Chapter 29He figured Dane wouldn’t particularly like it, but he reached out and took his hand anyway. To Sean’s surprise—and relief, he realized, as he breathed out easier—Dane squeezed back. For a moment they were almost a normal couple, hand in hand on a walk through the trees, sun going down to the side, streaking across the new growth. But only a moment.
Something tore through the underbrush, round and bumbling like a bear cub, and Dane wrenched his hand away, pulled his gun. It was followed a moment later by a second creature, and Sean immediately backed up.
“It’s the pups, Dane,” he said. He could tell Dane was thinking what he was thinking when the Decrypter holstered his weapon again. The hodag would be somewhere nearby.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They returned to Big Fr
