt sure she would not have stayed to see if she was one of the unlucky campers who ran into one.
The second site was close to full, and it took him about two hours to comb the area well enough to decide she hadn’t set up on a spot here either.
The sun was low in the sky, and by the third site, he knew he would have to pitch a tent for the night.
The sky was brighter than normal, and he immediately left the site uninvestigated to check out the horizon.
His gut clenched in fear that the brightness was not a good sign.
The color was off. He ran to call the ranger shack and the fire department to let them know.
As he was talking to the latter, he saw the blackening edges of the sky and his worst fears were confirmed.
Fire. Giving his coordinates the best he could, he described the fire’s estimated area.
Damn, he had to find Cheyenne and her friends now.
He was anticipating starting a fire of his own soon.
The third site was more secluded and appeared to have the least amount of disturbance from man, but it also didn’t seem to house one, Cheyenne Sterling.
She needs a spanking. She needs a plug, a spanking, and a keeper.
Ignoring the fact that he was her assigned keeper didn’t avoid his need to protect.
It hit harder. Worry escalated every moment he knew there was a fire a few miles away, and he didn’t have any idea where she was.
Now, as he was almost done checking out the third area, and his light all but gone, he could feel a sense of urgency.
Frustration soon bled into more intense worry and no small amount of fear.
His family was too far away to call on and Quinn knew, for the first time since he found Cheyenne, that he needed his family close for scary times like these.
He had arrogantly decided his brothers were the only ones who would need backup.
Realization he couldn’t be an island because now he had Cheyenne was a bitter pill to swallow.
One he wouldn’t have to swallow again. He learned from his mistakes.
He was not one to panic, but he had never lost the love of his life before, and this was at least day two.
When Quinn found her, he would make sure he didn’t lose her again because he was going to light up her sassy little ass to glowing and tie her to his wrist. First, he had to find her. He was rethinking her need for friends.
Calling her cell phone wasn’t the answer, as its signal, for some reason, wasn’t going through.
He became more and more frustrated when he kept going directly to voicemail.
Quinn slammed back in his truck and leaned over the steering wheel.
Where could she have gone? And with whom?
He knew he should have paid more attention to her vanilla friends, but he just didn’t know them, and it was too late to kick his own ass over it. Think, man.
Then he remembered that the first time Cheyenne had gone to The Sting, she had come with some friends who had received an invitation from a member.
He didn’t know who that member was, but he was sure they would have signed in together.
He grabbed his cell once again and prayed he could recognize any of the surrounding names to her name that night.
Calling Josh, he apprised him of the situation and the roster names. He hung up so Josh could pull the information from that fateful visit. It had been a while, so he needed to dig a little. While waiting, Quinn kept a close eye on the area where he had first seen the smoke, watching it grow.
As the light diminished and the sky became too dark for him to track the progress, he called for an update.
The worry that infiltrated his mind made keeping his wits about him increasingly difficult.
He wanted to put on the mantle of analytical thinking but was not even close to shutting out his fears for Cheyenne and her friends.
Maybe she would see the orange light and pack up. It was a hope.
It took a while to get the information on the fire sighting.
After being put on hold and transferred several times, Quinn was relieved to know it was almost under control, almost but not quite and that meant there was still potential for disaster.
A campfire had gotten out of hand. He didn’t envy the chewing out and the fine that camper had incurred.
Quinn’s cell rang as he contemplated the question of what he would do if this last call didn’t help; disconnecting the call on accident the first time, he tried to answer it. Giving himself a pep talk, he stayed calm as he hit accept on the phone the second time.
“Hey, buddy, did you hang up on me?”
“Sorry, it was an accident. What did you find out?”
“I asked Susie, and she’s sorry, but she didn’t know anything about it. Now, Ashley Reynolds and Megan Martin were the names listed on either side of Cheyenne’s name that night.”
“Yes, and Ashley and her boyfriend Richard have just become full members recently. Can you give me the numbers?”
“I can do you one better. I called Richard, and he said that Ashley was with Cheyenne, but he thought they were at Cheyenne’s apartment, not out camping during high fire risk warnings.
He tried her but was unable to get through.
He said to share the numbers with you and if you can get through, great.
As soon as one of you gets through, let the other one know.
” Task complete, Josh chuckled. “Looks like there is going to be more than a risk of setting the woods on fire when those girls are found.”
Quinn grunted.
“How are you holding up, man?”
“Not good. I’m beat, actually. I came home early and thought I would surprise Cheyenne.
We could have a lazy day in each other’s company.
Now I’ve spent all afternoon and evening looking for her.
Instead of relaxing, I’m keyed up.” Going on to explain that he had resolved he would find her, but wishing he could be as nonchalant as her mother was about it all.
“I haven’t even stopped to eat. Discovering she could be in danger from the fire that thankfully hasn’t turned into a full-blown scorcher, yet anyway, took my appetite.
” He paused to take a breath, “and I’m scared to death that something is wrong. Some kind of deputy I am.”
They spoke for a few more minutes as Josh sat and listened to his friend who rarely gave away any of his secrets, professional or personal, spewed his anger and irritation wrapped in real worry for Cheyenne.
Quinn thanked Josh and promised to call when he heard anything.
He tried the cell once more to no avail and so set up camp, ate the food he had brought in case of an overnight stay, made sure the fire was contained and fell into a restless sleep.
At first light, Quinn tried Ashley’s cell and thought he heard a phone ring in the quiet distance when he dialed.
Walking in the direction of the abbreviated ring, he crossed a ridge and looked around.
Nothing there, but just before he called again, he heard, rather than saw, Cheyenne and her distinctive tinkling laugh.
He followed the sound. It led him further than the established sites, but not so far into the woods as to be unlikely that someone would camp there.
Breathing a sigh of relief that he had found her and she was safe, he continued to walk back into the trees.