Chapter 30
My name is coming from far away.
“Minnow. Min,” someone is calling over and over. It’s my mum. She’s sitting in the lounge chair, holding her necklace up to the light.
Minnow, it’s so beautiful.
She clasps her hand around it, eyes filling with tears. I just wish I deserved it.
You do, I try to tell her, but my mouth won’t work. You did.
This isn’t right, my brain whispers. This is wrong…
I blink hard, my vision spotty. I can’t orient myself, but I know someone is standing over me. A man in a black hoodie, track pants, and a gray beanie pulled low over his ears.
“Luke?” I mutter, tongue thick in my mouth.
“Look who’s awake,” he calls back.
I blink hard, trying to clear my vision.
But it’s him. For a moment, I think it must be Saturday morning at my house.
Luke’s stayed over after playing videogames all night with Heath.
I’m stumbling out of my room in pajamas, rubbing my eyes.
Even at that early hour, Luke would already be up, bright-eyed on the couch. “Look who’s awake!”
And then he laughs. That guffawing holy shit! laugh from the first night back when Rachel Sutherland was attacked.
The same laugh from Hannah Striker’s video.
Because Luke was the one filming it.
My senses sharpen. I blink twice and my vision begins to focus. The back of my skull aches, a pounding throb that makes me nauseated. I shut my eyes tight as my vision spins.
“Minnow,” he calls again. “Min.”
But underneath his voice, there’s another sound. A steady hum, soft at first.
An engine.
It’s dark and I’m lying on my side, the wind stinging cold on my neck.
I try to sit up, but my reflexes are too slow, my head sluggish and sore.
I can’t remember how I got here. Or why the sleeves of my arms are damp and why the world is rocking beneath me, sending waves of nausea rolling through my stomach.
All I can think about is Jessie.
Luke calls out again, but his voice is still too far away. I’m lightheaded and desperately thirsty, confusion giving way to panic as I start to understand the facts: I’m on the Reel Easy. My muscles ache. My arms feel like they’re made of wet sand. I try to move, to sit up, but I can’t.
His callused hand cups the side of my face. “Wake up, Min.”
“Jessie,” I croak out. “Where’s Jess?”
His grip loosens a fraction. “Tied her up in your garage. She’s fine. For now.”
I wrench my shoulder, yelling, trying desperately to get to my feet.
He climbs into the skipper’s seat, reverses the boat, makes a sharp right turn.
Luke guns the motor, and the boat powers over the waves, freezing spray splattering over the bow and hitting me full in the face.
I gasp, shaking my head as the salt water stings my eyes, drips down my cheeks.
The wind thunders through my ears as Luke guns the engine.
When we were kids, Heath and I used to take turns lying on the trampoline while the other bounced as high as they could.
It sent your body flying in the air for a few moments.
Sometimes the force would send you ricocheting off the trampoline, over the hot metal prongs before landing hard on the ground.
This is worse. We speed over a wave, and my entire body lifts off the floor.
I’m completely weightless, flying. Then a moment later, we drop so low and so fast that my body falls like a rock, slamming down so hard it makes my teeth rattle.
I groan in pain, my shoulder aching, teeth feeling like they’re about to shatter.
The engine roars faster, the bow bouncing higher and higher, slapping the waves, spray flying everywhere.
My body tumbles back, rolling over and over as we crest a huge wave.
I can’t even throw my arms out to stop myself as my head hits the back of the stern with a sickening crack.
Black spots fill my vision. I’m dazed, the roar of the engine silenced by the screaming pain in my head.
We climb higher, higher, my back pushed against the stern of the boat, like someone’s holding me down.
I can’t move. Can’t get free. We reach the wave crest. I brace for my impact as the boat lifts into the air, taking my body with it.
My stomach drops. For a moment, I’m terrified I’ll fly off the edge, over the side, plunging into the water.
I shut my eyes, clench my jaw. We plunge back down, my ribs taking the full impact of the fall.
I groan in pain, breathing low and shallow because it hurts so much to breathe.
I keep my head down, eyes closed as we soar through the water. My head throbs, my ribs burn with pain.
And still the engine roars, taking us farther and farther out to the dark water.
—
I shut my eyes and mouth as more icy salt water comes pouring in, funneling down the back of my jumper and the waistband of my jeans, pooling in my socks until I’m soaked to the skin. Salt water burns my eyes, leaving them itchy and stinging and flooding with tears.
I feel like I’m lying face down in a bathtub, unable to move as the water fills and fills.
I turn my cheek, jaw clenched, eyes burning. The wind softens from an angry shriek to a soft cry. The water is calmer now, the boat cruising over the waves. The engine slows. I look up. Luke’s hand hangs loosely from the throttle, his back to me as he scans the water.
Get to your feet, I command myself, heart thumping fast. I roll painfully onto my side, digging my elbows into the floor, trying to heave myself to a standing position.
Quiet, I tell myself urgently. Quiet. I grit my teeth as the pain roars through my ribs, and I blink rapidly to clear the salt water from my eyes.
I curl my knee back, fingertips reaching for the back of my calf.
Where my knife is tucked under my jeans.
Always take a knife.
I silently thank my father as the boat comes to a stop. Luke hovers above me. My skin prickles. I know Luke. I’ve known him all my life. I’ve sat beside him on the lounge room floor, just me, Heath, and him, playing endless games of Uno.
But then I see him in the cabin, butchering kangaroo, blood splatter hitting his chest. He keeps chopping, unconcerned. Blood boys turn into blood men…
He’s leaning over the rail, eyes alight. “You should see them, Min. They come in hard, and they come in angry.
“They’re mindful predators, sharks,” he continues, before adding, “Usually anyway. But when they smell the blood”—he licks his lips—“they eat the legs first, sometimes the head.”
“Like Rachel Sutherland.”
He snorts. “Heath warned her over and bloody over again to stop poaching in our area. Bitch wouldn’t listen.” He spits over the side. “Your brother’s too soft on people, Min. Always has been.”
“The night she was attacked…”
He shrugs, but he can’t stop grinning. “She was free diving for abalone near the pier again. I gave her a nice little scare.”
“You were chumming. You brought the sharks right to her.”
He tilts his head, eyes gleaming as if remembering. “Hell of a show.”
You didn’t enjoy the show?
“You showed her Hannah’s video.”
“I sent it to her, yeah,” he says, unconcerned. “Called up that Kmart where she worked, got her number. Bought a cheap burner phone. Sent her a little warning along with the video.”
“This is what happens to rule breakers.”
He grins. “Yes, I know you went to see Rachel’s mum, Min. You’re not gonna last long in a town like this if you don’t stop looking into shit. You should know that.”
I ignore this. “What rule did Hannah break?”
He frowns. “Hannah was a greedy bitch. She and Donny both.”
“You knew Donny Granger?”
“Hannah was Dad’s courier. Donny couriered for your dad. I used to help them load the abalone into the coolers. Packed ’em into their Camry for transport. Then our dads found out they were overcharging. Pocketing the difference.”
“Then what happened?”
“We wanted to teach ’em a lesson. We took Hannah on the Easy, told her we were going poaching.” He pauses, remembering. “I threw her in. Dad was gonna let her swim back. Except…”
“You chummed.”
He grins. “They were around anyway. I mean, God knows we’d been hunting the great whites for years. Chumming to bring ’em in. I swear, when they heard the engines, they’d come roarin’ in, looking for a feed.”
“And they found one.”
“Sure did!” He grins. “Hell of a show. My dad wasn’t that upset about it.”
“And Donny?”
“Your dad took him to the woods. I honestly didn’t think he’d kill ’im, but…” He shakes his head admiringly. “Your dad was a fucking nutter by then. And paranoid as all hell.”
I see my father, hunched over his fishing knife, dragging it across the whetstone again and again. “We’re all nutters, I s’pose,” Luke admits. “Lots of sick shit went down in those woods.”
I know he’s thinking of the cabin. Amy.
“I can’t explain it,” he continues. “I’m like the sharks when they smell blood. It changes ’em. Changes me, too.”
“You’re either the shark or the food.”
He points his finger at me in satisfaction. “Your dad was right about that, Min. Everyone needs a bit of shark in ’em.”
Can you hear it, Min? The ocean? Calling and calling?
“That’s what Dad meant,” I mumble. “He used to hear the ocean calling. It drove him mad.”
“Do you hear it?”
“…Sometimes.”
“There’s an ugliness in you, too, you know.
I’ve seen it. You used to rip fish guts out with your bare hands,” he says, laughing.
“You were a feral little thing. We all were. And Amy…” He smiles at me, admiration shining in his eyes.
“We all know what you did to her, Min. What you tried to do. When I heard ’bout what you did on TV, I thought, That’s her.
That’s our Minnow.” He laughs. “To be honest, I thought you’d come back to join the family biz. ”
“I didn’t know what the family biz was.”
“Now you do,” he says flatly. “It’s not too late.”
“Right,” I say, motioning to the boat, to me.
“I’m not gonna kill you, Min. Your brother would hunt me down.” He crouches, rubbing his chin. “But I am gonna teach you a lesson.”
This is what happens to rule breakers.
The words don’t process at first. Then I know.
“Look,” he exclaims, hauling me to the rail. “Watch.”
I tense, waiting. He stomps to the kill tank, yanks it open, snatches out chunks of bloody meat.
Grinning, he throws it overboard, even lifts his knee like a baseballer and throws a kangaroo femur into the waiting ocean.
Then he positions his body behind mine, his breath warm on my neck.
There’s a chill in my blood. A sudden stillness in the water. Something’s wrong.
And then out of the darkness,
A fin.