Shadows (18 page)

It’s a tight fit in the jeep. Simon is behind the wheel and Rafa is in the front with him. I’m between Ez and Jason, and Zak is wedged into the extra seat in the back, the weapons bags between his feet. They clattered when Rafa tossed them in and Simon pretended not to notice.

The guys weren’t kidding when they called this a goat track. What started out as a wide gravel road soon turned to dirt, and then narrowed to two wheel ruts.

I grip the front seats, trying to keep my balance. The seatbelt is the only thing stopping me from launching into Rafa’s or Simon’s lap every time we come out of a dip and hit the next rise. Ez and Jason cling to the safety handles above their doors. Every now and then Zak grunts behind me.

‘Any chance you could miss one or two of the potholes?’ Rafa snaps.

Simon keeps his eyes on the road. ‘Only if you want to take three hours getting there.’

We climb higher into the hinterland. Ez moves around to get comfortable. When she sees me looking she gives me a reassuring smile.

‘Shit!’ Rafa’s voice is sharp. Simon slams on the brakes.

A wallaby is standing in the middle of the dirt track, eyes glassy in the bright headlights. Mesmerised, and measuring us. Simon sounds the horn, short and sharp. The wallaby blinks and hops away into the scrub. And we continue our rough, noisy ride up the mountain.

There’s not much chance of conversation. It’s actually a relief. Right now, all I’m thinking about is Maggie, and what I did in the cage—and how to do it again.

I’m looking out the window into the dark feathery forest, when Simon swears and jams on the brakes again.

Standing in the middle of the track are two guys in filthy shorts and blue singlets. They’ve got shorn hair, long beards, and tattoos on just about every piece of exposed skin.

One is holding a shotgun and the other, a fence post.

‘Who the fuck are they?’ Rafa asks.

‘The Butler boys. They must have a crop up here somewhere.’

I only know the Butlers by reputation—and the occasional glimpse of them hustling pool in the beer garden at the Imperial. They’re the older brothers of at least two of the hoodie brigade I flipped off earlier today.

‘Mick and Rusty,’ Simon says. ‘Mick’s the big one with the gun.’

They both look pretty big to me.

‘Let me handle this.’ Simon cuts the engine. ‘I went to school with Rusty.’

‘Make it quick,’ Rafa says.

Simon gets out, and the smell of eucalyptus and damp soil fills the jeep. He leaves the door open and walks as far as the bull bar.

‘Zak, go,’ Rafa says, his lips barely moving.

There’s a click behind me and the faintest stirring of air as Zak shifts.

Mick shines a torch at Simon, making him shield his eyes. ‘You lost, shit stain?’ Mick’s voice is flat and hard.

‘Nah, mate,’ Simon says. ‘Just heading up the mountain.’

‘Who ya got in there?’ Mick moves the beam of light across the windscreen. Rusty is beside him, eyes flicking from Simon to the jeep.

‘Gaby and a few of her mates from down south.’

‘Who the fuck’s Gaby?’

‘You know, the brunette who hangs out with Mags.’

Rusty peers at the windscreen and finally speaks. ‘The chick with the long legs and nice tits?’

‘Yeah,’ Simon says. ‘We’re taking a few of her mates up to the Retreat. Just doing a bit of bush-bashing on the way.’

‘Rick know about that?’ Rusty asks, grinning.

‘No chance. He’d have my balls in a vice.’

Mick lifts the shotgun and I hold my breath. I’d been worried about Simon getting hurt by the Rephaim tonight—it hadn’t crossed my mind he could get shot by a trigger-happy dope grower. But instead of levelling the barrel at Simon, Mick uses it to scratch the side of his rough head.

‘You sure you haven’t got pigs in there?’ Mick rests the shotgun on his shoulder.

Simon shakes his head. ‘Seriously, mate, I had no idea you had any
interests
up this far.’

He’s playing this pretty cool. I guess working at Rick’s has taught him a thing or two about dealing with testosterone-fuelled meatheads.

‘Get your mates out so I can see ‘em,’ Mick says.

For a few seconds, Simon doesn’t move, and then he turns towards the jeep and signals for us to join him.

I unbuckle my seatbelt. ‘Let’s just do this so we can get going.’

Rafa grunts. ‘If he points that rifle at me, it’s going up his arse.’

We pile out of the jeep and take up positions either side of Simon. Rusty’s gaze goes straight to me, but Mick scours all of us. The torchlight lingers on Ez.

He steps forward. ‘What the fuck happened to your face?’

She levels her gaze at him. ‘What the fuck happened to yours?’

It throws Mick for a second. He blinks, and then looks back to the rest of us. ‘What’s with all the black?’

‘They’re from the city,’ Simon says.

‘That’d be right.’ Mick hawks up a wad of phlegm and spits it away from him with practiced efficiency. ‘Cos we need more friggin’ faggots dry-humping our chicks at your brother’s pansy-arse bar. We can never have too many arseholes with money coming up here, can we, Rusty? Think we’re all dense, don’t they?’ Mick taps the shotgun against his head.

Rusty shrugs. ‘Simon’s all right.’ He points the fencepost at him. ‘You wouldn’t hang out with wankers, would you, mate?’

‘Not if I could help it.’

Not quite a resounding endorsement.

‘Present company excepted, of course,’ I say, gesturing to the brothers. I know I should keep quiet, but we’ve got places to be.

Mick eyes me up and down. ‘Your tits aren’t that good,
love. You might wanna watch your mouth.’

He gets that I was being facetious. I’m impressed.

‘So,’ Mick says, shining the torch at Rafa. ‘You wanna tell me what you cocksuckers are really doing in my backyard?’

‘Nope,’ Rafa says. ‘And if you’re still blocking my path in another thirty seconds, I’m going to come over there and snap that fat neck of yours.’

Mick’s eyes harden. ‘What did you just say?’

‘You heard me.’

Mick swings the gun off his shoulder and points the barrel at Rafa’s head.

‘Hey, mate, calm down.’ Simon’s hands come up in front of him.

‘Fuck that,’ Mick spits. ‘Nobody talks to me like that.’

Zak materialises out of the darkness behind the brothers. Simon flinches, but Mick is so fixated on Rafa he doesn’t notice. Rusty does though. He looks over his shoulder, just as Zak’s hands flash up and crack the brothers’ heads together.

They slump to the ground like wilting flowers.

‘You took your time,’ Rafa says to Zak. ‘Another few seconds of listening to that and I would’ve had to rip his tongue out.’

Simon is looking from Zak to the Butler boys, jaw slack. ‘How…?’

Rafa ignores him. He and Zak drag the brothers off the track. They lean them against each other with their backs to a gum tree. Rafa pockets the shells out of the shotgun and leaves the empty weapon across Mick’s thighs. Jason turns off the torch and sets it within Rusty’s reach.

‘You’re just going to leave them here?’ Simon says.

Rafa and Zak are already halfway to the car, so Ez goes over to him.

‘That wasn’t a hard hit. They won’t be out long. We need to go before they come to because next time Zak won’t be so gentle.’

Her hand is on his elbow, gently urging him forward.

‘But…’ Simon puts one foot in front of the other, his steps stilted. ‘He just…appeared.’

Jason and I glance at each other.

‘He’s that good,’ Ez says.

‘But he just
appeared.’

‘Simon.’ Ez lowers her voice. ‘It’s night. He’s wearing dark clothes, and he’s a beautiful black man. It all works to his advantage.’

Simon looks around at me. ‘Didn’t you see it?’

‘No,’ I lie. ‘I was too busy watching what Mick was doing.’

We get Simon back in the driver’s seat. He starts the car, but doesn’t move. ‘I know what I saw.’

‘How about you just see the road?’ Rafa says.

Simon stews for another second or two, then puts the car in gear.

‘I know what I saw.’

Another half-hour of increasingly steep and winding track, and Simon swings the jeep into a clearing. He cuts the engine and the headlights. The forest slides back into darkness.

‘Time to walk,’ he says to nobody in particular.

Rafa opens the door. ‘How far?’

‘The Retreat’s at the top of this ridge. We can’t drive any further.’

I climb out and wait while the guys rummage about in the back of the jeep. The sky is low, smudged, the moon hidden behind clouds. My eyes adjust to the night quickly. The ridgeline looms over us, dark, crouching. The air is cooler up here, fresher than I expected.

‘This friend of yours—she knows about us?’ Ez asks me.

‘She knows enough.’

‘She’s not going to have a meltdown if things get a little weird?’

‘She’ll be fine.’

I hope. I hope that shifting is the worst Maggie’s experienced with Taya.

My pulse kicks up a notch.

The back door of the jeep slams and Simon’s torch scans the group. The beam lingers on the duffel bags and then shifts beyond me, where a narrow track disappears into the trees. Pale light passes over palms, ferns and the mottled trunks of old fig trees.

‘Stay close to the torch.’ Simon sets off. ‘And watch where you put your feet.’

Jason falls into step with him. Zak repositions his duffel bag, and he and Ez follow.

I breathe in damp leaves and dark soil. This is it.

Rafa presses his palm on my lower back, moving me forward. ‘Still good?’ he asks.

‘Yep,’ I say, the lie almost convincing me. ‘You feel the others yet?’

‘We’re not close enough.’

I pick my way over tree roots and on to a clear section of path. Rafa’s hand falls away. ‘What if Simon was wrong? What if this isn’t the place?’

‘Then Daniel needs to provide clearer directions.’

The track twists and turns, but I can see well enough without watching the beam up ahead.

‘Maybe we should turn the torch off. We don’t really need it.’

‘You’re right: we don’t. Your barman does.’

‘What? What makes you say—’ I don’t need to finish the sentence. I can make out each tree and shrub we’re passing, even though the torch is well ahead of us. ‘Oh.’

‘Jude really was the smart one, wasn’t he?’ There’s a smile in his voice.

‘Shut up.’

The tension between my shoulders eases a little. If Rafa is being a smartarse, he can’t be too worried about what’s waiting for us at the end of the track.

It feels like we’ve been hiking uphill for about half an hour when Simon finally stops on a plateau. A gentle breeze rises from the valley. It cools the sheen of sweat on my neck. Pan Beach is far below, hugging the coastline, the town lights beautiful from here. Simon hunts around until he finds the beginning of a boardwalk, which disappears into the rainforest.

‘The first cabin is a few hundred metres in,’ Simon says, his voice low. ‘There’s a network of boardwalks through the forest. Stick to the map or you’ll be wandering around for hours. I can come with you if you want—’

‘Go back to town,’ Rafa says.

‘You planning on walking back?’

‘Not your problem.’

‘What about the Butlers?’ I ask. I don’t want Simon coming with us, but I also don’t want him getting shot on the way down.

‘Don’t worry about me. You’re the ones who need a getaway plan. Jason?’

Jason clears his throat. ‘We’ll be fine, seriously.’

‘How? How are you going to be fine? You have to get Mags out without one of you getting hurt, and then you have to get off the mountain—’

‘The less you know, the better,’ Jason says.

‘Don’t give me that bullshit.’

‘Trust me,’ Jason says. ‘It’s not bullshit.’

Simon shifts his weight from one foot to the other. ‘I want to see her when she’s safe. I mean it.’

Rafa shrugs his duffel bag further onto his shoulder. ‘Can we go now, or do you two need to hug first?’

‘You’re a dick, you know that? Here—’ Simon thrusts a sheet of paper at him.

Ez laughs. ‘He prides himself on it.’

Simon walks by me as he leaves. ‘Be careful,’ he says quietly. Then he heads along the trail without a backwards glance.

The sound of a zip pulls my attention to the board-walk. One of the duffel bags is open and Zak is handing
out knives. Ez straps one to each of her upper arms. Rafa opens the other bag and passes out katanas to Zak and Ez. He hands Jude’s to me.

‘Any point in giving you one of these?’ Rafa asks Jason.

‘None at all.’

‘Probably works better, anyway.’

‘Does that mean you have a plan?’

Rafa laughs. ‘Goldilocks, anyone would think you had no faith in me.’ He re-zips the bag, scans the trees beside the boardwalk, and lobs it into the darkness. Then draws us into a circle.

‘It’s a bit thin on detail,’ Jason says when Rafa’s finished laying out what we’re about to do.

‘Got a better idea? No? Let’s go then.’

We set off, Rafa now in the lead. I catch him in a few steps. ‘Won’t they feel us when we get close?’

‘We didn’t shift here, so maybe not. But if they do, they’ll only know someone is coming. Not who, or how many.’

I keep the blade of the katana in front of me. ‘The same goes for us too, though, doesn’t it? We won’t know how many of them there are either.’

‘Daniel’s not going to have an army up here. We can take them.’

We round a bend. My stomach dips, like I’ve stepped off the boardwalk into open space.

‘Feel that?’ Rafa asks me. ‘You can stop worrying about us not being in the right place.’

He pulls out the paper Simon gave him. It’s the mud map. I can just make out the markings Rafa’s pointing to.

‘The first cabin must be around the next bend,’ he says. ‘See how the path forks?’

We creep forward. I hear faint music before I see lights through the trees. Cabin isn’t the right word: what’s in front of us is an A-frame house, twice the size of our bungalow.

Rafa signals for us to leave the boardwalk. I look over the side. The forest floor is thick with ferns—it’s hard to tell how far the drop is. He goes first, barely making a sound as he vaults over the rail. He lands in the waisthigh ferns with a soft thud, keeping his feet. There’s no way it’s as easy as he made it look.

Zak and Ez go next, then Jason. He’s not quite as agile as the others, but he’s athletic and he lands with almost the same grace. I have no intention of impaling myself on Jude’s sword, so I sit on the railing, swing my legs over, and drop to the ground.

We move through the ferns until we’re side-on to the cabin. At the front is a wide deck that steps down to a grassy clearing with a picnic table and benches. Out back, French doors open onto a smaller deck and the forest is pressed close around it. The music is louder now, mellow
Spanish guitar. Maybe this isn’t the right cabin. Maybe we’re about to destroy someone’s romantic weekend—

A figure moves into the open doorway and my heart jolts.

It’s Taya.

Rafa waves us down, below the ferns.

I watch her from my new position. She’s in regulation t-shirt and jeans, with her long hair pulled back in a slick ponytail. She’s also armed, resting a sheathed sword across her shoulders as she wanders to the far side of the deck, scanning the forest.

Rafa nudges me to get my attention. Then he points to Jason, and then the house. Jason nods. Rafa holds up two fingers—
wait two minutes
—and moves off silently towards the front of the cabin.

Jason manages to stay still half that time, his breath shortening, and then crawls in the opposite direction. The rest of us stay put. I try to remember to breathe.

Rafa has doubled back to the boardwalk and now saunters onto the front deck, sword hanging loosely from his right hand. He bangs on the door. On the back deck, Taya’s head whips around. She draws her katana and disappears inside. The music stops. I hear muffled voices.

Rafa waits, his shoulders loose. He grins when the door opens.

‘Buona sera,’
he says.

‘Where’s Gabe?’ Taya’s voice is flinty.

‘Hanging out with the barman,’ Rafa says, spinning the sword hilt in his hand. ‘You told her to come at dawn. The new and improved Gabe apparently does what she’s told.’

‘What do you want?’

‘To end this bullshit. Gabe’s not going back to Daniel, so you may as well just hand over the blonde now.’

Taya steps out onto the deck, her sword in front of her. Her eyes graze the ferns where we’re hiding. ‘Who else did you bring?’

‘For you and Malachi?’ He laughs.

‘You forget we can grab our guest and—’ She snaps her fingers.

‘Nathaniel’s okay with you dragging that girl all over the world? Yeah, right. Just cut the crap and bring her out.’ He looks past her, into the cabin. ‘Ah, Malachi. How’s the ball sack?’

A movement catches my eye. Jason, sneaking up to the back of the cabin while Taya and Malachi are busy at the front. I’m holding my breath.

He reaches the back door and slips inside.

Time stops. My heart bangs against my ribs. Above me, a green tree frog starts up its flat, repetitive call.

Jason just has to find Maggie, shift with her back here so we know he has her, and then we can all get out of here.

Something smashes inside the house.

‘I
knew
it!’ Taya says. She and Malachi race back into the cabin. Rafa shakes his head, glances over at our hiding spot, and follows them inside.

Beside me, Zak lets out his breath slowly. ‘Guess it’s plan B then.’ He and Ez exchange a look and disappear, leaving me alone in the ferns.