‘Explains the digging.’Finn lowered his binoculars and nodded.‘I see your Ram.It’s parked up on the other side of that caravan.Let’s go.’
Porter climbed back into his seat, reaching for a water bottle.Was that four or five, now?‘How do you want to play this?He would’ve seen our dust by now.’
‘Yeah—but I bet he doesn’t know this is a cop car.And I don’t look like no cop.’
Not with all that heavy ink covering Finn’s hands and neck.
‘You know, I’ve heard Izzy say you look like you’d run a drug cartel.’Porter grinned over the lip of his water bottle, tugging out the shiny foiled sheet of pills tucked into the middle console.Paracetamol.
‘Don’t mind if I do.’Porter swallowed a couple of pills, ignoring the glare from Finn—guessing they were part of Amara’s stash to keep her grumpy boss functioning.
Finn slammed his troopy into gear.‘We’ll act like a couple of gold prospectors.Or land surveyors, doing a job for the owner.’
‘Sawyer’s seen me before, remember?Shovel to the back of the head to bury me alive.’And Porter wanted some payback.
‘Got a spare sidepiece in the glovebox.Arm up, duck down, and get ready to run.’Finn snatched up the mic and keyed the radio.‘Marcus, hold back and swing left.We’re coming up on a concealed caravan, and our red Ram, at the base of the hill.Come in slow to not stir up the dust.We don’t want to spook him.’
The radio crackled and Marcus’s voice came over the speakers.‘Copy that.I see the van.’
Finn glanced skyward.‘Stone, give us a break from the rotor wash.Pull back for now.We’ll call you in if he bolts or as soon as we have him.’
‘Roger that,’ Stone replied, his chopper already veering off.
Finn hung the mic back on the dash and looked at Porter.‘Let’s go meet our digger.’
The trip was short and slow, the troopy easing to a stop behind a low-lying cluster of scrub and rubble, heavy with foliage to conceal the vehicle’s bottom half.
Dust hung thick in the heat, swirling like smoke.As the engine ticked, the only other sound was the faint whir of Stone’s chopper banking west.
Porter squinted through the haze.‘Looks quiet.’
Finn rested his forearms on the wheel, scanning ahead.‘Let’s hope it stays that way.’
‘With my luck of late?’Porter huffed as he slapped the mag home and racked the slide like it was his own gun.Locked and loaded.I’ll see you soon, Seery.
‘There he is.On the rise to the far right…’ Finn’s lips twitched, but his eyes stayed sharp.‘I’ll go in slow.Hear what this Seery’s got to say before you scare him into the next territory.’
Porter cracked his neck, settling down into position.‘I’m not normally the scary one.’But today, he’d make an exception.
Sawyer stood on a small rise, leaning on a shovel.Red dust and sweat streaked his long-sleeved stockman’s shirt.His pale blue eyes were shaded by the hat brim, but they were the same eyes as his mother’s, trying to size up the situation—just like Tilly.
Finn left his stockman’s hat on the dash, sleeves rolled higher, exposing ink and muscle all on full display.
He stepped out of the troopy like a bloke who’d settle things with fists before words.Prison did that to a man.Left a mark you couldn’t always see, but it followed him like dust on his boots.
It had Sawyer’s attention, creating enough of a distraction for Porter to move out of the troopy.Staying low, smooth and silent, he crouched behind the bull bar, looking for the perfect place to back up Finn.
As Finn’s boots crunched over the dusty gravel, Sawyer stiffened.Still leaning against the shovel, but now both hands gripped the handle as he squinted into the light.
‘You Rickson’s guy?’Sawyer called down.‘Come to collect.’
‘Depends.Are you gonna make my job easy?Or do I play prospector and start digging around like a blind wombat looking for gold?’Finn jerked a thumb towards the scattered holes in the opposite direction, allowing Porter to move.‘Hell, even an echidna would’ve given up by now.’
Sawyer swallowed.‘It wasn’t my fault.I was getting the money together.Just needed more time.But then that flamin’ horse got sold from under me.I was owed that one, but then it got auctioned!’
‘Livestock auction?’
‘Yeah, wasn’t meant to be there that long when I dropped it off.But it ended up on the list and got sold.’He jabbed the shovel into the dirt beside him.‘Took me a week to find it again.Bloody hassle it was.’
