Page 58 of Rough Stock

Dane ripped the tape from her face. It was like being brutally waxed, leaving the skin stinging around her mouth, but she was ever so grateful she could swallow the cool air.

‘Here, have some water, miss.’ Dane held out the water bottle to her, while Renzo laughed in a way that made the hair on Izzy’s neck spike with fear, trapped in this twisted nightmare.

‘You said you only wanted directions, Renzo. You never said you were going to hurt her. And she’s unarmed, scared out of her bloody wits, she is.’

Izzy just guzzled on the water, and didn’t care that it spilled down her face. She didn’t know if she’d ever get another chance to get any water, especially in the outback where people died of thirst.

‘Shut up and drive, Dane.’ Renzo narrowed those cold eyes at Dane while tapping on his pistol securely strapped to his shoulder holster, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to expose the tattoos branding his olive skin. With his black hair slicked back, and his dark glasses, Renzo truly looked like someone who’d work for a drug cartel. For real. ‘Remember who’s paying your bills, Dane.’

Dane screwed the lid on the water bottle and nodded at Izzy, his voice barely a whisper. ‘Just do as he says, miss, and hopefully we’ll both get out of this alive.’

Twenty

The helicopter created a dust storm as it parked in an empty field. Finn jumped out, carrying a large army pack and rifle case. As the chopper took off, Finn raced across the dusty field, leaped over the fence, and ran onto the track.

Sighing with relief, Craig pulled on the handbrake and gratefully knocked the ute out of gear. He practically rolled out of the driver’s seat, leaning heavily on the ute as he limped around to the passenger seat. His leg was pure fire, but he wasn’t going to stop, not until he’d saved Izzy. ‘You drive, I’ll keep tracking.’

‘No worries.’ Finn tossed his heavy pack into the back tray, then sat hard in the ute, slapping down a roll of maps, a radio, and a satphone onto the dashboard. ‘Which way are they headed?’

‘Took me a while to work it out, because they’ve been steering in an odd pattern, hoping to lose us…’ Craig winced, tucking his leg inside the cab. He punched open the glove box and a plastic bag spilled into his lap. It was the mango oat bars Ginny had given them. Absentmindedly, he shoved them into his top pocket as he continued rummaging for more painkillers. Ripping off the cap of the paracetamol bottle, he swallowed a couple and gulped down more water.

‘Are you okay?’ Finn adjusted the mirrors and pushed his seat back.

‘It doesn’t matter how I feel. We have to save Izzy.’ There would be no life without her.

Craig rolled down the window and opened the passenger door and pointed at the soft red bulldust, perfect for showing vehicle tracks. ‘They’ve been going in a south-easterly direction, taking assorted back tracks to change course. But it’s consistently south-east.’

Finn rolled out a map that showed Dustfire’s location. ‘Stone told me that if it’s an electric ATV, the battery life is about six hours max. But if they’re pushing the speed, it’ll be half that time. So, we’re likely looking at three hours of drive time.’

‘An hour to my place and an hour back, because they’ve been taking lots of side tracks, which means the property they’re heading for is in this region…’ Craig scoured the map, then stabbed on the spot. ‘That’s Dane’s place. There.’

‘The one Everlight now owns? Would they be stupid enough to take their kidnap victim there?’ Finn put the car into gear, the ute rolled a lot quicker than it had when Craig was driving. ‘Which smells like this wasn’t planned at all.’

‘All I know is that it fits the direction of that ATV’s tracks. And if it’s a solar farm, they’d have the equipment to charge up one of those vehicles… Now slow down, the track turns left up here.’

Again, Craig opened the passenger door and leaned down to watch the tyre’s patterns in the red dust.

‘Stone didn’t disturb those tracks, did he?’ Finn pointed to where the helicopter had landed.

‘No, Stone did a good job of landing downwind and well away from the tracks.’

Finn sat higher, leaning over the steering wheel as if to read the red dirt road. ‘What are we looking for?’

‘A six-wheeler ATV. Stop.’

Finn pulled up as Craig rolled out, hugging his ribs, the sweat pouring off his face from the pain. Using his rifle as a walking stick, he scratched around the dirt. ‘They stopped here…’ His head tilted at the boot marks, and a patch where the dirt was wet. ‘The ATV has an extended back tray.’

Finn’s shadow stretched over the scuffed track marks, taking pictures with his phone. ‘Like the one used to steal that livestock?’

‘Based on the tread of those tyre tracks, I’m positive it’s a match.’ He pointed to the marks, as Finn took video footage.

Finn then grabbed his map and spread it across the bonnet of Craig’s old Holden ute. ‘Where are we going, Craig? Because that’s just a wallaby track down there.’

‘They’re going this way.’ Craig dragged his finger over the network of tracks. ‘It’s crown land. They’re using the firebreak that cuts through the back of these cattle stations. It comes out onto the main dirt road there, near Dane’s place.’

‘How far ahead are they?’

Because of his lack of ability to drive fast, they’d gained a fair distance on him. ‘Twenty, thirty minutes.’ The fearful grip on his heart for Izzy was terrifying, he had to push through it to focus on saving her. Nothing else mattered but Izzy’s safety.

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