Beyond Fear (44 page)

She kept her eyes on Kane. ‘He was going to kill my friends.’

Matt swung his legs into the hole, kept the gun to Kane’s head as he dropped his feet to the earth. ‘Your friends are safe now. Give me the knife.’

‘He was going to
kill me
and then he was going to
kill my friends
.’

‘Louise and Hannah are safe. I got them out. Like we planned.’ He reached out to her, put his hand on top of hers, let his fingers creep forward onto the handle of the knife. ‘Look at me, Jodie.’ She slid her eyes to him. ‘They’re all safe. You saved them, Jodie. Let me have the knife.’

He held her gaze for a long moment, tried to tell her that he understood. That it was over now. That it was never going to be over for Kane. He didn’t know if she understood but her fingers finally softened and he pulled the knife from her grip, threw it far into the darkness under the barn.

He drew her to him then, away from Kane, kept his eyes and the gun on Anderson, let his mouth brush over her hair. It was gritty under his lips. She was rigid, wary, covered in dirt, bleeding and bruised. The best thing he’d ever seen.

‘Where’s his brother?’ she said.

‘Outside.’

‘Dead?’

‘He’s not going anywhere. Can you climb up?’

She straightened into the gaping, broken hole in the floor, half in the barn, half under it. She gazed around the spotlit room as though she’d forgotten what it looked like. She nodded.

Matt watched her as she braced her hands on the timber boards and hoisted herself up. The adrenaline must still be flowing. She seemed as strong as she ever did, no hint of the shakes. Maybe shock would hit after she’d seen her friends alive and safe.

‘Give me the gun,’ she said, looking down at him.

He thought of her with the knife in her hand, hesitated.

‘So I can keep it on him while you climb up. It’s okay. I’ve used a rifle before.’

He checked her eyes. The fury he’d seen before seemed under control now. He passed it up to her. Beside him, Kane moved for the first time since Jodie had held the knife to his throat. He turned his head, looked up at her, something unreadable in his pale eyes. She propped the butt of the gun against her shoulder like she’d done it a hundred times, pointed it at Kane.

‘You next,’ she said.

It was the right move, Matt thought. If Matt climbed out first, Kane could duck back under the boards and disappear into the darkness. But something about the way Jodie said it made him uneasy.

Kane took it slow. He was breathing through his mouth as though his bloodied nose no longer worked, he kept one elbow pulled in tight to the side of his body and he was streaming blood from a second thigh wound. Matt pushed him up with a hand under his foot. Up above, Jodie had both bare feet planted firmly on the floor, her eyes never leaving Kane.

‘Move away from the hole,’ she ordered when he was up.

Matt heard Kane chuckle. ‘You GI Jane, now, tough bitch?’

Jodie’s response was loud, explosive, aggressive.

‘
Don’t talk to me!
’ she screamed and Matt realised he’d made a mistake.

40

Jodie knew now what it was like to be Kane. Knew how it felt to want to hurt someone. She wanted to make Kane scream in agony. Wanted him to feel trapped and terrified and in fear of his life. And she wanted to watch him to the end, until he couldn’t take another breath. Until he got what he deserved.

She nestled the rifle into her shoulder, glad of the hours she’d spent at the gun club in the first years after Angie died.

‘I made you bleed, tough bitch.’ Kane stood on the edge of the hole, hands loosely at his sides, grinning through the blood on his face like he’d scored some kind of prize.

The rage was a wild animal inside her. It beat against her ribs, clawed at her belly, bellowed in her head. ‘
Shut up.
’

‘One second longer and your blood would’ve been gushing all over me.’

‘Shut the fuck up.’

‘I could’ve taken a swim in it.’

Jodie moved her finger to the rifle’s trigger.

‘Jodie!’

It was Matt. Still in the hole. She’d thought he was dead. Thought she’d lost him before she even had him.

‘Help me up, Jodie,’ Matt said.

Without taking her eyes off Kane, she dropped one hand from the rifle, leaned down, grasped Matt’s as he hauled himself into the lounge room. When he let go, her hand was sticky with his blood.

Kane had made him bleed. She looked into the bastard’s freaky, pale eyes, saw the arrogance and cruelty inside them.

‘Give me the gun,’ Matt said.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Move,’ she told Kane. ‘To the door.’

She stayed on his heels as he walked to the front door. Matt was at her side all the way, edgy, looking like he wasn’t sure who he should be covering – her or Kane. As far as Jodie was concerned, it was an each-way bet who was more dangerous right now.

Kane put a hand on the doorjamb, squinted in the brilliant light from his car, looked back at her with a sly grin. ‘You ever used a gun like that before? The recoil will break your shoulder before you hit anything.’

Jodie pointed the gun at his thigh. ‘You want to try me again?’ She smiled at the uncertainty in his eyes. ‘Move. Out the door.’

The spotlight blinded her as they stepped outside. She couldn’t see anything beyond the front steps. She glanced both ways down the verandah, felt the rage gather strength when she didn’t see what she was looking for.

‘Louise?’ she shouted. ‘Hannah? Corrine?’ She swung accusing eyes on Matt. ‘Where are they? You said you got them.
Where are they, Matt?
’

‘I took Louise and Hannah into the bush. They’re safe. Give me the gun.’

‘Where’s Travis?’ she demanded. She’d thought he was dead but she’d thought Matt was, too.

‘Jodie.’

‘You said he was out here!’ she yelled at him. ‘Where the hell is he?’ She shoved Kane with the muzzle of the gun, pushed him towards the steps. ‘You better start praying I see your brother out here or I’m going to make you scream until he shows himself.’

Kane cupped his mouth with one hand, lifted his voice. ‘Hey, bro, where are you?’ He made like he was shocked, like he hadn’t already pulled a trigger. ‘Wiseman killed him. He fucking killed my brother.’

She pointed the gun at Kane’s face. ‘Good.’

‘Give me the gun, Jodie.’ Matt pulled on her shoulder as she moved towards the top step.

She shoved him off, pushed Kane ahead of her as she stormed down the stairs. ‘
Where?
Where’s Travis?’ Then she saw him, in the dim reflected light behind the beam of the spots, on his back, arms spread wide, blood staining the gravel around his head.

There was a sudden flash of movement beside her. She turned, saw Kane make a move towards her, saw Matt dive at him, swing an elbow into his ribs. Kane doubled over, gasping in pain, making hoarse sucking sounds as he tried to breathe in.

‘Get on the ground,’ she shouted at him. ‘On your knees. Hands behind your head.’ She watched and smiled in brutal satisfaction at his pain.

Matt was in pain, too. She could see him clutching his upper arm. Fresh blood was oozing out of a makeshift bandage, starting to run down his arm.

Kane had shot Matt. He’d held a gun to Corrine’s head. He’d locked up her friends.

She felt again the press of the knife he’d held to her throat. The wild thing inside her beat itself against her ribs.

‘This was
my
place for the weekend.
You
chose the wrong weekend to come here.’

She walked to Kane, put her foot on his chest, pushed him. He screamed, grabbed at his bloody thigh as he fell to his back.

She stepped over him, aimed the muzzle of the gun at his face.

‘You cut me.’

‘Felt good, didn’t it, bitch?’

Blood roared in her head.

‘
You cut me.
’

‘No, Jodie.’ She could hear the pain in Matt’s voice. It made her fingers tingle with the urge to pull the trigger.

‘Do it, bitch,’ Kane said.

She nestled the gun tighter into her shoulder, looked at Kane’s ugly, bloodied face along its length.

Matt moved into the edge of her vision, on the other side of Kane. ‘It won’t change it, Jodie. Killing him won’t undo what he’s done.’

‘
He cut me.
’

‘I know what it’s like to want revenge, Jodie.’

‘Shut up, Matt. Just shut up.’

Kane suddenly reached up, grabbed the end of the rifle with both hands.

Jodie flinched, almost pulled the trigger.

He yanked on the gun. He was angry now, agitated, holding the weapon with tight fists. ‘
Come on
, tough bitch.
Do it.
’

She wanted to. Her finger was on the trigger. One squeeze and Kane Anderson wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

He wanted it, too. He wasn’t playing her. She could see it in his eyes. He wanted her to pull the trigger. He wanted to die.

And that’s what made her hesitate.

‘
Come on
,’ he yelled.

She smiled down at him. ‘How bad do you want it?’

‘Fuck you.’

She lowered her eye to the rifle sight.

‘Jodie,’ Matt said quietly.

‘No,’ she answered.

‘Just letting you know if you shoot him from there, you’ll get his brains all over you.’

Matt’s unexpected, casual, shootin’ the breeze tone of voice shifted something in the haze of her rage. She got a picture of it then. Not of the violent, appalling act she was about to commit. But a sudden, gruesome, Technicolor image of Kane’s brain matter splattered over her jeans. She saw herself trying to get out of her clothes with his thick gore clinging to her. She smelled it, felt it warm and slippery on her skin. And knew she would never escape that. She would see it every time she closed her eyes. Like she saw her own blood when she looked at her scars, heard Angie’s screams in her sleep. She would never be free of Kane.

She swept the gun over her head and fired into the night. As the crack and boom ricocheted and rolled around the valley, she lowered the rifle and slammed the butt into Kane’s head.

41

Jodie woke in crisp, clean sheets, her body heavy and lethargic from the drugs she’d been given to sleep. She swallowed in a dry mouth, took stock of her injuries.

Stitches in her forearm, one high on her throat. A taped and bandaged hand. An array of tender bruises on her face, down her right side, on her shin. Blistered feet. Strained muscles. Not bad considering.

‘Oh, you’re awake,’ Hannah said.

Jodie rolled her head painfully on the pillow, saw Hannah and Corrine sitting on the bed beside hers. The hospital had cleared a four-bed ward room for them, made them all stay the night.

‘How’s Lou?’ Jodie looked across the room to where curtains were closed around her bed.

‘Still sleeping,’ Hannah said.

Lou and Hannah had waited in the bush until the shouting stopped before cautiously emerging. Jodie had clung to them, sobbed with them but their questions about what had happened went unanswered. One man was dead, another was unconscious and both she and Matt were bleeding – but all she could bring herself to tell them was that she was alive, she was okay, it was over. By then, Matt had tied Kane’s hands and feet and left him facedown in the dirt near the brother he’d murdered. Fifteen minutes later, a convoy of police cars turned into the long driveway, thanks to Corrine. She’d managed to negotiate her way through the dark scrub to the cottage on the road and made a triple-O call.

Jodie had sat dazed and in shock on the front steps of the barn as police swarmed around the hill. She’d wept with relief as Lou and Hannah were loaded into an ambulance but as Kane was stretchered into another van and driven away, all she’d felt was a cold, detached hollowness. She didn’t actually see Matt leave. He’d refused to go until she’d been taken down to join Corrine in the cottage. Seemed he had some code about not leaving before the hostages. No reason to argue with that.

It was after midnight before she and Corrine finally made the forty-minute trip in the ambulance and arrived at the nearest hospital. Louise was already in surgery, Matt was waiting his turn and despite the late hour, a cast of thousands had gathered. Family, police, reporters, camera crews and photographers. She was desperate to see Adam and Isabelle, to hold her children after almost losing them forever, but when she spoke to James on the phone, she asked him not to bring them in. She’d caught a look at her face in a mirror and didn’t want to upset them more than they needed to be.

‘How are you?’ Hannah asked, helping Jodie to sit, plumping her pillows.