by Cara Adams
She really hoped the attorney talked George out of his actions. Harry Harrison hadn’t turned up any information yet about George’s financial state of affairs, according to Oscar, and that was interesting. It was very easy to find out a person’s credit rating if an investigator knew what questions to ask. And Harry most definitely knew what questions to ask and to whom to ask them. Oh well, she really couldn’t waste her time on that case anymore. It was not up to her to do anything on it now. And there were myriad other cases needing her attention. Besides, if she was to make partner on schedule she needed to get out to a few important events where she could meet the movers and shakers and moneymakers of this town.
Sierra flicked through her calendar looking for invitations to gala events. There was nothing for three weeks. Quickly she highlighted the gala and colored it green for “must attend” and flicked a note to her secretary to accept it please. She was about to hit Send then she wondered if she was allowed to bring a guest. Did she want to bring a guest? Well, two guests? She usually only took a partner when one was actively needed, when to be alone would reflect poorly on herself. But this time she rather liked the idea of appearing with two such handsome men and having some time to talk to them. As long as no one guessed she was fucking them both. Surely no one would think of that in their wildest dreams. They’d assume the men were like the young lawyer who partnered her sometimes. That they were colleagues and friends, nothing more, just someone happy to be a partner for official occasions, not someone she was in a relationship with.
No, she wouldn’t bring them. Apart from the risk someone might think they were in a ménage relationship, if she did bring them it would destroy the effect of her networking. She’d want to dance with them and talk to them, when she needed to be out meeting new clients and making herself known. But that was a weird few moments in her life. It’d been many years since she’d actively thought about inviting a friend—well two friends in this case—to a party with her. She was usually quite the other way around, annoyed when she had to bring someone with her.
It was interesting. She really did like them and want to spend time with them. But not to the detriment of her career ambitions. No way.
* * * *
Saturday 9:00 a.m. Wear workout clothes. Bring a change of casual clothes.
Fergus sent the text message to Sierra and Cam then sat back and relaxed. It was all planned, organized, and ready to go. He’d gotten quite friendly with Sierra’s secretary. He’d used Ambrielle, the clinic’s office manager, to contact her the first time, but had been talking directly to her for several weeks now, planning their dates around Sierra’s court appointments. This next date had been more difficult to organize because it needed to take place in daylight and it had to be either a day when he and Cam weren’t working or at least one when they could swap shifts with some of the other nurses. Since the clinic was very small, two of them needing to be off on the same day would have been hard to arrange. Fortunately Sierra had no urgent cases coming soon, so Saturday worked for them all.
The days flew by until Saturday. They’d agreed to meet at Sierra’s apartment as Cam could leave his car there all day in a visitor’s parking space. Shortly before nine Fergus drove down into the basement, two levels down as she’d told him, and over to the south wall. Sure enough she was leaning against the wall beside two empty parking spaces. He pulled into one and jumped out, popping the trunk of his car. He picked up a small backpack and dropped it into the trunk. “That’s all?” he asked.
“You said casual clothes, right, so that should be all I need.”
Yes, that made sense. She’d read the instructions and been organized about what she wanted. She wasn’t the kind of woman who needed to take three pairs of shoes with her in case she changed her mind. He liked that about her. He appreciated a woman dressed in sexy shoes as much as the next man did, but he also liked a woman who didn’t make him late for an appointment by not being able to decide which outfit to wear. He guessed in her job if she’d been late too often she’d have been unemployed. Keeping the judge waiting would be just as fatal to her career as being late to work could be in a factory.
He hadn’t even had time to shut the lid of the trunk before Cam arrived, parking his car beside Fergus’s and jumping out, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He dropped the duffel into the trunk of Fergus’s car beside Sierra’s backpack and Fergus’s own larger soft-sided carry bag, then Cam leaned over and kissed Sierra on the cheek. “Hi, gorgeous.”
Fergus blinked and slammed the trunk shut. It hadn’t even occurred to him to kiss Sierra or to call her by a pet name, but the fact that Cam did it so naturally shouted at how Cam felt about her. That was information he needed to know. Sierra didn’t back away or remonstrate with Cam either, and although that may have simply been her training, since they were basically alone in a parking lot, he thought she’d have said something if she disapproved.
Fascinating indeed.
“How about you ride in front with me this time, Sierra, and Cam goes in the back,” he suggested.
“The death seat? I’m just as happy for Cam to sit there.”
“Death seat?” asked Fergus.
“And you a nurse, too. If one passenger in a car is killed in a traffic accident, it’s way more likely to be the person sitting beside the driver than anyone else. And that includes idiots travelling in the tray of a truck as well as everyone being good and wearing their seat belt,” Sierra explained. Nevertheless, she sat where he’d suggested and he was pulling out of the parking lot by the time she’d finished talking.
Cam asked her some questions and that left Fergus free to concentrate on making his way out of town, around a maze of on and off ramps, to the interstate, and then onto the small two-lane road he needed to take them to their destination.
“This is the middle of nowhere. Where are we going?” asked Cam suddenly.
“Blue Quarry.”
Fergus flicked his gaze from Cam in the rear view mirror to Sierra beside him. It didn’t appear as though either of them had heard of the place. That was good. He was pretty sure they’d never guess the full extent of what he’d planned for the morning, but if they didn’t know about it at all so much the better.
“What’s at Blue Quarry, or should I Google it?” asked Sierra.
“Amazing scenery, for a start. I thought we’d go up to the top of the sand dunes and look out over it, then go down to the rim,” he said, carefully not mentioning how they were going to do any of those things, or how they’d get back, either. Sierra was an attorney. Would she be in relaxed Saturday mode, or would she question him?
It seemed her brain was in vacation mode as they talked about other pretty scenery they’d visited, and neither Cam nor Sierra interrogated him about his plans for the day. Good!
There was no sign at the turnoff road to the quarry, but Fergus had expected that. The local people knew about it, and fitness boot-camp classes came here regularly, but it wasn’t a tourist attraction, although the view from the top was worthy of it being known as such.
He bumped his car down a long, windy dirt track, stopping at a graveled parking area. No other cars were parked there, which pleased him. The boot-camp people, if they came, were usually here at dawn, rushing to do their run and get back to the regular day’s activities.
Both Sierra and Cam got out of the car quickly, eager to look around. So far so good. He led them down a narrow, sandy track until they could see a row of sand dunes ahead of them. The walking track wound along at the base of the dunes, but that wasn’t the way he intended them to get there.
“Have either of you been dune jumping before?” Fergus asked, his gaze on their faces.
He saw a flash of surprise on Sierra’s face but no negativity. Cam just looked a bit puzzled. “What’s dune jumping?”
“Exactly what it says. The person runs along the dunes and jumps from one to the next. It’s damn hard work,” said Sierra.
“But it’s better than a r
opes course, right?” Cam teased her.
Sierra smiled. “At least if I fall I’ll be landing on sand and it won’t hurt much.”
“Have you done it before?” asked Fergus.
“Yes, but it was at least ten years ago, no twelve years ago, and I was ten or twelve pounds lighter back then,” she said.
“Well pity me then. Not only haven’t I done it before, I’d never even heard of it until now,” said Cam.
Fergus thought he’d better explain for Cam. It wouldn’t hurt for Sierra to hear it all again if it was that long since she’d last done it, either. “The best way to get up the dune is to run as fast as you can, and on a forty-five degree angle. When you’re on the top of it you can go as slowly as you wish, but you need to judge the gap to the next dune and make sure you’re running fast enough to make the jump from dune to dune. These dunes are wonderful for jumping because they’re so close together. It’s an easy jump each time. I’ll go up the first one ahead of you both, to demonstrate, but then I’ll go last to pick either of you up if you fall.”
“Well thanks for that vote of no confidence,” groaned Cam.
Sierra laughed. “It’s fun. At least as I remember it, it was fun. Maybe now I’m older it won’t be quite so exciting.”
He led them across the base of the first dune. From the bottom he knew it looked like a hell of a long way up, but it wasn’t really that bad. The only real tricks involved were running fast, not slowing down at all on the way up, and maintaining the forty-five-degree angle. It was much easier than trying to go straight up.
“Wait until I get to the top, then come on up,” Fergus said.
He walked back down the track maybe one hundred feet, then sprinted toward the dune. He’d already chosen the path he intended to take. Not that a bare dune exactly had a path, but more that he planned to reach the top about two-thirds of the way along it.
He hit the sand running hard, knowing it would pull at his feet and that it was essential he go faster, not slower when that happened. He pumped his arms to help him maintain his balance and looked ahead, not at his feet. He could feel his speed slowing but couldn’t make himself move any faster. Luckily he knew he’d still have enough power to make it to the top.
He crested the top of the dune and slowed his pace, just running a few more steps to keep his balance. Then he turned and waved at Cam and Sierra down at the foot of the dune. Together they moved back to where he’d started running.
He guessed Sierra would come up next. For a start, she was very competitive, but also he knew Cam wouldn’t want her left alone down on the ground while they were both up here.
Exactly as he’d predicted, Sierra took off running toward the dune. She was wearing bright yellow shorts and a lime-green T-shirt and she absolutely flew across the ground, faster than he’d run he was sure, despite her being a human female and him a male wolf.
She landed on the dune about three feet before he’d done, and he noticed she kept her gaze on the top of the dune where he’d finished. She’s copying my line of approach. Very sensible.
She slowed down a bit then sped up again. She’d obviously not anticipated the drag from the sand under her feet, but she overcame it well. By the time she reached the top her face was red and her mouth a tight line, but she was still moving reasonably fast and there was no likelihood of her failing. She stopped at the top and raised her arm in the air in a victory salute.
“Well done!”
“It was harder than I remembered, but it feels really good to be up here.” Her breathing was heavy but not labored, so she’d done extremely well indeed.
Sierra stood beside Fergus and they watched Cam.
He ran fast, although not as fast as either of them, and bogged down about one-third of the way up the dune. Fergus managed not to laugh, but was about to call down some advice when he noticed Cam laughing. Okay, the man was taking it well.
Cam almost rolled down the dune, dusted himself off, and walked back to the start again.
This time he moved a lot faster, but his angle of attack was incorrect. He made it about two-thirds of the way before he bogged. Sierra was laughing as well this time. “Having a bit of difficulty there, Cam,” she teased.
“I can fix the problem.”
Fergus watched as Cam took off his shoes and tossed them up onto the top of the dune.
“Will bare feet really help him?” Sierra asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
This time Cam moved much faster than any of them had before. He ran up the dune between Fergus’s tracks and Sierra’s tracks and arrived breathless at the top. “Third time’s the charm,” he panted.
“Well done,” said Sierra.
They sat for a while on the top of the first dune, admiring the view, which was stunning. On one side of the dune there was sandy soil with a few sparse trees and bushes growing out of it, and on the other there was almost a forest.
“What an amazing geological formation this is,” said Sierra.
“It’d be interesting to know what they took out of the quarry. Was it sand?” asked Cam.
“No, limestone, but there was only the one area that was worth mining, and that was over fifty years ago now. Are you ready to start jumping?” asked Fergus.
“Sure,” said Sierra. Cam nodded.
“Okay, we’ll walk up to the end so you can take a good look at it. Do you want me to do the first jump ahead of you so you can watch me, or would you rather do your own thing?” he asked, thinking of Cam’s three tries before he got up the dune.
But it was Sierra who answered. “It might be good to watch you first.”
Fergus looked at Cam and he nodded, so they all walked to the end of the dune together.
Fergus pointed out what they needed to watch for. “You need a clear run up to takeoff, then a bit of clear space to land. You don’t want to have to limit yourself because of rocks or something. This next one is pretty easy. Anywhere along here would do,” he said, pointing.
It wasn’t a big gap. None of these dunes was very far from the next one. They were all easy jumps with a good run up to them. He walked back along the ridge for half a dozen steps then ran to the end and jumped. There was a momentary adrenaline surge at the feeling of flying through the air, then he landed, took a couple of steps, and turned around, moving out of Sierra and Cam’s way. Both of them jumped like champions, with no dramas.
Companionably they walked along the next ridge, then jumped to the third, and on to the fourth, and then the fifth. Each time he loved the feeling of being in the air. Each time it ended all too soon. He was almost sad as they reached the end of the final dune, but he knew what he’d planned next and that should be a pure adrenaline fix for them all.
They stood and looked out over the quarry. ‘Wow. No wonder it’s called the Blue Quarry. I’ve never seen such blue water,” said Sierra.
“I reckon that’s because it’s very deep,” said Cam.
“Yes, over a hundred feet in the middle, but much shallower at the sides of course,” said Fergus.
Once again he watched their faces, but there was no sign of fear, only amazement and wonder at the beauty of the scene spread out before them. He took them to the edge of the dune, which overhung the quarry.
“Now we jump off the dune and land in the water,” Fergus said.
* * * *
“You’re not fucking serious? You just said it was one hundred fucking feet deep.” Either Fergus was insane, or he thought she was. No way was Sierra jumping into that lake.
“Don’t tell me you can’t swim?”
Sierra wasn’t sure, but she thought the incredulous tone in Fergus’s voice was genuine. For a moment she almost considered saying she couldn’t swim, just to show him that he wasn’t infallible in his guesswork. But that wouldn’t be fair. She could swim, certainly far enough to get from wherever she landed in the lake, which was sure to be fairly close to the edge, over to the side. It’s just that they were a hell of a long wa
y up in the air on this dune, and one hundred feet deep was a hell of a long way under the water.
“Of course I can swim. But I’m not at all eager to jump from here into a lake that’s so very deep.”
“When you were a kid, didn’t you ever swing from a rope or a tree branch out over a lake and drop into it?” asked Fergus.
“Sure. That was a drop of maybe six or seven feet into water likely not even four feet deep.”
“It’s no different, Sierra. Because you’re higher up, the water needs to be deeper for you to land in it, well, unless you’re an expert diver. But it’s just a matter of holding your breath. You’ll bounce straight up to the top again in no time,” said Cam.
“You knew about this?” Sierra was astounded. She’d thought he was as unaware of what was planned for today as she was.
“If I’d known about it I’d have practiced running up sand dunes instead of making an idiot of myself. But I have jumped into lakes before, and off diving boards at swimming pools. You’ll enjoy it, truly you will.”
Sure I will, you goatish, fly-bitten maggot pie. Pies. Both of you.
“You go first, Cam. You need to jump out a bit so your body doesn’t hit the side of the dune on the way down. Once you come up from the water you’ll see where to climb out of the lake. It’s pretty much directly under where we’re standing now.”
Sierra looked from Fergus, who was speaking, to Cam. Both of them looked as excited as if someone had offered them free chocolate. Evidently they couldn’t wait to jump into the water.
Sierra forced herself to take a deep breath. She had enjoyed the dune jumping. It was fun. She’d enjoyed just being with the men, spending time with them. And the views from up here were really pretty. I guess I’ll enjoy the jump into the lake, too.
Sierra concentrated and took several more deep breaths, aerating her lungs fully, while Cam took a step toward the edge of the dune, and jumped, screaming, “Ye haw!” as he went.
She shook her head. Boys will be boys. But she realized these men were not like some of the aggressively and violently competitive men she’d met through her work situation. The ones who thought spiking a woman’s drink was a perfectly reasonable means of getting her into bed, or just putting her out of action so she wasn’t competing with them for the clients that night. No, these two men were ensuring she was looked after, keen she did everything at her own level of ability, although they expected her to achieve it. Actually that was a key difference. They expected her to succeed. They weren’t hoping she would fail and determined to engineer her failure if it looked as though she’d succeed.