Chapter 29 #2
Although I'd never been this way before, the stars kept me true to a southern course. I took animal tracks whenever I found them, thinking those tracks would surely lead to water.
Though the further I went, the more I wondered if this swamp actually existed. Or had it been just another one of my old man's bloody lies?
My ass was starting to get sore, and my nose throbbed like hell. My bruised ribs and the scratches up my arms were easy enough to hide with a shirt, but I hoped my nose wasn’t broken, or I could have two black eyes that were going to be impossible to hide from my siblings.
Apollo slowed down as I rode him through a narrow gap between two ridges. The terrain grew more remote with every mile, and I began to think that maybe one night's travel wasn't anywhere near enough.
On the other side of the ridge, I stumbled onto a dry creek bed. The car's tires popped over gravel as Bella followed the dry waterway behind me, and I urged Apollo forward, hoping it would lead to the supposed swamp.
At the top of a hill, I paused, taking in a magnificent vista. Illuminated by moonlight, a small valley stretched as far as I could see.
Sometimes, I forgot how beautiful Koolaroo could be.
Bella drove the car alongside me. “Are you okay?”
“My ass is getting sore.”
“Oh.” She blinked. “Want me to kiss it better?”
I chuckled. “Will you stop that? I'm trying to complete a mission here.”
“You don't want me to kiss you better?”
“You know I do, Bella.”
“Okay.” She raised her hands. “Just checking.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned my attention back to the landscape, trying to work out which way to try next.
A field of short stumps littered a large area to our left, and I peered across the distance, trying to work out what they were.
The ground softened. The air carried an unfamiliar smell I couldn’t quite put my finger on—stagnant water, maybe, or burned oil.
“Follow me,” I said, lifting Apollo's reins.
“Yes, boss.”
I gave Apollo a nudge, and he took off at a gallop like he knew this was the end of the line.
As I neared, the stumps came into clearer view. They were trees. At least they used to be. I slid off Apollo, opened the car door, and held out my hand to help Bella out. She moved stiffly, exhaustion finally catching up with her, and probably a dozen injuries she was stubborn enough to ignore.
She turned slowly, her gaze sweeping over the blackened field of stumps. “Oh God,” she whispered. “This was the olive grove.”
“Yep.” My jaw locked.
The twisted, charred remains of trunks stood in neat rows.
She stepped away from me and walked a few paces forward, touching one of the burnt stumps with shaking fingers. “He burned them,” she said.
The truth settled into my chest like wet concrete.
Frank hadn't just burned the trees.
He'd tried to erase them.
No trees. No oil. No proof of the fake olive oil scam that had ended with Bella's father and uncle being murdered.
Bella pressed her fist to her mouth, eyes bright with unshed tears as she took it all in. “He tried to destroy the evidence.”
I went to her and pulled her against me, letting her fold into my chest. She didn't sob, just shook, quiet and wrecked, like the land around us.
“I'll make sure he pays, Bella. He won't get away with this. I promise.”
“No.” She pulled back and slapped my chest lightly, fire still burning in her eyes. “We won't let him get away with it.”
I squeezed her tighter. “Absolutely.”
She stayed there a long moment, grounding herself. When she pulled back, she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and frowned. “What's that popping noise?”
I cocked my head. The sound came into focus, and I frowned, too. “I don't know, but it's coming from over there.”
Holding Apollo's reins, we moved deeper into the grove, crunching over burned branches and scorched earth. A structure emerged ahead, or what was left of one.
The shed had collapsed in on itself. Tin roofing lay twisted and blackened, the smell of old smoke still clinging like a ghost. I dragged a sheet of corrugated iron aside.
Dozens of old bottles lay scattered across the dirt floor, their labels peeled and stained. Some intact. Most empty.
Bella picked one up, turning it slowly in the moonlight.
“Koolaroo Gold,” she read. “Extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil.”
My stomach twisted.
I looked around the ruined olive grove again—burned trees, wrecked shed, scattered bottles. The last thread inside me snapped.
All my life, I'd chased Dad’s approval. I’d tried to build something honest. Something solid.
And all the while, he'd been talking bullshit, ruining lives, and calling it his fucking legacy.
I stared out over the blackened stumps at the proof of his greed, which was spread out beneath the stars.
In my mind, Dad wasn't missing anymore.
He was dead to me. He was no longer Dad, or my father. From now on, he was just Frank. And if he wasn’t already dead, then he was living on borrowed time.
“What’s that noise?” Bella asked, stepping away.
Jaw tight, fist clenching, I followed her, tugging Apollo along behind me.
We hadn't gone far when the sound swelled from popping noises to a rolling, pulsing chorus.
Frogs.
Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.
The air thickened and dampened as we crested a slight rise. The land dropped away into a broad, flat stretch where moonlight spilled across black water.
The swamp.
It stretched farther than I could see, a dark expanse of glistening water dotted with reeds and slick mud. The surface was alive with ripples and movement, and the frogs' deafening croaks echoed off each other in a relentless wall of sound.
“This is the swamp Frank talked about,” Bella said.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Frank's words came back to me as clear as day. Worthless land. Nothing grows out here but salt grass and bull ants. Waste of space.
Bullshit. This place wasn't worthless.
It was perfect for hiding a body.
The plan crystallized in my mind. “This is where we’ll ditch that car,” I said.
Bella looked at the water, then back at me. “You're serious.”
“As a heart attack.” I handed her Apollo's reins. “Stay here. I'll get the car.” I squeezed her wrist once, then jogged back toward the Mercedes.
As I drove the car back to the swamp, I knocked a plan into shape in my mind. This was going to work. It fucking had to.
I parked well back from the water's edge, aiming the front of the car toward the crest that overlooked the swamp.
Bella joined me, and I explained the plan. Once again, she didn't question it. Or me. Her trust was everything.
The two of us removed the body from the boot and rolled him out of the blanket. I crouched down and checked his pockets. Phone. Wad of rolled-up cash. Passport. I stood and opened the passport. “It's fake,” I said, turning the details page toward her. “Massimo Leone.”
She nodded as if she wasn't surprised.
I flicked through the pages. “He only landed in Brisbane yesterday. I wonder why he sent Pike and Rocco first?”
Bella inhaled deeply. “They did the dirty work for him. Vincenzo only got involved when it was necessary. My guess is they were meant to find me and hold me somewhere until he turned up.”
“Jesus, that's messed up.”
“They must have called him after they found me in your kitchen, and that's when he came to Australia.”
I grunted. “Well, they had no idea who they were messing with, did they?”
“No, they didn't.” She handed the passport back to me. “Leave that on him. If this is ever found, his true identity could still remain a mystery.”
“Good idea.” I shoved the phone back in his pocket, too, along with the cash. “I assume the car would have been hired in that false name.”
“Of course.”
“Check the glove box,” I said.
Bella popped open the compartment and pulled out a bunch of yellow papers. “Hire car paperwork. That company in Brisbane will look for the car.”
“Yeah, a car driven by Massimo Leone. Oh shit, what if the car has a tracker on it?”
“It won't,” she said, without pause. “Vincenzo planned to kidnap and kill me. He would’ve disabled the GPS tracker. Trust me, he knew how to do that.”
“Right. Okay, time to move him.”
Getting him into the seat was ugly work. But once he was slumped behind the wheel, head tilted forward, it almost looked… ordinary.
“Bloody hell,” I said. “I feel like I've slipped into some weird mafia hitman movie.”
She huffed. “What's weird is that he didn't have a gun.”
“Not really. You can't get a gun through Australian customs. And once you're here, it’s really hard to get one.”
“But Pike and Rocco had guns. Or at least one of them did.”
“True. Gun laws are tough here. But we have no idea how long they’d been in Australia before they found you, so they must have figured out how to get around the law.”
“That makes sense,” she said. “They would definitely know how to get something illegally, no matter what country they were in.”
“Vincenzo only landed two days ago, so he didn’t have much time.”
“That’s true.” She nodded.
I pulled on the seatbelt.
“Don't do that,” she said.
I frowned and let the belt slither away.
“He never wore a seatbelt.” She shrugged. “He thought he was above the law.”
She grabbed our supplies from the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.
I grabbed Vincenzo's size eleven boots and wedged his foot hard against the accelerator. The engine revved angrily. I double-checked that the wheels were dead straight and aimed directly at the swamp, because we only had one shot at this.
I stepped back and met Bella's gaze. “You sure about this?”
“Do it,” she said.
I put the car in drive.
The car lurched, and I jumped clear. It surged forward, gravel spraying under the tires. The Mercedes gathered speed fast, engine howling as it tore toward the water.
We chased after it, trying to keep up.
It hit the edge of the swamp and launched into the air, bellyflopping into the water with a splash like a bomb going off.
Mud and water exploded upward as the front end dipped, and the entire car slipped below the surface. Bubbles churned violently for a few seconds before the water smoothed out again.
The frogs never stopped croaking.
We both stood there, chests heaving, the swamp alive around us as we watched the last ripple fade beneath the moonlight.
I pulled her to my side, wrapping my arm across her shoulder, and she leaned into me.
She lifted my hand to her lips and kissed it gently. “Can you make me a promise, Declan?”
I turned to face her. “Anything.”
A frown rippled across her forehead. “You don't know what I'm going to ask.”
“I don't need to. I'd do anything in the world for you.”
She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, and tears glistened in her eyes.
I gave her a gentle shake. “Hey, what is it?”
She whimpered, and a tear spilled over her lashes. “How did I get so lucky?”
I cupped her cheek and thumbed a tear away. “I don't know about lucky. You've been through some—”
“Will you just shush?” She cupped my cheeks and crushed her lips to mine.
I wanted to deepen the kiss and touch her body, but I also wanted to get the hell away from this place. Pulling back, I said, “So, what's the promise?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Promise me that we will never mention that bastard, or what we did here, ever again.”
I held my hand forward to shake hers, making it a deal. “Easy. I promise.”
She jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me. “Can you take me home, please?”
I cupped her ass in my hands. “Absolutely. I believe you also have a promise to keep.”
“Oh?” She eased back, and the cutest frown crossed her features. “What's that?”
“To kiss my ass.”
She burst out laughing. “I didn't say kiss your ass.”
“Yes, you did, madam.”
“No, I said I'd kiss you better.”
“Same. Same.” I grinned, kissed her again, and reluctantly set her down. “Come on, we have a long ride ahead of us.”
The sun was rising as we climbed onto Apollo's back. Bella wrapped her arms around me, and as we set off, I refused to look at the swamp or the burned trees.
The story had come full circle. The mess Frank had created over thirty years ago had rippled out in ways he could never have imagined, but somehow, against all odds, it had given me Bella.
This mess, at least, was closed.
But I still had a ton of Frank's bullshit to wade through.