Sam awoke slowly in the cool dawn light. She was turned away in his sleeping embrace, her backside nested snugly between his belly and thighs. There was a strong, foreign taste in his mouth. He tightened his embrace and felt aroused, and then noticed her soft, straight black hair against his lips. He puzzled for a moment, and then he pulled back in horror, and leapt to his feet.
“Sorry,” Sue sighed contentedly. “Bowgirl had to go. Said something about going out to kill some breakfast.” She laughed.
“You witch!” Sam barked with a hiss.
“Mmmm—I’ve been called worse.” Sam could feel her self-congratulatory smirk in the way her words struck his ear.
“Get up!” He shouted. “I want to be done with you.”
“You are done with me. Got what you were after, no?”
“No. Fuck no! Get up!”
Sue turned, lifted herself up onto her elbows and looked blearily at him. Her eyebrows bolted up, one more than the other. “You know, I hear what you’re saying, but what my eyes see is telling me fuck yes. You’d better get some pants on, cowboy.”
Sam grabbed his backpack and hid himself behind it.
They rode west on the Hockett Trail to Sagebrush Gulch, where Sue dismounted and told Sam “we walk from here.” Sue led Sam and the horses down along the gulch to a tree, where she stopped at a large fallen pine and said, “Here you go.”
“Where?”
“On the other side.”
Sam leaned over the log and still saw nothing.
“Nice ass!” Sue observed. “You might have to cross the log, lazy boy.”
So Sam climbed over, and then he saw it: a nearly perfect line of small gashes up and down the length of the log.
“Okay,” Sam said as he felt the notches. “So how do you know it’s her?”
“Look up … that way.”
Sam looked up to see something hanging in the forest canopy. It looked like a large ball of pine needles and dirt at first glance, but after Sam got a better look, he recognized the print pattern of one of Cindy’s shirts hidden amid the green and brown camouflage.
“Uhhh …“ Sue started. “… I wouldn’t read this as a distress call. What do you think?”
Sam didn’t answer. His eyes followed a long, barely visible line that led from the bag to another tree.
“I see,” concluded Sue. “Well, I’ll get your gear. You can take it from here. I’ve got some supplies to deliver.”
Sue unloaded Sam’s gear and strung together the horses. As she turned the train up the gulch, she said, “Good luck, and don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”