No Sanctuary Read Online Free PDF Page B

you.
    But he wished his revolver were close at hand, not in the car’s trunk at the bottom of his backpack.
    He kept watching the trees. Sometimes, he looked over his shoulder and gazed out the rear window. If they were being followed, the man or vehicle was not in sight. Could someone looking closely at the tracks tell that their car had recently made the passage? He remembered the limb that he had lifted out of the way and wished he’d had the sense to place it back across the tracks after they’d gone by.
    “What are you doing?” Bert finally asked.
    “Just enjoying the scenery.”
    “You look like a cemetery guard keeping an eye out for spooks.”
    “Just a little edgy,” he admitted, and made a weak smile.
    “Hey, if there was anything to worry about, do you think I’d come out to a place like this? I’m the world’s greatest chicken. I get the willies all the time. You should see me when I get back to my apartment at night. Especially after I’ve been with you and it’s late. I check behind the furniture, look in closets. I’ve even been known to look under the bed. And I’ve usually got a great case of the shivers till I’ve made sure nobody’s lurking around.”
    “Really?”
    “Absolutely. I always figure some drooling maniac has gotten in, somehow, and is just waiting for a chance to rape or murder me. Or both.”
    “You’re kidding. You?”
    “Had me figured for a fearless Amazon?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Disappointed?”
    “Well, I knew you were no Amazon. You’ve got two boobs.”
    Bert grinned. “But really, the way I see it, a certain percentage of people are criminals or dangerous nut cases. Therefore, the smaller the population, the less danger of running into one. When you get out in a place like this, there’s almost nobody so your chances of meeting a creep diminish to almost nothing.”
    “On the other hand,” Rick said, “the larger population works to your advantage in that the nut has a larger pool of victims to choose from. Start decreasing the population, you might have fewer nuts but it also knocks down the odds that someone else will be the victim.”
    Bert nodded. “So if there is a nut out here, we win by default.” In a teasing voice she added, “Better keep a sharp eye out.”
    Though Bert was making light of it, Rick wished he hadn’t pointed out the less comforting side of her argument. Getting her worried would serve no purpose. He should’ve kept his mouth shut.
    “I’ve spent a lot of time in wilderness areas,” Bert said after a while. “I’ve never run into trouble so far.”
    “Well ...”
    “That probably hurts the odds on this time out, huh?”
    “Don’t be such a pessimist,” Rick said.
    She laughed.
    In the silence that followed, Rick’s uneasiness came back. He felt a strong urge to resume his watch of the surrounding forest, but he fought it. He watched Bert instead. Then he lay down on the seat and rested his head on her lap. Drawing up his knees, he propped his feet on the window sill.
    Bert smiled down at him. “Comfy?”
    “Very nice.”
    Rick felt her warmth through the fabric of her shorts. Her flat belly eased against his cheek sometimes when she inhaled. The front of her loose shirt, jutting out like smooth hills just above his eyes, stirred slightly as the bouncing, rocking motions of the car shook her breasts.
    “Down there,” she said, “you can’t keep a look-out.”
    “The view’s fine.”
    She let go of the wheel for a moment and brushed a hand through his hair.
    “If you’re nervous about going back to your apartment at night,” Rick said, “how come you won’t stay over at my place?”
    “I believe we’ve been over that ground.”
    “Well, you could do it sometimes. Maybe just on weekends.”
    “It might start with just weekends, but pretty soon that wouldn’t be enough. I know men, and I know myself. Before long, you’d be pointing out with infallible logic that keeping my apartment is a