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want to eat them raw. I’ll dump them back in the surf. I hate to let that one bastard get away with assaulting me. Keep a watch.”

    He glanced once more in the direction of the thin column of smoke. After giving her a quick grin, he sprinted to the edge of the surf. He ran without the slightest hint of a limp. The crabs arched out into the waves as he tossed them out of the shell. Then he tucked it under his arm and ran to their packs. They’d set them in the sand out of reach of the waves.

    Her heart raced along with him. She watched the tree-line and him in turn. He lifted the pack and the rolled blankets and sprinted back toward their hiding place. He wasn’t even winded when he rejoined her. And his grin stretched even wider. The newly discovered threat pleased him, the idiot.
    ONE GOOD WOMAN SUSAN KELLEY 26

    She couldn’t share his warrior joy. They were only two against this unknown. Brady and other men didn’t appreciate how dangerous the world could be when one was outnumbered by beings stronger and more vicious than oneself.

    “The tide should cover our tracks except those leading from the trees.”

    “And the ones we make going back.” She shifted slightly away from him as he joined her in peering over the boulders toward the trees. He smelled of sun and salt. His body nearly hummed with excitement, but she shivered despite the warm sun.

    “The fire has to be for cooking, don’t you think? Even in the shadows of the cliff, it isn’t cold enough to need one for warmth.”

    “That makes sense,” she answered.

    “I’ve never seen Savages build fires, have you?” Brady pulled out his gun and checked the bullets.

    Even the mention of Savages made her stomach clench. She hoped she hid any outward reaction. Would his small gun stop a full grown beast?

    “It gets cold in the mountains. They’ll build fire for warmth, but they do no cooking.”

    “So, it’s probably humans. A small group, but we still have to be careful. The Parlanians were every bit as cruel as Savages.”

    She heard the disgust in his voice and it gave her some comfort. He wouldn’t easily trust strangers or lead them into danger. “If we’re going to be up all night scouting or maybe running for our lives, we better get some sleep now. Do you want first watch or first nap?”

    Where would they run if they had to flee? “I’ll take first watch.”

    “Wake me in a few hours.” He shook out one of the blankets in the shadow of a boulder and rolled the other for a pillow. In the way of a veteran warrior, he fell asleep almost instantly.

    She watched the thin plume of smoke and tried to plan a path of approach. The nearby crashing of the waves and the screech of the white sea birds again gave her the feeling she and Brady were the only other living things in the world. But there was the smoke.

    Brady slept with nary a twitch or blink of long lashes, his trust in her complete. Little did he know of her terror. She looked back at the trees. What horror lurked out there?

    * * * *

    Bab put one last stick on the fire. She would add another when she woke in the middle dark hours to feed Angel. The baby was a healthy eater despite her slight build.

    It had taken her a night and half of this day to find the shallow cave Rena described.
    She’d started a fire to drive the chill away and comfort her own loneliness and fears.

    Rena wouldn’t join her until she delivered her own child. If Rena could escape at all.
    Had the others believed Rena’s story of taking her heavily pregnant friend to the sea to bathe?
    Did they search the seashore for Bab’s body? It happened often enough, someone lost as they bathed or played in the salty waters. None were ever saved if they wandered in above their heads. And sometimes the unseen fingers beneath the waves reached out from the deep and grabbed a victim, pulling them under and out to their death.

    Jak was sure to blame Rena for Bab’s drowning, but hopefully her condition would