‘Bigger?’ Regan almost laughed.
‘Mmm,’ Tox said. He sighed. ‘Stronger.’ Tox’s eyes wandered up Regan’s body. ‘See, I don’t like men who hurt women and girls. I really, really don’t like ’em. So I hoped that when I finally caught up to you, I’d be able to hurt you for a good while before having to hand you over to police. I’ve been looking forward to hurting you.’
Regan laughed. Oh, what an unexpected gift this was.
‘I’m sure I can live up to expectations,’ Regan said.
The man in the kitchen unfolded his arms, stood poised, his big hands loose by his sides.
‘You ready?’ Tox asked.
‘Oh yes.’ Regan smiled. ‘More than ready.’
Chapter 101
OF COURSE THERE were others. How had I thought something like this might be limited to five men? Theo Campbell, Jace Robit, Frank Scullen, John Stieg and Damien Ponch. Of course it had spread. Small towns aren’t equipped for secrets like this, life-changing secrets. Last Chance Valley was an all-consuming hole in the Earth. Everyone wanted to escape. A few men had found a way, and the others had been able to smell it on them. Their secret hope. I turned my head slightly and the barrel of the man’s gun touched the back of my ear. I caught a glimpse of a fat, bearded man. The bartender from Last Chance. Mick the Prick. I smelled body odour and bourbon.
‘Drop it. You too.’
Kash and I dropped our guns. Jace’s eyes had lost their fierceness now. The man was incredulous, mortified, all his plans crumbling before him.
‘Mick,’ he snapped at the man behind me. ‘What the fuck!’
‘Yeah, exactly,’ Mick the bartender said, smiling. ‘What the fuck. You lot find a fortune and you think you can just pick up and leave with it? You don’t think about sharing it around? What a bunch of selfish fucking pricks.’
‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ I murmured, my hands out by my sides. ‘We can all walk out of here if everybody just stays calm.’
He ignored me. ‘I wondered what you shitheads were up to,’ Mick sneered, pushing me forwards. I walked slowly towards Kash, turned, trying not to make any sudden movements. Mick kicked the two men nearest to him until they lay on their stomachs on the sand. ‘I seen you at the pub snickering and whispering like a bunch of old bitches. Knew you had something on the go, so I followed you out here. What a surprise. I thought I’d wait, let you do all the hard work for me. But then I seen these coppers were onto you. I had to swoop in before you got yourselves arrested.’ He gestured to Kash and me. ‘You two. On your knees.’
We knelt in the dirt. The sweat was rolling down my sides now. Mick went to Kash’s back and tugged the second gun out of his jeans, kicked him onto his stomach with the rest of the men.
‘You,’ he pointed at me. ‘Take those wires over there, tie them up. And don’t think you’re going to do it loosely. I’ll check.’
I crawled on my hands and knees to a pile of electrical wire nearby. The men had been drilling, sending charges through the rock wall, exploding bits off to get deeper into the seam. I wondered just how secure this all was, if in the end a collapse from the rock above would bury all of us. A Venus flytrap snapping shut on greedy flies. I looked up. The crack in the earth went all the way up. There were stars up there beyond us all. Maybe there was hope. Mick was muttering to Jace as I crawled over to him and began tying his hands.
‘Sure must be a lot of it for you all to have decided you’ll just take off and leave everyone behind,’ Mick was saying. ‘Let’s see. If I wanted to start a new life, I reckon I’d need a hundred grand minimum. A hundred grand could see you set yourselves up pretty well in Thailand.’
‘Fuck off, idiot,’ Jace snapped, his chin resting in the dirt, teeth together. I moved and tied Frank’s hands.
‘But then, you guys have been out here for ages, I reckon,’ Mick mused. ‘I started to notice you acting weird months back. Let’s say it’s three months of ferreting the rocks away. Then Soupy Campbell finds you with some. You have to bring him in on it all.’
‘What’s your plan here?’ I asked Mick. He’d elected me to bind everyone. He must have some level of trust in me. I tried to keep my voice low, non-threatening. ‘You’ll leave us all tied up here and then go raid everyone’s houses, take the rocks and leave. That’s what you’ll do, right?’
Mick didn’t answer. I’d tied all Jace’s men and moved to Kash. His hands were sweaty.
‘Because there’s really no need to hurt anyone,’ I continued. ‘The guys will tell you where the gold is hidden, so you can get away with plenty of time.’
‘Shut up and finish what you’re doing.’
‘You’re talking about theft,’ I said. ‘That’s all. Leave now. Then if you’re caught, you can probably plead out. You do not want to find yourself on the run with six murder charges. When they find us, they’ll shut the whole country down to catch who did it.’
Mick flicked the gun at the sand. I lay down and felt his bulk shift over me, the sickening press of his crotch against my backside as he pulled my arm behind my back with his free hand.
‘Who says they’re gonna find you?’ Mick asked.
Chapter 102
TOX CRACKED HIS knuckles and smiled, and the man smiled, and they rushed at each other.
He was a prison fighter. Tox could tell that right away. You’ve got to fight fast in prison, before the guards stop you, so Regan faked only once before throwing in his first punch. Tox grabbed the fist as it sailed past his ear, yanked the man forwards and hit him hard in the sternum.
Regan spat air, crumpled in half, fell on the coffee table, smashing it to pieces.
Tox grabbed something – a vase or a sculpture or something, he didn’t look – and clubbed the man. Once. The second time was blocked.
The kick in the knee was unexpected. Tox backed up into a bookshelf, sent more objects smashing.
Regan was on him. A punch to the jaw that crunched his teeth. Tox blocked the second swing, palmed his attacker in the nose. Blood down the front of Regan’s shirt, fast and heavy. The man ignored it. He was a good fighter. Focused, determined under pressure. He’d have been a good killer. Those girls wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Tox saw them in his mind, a tiny flash, smiling teeth and bright eyes, beautiful futures. It was what he needed to refocus himself. He leapt forwards.
Chapter 103
THE PROBLEM WAS tying my wrists with the gun in his spare hand. The cast made things even trickier. He tried, gave up, backed away. I shifted my hands to the ground beside my shoulders, in a push-up position, ready to spring. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, but I was the only one with my hands free. It was on me. Sweat was stinging on my burned skin. I planted my toes in the sand, wiggled them down until I felt hard earth. Mick was watching us all. Deciding. I could still talk him out of this. Surely.
‘Everybody thinks about getting out,’ Mick said gently. He rubbed his beard. ‘I mean, I get it. I grew up here, just like you guys. By the time you’re old enough to figure out there’s a whole other world out there, you’ve already grown roots. You stay, or you abandon everything. Everyone. There’s no in-between.’
He was apologising. Saying sorry for what he was about to do. My throat was tight with tension. I could barely breathe.
‘ This was your only chance,’ Mick said. He pointed the gun at Jace. ‘It’s my only chance now.’
‘No!’ I screamed. The gun roared, not once but twice. Mick was a seasoned killer. A country man. He’d shot dogs that got too old, horses that got lame, dingoes that wandered onto his property.