Chapter 7

9:30 AM
Arkansas,
Entrance to the Crater of Diamonds State Park:

Matt:

I cursed as the SUV almost made me crash. I watched as the teenagers screamed out the windows, waving beer cans. One even threw one at me, and I watched the spray hit the windshield as I straightened out the RV. The SUV overcorrected and I watched in horror as it went off the side of the road and into the gully that ran the length of the road.

"Fucking idiots!" I said as I applied the brakes and stopped near the kids. I could see the SUV was lying on its roof, as I opened the door and climbed out. Opening the side panel, I pulled the extinguisher out and walked down the hill as the girls joined me. I saw the passenger doors were caved in, and I went around the car to the other side as Codie pulled her phone out and was talking into it, as I reached the driver's door. Reaching in, I shut the motor off, and then I checked the boy.

He looked to be around nineteen, and I could tell was dead from the way his eyes were when I looked into them. I could hear moaning inside, and I said, "Hello?"

"God help me, I don't want to die!" said a voice.

"I'm trying. Can you tell me how bad you're hurt?" I asked as I sniffed to try to detect smoke. I couldn't detect any, but I said, "I am still here, but I am going to step away from the door to spray the engine so it won't catch fire. It..."

"OH GOD! Don't let me BURN!" the voice screamed.

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" I shouted, and when she stopped screaming, I explained, "The car is not on fire. I want to prevent it, so I am going to spray the engine to cool it off so the fluids won't catch on fire. Now stay calm."

"Emergency Vehicles are on the way, about five minutes they said," Codie said as she joined us as I was spraying the engine.

Handing the extinguisher to Katie, I pulled the door open to the back seat of the Toyota highlander. I leaned in and checked the girl hanging from her seat belt, and she was alive. I checked her over, and as I held her in place, I released her and gently laid her on the grass. I was turning back to the car when a brown haired girl shot out of the car and started to collapse beside me, and I caught her. She was shaking and crying as I held her. I could tell she was around fifteen or sixteen. Turning I guided her into Judy's hands, and she wrapped a blanket around her as she took her.

I was inside the car and checking on the young man in the back seat, he was alive but unconscious. As I was checking him, I suddenly smelled smoke, so I pulled him out and handed him to the twins, and they took him up the hill and laid him beside the girl they had dragged up there. I turned and yanked on the driver's door, and it screeched open. Pulling the body out, I carried him twenty feet and laid him down.

I was turning back to the SUV when I saw the spark of flame race down the back of the car; I ran for the vehicle and was inside. With my knife in my hand, I cut the seatbelt on the other girl who was moaning in pain. With a yank, I pulled her out and started up the hill when the vehicle exploded behind me. I curled the girl into my chest as I went down.

I felt a piece of hot metal hit my back. I shrugged it off as I climbed to my feet with the girl still in my arms, and ascended the last of the embankment. Once there, I laid her down on a blanket that one of the girls laid out. In the distance, I could hear fire trucks coming. Judy had the girl she helped sitting in the Hummer and Marybeth was talking with her as I checked the rest of the survivors

I took a spare blanket and covered the driver as the emergency vehicles pulled up. EMTs jumped from the fire truck and the ambulance and ran over to us while the fire crew unlimbered their hoses and start spaying the wreckage down. Each of us was pulled aside by the police and question intensely. Before we were released, the girl who was sitting in the Hummer asked to see me, so I went over.

Kneeling I said, "Hi, you wanted to see me?"

"I wanted to say thank you ... and I am sorry what my sister's boyfriend did. He was drunk and we tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. Neither would my sister Nora ... by the way my name is Nicole," she said with a sniffle.

"It's nice to meet you Nicole, my name is Jason Redstone. I am glad you're going to be ok. Now you need to go to the hospital and be checked out, so let's get you into the ambulance," I said, and I helped her to her feet. We walked over, and I helped her up into the back.

She turned and looked at me, her bright red hair flew at the sudden movement, and she said, "Come see us at the hospital. I am sure my mom would want to thank you."

"If we have time, we will. Be good," I said as she sat down. I closed the door and patted the side to let them know it was sealed.

Thirty minutes after the paramedics took Nicole, we were released by the highway patrol to head for the park. We pulled into the parking lot, and paid our admittance fee. At the same time, we hooked up the RV to their systems, and refilled our water, while dumping our black and gray water.

Pulling on our hiking boots, we went into the rental shop. We rented the equipment we would need. Then we headed out into the thirty-seven acre park. We found a place that was away from everyone.

I set up the sifters for the women, and then I started digging. I dug a five foot round hole and was down about three feet. I shoveled the dirt onto the sifters where they started going through the dirt. As the girls worked in pairs except for Ana who had her own sifter, I continued to work and watch for any strange rocks that I might see.

We worked for several hours and Codie and Ana went to the RV and came back thirty minutes later with two hampers of lunch as well as two one-gallon containers of water. We washed our hands off with water and sanitizer soap and then sat and ate cold chicken, macaroni salad, coleslaw and hot buttered rolls.

We goofed off for an hour, and then the twins took the remains of our meal back to the RV as we got to work. It was about an hour later when Ana cried out, grabbed the bottle of water, and rinsed something off. We all crowded around and looked at the small yellow stone about four times the size of a grain of rice.

We were happy for her, and watched as she put the yellow stone in a small glass vial. I kept shoveling dirt up onto the screens for them, and they kept sifting. We now had five screens going. Marybeth cried out, about forty minutes later, as she plucked something off her screen from a clump of mud that she was looking through. We looked at the clear diamond, and I was shocked at it, it was the size of a large marble.

"Marybeth, rinse it off, and put it in your pocket. You don't want to lose that baby," I said.

"Ok," she said happily and smiled up at me.

I kissed her forehead, and went back to work on my screen. We continued shifting for five more hours and only found three more tiny diamonds, and a small amethyst about the size of a large marble. We were standing and stretching when I saw a man approaching us, he was wearing a park uniform, so I assumed it was a ranger. But just to be safe, I had my pistol ready inside the folds of my jacket.

"Any luck?" the ranger asked as he neared us.

"A few small ones," I replied.

"Well, you can have them validated in the store. But I just came over to tell you, that you have to fill in your hole," he said.

"I will, and thank you for the info," I replied.

He tipped his hat to us and walked away. We grabbed our shovels and started filling the hole in, while Marybeth watched the area around us. Twenty minutes later, we had the hole filled in, and we picked up our equipment and walked back to the cleaning area where we cleaned them off, and retrieved our deposit. We had the stones examined, and all the diamonds were identified, even Marybeth's diamond the guy estimated it was a 15-carat diamond, and she was ecstatic. It would be ranked it up next to the 'Star of Arkansas', which is little larger than the one she was holding. Ana's was a three caret yellow diamond while the rest were a 1.7 caret, and .5 caret.

We walked out to the RV, and went inside to clean up. As the girls were taking their turns for the shower, one of the cell phones the girls left on the counter rang. I walked over, looked at it for a second, and picked it up.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hi Jason, it's me Nicole," said the soft voice.

"Hi Nicole, how are you?" I asked.

"Ok, just stuck here in the hospital for observation. I was wondering if Marybeth is available," she said.

"She's in the shower. Want me to call her?" I asked as I started back to the shower.

"No ... yes, please. If she doesn't mind, that is," she begged.

I opened the door to the bathroom area and saw Marybeth sitting on the toilet drying her feet.

I reached over, handed her the phone, and said, "It's Nicole."

"Ok, thank you," she said as she took the phone.

I closed the door, and went back to the living area to await my turn in the bathroom.

Marybeth:

I took the phone from Matt after I dropped the towel.

"Hi, Nicole, how are you doing?" I asked as pulled my panties up my legs with my right hand.

"I'm doing ok. Is that handsome guy in the other room?" she asked.

"Yeah, he is, and he is handsome, I can't wait until I can..." I felt myself blushing.

I stopped talking as Ana entered the bathroom, and looked at me. Her beautiful skin was shining as she applied some sort of cream to it. It was weird seeing her with brown hair and a bright red bush between her legs.

"Marybeth, you can't what? Come on you can't just leave it like that," Nicole said on the phone.

"Just a second," I said and walked out of the bathroom, and went back to my bedroom. Sitting down on my bed, I continued, "Ok, what I was saying is, I cannot wait until I turn eighteen, so he can fuck me. He is so damn cute."

There was a gasp in the phone, and I started giggling, as I heard the phone hit something and an 'OH MY GOD!' screeched from the other end.

"You're joking right?" Nicole said as soon as she came back on the phone.

"No, I am not. You met my two sisters, and Maria and Jenny. (Maria was Judy's new name and Jenny was Ana's) Well, all four of them sleep with Jason every night. They all want to have his children and marry him if it was possible," I said.

"That's weird. How can they do that?" she asked.

"Works for them, and no I am not being forced into anything. I want to do it, Jason is a good man, he loves us all," I replied.

"Ok, I think that is the best thing. With love, you can solve any problem," Nicole said.

"Yup, so what's up girl?" I asked as I dug through my clothes and set them aside.

"I'm bored and lonely. I was wondering if you're all going to come see me," she said.

"Yes, we are. Where are you, and what room are you in?" I asked.

"I am at the Murfreesboro Community Hospital, and I am on the sixth floor, room 34, bed B/ My sister is in bed A," she said.

"Got it! Now relax, and we will be up soon to see you," I said as I closed the phone.

I put the phone away, and finished dressing. I pulled on some skintight blue jeans, and a tube shirt without a bra. I combed out my hair, and quickly braided it into a French braid. I reached into my dirty jeans, and pulled out my diamond. I put it in my pocket. The certificate, I folded up and stuck in my purse. I wanted to show them to Nicole when we saw her. I grabbed my container of breath mints and popped two in my mouth as I went into the front of the RV.

I saw my sisters sitting at the table, and I walked over and kissed their cheeks before I went to the fridge and grabbed a soda. Taking my diet coke, I went to the sofa and sat down. "Can we go see Nicole now?" I asked.

"You will have to ask Matt, he will decide. Remember what Ana, Matt and Judy told us. They are on the run from someone who wants to hurt Ana," Katie said as she got up and went to the sink and put her coffee cup inside.

"I know, but ... Nicole needs a friend right now," I said.

Matt:

"We can visit for a few minutes, and remember its Jason, not Matt," I said and then Marybeth was hugging me tightly.

"Thank you," she said and then kissed my cheek.

"Welcome. Now I suggest we drive both vehicles over, I don't want to stay around here. Just in case," I said.

"OK," Marybeth said and then whispered in my ear, "Nicole thinks you're hot!"

I know I blushed, and then stammered, "Uhh thanks, now let's get going."

I walked to the front of the RV as the women started giggling. Ana and Katie walked to the door and went out. I followed and walked to the hookups, and unhooked the RV from the parks power and water. I was inside a few minutes later and fired the RV up. We pulled out and headed towards town. We reached town, and followed the directions and pulled up to the Murfreesboro Community Hospital. We found a place to park on the back parking lot, and before we left, I went to the back and pulled out my colt python. I had just slipped into the harness and pulled my leather jacket over it when Katie and Ana came in. As I was adding six speed loaders to my pocket, I said, "Girls make sure you have your pistols."