“You guys get lost or something?” Andrea asked.
Bert looked relieved. She glanced at Rick and rolled her eyes upward.
“False alarm,” Rick muttered.
He followed Bert to the lake shore and they found the girls on a sunlit slab of rock that slanted gently into the water. They had their towels beneath them. Bonnie was sitting up, hands on her raised knees, looking over her shoulder as they approached. Andrea was stretched out, face resting on her crossed arms. Her bikini top, untied so the strings wouldn’t leave marks across her back, was pressed between her body and the towel. The side of her breast was bare and pale. Rick forced himself to look away. He glanced to the left. The cluster of rocks where the boys had been lurking was farther away than he had supposed—maybe fifty yards off. With the binoculars, though, they’d still have a fine view.
“Don’t look around or anything,” Bert told the girls. “Try not to show any reactions.”
Frowning, Bonnie turned herself around to face them.
Andrea lifted her head. She glanced from Bert to Rock.
“The guys are here,” Rick said.
“You’re shitting me,” Andrea muttered.
“They’re down the shore a ways,” Bert explained. “Or they were, when we saw them about half an hour ago. They were hiding behind some rocks, watching the two of you while you were in the water.”
“You’re serious?” Bonnie asked. “They’re right here at the lake?” She kept her eyes on Bert. Rick admired her restraint in not trying to spot them. “They were
“Must’ve really liked what they saw,” Andrea said.
“Where are they?”
Bert turned so her body would block the boys’ view, raised a hand to her belly, and pointed.
Bonnie still didn’t look that way. Andrea tried, twisting her head to look over her shoulder and rolling just a bit. Her right breast unmashed and lifted partway out of the limp bikini. Bert sidestepped into the path of Andrea’s view. Unable to see past her, Andrea eased down again. She picked up the ends of her bikini strings, bent her arms up high behind her back, and started to tie them.
“To get over there,” Bonnie said, “they had to go right past us.”
“You know, this really sucks.” Andrea finished tying her bikini. She sat up, adjusted her top, and crossed her legs. “Do you realize how much this sucks? These scrotes came all the way down the trail. They were almost to the top. They came all the way back down and snuck past and spied on us like a bunch of fucking voyeurs. And we’re not supposed to know they’re around. What are they planning on, anyway? They obviously aren’t gonna leave, not this late in the afternoon. It not only sucks, it’s extremely creepy.”
“Aren’t they going to pitch tents or build a fire or anything?” Bonnie asked.
“If they do that,” Rick said, “they’ll give away that they’re here.”
“What they’re gonna do,” Andrea said, “is keep hidden and sometime during the night they’re gonna move in.”
Bonnie looked up at Rick. “What are we going to do?” He thought about the gun in his pack.
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Bert said. “Why don’t you two get into some clothes, then the four of us will take a walk and pay the guys a visit.”
Andrea grinned. “Fuckin’ A, right!”
onnie looked grim. She nodded. “Yeah, let’s face the bastards.”
“I agree,” Rick said. “If there’s going to be trouble, better to get it over with. While it’s still light out and we can see what we’re doing.”
“What they’re doing,” Bert added. “And let’s not go empty-handed.”
“Damn it,” Bert said. “I have to pee.”
“Pick a tree,” Rick told her.
She scanned the woods around the clearing. “What about our three friends? I certainly don’t need an audience.”
“They’re probably still near the place where we spotted them. I don’t think they’d come in close. Not while it’s still light out.”
“Want to come along?”
“I thought you didn’t need an audience.”
“You don’t have to watch.”
How do I get out of this? he wondered. The girls were inside their tent getting dressed. Bert going off to urinate would give him just the chance he needed to grab his revolver out of the pack.
Bert reached a suitable clearing, well away from the trail, bent over her pack and took out some toilet paper and a small plastic shovel. She frowned. And bent her head to get a closer look at what she saw on the ground.
A paw print. A large one.
“My God,” she breathed, almost forgetting why she was here in the first place. Her stomach lurched and a warm patch began to spread between her legs. She clamped her muscles tight to stop the patch getting any bigger.
Bert rocked back on her heels. Trying to come to terms with what this new danger would mean to them. She leaned forward to examine the palm-size pawmark imprinted in the sand.
Relatively new. A few hours old at the most. Another one, to the right of the first, lay about eight inches ahead. She looked back and saw two more.
“My God,” she whispered again. Cougar, by the look of it—and one helluva size. It’s in the vicinity. Or was last night. Just passing through? Or is this its patch?
No sign of it now, anyway. She got to her feet. Slowly. Thinking, one cougar and you got more cougars ... Great. That’s all we need. Should’ve listened to Rick and gone to Mauii instead.
Scooping up her pack, paper and trowel, Bert raced back to Rick.
“Hey,” she panted, pulling up short. She took a couple of deep breaths to steady the tremor in her voice. “Looks like we got company, Rick. Big cat type company...”
“Oh yeah?”
“Sure. Come see for yourself. I know cougars are around in the mountains, the Rockies, mainly. But let’s hope this is a one-off that’s strayed from home...”
She tried, but she couldn’t convince herself that this cougar was a one-off. One vacation she’d helped out at a feline breeding center in Rosamund. From her time there, she’d learned enough about big cat behavior to know that there was probably a mom cougar, and a bunch of kitty cougars holed up in the rocks somewhere near.
Rick followed her back to the clearing.
Apart from coyotes and maybe the occasional wolverine, he’d discounted other wildlife. Keep to the track, he’d thought. No problems if we keep to the track. But if it looks like we got mountain lions tracking us down as well as the teen trio, then maybe it’s time to bring out the gun ...
“We better keep our eyes peeled. For cats—and for The Three Thugateers,” Bert said. “And tell the girls, too. Better safe than sorry. Anyway, we keep to the main trail, cougars won’t bother us.”
“Okay. But you said we shouldn’t confront the guys empty-handed,” Rick said. “What did you have in mind?”
“Weapons.” She patted the sheath knife on her belt and eyed Rick’s. “The girls have knives, too.”
Rick opened the side pocket of his pack. He pulled out the T-shirt and unwrapped his revolver.
Bert gazed at it. “My God,” she muttered.
“Just in case there’s real trouble,” he said. He lifted the back of his shirt and pushed the pistol under his belt. Its barrel slid down cool between his buttocks. He let his shirt-tail hang out to conceal the bulge.
