Poison Bay by Belinda Pollard Read Free Book Online Page B

jumping.”
    Jack said, “Or we might just have fallen into the water with him, and lost a couple more of us, or at least had to abandon our packs to save ourselves.”
    Callie said, “There’s no point in ‘what ifs’. If we’d known Bryan wanted us dead, we wouldn’t have come in the first place. But now we have to find a way to live with reality. What if you two go up the mountain today, see if it’s passable? We don’t want to waste Rachel’s medication on a wild goose chase.”
    “Sure. If you like,” Jack said. He seemed hesitant. “But we all need meaningful activity today. Sitting and waiting won’t keep people’s spirits up.”
    Adam said, “The ones who stay behind could look for things to eat.”
    Jack raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Good idea. Time for a team meeting.”

11

    What Jack didn’t want to say, and definitely not in front of Callie, was that if anyone was going to test the mountain, it probably shouldn’t be him. Rock climbing was hardly in his resume. It tended to involve heights. And heights made all the blood drain from his brain.
    For a moment he’d expected a reprieve when Kain seemed affronted that he wasn’t the one accompanying Adam. But the idea of “looking after the girls” pacified him and Jack lost his chance.
    And so he found himself toiling up the side valley in Adam’s wake. The terrain was as difficult as they’d come to expect, with slippery boulders, cloying undergrowth, and deep mud from last night’s rain underfoot. They shared one pack for the expedition, containing only water and the emergency warmth and rain-sheltering gear they’d learned to keep near them always. Jack had taken first turn to carry it. Its lightness was a relief. Nevertheless, hiking with little more than fern shoots in his belly made a noticeable difference to his strength.
    But there was no shortage of water. Jack decided to be thankful for it, as they stopped for a breather and a drink.
    “I was hoping the head of the valley would look easier the closer we got,” he said. “But it doesn’t.”
    “No, it looks like a bit of a mongrel. But we have to try, now we’ve come this far.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “You know why I came on this blasted hike? Sheena, my girlfriend—she wanted me to. So I could check out a tourist lodge we were thinking of working at in Darwin’s off-season, and do it at Bryan’s expense. Stupid, hey?”
    “Not really. It makes sense to do it while you’re over here.”
    “I didn’t want to see it without her. And I didn’t want to see Bryan again or think about Liana and all that rot.” He paused. “I had a bit of a thing with Liana, did you know?”
    “No, I didn’t. Before Bryan?”
    “During.”
    “Oh.”
    Adam seemed to be deciding whether to speak again. “I even helped her get the gun.”
    “What!”
    “Yep. One of the proudest moments of my life,” he said, his tone bitterly sarcastic, his expression grim. “She told me she was pregnant and it was mine. And she’d kill herself if I didn’t help her get an abortion. Bryan had refused, apparently. She’d slept with half the school, so I figured she was trying the same line on half a dozen other guys.”
    “But how did the gun come into it?”
    He looked into the distance. “When I wouldn’t give her money for an abortion, she asked if she could have enough to buy a gun. I thought she was just being Liana—being a drama queen, and trying to scare me into giving her the bigger amount. So I gave her enough money for a gun, and even told her where to get a cheap one, and how to use it for the best results. I wanted to show her what I thought of her stupid games.”
    Jack stared at him, gobsmacked.
    Adam saw Jack’s reaction, and nodded. “You can imagine how good I’ve felt about that for the past decade. I’ve never told Sheena, of course. So she couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t excited about the chance to do our research trip at someone else’s expense. I came so I