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“Do you think it’s him?”
Clarissa’s eyes didn’t leave the flames as she shrugged, but Jolene could see the emotion in them.
“Hmm. How’s your stomach? What’s your intuition telling you?”
Clarissa put her hand over her stomach and grimaced.
“It’s not great. All in a flutter. Like something intense is about to happen.”
She looked over to Jolene finally, her eyes full of worry.
“What if this was a mistake? Coming out here I mean. You heard Anthony. We have no cell phone service and we don’t have a radio. What if someoneisout here and they find us before we find them?”
“Well darlin’, then we will handle it,” Jasper said, coming up behind them. “Sorry to eavesdrop,” he apologized, sitting down on the other side of Jolene, “but I thought I’d put my two cents in. May I?”
The sisters nodded, and Jasper folded his hands as he propped his elbows on his knees.
“Anthony and I were raised to be gentlemen by our mama, but God rest his soul, our daddy raised us to be fighters. If there is someone out here messing with us, and they try anything…well, let’s just say that it takes quite a bit to put either one of us down. I don’t want it to come to that, and neither does Anthony, but if it does, I promise you, you won’t be defenseless.”
Jolene felt her anxiety lessen a little more as she heard Jasper speak so matter-of-factly. He wasn’t boasting about his strength or condoning violence, unlike the guys she lived around, but he did recognize it, and seemed, like Anthony, to have total control over it. She looked over to Clarissa, and she could tell she was more at ease too.
“Thanks, Jasper,” Clarissa said softly, “that actually helps. A lot. But like you said, I don’t want it to have to come to that.”
Their conversation slowed gradually into silence, none of them sure what to say or do next while they waited for the food to cook. As they did, the light from the sky quickly slipped away, and in its place came darkness. For the first time since they left for their hike, Cerberus began to whimper. Jolene immediately thought it was odd since he hadn’t reacted to anything else that day, even the tracks. Like Jasper and Anthony, he lost the trail as randomly as they did.
“What is it, boy?” Anthony asked, walking over to the pacing dog. He tried to put a steady arm around the canine, but Cerberus kept backing out of the embrace and pointing his snout toward the darkness.
“Anthony, what is it?” Emma asked, walking up to join him as Clarissa, Jolene, and Jasper all stood up.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, his eyes scanning the blackness. Suddenly Cerberus’ whimpers turned into a ferocious bark, and even as Anthony commanded him to sit, the big dog shot forth into the darkness.
“Cerberus, stay!” Anthony commanded, pulling a flashlight from his pocket as he took off after him.
“I’ll go,” Jasper said, already heading toward the bobbing light. For a stressful moment, Jolene, Clarissa, and Emma all stood in their camp as they watched the light from the flashlight get smaller. Suddenly, they heard an aggressive snarl and a man’s scream, followed by yelling from Jasper and Anthony, and the three of them took off running.
