by Sarah Barrie
‘Welcome.’
‘Tess.’ Aaron all but barged Jared out of the way as he helped her into the car. ‘You really should see a doctor.’
‘We’ll reassess at the station,’ Indy said, sliding in beside Tess from the other side.
Jared waited for Aaron to move then closed Tess’s door, went back to the driver’s seat and started the car. ‘Good to go?’ he asked. Indy gave him a nod. Tess was staring out the window, features tight.
As he drove away, both women seemed content to remain silent. He guessed Indy didn’t want to make Tess relive the experience again just yet. Not when she was about to go through it all officially.
‘Do my brothers know?’ Tess asked.
‘I called Logan,’ Indy said of her husband, ‘and told him to let Connor know. We knew you were out that way and the media’s already got hold of the incident. I didn’t want them to worry.’
‘And Connor will let Callie know.’
‘Of course he will. She cares about you, too.’
‘I know. It’s just … They’ll carry on.’
‘We love you,’ Indy said simply. ‘We’re supposed to carry on.’
‘Oh God.’ Tess’s voice cracked on a quiet sob. Jared glanced into the rear-view mirror. Tess’s face was buried in her hands. ‘I couldn’t save him, Indy,’ she mumbled through the bandages. ‘He was so scared and I couldn’t get hold of him.’
Indy slid an arm around her and let her cry it out. Feeling helpless, Jared returned his attention to the road.
CHAPTER
4
Jai Wharton stood behind his boss’s desk, perspiration prickling his temples, a lump of lead weighing his stomach down. Under Tank’s simmering anger, the little office space in the back of Hobart’s biggest pawn shop had suddenly become stiflingly hot.
Vince ‘The Tank’ Finlay shoved the sales docket across the desk and got to his feet. ‘That was a five hundred dollar necklace and you sold it for fifty bucks!’ Age was catching up with Tank, and he moved like a man who’d taken one too many beatings to his tree-stump torso. Old tattoos crept up his neck from beneath his ‘I ride so I don’t kill people’ T-shirt and hugged the loosening skin on arms still sporting enough muscle to defend his nickname. The lines on his face made his eyes seem even smaller and his silver goatee wasn’t as sharply manicured as the photo on his desk showed it had been when he’d ridden with his gang. But he was still a scary bastard when he wanted to be.
‘What?’ Jai picked up the receipt with an unsteady hand and tried to think back to yesterday’s sale. It had been late in the afternoon, just before close. A guy had come in, nice jacket, cheap shoes. He’d had a woman with him, the fiancée. He’d paid cash—fifties. Jai risked a look at Tank and shook his head. ‘No. I didn’t. Maybe I stuffed up the receipt, but I got the cash.’
Tank lifted his hands, palms up, his face dark. ‘Then where is it? ’Cause it isn’t in the till.’
Jai thought about it again. He’d put that money in the till, he knew he had. Unless … ‘I—I don’t know why it’s not there. Did you ask Pax?’
‘Pax?’ Tank’s hands dropped to the desk and he leant over it, his scowl increasing. ‘When was Pax near the till? He’s just started working here. He hasn’t been on the register, has he?’
‘Um, not on purpose but …’ Jai stared at the floor. He knew better than to keep arguing with Tank. He needed a moment to catch his breath, to figure it out. ‘Guess I stuffed up. Sorry, boss.’
Tank continued with that stare for several more nerve-racking seconds. Eventually he nodded. ‘When you make a mistake, you man up to it. You owe me four-fifty. You can’t pay it, I’ll take it out of your wage.’
‘What?’ A fresh explosion of anxiety hit Jai. He was barely scraping by as it was. ‘But, boss, I can’t afford—’
‘Neither can I!’ Tank snapped. He gave a heavy sigh. ‘Look, I know it’s tough at home, kid, and I respect what you’re doing for your pop … so we’ll make it twenty bucks a week.’
The heaviness in Jai’s stomach turned to an anxious rattling. Tank didn’t have a clue just how tough it was. Something out of his tightly managed budget was going to have to go, and most likely it would be food. But he nodded, turned and walked out of the office into the shop.
There was only one way he could think of that the money had gone missing. Pax was nowhere to be seen—probably bludging out the back with a cigarette as usual. Nothing had gone right since that dickhead Pax had walked in a month ago, handed Tank a letter and been given a job. If it hadn’t been for Riley, he would have quit and tried his luck somewhere else, but Tank’s daughter was the only good thing in Jai’s life, so he was sticking it out as long as he could.
I respect what you’re doing for your pop. Ha, Jai thought bitterly. Tank’s so-called respect didn’t mean anything. If he really respected him, he would have believed he hadn’t made a mistake with that money. The more Jai thought about it, the more that anger built inside him, festered.
‘I’m ducking next door for a pack of smokes,’ Tank said from behind him. ‘Back in five.’
Jai watched him go. As soon as Tank was across the road, he charged out the back to find Pax. The six-foot-two tattooed giant was reclining against the fence in the sun, legs crossed at the ankles, phone to his ear as he smoked a cigarette. No surprise.
‘You took that money!’
Pax eyed him with curiosity then ended the call, put his phone in his pocket and took a long drag of his cigarette. ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Bullshit! That necklace yesterday! You watched me make that sale then I asked you to mind the front of the shop while I went to answer the phone in the office. You took the cash out of the till and changed the sale price on the computer.’
The cigarette hit the ground and Pax took his time very deliberately grinding it out with his foot. There was something threatening in that move and Jai tensed, but he was too worked up to back down.
‘And how could I have done that?’ Pax asked with a smirk. ‘I mean, unless some fuckwit left the sale open on screen when he raced back to answer the phone.’
Jai risked a step closer to glare up at him. ‘You need to put it back!’
Pax bent down and got in his face. Though physically tougher, with a few years on Jai’s twenty-two, it was Pax’s eyes that scared the crap out of Jai, even when their general coldness glittered with dark amusement. ‘Or what?’
Jai clenched his fists, scrambling for something to say. ‘Screw you!’ exploded from his lips.
‘Okay, pencil dick,’ Pax said, and straightened up. ‘What ya got? Wanna take a swing?’
Jai wanted to hit the bastard. He wanted to smack that smug smile right off his pretty face. But he wasn’t stupid, and his rage-fuelled bravado was quickly fading.
‘No? Didn’t think so.’ Pax’s hand shot out and grabbed the front of Jai’s shirt. He drove him back against the fence. Hard. Jai’s spine blasted with pain and he bit his tongue, tasted blood. ‘Ya sure?’
Jai nodded, shrinking back from the expression on Pax’s face.
Pax laughed, released him and strode out the side gate.
‘Hello?’ Riley’s voice echoed from inside the shop. Jai pulled himself together and brushed his clothes off, then went to find her.
He heard Tank’s voice float out from the office. ‘You’re not going.’
‘What?’ Riley shrieked. ‘Dad, you can’t be serious! You were fine with this last week!’
Jai could smell lunch and saw four boxes of steaming fish and chips on Tank’s desk as he approached the office. His mouth watered, even as he decided it could be a while before he got to eat any of it. Riley was standing in front of her father, hands on hips, short brown hair tucked back behind her ears. She was wearing jeans and one of the jumpers that were her preferred university wear and her heart-shaped face was set for battle. Riley and Tank rarely ever went head to head, but they were both as stubborn as each other so when they did it
was huge.
‘You heard what happened to that guy out at Federation Peak yesterday?’ Tank asked. ‘He was an experienced hiker with a guide and he’s still dead.’
‘We’re not going to Fedder, Dad,’ Riley said in exasperation. ‘It’s just the South Coast Track.’
‘The fact you put a “just” in front of a week and a half long wilderness trek tells me how unprepared you are. I looked it up after hearing that news report. It’s too dangerous.’
‘Hundreds of people do it every year. It’s fine.’
‘You’re not hundreds of people,’ Tank said in his very reasonable, I’m-not-budging tone. ‘You’re a young woman with only a couple of easy day hikes under your belt.’
‘A twenty-year-old woman who can make her own decisions!’ Riley snapped, then sabotaged herself by stomping her foot like a child.
Jai shifted, his shoes scraping the lino, and her head swivelled in his direction.
‘Hey!’ She beamed, her face losing most of its scowl as she stepped in for a kiss. ‘I called in with lunch.’ She snatched one of the containers from their favourite fish and chip shop off the desk and handed it to him.
‘Thanks.’
‘Something smells good,’ Pax said, ambling in. ‘Hi, Riley.’
‘Hi, Pax,’ she said. ‘I got you some too.’
Jai caught Tank’s glare and found himself in agreement with the man for the first time that day. He wasn’t sure Tank really liked Pax at all. The whole situation made no sense.
Completely at home, Pax sat down in a spare chair and kicked his legs up onto Tank’s desk to open his container. Jai took another seat, thought he might as well get started on his lunch before Tank ordered them back to work.
‘What’ve ya got there?’ Pax asked of the folder Riley picked up from Tank’s desk.
‘Hike stuff. I thought if the shop wasn’t too busy Jai and I could take a look at what I’ve organised. But Dad’s forgotten I’m all grown up and is pretending he can stop me from going.’ She looked from Pax to Tank.
‘I can stop you from going,’ Tank said. ‘Jai has a job here. He hasn’t applied for leave.’
Riley stared dumbfounded. ‘Seriously? We told you about this!’
‘And you have uni, which I’m paying for.’
‘And uni is on break next month, which is when we’re going,’ she said.
‘Where’s the hike?’ Pax asked.
‘South Coast Track, the southernmost coastline of Tasmania,’ she said with a wistful expression. ‘I’ve wanted to do it for ages. It’s pure wilderness. Just you and what you can carry on your back.’
‘I hope you’re taking someone with a bit of muscle. Someone who can step up if there’s trouble.’ Pax smirked at Jai.
Jai felt his fingers tighten around the fish and chip box and wished it was Pax’s throat.
‘She’s not taking anyone because she’s not doing it,’ Tank said.
‘Dad, we’ve already booked the flights to Melaleuca. They weren’t cheap. And Jai went to a heap of trouble to get Evan into respite that week.’
Jai kept his attention on Riley. ‘I thought we were flying back, not out.’
‘The flight company said it’s better to fly over and walk back, because bad weather can ground flights. I’d rather be delayed at this end than at Melaleuca, where we could be stuck for days in a basic hut waiting to be picked up. It should only take eight or nine days but we’ll pack for a couple more, in case the creeks are up or we need to bunk down for a bit if the weather gets nasty.’
‘Ya sound very prepared. You’ve obviously done ya research.’ Pax looked at Tank expectantly.
A ‘humph’ came from Tank and with it a glower Jai hoped meant Pax was in for it later.
‘All in all,’ Pax said as he got to his feet, ‘it should be quite the adventure.’ He popped a chip in his mouth and winked at Riley before heading out with his lunch.
‘More the merrier!’ Riley called to his back.
Jai clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached, then let out a sigh of relief when Pax laughed and said, ‘I prefer civilisation. I did all that stuff during military training.’
‘Military training?’ Riley repeated in surprise, but Pax was out of sight and Tank was staring at her with a stern but thoughtful expression.
‘How many people are supposed to be going with you on this thing?’
A sinking feeling hit Jai’s stomach. Don’t let Pax be the one to change Tank’s mind! Riley already seemed to think the sun shone out of the bastard.
‘There’s six,’ she said.
Tank nodded slowly. ‘Make it seven and I’ll consider it.’
‘Seven?’
‘Hire a guide.’
Riley’s eyes widened. ‘That’ll make it way too expensive!’
‘I’ll cover it. Consider it your birthday present. A twenty-first should be special and I was wondering what I was going to get ya.’
‘It would cost thousands! I already looked. How can you afford it?’
‘Let me worry about that. Your lunch is getting cold.’
‘He won’t budge,’ Riley complained as Jai let them into his house after work. ‘How am I supposed to find a guide with this sort of notice?’
‘That’s what we’re about to find out.’ They walked into the kitchen, where his grandfather’s carer was putting a casserole pot in the oven. ‘Hi, Bev.’
Bev, a wiry woman in her late sixties with more energy than he had, closed the oven and smiled. ‘Afternoon. How was work?’
‘Okay. How’s Pop?’
‘He’s got the footy on. He’s had a good day, not so mad at the world as yesterday. Hi, Riley.’
‘Hi.’
‘There’s mail on the counter for you.’
‘Thanks.’ A quick glance showed him they were bills so he chose to ignore them.
Bev drained her cup of coffee, then closed her crossword puzzle book and shoved it in her oversized handbag. Then she smiled, waiting.
‘Thanks. Oh—um …’ Jai dug into his pocket for his wallet and handed over some cash. ‘Thanks. See you tomorrow.’
‘See you then. I’ve left Evan some supper.’
Riley cracked the oven door open as Bev let herself out. ‘Another casserole.’
‘It’s easy for him to swallow.’ He walked into the lounge room. The thin, bedraggled form of his grandfather, Evan Wharton, sat on his favourite old recliner, staring at the commentators on the television. The buttons on his shirt were askew. ‘Hi, Pop.’
Evan turned his head, nodded cheerfully. ‘Jai.’
Jai stood perfectly still, a lump in his throat as emotion swamped him. Riley’s hand on his shoulder helped him find his breath. ‘Who’s winning?’ he asked casually.
‘All over. Think I might go have my … thingamajig.’
‘Your shower?’
‘What I said, wasn’t it?’ Evan hoisted himself out of his chair. ‘Would you get my nip of whiskey ready?’
‘Okay.’ Then as emotion overcame him: ‘Love you.’
‘Love you too, Jai,’ Evan replied as though unsure what he was on about. ‘Why don’t you take that pretty girl of yours out? Got my dinner in the oven. Gonna have my whiskey with it and a sleep after my … thingamajig.’
Take Riley out? He’d be lucky to scrounge them up baked beans on toast, maybe some two-minute noodles. ‘We’re going to eat here. Let me know when you want your dinner and I’ll sort it for you.’ He stared after his grandfather as, humming, Evan limped towards the downstairs bathroom.
‘He remembered your name,’ Riley said. ‘Hold on to that for a minute. Enjoy it.’
He nodded slowly. His grandfather’s dementia had been getting worse with every mini stroke, and those moments of clarity were becoming fewer and further between. ‘Yeah.’ He wrapped his arms around her. ‘Thanks.’
‘For what?’ she asked, linking her hands behind his back.
‘For getting that.’
‘Of course I get it. You lov
e him. You’re so good to him. I know it’s hard. Lots of people wouldn’t cope.’
‘Lots of people wouldn’t have coped with what Mum did to him, dumping me on him before I could even talk. I’m only doing what I need to do. Like he did. It’s no big deal,’ he muttered, embarrassed.
‘And I’ll talk to Dad about the money. You can’t afford to lose any pay.’
He looked around. The house hadn’t had a makeover since before he was born and it was about that long since they’d bought new furniture. Just paying the mortgage and keeping it running took most of his pay. The rest generally went on petrol and enough cheap groceries to get them through each week. Evan’s care and medication wiped out the small pension he received. Whenever an appliance broke down it was a major disaster, so Jai had learnt how to tinker, to fix things. At least until it became impossible to get parts. But they survived. Just.
‘I’ll sort it,’ he said. He still had some pride. ‘Besides, you’ve already won a battle today. I’d stick with that.’
‘Not unless we can find a guide, I haven’t.’
‘We will. Hey.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake, then smiled. ‘Don’t worry. Let’s boot up the computer and get started.’
‘Okay.’ She kissed him lightly on the lips. ‘You really are an amazing guy, Jai Wharton. I’m going to marry you one day.’
He never quite believed it but he never got sick of hearing it. He slid his arms around her waist and drew her closer. ‘You’re going to finish your degree.’
‘Mmm hmm. And when I’ve found a perfect little school to teach at, you’re going to get into TAFE and do that mechanics course you’ve wanted to do forever.’ She lightly kissed his neck.
‘And then we’ll get that little house by the beach you’ve been dreaming about,’ he murmured, kneading her hips with his fingers.
‘And have a million kids.’
He drew his head away to stare down at her, amused. ‘I thought it was two million.’
‘Forgot.’ She smiled. ‘That’s a lot. We should probably practise.’ She slid her fingers under his shirt, the light rake of her nails making him shudder. Riley made everything bearable: his grandfather’s cruel fate; his ex-con, arse-riding boss; Pax’s bullying; the bills; and the house intent on falling down around him. She kept him grounded, kept him going. He gazed into her aquamarine eyes, and despite all of it, all the shit in his life, wondered how someone like him could possibly have gotten this lucky.