Beyond Fear (39 page)

She tried to adjust the fall of the tyre iron but it was too late. She’d aimed for his head. Got him hard across a shoulder. A walloping chop that threw him sideways, knocked the torch from his hand. But didn’t knock him down.

He spun around, too fast for Jodie to reverse the thrust of the tyre iron. He shouldercharged, slamming her against the wardrobe door. Air gusted out of her lungs. The tyre iron fell from her hands and she doubled over, gasping for air. Inside the wardrobe, Louise and Hannah screamed.

Keep your eyes open, Jodie.
The torch was on the floor but there was enough light to see him take half a step back. She pushed off the door, drove her knee up. Missed his groin but got him high on the thigh. Not a great shot. Not enough to cripple him but enough to make him stoop and grunt. She pulled her hands in tight to her chest, lifted her elbow like a wing and twisted hard at him. Swung her whole body into it, just like she taught her students. Made contact with his jaw, snapped his head around. He stumbled away, still on his feet.

She could hear Lou and Hannah shouting on the other side of the wardrobe door. You’ve nearly got them out, Jodie. Don’t stop. She closed the distance to him as he straightened up, slammed the heel of her hand under his chin.

As he fell, a light came on.

Not the room light. It came from outside. Bright, white light coming in through the bedroom window. Jodie looked up and squinted in the sudden glare. That was her big mistake. Travis grabbed her ankle, pulled her leg out from under her. She hit the floor hard, kicked out at him as he tried to grab her feet, scrabbled frantically backwards.

But he kept coming, clawing his way up her body, eyes narrowed and angry in his blood-smeared face. She kept lashing out, striking with her feet, her knees. Must have made contact somewhere, felt him fall away. She rolled over, scratched at the floor, slipped in her socks, pulled herself up to her feet, made the door, slammed into the doorframe. He was behind her, she could hear him, he was yelling, cursing, still getting to his feet.
Run, Jodie!

She was in the hallway, past her bedroom door, almost out. Then skidding, trying to stop, sliding in her socks, legs wheeling on the slippery timber. Oh, Christ, no. Kane was at the other end of the hall. A silhouette in the door like his brother had been. Only she could see his face, see the ‘gotcha’ look. And knew there was no way out.

35

Kane’s fist came at Jodie like a freight train. She had time to duck a fraction, probably saved her cheek from being crushed, but the impact on her forehead drove her across the hall and slammed her into the wall.

Her knees turned to rubber and she slid down the wall, tipping drunkenly to one side. She felt movement before she saw it, curled instinctively into a ball, took Kane’s first kick on her thigh. There wasn’t time to register pain. Just time to wrap her arms around her head, roll away far enough to protect her ribs and take the second kick on her hip. Kane was lifting his foot high, slamming down with the rubber sole, trying to crush her like a beetle. He had a hand on the wall above her, crowding her in. There was no escape. She tucked her head in, tried to get her strongest bones under him, felt anger form a hard, hot, solid mass inside her.

She wasn’t going to die. Not yet.

Not in a damn hallway. With Matt dead outside, with Louise shot and bleeding and trapped with Hannah in a wardrobe.

As she flinched for another blow, Kane was knocked away and Travis’s voice bounced off the walls. ‘Get her out of here.’

‘I’m gonna kill the fucking bitch.’

‘You’re gonna do what you came here for first.’

Between the arms curled over her face, Jodie watched Travis shove his brother again. This time, Kane came back at him. She kept her head down as they heaved each other around, throwing punches, their feet catching her painfully. It was Travis who brought it to an end, stopping Kane in a chokehold against the wall.

‘Get her the fuck out of here and get under the barn or you can sort your own shit out.’

Jodie heard nothing but heavy breathing for a long, tense moment. She closed her eyes, prayed Kane would do as he was told. Someone grabbed the neck of her sweater, started dragging her along the floor.

Travis had saved her life – for now.

Matt bit down on the cuss at his lips. His shoulder was on fire. Blood was slick on his arm, seeping through his sleeve, running into his hand. The bullet had ripped right through his triceps, left a wide gash on the underside of his upper arm. He fingered a painful, hardening lump on his temple. He must have hit his head on the way over the verandah, got knocked out. He didn’t know for how long – or for how long he’d dropped in and out of consciousness. He just knew he had to get moving.

He gripped his shoulder with his other hand, rolled off the mound of shrubbery he’d fallen into, laid in the dirt under the lip of the verandah for a moment, waiting for the dizziness to subside.

Jodie was unbelievable. She’d been two minutes late. He’d just about given up on her. Didn’t think she’d pull off the shot while there was a gun to her friend’s head. But she had. Smack through the car window. And then she’d managed to knock out the power. They’d talked about that before she’d left. She hadn’t been a hundred per cent sure where the box was but they’d agreed if it was where she thought it was, if it was safe, she’d kill the lights too.

And she’d been right about Corrine. The blonde had slammed that nailfile home. Buried it deep in Kane’s thigh. Just as well because she couldn’t run for shit. She’d needed every second she had to get out of the light. With any luck, she was now stumbling about in the bush towards the road, heading to a phone. Matt needed help up here. And he wanted Kane and Travis in custody. Handcuffed, locked in the back of a van, facing down life in prison. They deserved to suffer for the things they’d done.

Both brothers were inside now. Matt had seen Kane turn on the roof-mounted spotlights on his truck. It was the blinding light that had finally forced him into full consciousness. He’d heard Kane’s limping stomp across the verandah and now he and his brother were shouting at each other inside the barn, slamming doors.

It was time to move. While they were at each other. Before they turned on the other two hostages. Get them back to Jodie in the bush then get them all to safety.

Matt pulled himself into a sitting position, his head spinning like a barrel, clambered about in the garden until he found a way out. His knee was bad and his arm was useless and he was bleeding like a stuck pig. He needed to get this done fast. He checked the verandah, made sure he was alone, then ran low and limping across the grass to the bedroom end of the barn.

It was darker around there. Just enough light from the car to see what he was doing. He crept across the deck, slipped through the French doors, folding them open against the wall behind him. One of the brothers was talking loudly at the other end of the barn, the sound muffled through the closed bedroom door. In the eerie light from outside, he could see dark circles of his own blood on the floor, a tyre iron in front of the wardrobe – and the spade still securing the handles.

He quietly removed the spade, eased one door open, looked inside. The light didn’t penetrate to the back of the walk-in robe and it took a second for him to see them. The two women were huddled in the far corner, the injured one, Louise, lying down, her knees curled up, her head on the lap of the nurse, Hannah.

As he approached them, Hannah braced both arms protectively around Louise, in a way that made Matt think she’d spent her time in the wardrobe pulling herself together. She seemed to have moved on from the sheer terror that had pinned her to the wall before. She was frightened now, that was obvious in the wide-open eyes, but she looked bolder, more resolute.

‘It’s okay. It’s Matt,’ he whispered as he knelt beside them. ‘How is she? Can she walk?’

He spoke to Hannah but Louise answered. ‘If you can help me get on my feet, I can walk.’

Matt couldn’t see her face clearly in the dark but her voice was determined. She needed to be. It was a long walk to the bush and he couldn’t carry her. Not now.

‘Where’s Jodie?’ Hannah said.

‘Tie her to the post,’ Travis ordered.

Kane dragged Jodie to her feet, shoved her face first at one of the big, old tree trunks holding up the roof of the lounge room. As he pulled her arms around either side of the trunk, bound her wrists tight with electrical tape, the double-edged knife tattooed on his forearm swam sickeningly across her still-woozy vision. Travis stood back and watched, wiped at the blood on his face and glared at his brother. He was out of breath from the fight in the hallway but his heavy breathing seemed to be more about reining in his fury. Fury that wasn’t just aimed at Jodie.

When Kane was done, he pulled on her hands, dragged her hard up against the trunk, got in her face. ‘I’m gonna enjoy doing you, bitch.’

‘Get the fuck under the barn,’ Travis yelled at him.

Kane spun around, looked ready to charge but stopped when he saw the gun in Travis’s hand. He held the pistol low at his side, muzzle pointed to the floor.

‘You gonna use that thing on me?’ Kane’s growl was a challenge.

‘You gonna get under the barn or make me think about it?’

Jodie watched from behind as Kane folded his arms across his chest. When he spoke, his voice was filled with venom. ‘You wanna be the old man now?’ He took a threatening step forward.

Travis raised the gun.

Kane roared, ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’

‘I’m the one with the
gun
.’

Neither brother moved for a second.

‘You leave her for me,’ Kane said.

‘The tough bitch is all yours.’ Travis’s first words were spoken calmly then he raised his voice to a bawl. ‘
So do something useful and get under the goddamn barn.
’

‘Fuck you!’ Kane shouted but gave up the fight.

Travis watched in silence as Kane dropped his legs into the hole and disappeared under the floor. He turned, focused on Jodie for a brief, tense moment then walked to the kitchen.

Jodie closed her eyes, swallowed at the bile in her throat. She was pressed up close to the gnarly surface of the tree trunk, the dried remains of the bark rough against her cheek. She was still in her socks, dirt crusted on the knees of her jeans, Corrine’s white sweater torn and filthy. Her face hurt. Her head felt like it wasn’t sitting properly on the top of her neck and she had large patches of tender new bruising along the right side of her body. But her anger was intact. Travis was leaving her for Kane and her anger felt great. It felt like a weapon. The only weapon she had.

Off to her left, a tap was turned on in the kitchen. She moved her head, rested her other cheek against the trunk, saw Travis at the sink cleaning blood from his face – some of it fresh from the fight, some of it dried and crusted from when she’d smashed his head into the brick pier.

She smiled a little at the memory of that. She’d been terrified down there, had been terrified since she’d walked through the front door this afternoon, but as she watched Travis, she realised she felt no fear now. Kane and Travis were going to kill her. They were going to kill Louise and Hannah. She was never going to see her beautiful children again. There was nothing she could do about it. But fear wasn’t what she felt.

What she felt was hotter and sharper and filling her up, infusing every artery, every vein, every muscle.

She thought about how it might go. When Kane was finished under the barn, Travis was going to let him get his kicks spilling their blood. Travis had been using Jodie and her friends as a bribe all night. Like bribing a child with chocolate to make him clean his room, only Kane got a thrill kill if he did his job. But he had to do his job
first
. Travis was worried about time, worried that if Kane got started before they were ready to leave, they were going to run out of time. Which meant whatever Kane did to get his thrills, it wasn’t quick. His warning to Matt came back to her.

I’m gonna beat your brains out and cut you up in little pieces.

Jodie looked at the hole in the floor, at Travis wiping his face on his shirt, felt the heat inside her rise.

She was
not
going to die in fear. Too much of her goddamn life had been spent fearing the evil of others. Fearing the pain that could be inflicted. The screaming and the blood and the loss and the powerlessness. Well, she’d been there. Done that. And she was over it. Fucking over it.

‘Jodie’s waiting for you in the bush,’ Matt said as he eased Louise upright and let her rest against the back wall of the wardrobe.

‘They got her,’ Hannah said.

‘No, she’s in the bush, waiting for us.’

‘You saw her?’

He hesitated a second. ‘Yeah.’

Hannah put her hands to her face, pulled in a shuddering breath. ‘Oh, God. I thought they got her. I thought it was too late.’ She looked up at him again. ‘What about Corrine?’

Matt wrapped Louise’s arm around his neck. ‘She jammed Kane with the nailfile and ran for her life.’

Louise smiled weakly.