“How are you doing, hon?” He reached down to help pull Cheyenne to her feet from the chair she had not left. “I’m sorry I spouted off at you. It was wrong of me. I was scared for you and what could have happened.”
Cheyenne accepted the help, and once she was standing upright again, she shrugged her shoulders with what she hoped was a dismissing movement.
“Fine, I guess.”
“I know, stupid question. You couldn’t be fine. This is a pretty mess isn’t?” Ciarán indicated with a sweep of his hand the whole of the office disaster. He leaned over and kissed Cheyenne on the top of the head, hugging her into him as only a brother could.
“Ciarán… I don’t know what to do. I don’t know why this is turned into such a big deal. All I was doing was putting a man’s books back together and just doing what I do for other people, accounting. I’m so sorry. I didn’t have any idea that this would happen, not here on the ranch. Not right under our noses.”
“Well, under my nose because your nose was in town.” He tousled her hair in teasing mode to help her relax. “I know, honey. I think I hear Liam coming up now. Shane hadn’t left yet. He was going to leave first thing in the morning, so I’m sure Liam is bringing him along, too. Quinn will get here when he can, but he sent the sheriff’s department out so they should be coming up here in a little bit.” Ciarán straightened up, kissed the top of her head again, and patted her on the shoulder, “Come on. Let’s greet them at the door.”
“Liam is fiercer than you are.”
“And? Beag amháin you married the O’Connor Tasmanian devil, I don’t think Liam will be a problem.” Ciarán chuckled at the absurdity.
She shrugged her shoulders. “You all say that, but Quinn isn’t that way with me.”
“And Jocelyn says that about Liam so don’t worry, huh?” he encouraged as they approached the front door.
“I guess you’re right. At least Shane is with him. He’ll protect me.”
“Hey,” Ciarán tapped his chest, “what about me?”
“Yeah, I think you’re over your growling tonight. Kind of what Shane told me before when he was the first on the scene in Sheridan when I was stranded. He didn’t have to be the heavy, that was Quinn’s job so he could be the good brother.” She smiled nervously as he laughed heartily, opening the door as the two brothers stepped on the porch.
Cheyenne tried to move back out of the circle of Ciarán’s protective arm and found that his arm was as unyielding as Quinn’s was. Liam stepped up first and hesitated on the threshold enough to reach for Cheyenne and draw her to his chest.
He whispered somewhat fiercely, “Are you okay, ghra?” She mutely nodded.
He squeezed her tight and then rubbed her back as he stepped passed and handed her to the next brother. Shane, true to form, gently gathered her up and swept her along with him. He was the unofficial comforter now and Ciarán, his duty accomplished, went into the Irish clansman warrior stance and stalked back to the demolished room with Liam.
Cheyenne had learned the O’Connors well enough over the last few years to know that her best course of action was to stand back and let the men process the events. Once Shane had made sure she could be left without someone’s strong arms around her at all times, he kissed her cheek, righted the second overturned office chair and sat her in it. He stood and massaged her back for a few more moments before stepping away to add his thoughts to the mix.
They processed so well, and their concentration was so intense that they didn’t even notice she wasn’t in the midst of them until there was a pause in their conversation. They had taken a break from their discussion of alarm systems to look around. The men seemed to simultaneously remember they had not checked on her recently. Shane, who had less experience with stressors such as this than his other brothers, mostly because he had a less adventuresome wife, looked around for Cheyenne first and called to her with a voice full of concern.
Cheyenne had walked out to the back porch trying to get some air, leaving her brothers-in-law alone to work through whatever it was they were working through and to help give her some focus before her husband showed up. She thought about what went wrong and wondered how deep this issue went at Spencer’s Spread. Surely, there wasn’t so much money to be made, skimming off the repayments of those entrepreneur loans that someone was willing to, in essence, threaten her life or go to jail if caught.
Someone was so worried that she would find things the crooks did not want her to find, that they would make such a strong statement as destroying both of her home offices. She hadn’t looked in the second room assuming it was just her office. Ciarán had discovered the second office but Liam brought it to her attention.
“Did you know they got Quinn’s office as well?”
“What? Oh, no. He is going to freak out.” Tears filled her eyes again.
“First, he’s going to be happy you are perfectly safe and unharmed. Then he’s going to be pissed. And finally, we are now going to get things done.” Liam appeared almost more relaxed now that he knew this was going to up the game.
On the ranch, where she had felt she was safe from everything. It was a dangerous behavior to mess with the O’Connors. Most people around here wanted to be on their good side. That knowledge caused Cheyenne some honest fear. She wondered who would even know that she had taken things home? Well, Martin, Shelby, any of the hands outside the door when she loaded up, Chuck, Jason. She sighed. Everyone at that ranch had the potential of knowing. She felt dirty, violated, and it wasn’t just the offices. They had entered her home, her sanctuary. That is what gave her the chills.
“Cheyenne.”
Cheyenne was still so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear her name called until a hand slid over her shoulder causing her to startle. Then that same hand became two as they slipped onto her shoulders. She felt male hands massage her neck a little to ease the obvious tension she was showing. Still, alarmed Cheyenne froze for a moment and then she identified the comforting massage of those big hands on her tightness. While she couldn’t be sure which of the brothers it was, she knew that one of them was trying to relax her, understanding that this evening had been emotionally stressful on her.
Cheyenne turned to see which brother it was trying to give her comfort and saw Shane. It figures, thought Cheyenne. Shane had the wife who was nurturing, kind, and selfless. All the things that Cheyenne knew she wasn’t. She couldn’t imagine Shane would ever raise his voice.
She looked over at her self-assured brother-in-law and tried to suppress the shiver when she thought of how angry Liam was at the situation. It was not that she thought he was mad at her, she knew he wasn’t, but at his lack of control in an area that he expected to have total control, his ranch. The Circle C and all on it were under his protection, and that protection had fallen short of its goal.
“Liam,” Ciarán reminded, “all the men and the workers feel that they are invested in the welfare and safety of the inhabitants of this ranch. I know you take it more personally. I think we all do, but you have to know you can’t stop everything.”
Cheyenne wasn’t sure Liam would be able to accept his lack of total control. Quinn would take her part in it very seriously. Personally, she knew, but he would never think that Liam had neglected details. That was why all the men worked together so that they did the best possible job for the ranch and their families. Besides, while safety was Ciarán’s bailiwick, it was Quinn’s job to upgrade the ranch security. He would interpret it as a personal affront as well and an indication of shortcoming. It would take his attention for quite a while in assessing and upgrading security.
Cheyenne felt comforted by the fact that Liam considered her part of his responsibility to protect, but she was irritated because she felt so much guilt when she did something that might have compromised that protection. She hated to feel guilty. With culpability came her irritation because of her guilt. She reached up and patted one of Shane’s hands in appreciation for his efforts and simultan
eously ending that comfort. She turned and flashed a smile toward this gentle giant and then walked out from under the shelter of his hands into the storm of Liam’s frustration.
Cheyenne sucked in a deep breath slowly letting it out before she looked up into Liam’s eyes. She defied him because she knew he wanted to say so many things to her, and she thought, bring it on. With the challenge delivered and accepted, he began the methodical rundown of asking Cheyenne exactly what happened from the moment Kelli came to the house to the moment Ciarán had walked in the door after she had discovered the trashed office.
Cheyenne tried to shrug it off and said, “I already told Ciarán. I was going stir crazy. Kelli came by. We agreed we could go into town and get some dinner, talk, and be back before either one of you checked on me and hours before Quinn came home.”
Then Kelli’s words spoken earlier in the evening and Cheyenne’s old need to control took over the words coming out of her mouth. “I don’t think you guys understand what it’s like to not be able to do what you need to do. Something as simple as getting into the car and going somewhere becomes a federal offense for all but you O’Connor men. It’s ridiculous.”
Cheyenne’s voice gained strength and so did her gesticulations. You don’t get it because you do it without restrictions. No one ever tells you that you have to go somewhere with another person because they say so. There is never any such thing as being stuck on the ranch, essentially under house arrest like some criminal, because you guys make the rules. None of you gets it. You’re drowning in your own testosterone levels—no, I’m drowning in them.” Her anger was obvious in her stance, words, tone and the clenching of her hands and she kicked the strewn papers around the floor.
Cheyenne continued with a full head of steam, “No one ever tells you that you can’t go in and have lunch with another family member or a friend just because, they are not male. You men simply don’t understand what it’s like to be dictated to about what is acceptable. Normal living is no longer normal. When you self-proclaimed protectors decide it needs to happen, that’s it. There’s no input from any of us mere mortals. No one asked me if it would be okay or if I thought I could deal with all of this. You didn’t understand the implications for me on a daily basis nor did you ask if there were any alternatives to this edict. You didn’t even ask my damn opinion.”
It was silent for a few moments while the words that Cheyenne spoke aloud seeped into everyone’s brain. She heaved her breath and plopped down on the chair. After a few more engorged moments of shock settled in the room, she looked around the room at the men standing as though they had no idea how to respond. Then a red-faced Cheyenne snickered. That was soon followed by some chuckles, and finally, her eyes were full of merriment, and she looked at three very confused almost worried men staring back at her, which made her laugh even more.
Ciarán, obviously having lived with Katie long enough to go to the medical implications first, wondered, “Do you think she’s in shock?”
Shane shook his head. “No, but I’m sure it's too much for her in too short a time, and she probably needs to lie down.”
Liam grumbled. “Why in the world did I ever want to join the ranks of the crazy because I was perfectly happy single?”
His brothers looked at him in disbelief. “You were not. You were miserable,” said Shane.
“Yeah,” said Liam with his head shaking sadly, “but whether I was single or not Cheyenne would still be our sister-in-law, we would still feel obligated to protect her because we love her, and the situation would have been the same. “
“At least this way you get to keep your lovely wife and gorgeous children,” Ciarán pointed out.
Cheyenne thought, So suck it up.
She watched him as he indeed sucked in a deep breath, blew it out, and said, “What has gotten into you, mhuirnín? You’re worrying us.”
Finally, having gained some control of her merriment, Cheyenne held up her right hand to stop all conversation while she pulled it together.
“I’m sorry. It has to be the stress, the worry, and just everything else that’s gone on recently. I want you to believe that I meant every word I said and that it is the absolute truth.” She stopped to give the men a hard look before her face lit up again. “While I was talking and when I had finished what I wanted to say, the last statement that came through my mind was,” Cheyenne curbed the chuckle that tried to rise up again, “Liam, you’re not the boss of me.”
Her eldest brother stood stock still for a moment, then it was plain to all in the room that merriment lit his eyes and the tilt of his lips as the full ridiculousness of it helped to undo some of the tension of the evening and the entire week. “I have heard that before, believe it or not, more than once in fact.” Liam began to laugh releasing a full belly, deep down, rock the house laugh. Ciarán and Shane joined in the laughter, and Cheyenne started to giggle again.
Just as order began to reign in the room and it appeared that Liam was about to take charge, once again, there was a noise at the front steps.
Chapter Seven
“What the hell is going on here?”
Standing in the doorway, arms crossed, intensity and authority rolling off him in waves was Cheyenne’s husband. The look Quinlan O’Connor swept across the room was commanding, in control, and in full dom protective mode. Cheyenne shivered as she looked at her husband, tall, lean, strong and wondered who in their right mind would ever challenge him, especially standing there in full policeman garb. She realized once again that her husband was a big man in every way conceivable.
Nevertheless, that same man standing in front of her, with virility rolling off him, and making eye contact with his wife had an obvious gentleness about him. Also obvious to those who knew him well, was Quinn’s body language that showed he was on complete and full alert. With Cheyenne however, his eyes communicated his love and concern. That he had an ache to have her in his arms as he gazed on her vulnerability. She knew that look, that longing to know that she was safe.
***
Ever since he had gotten the alert from his brother that said his house had been broken into he was afraid for Cheyenne. His wannabe tough as nails woman was cotton candy inside and only a few knew that about her. She held her own in almost any situation, but she would seek him with her eyes when she was at the end of her endurance. He never wanted to be unavailable when she reached that point.
He was finishing his shift when a domestic call came in making him late leaving the station. When he received confirmation from home and dispatch about the break-in, he put things in high gear, finishing only the most basic of information for the report to be finished tomorrow. His ghra needed him now.
Standing in the door, he searched the room for his wife. Finding her, he stared, his eyes sweeping her body to see she was physically safe. Then, he made eye contact again. Raising his chin slightly, he shifted his head to the left and slightly back in a come-hither type of gesture with only a modicum of movement. It resulted in a very subdued chin raise not unlike a typical male greeting. His eyes that he never took off her beckoned her.
He and Cheyenne had played long enough to be able to interpret small movements from each other, especially when they were intent. With that one movement, he had inquired as to her welfare and offered comfort. While still looking in her eyes, he simply lifted and opened his left arm slightly in an invitation to her. It was all Cheyenne needed. She flew the three feet into his arms and held on tightly while Quinn’s right arm drew her into him. He then moved his arm up to put his hand on the back of her head holding her to him while he kissed her temple and then down to her ear.
He whispered in her ear with confidence, “Piscín let me take care of what I need to do here and then I’ll take care of your needs. I promise it’ll be okay. Can you hang on for me just a little while longer?”
Quinn pulled Cheyenne back just far enough to be able to lift her head, hand embedded in her hair, so her eyes met his, and his lips could meld wit
h hers to seal the promise. Cheyenne gnawed on her lip and nodded her head slightly, while Quinn still had her hair wrapped in his hand. All of her defiances were gone that quickly.
“You need your daddy, beag amhain.”
“Yes, sir.” Her voice had just the slightest hitch.
“Good girl.”
He turned her around, tucking her under his left arm and began to take care of the business of setting his house to rights as Cheyenne leaned into his chest. Quinlan had used the two phrases that told her that her world was okay or soon would be Piscín-kitten and good girl. Staying in the dom mode as much for Cheyenne’s benefit as anything else, Quinn began to puzzle together the scenario in front of them.
***
“Did you see that?” whispered Shane.
Liam murmured back. “Yeah, they have that something special between them. It’s almost telepathy. Jocelyn told me about it, but I hadn’t seen it to this level.”
Ciarán added, “We’re used to Quinn walking into a room, taking stock of a situation for a moment in that assessment mode he goes into, but when he’s ready he takes over.”
Quinlan tried to defer to Liam when appropriate but today was all about his territory, his lover and his life. He was a man coming in and surveying his world while looking and locating the most precious part of that domain. Only then did he even care to assess the rest of the damage. The safety and welfare of that most precious part of his life settled, he began to organize his affairs and put his house back in order.
Quinn looked at his brothers and gave them the information that they were waiting for from him. He then looked at them for an update on scene.
Her Balancing Act: Quinlan O'Connor Book 3 Page 13