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The fire in the pit roared outside the cabin. Quint sat on an upright log and stared into the flames. Bad news had brought Will over to discuss the details.
His hope that their enemies had backed off for the rest of summer died.
First the dead dog in the tent on his property. Now Will's place had been broken into.
"Maybe it was some kids, looking for someplace to smoke their weed and have sex." Quint dug the heel of his boot into the dirt. "You have rifles and fishing equipment worth thousands. For nothing to be taken, it doesn't make sense."
"Bullshit. It makes sense." Will toed the river rock keeping the fire contained. "Jaster and McCloud are still alive, and they're still after us. They were looking for me, and if we don't take control of the situation, each one of us will be up on the mountain, right beside Joney and Two-crow."
The front of him burned from the heat of the fire. He stood and stepped away from the pit.
"Have you forgotten about the dog left for you?" asked Will.
"I haven't forgotten shit." He had more pressing problems. Like, burying a dead man, keeping Katelynn's mouth shut, and dealing with her moving out of the cabin to live in a fucking tent. Through the shitstorm of his life, Katelynn appeared happy to be living in the rough and showering with the half a dozen women who used the community showers.
The sound of 4-stroke engines coming down the side of the mountain gave him an excuse to ignore Will's question. He turned and watched as the headlights from Anders' and Mark's quads came toward him.
Thankful Anders left Iliana at the Lair, Quint preferred to keep all threats within their circle. Knowing Anders wanted to protect Iliana after she'd almost lost her life over the winter when Jaster got too close to day-to-day life at the Lair, he wasn't surprised that his friend came alone.
Anders walked to the fire and held his hands in front of the flames. "Have you guys come up with a plan?"
They had no fucking plan. Quint crossed his arms and waited for Will to give his suggestion first.
"They're not giving us a break." Will squatted beside the pit. "We're used to them showing up and then stepping away, sometimes going years without a sign of them. Since last summer, it's one damn thing after another, and we've lost Two-crow, almost lost Iliana. I'm not going to sit back and wait to lose another one of us."
Anders tucked his hands under his armpits. "Without Two-crow here to help us investigate and try to track them down—which we've found doesn't always work—how the hell do we go after them if we don't know where they are?"
"We wait until they come to us, and we prepare ourselves. We can't hesitate. Not anymore." Mark continued to sit on his ATV and stay away from the fire.
Quint shook his head. "I can't allow that here."
He had almost a hundred guests at the campground, plus Katelynn and his employees. Letting Jaster and McCloud come to him would put the others in danger. He'd already lost one employee that was mistaken for him.
"Drawing them out doesn't work," said Anders. "Look what happened last time we tried that route."
Quint closed his eyes an extra beat. "We're fucked."
"None of us can pack up and head out after them." Will rubbed the back of his neck. "I've got an excursion starting this weekend. I'll be gone for seven days."
They all had obligations and businesses to run. He wasn't willing to give up, to take his fate. Katelynn needed his protection. He wasn't ready to die yet.
"There's nothing we can do, but wait and hope like hell we come out alive." Will kicked out at the rock.
"Katelynn's in the campground, sleeping in a tent. If Jaster and McCloud are watching me, they know she was staying with me. They could use her the same way they had Iliana." Quint looked to Anders, hoping he'd have the answers to how he could protect her.
"Put her in your cabin," said Anders.
"She wants her freedom after having dealt with Miller. I agree with her. She needs to stand up on her own." Quint reached into his back pocket for his pack of cigarettes and lit one, blowing out a stream of smoke. "To bring her back to the cabin, I'd need to have a damn good excuse and right now, I'm running on empty, trying to get her settled after the murder. I add our enemies on top of everything else she's dealing with, she's going to run to the closest phone and call 911, and I wouldn't blame her."
"Do you care for her?" asked Will.
He grunted. "I care about my freedom."
To bring her into his life, she'd become a liability. While Anders and Iliana seemed to have worked through their relationship, and his friend was okay with putting his girlfriend in a position where he had to protect her, Quint wasn't feeling the same about Katelynn.
He cared about her. He was attracted to her. But she had her own set of troubles. He only wanted to make sure they both remained free and alive.
"I'll figure out something," he mumbled.
Hell, for how many times he'd walked over to the loop where the tent campers stayed, he wasn't surprised one of the other guests hadn't questioned him on what he was doing creeping around the area throughout the night.
***
KATELYNN'S NOSE ITCHED. She turned her head on the pillow and pulled the sleeping bag up around her ears. For the last five nights, the pesky mosquitos were determined to mark every part of her body.
A tickle developed on the back of her head. Groaning, she lifted the nylon stuffed bag clear over her. It was barely daylight. Work started at nine o'clock.
"Katelynn?" whispered a male voice.
Her eyes popped open, and she held her breath. Had she dreamed someone calling her name?
"Hey, wake up." A hand grabbed her shoulder through the bag. "Katelynn?"
"Quint?" she whispered, her heart racing.
"Yeah."
She peeked her head out from under the sleeping bag and caught his familiar shape inside the tent. "What are you doing in here?"
"I came to get you, and bring you to the cabin." He lowered his head. "Are you awake?"
"Wide awake." She sat up and slipped the hood from her sweatshirt over her hair, hiding her face from him.
If she learned one thing, camping in the chilly night air amongst bugs, mysterious sounds, and broken sleep made bags under her eyes, and her hair snarled from all the tossing and turning on the hard ground.
"You've got an hour before you need to be at headquarters. You can shower and get ready at the cabin. I'll dismantle the camp and bring your things." He crawled backward out of the two-person tent.
"Wait." She rubbed her hand over her eyes. "Why am I leaving the tent?"
"Mosquitos." Quint ducked through the flap and left.
"Mosquitos?" She crawled out from the sleeping bag and stuck her head through the opening. Looking around for Quint, she found him pulling up the stake at the corner of the nylon tent. "What do you mean Mosquitos?"
"I need to spray this area with bug killer, or the swarms are going to get too large. The guests will start complaining, and it looks like most are coming from that area over there." He pointed over his shoulder to the woods. "That means we have to keep this spot vacant for the next two weeks...or until we see a decline in the number of mosquitos. I might have to spray twice. It's not good to breathe that shit or get it on your body."
"Are you serious?" She sat back on her butt and used the tent flaps to block her body from the bugs.
The number of insect bites she'd received was a lot, but she thought the irritation came as a typical drawback to sleeping outside. Thank goodness, Quint gave her a tent, heavier clothes, and a spray to use before she started camping or she'd look like some polka dotted freak.
"It's routine." He glanced at her. "Happens every summer around this time in different areas. Water pools up along the river and in the dips in the forest and Mosquitos lay eggs like crazy."
"Can't I move the tent to a different spot?"
He shook his head. "We have reservations coming in, and summer gets busy. I'd rather keep the sites open for paying guests."
"But..." She pulled her head back and looked for her shoes, grabbing the new pair Iliana had brought over with the supply of clothes she needed for work at the campground.
Over the last several days, she'd studied the reservation book, and while the campground stayed busy, it wasn't booked full. Quint even told her never to reserve all the spots in the different loops, because they needed to make room for those who show up without putting a deposit down first.
She scrambled out of the tent and stood, stretching her stiff back.
"Go ahead and go to the cabin. The door's unlocked," he said.
Stepping away, she stopped. "Can I put the tent in your yard?"
Moving back inside with him made her nervous. The first time, she'd been thankful to have him around. He was the only one who knew what she'd done, and the support helped her, even though at the time, she hadn't known how grateful she was to have someone beside her. Now that she kept herself busy during the day working in the office, she became highly aware of him around her.
"Can't. Bears." He reached in and grabbed her sleeping bag.
Using his tall body, he rolled the material down his broad chest, slim hips, and strong thighs. She jerked her gaze up to his face and caught him looking at her. The morning chill left her body.
Lately, it'd become apparent how big Quint was compared to most men. He could reach the top shelf in headquarters without using a stool to get the kerosene bottles. He could walk clear around the longest loop, for full-hookups, in less time than she could because of his longer legs.
Yesterday, he even reached over her head to swat away the spider that'd woven a web above her in the branch of a pine tree when he'd walked her to her tent.
She cleared her throat. "You have bears in your yard?"
"Sometimes." He Bungee strapped the bag to his ATV. "There's a trail through my yard from them. They come from higher on the mountain and sniff out the campsites."
There were campground rules about keeping food items contained and bear proof. She eyed the deflated tent. The material would be no match for a bear's claws.
"Can I sleep on your porch?" she asked.
Quint stopped what he was doing and came toward her. "Why don't you want to stay in the cabin?"
Put on the spot, she backed away. "Nevermind. I'll stay with you. I mean, in the cabin."
Turning around, she hurried around the loop. Perspiration broke out on her forehead. There was no simple reason behind anything she said and did around Quint lately.
With the added distance of staying in the tent and working, she'd been able to learn more about him. In his late forties, he had the respect of his employees. And, it was those employees that told her everything she needed to know without her asking them.
Quint demanded respect from those who worked for him and his guests—rightly so, he was the boss. J.T. mentioned that Quint was almost a hermit, staying in his cabin when he wasn't working, and he suspected the last woman who worked in the office had tried to see inside his cabin—if she knew what he'd meant—which she had.
For some reason, thinking about a woman putting the moves on Quint bothered her. She was beginning to think of Quint differently. It felt a lot like she had a bit of hero worshipping going on.