They had a pickup truck parked atthe campsite, and Ben and the returning daughters were in the cab whilethe rest sat in the back. River found herself ...estled in Wayne's arms,while Liesl sat on her lap, holding Mark. Helen and her two boys tookpositions on the other side of the truck bed as they rode the bumpy roadto the Stormcloud house.It was well after midnight when they came to the Stormcloud home, whichwas one of the older ones on the reservation, near the western edge. Itwas surrounded by. Watching Jake, she was filled with the well-known but nameless feeling she had when around him, the absence of which over the past four weeks had given her a depressing sense of incompleteness.“Jacob, are you working today?” Beth asked when they had both finished their meals.“I was going to go in for a few hours this afternoon if I’m not dead.” His face remained deadpan as he offhandedly accepted the possibility of his imminent mortality. “Why?”“I’m off and I was gonna ring in the apocalypse by. " They touched lips rather than kissed."My pleasure, Clare. You look delightful, I must say."He was dead right too; she did look delightful, and she oozed sex appeal.Our conversation was rather stilted as we tried to pretend that ours was a perfectly normal dinner party. After we had eaten we returned to the lounge. Even though we had each consumed a couple of glasses of wine, we still seemed to be on edge and none of us wanted to be first to make a move. To make matters worse, so to speak, Ray. She staggered backwards, reaching out a hand towards the white leather sofa for support. It creaked under her weight and settled. Shaking like a leaf, she lowered herself to the floor. From here, she could see her husband's expression. The skin was pale, with red blotches and his eyes were half-shut. His arms were tight around his stomach and his knees were drawn up to his chest. He seemed to have been in incredible pain. She wondered if this had anything to do with what happened the previous.