"Nick? Who the hell…? Oh, you mean that Goddamned creep half-brother of yours. When did he get back?"

"He was discharged just after you… you disappeared. You'd like him, Darling."

"Hmmm, maybe… but it's no wonder you're like a coiled spring… depending on a queer half-brother to jockey you around."

"I had to be careful, you know," Lynn reminded him.

He grinned. "And you were, Chickie… sixty-grand worth!" He clutched at her breast, caressing and stroking it… tweaking the sensitive, distended nipple until she thought she'd cry out with the joy of it. He kissed her, sinking his hot, moist tongue into her mouth and she teased and loved it with her own. Finally, he said: "You're glad to see me aren't you, Baby?"

"What do you think?"

"Yeah… yeah," he sighed and chuckled warmly, stroking her back and slender waist, then the smooth globes of her silken-skinned buttocks. "Listen, I missed you, too! You better know that Christ, there were times when I damned near flipped and wanted to call you… but I knew I couldn't. After I sent the card telling you where I was, I knew I had to wait."

"And that was over a year ago," she whispered.

"I know… I know. But I kept telling myself that it was worth it… and it was, wasn't it? Wasn't it?"

She drew her arm from around his shoulder and leaned back to better see his face in the meager light the tiny dresser lamp shown. "Who… who are they… all these people, Earl? How did you meet them? What're you doing here?"

He looked at her for a moment, then first expressed himself with a warm, reassuring smile. "Honey… I don't know what I'd have done without these people… Oh, not all of them, of course, but Walo, Rudy and Virgin… Walo… the poor dumb ox, he's been with me since I first hit this state. He's like a devoted moose… nothing upstairs… but a guy never had a better bodyguard. And Rudy and Virgin, they were friends right from the beginning. We, Walo and I, met them one night on the strip. Jesus, I couldn't find a job… I was right next to pan handling, when they latched onto us. They said they owned this place some fifty-miles up the beach, an old resort hotel his father left him."