Read Online Killer Ute by Rosanne Hawke - Free Book Online Page A

tent pole, and we stand to go. Mick gives Dev a hug. They don’t slap each other on the back, but clutch onto each other’s jackets. I know that feeling and I can tell Dev and Mick have shared stuff I will never be told. Mick nods his head at Dev when they part. ‘Glad you dropped in, mate.’ Those words aren’t intense like the hug, but I understand. With Dev, too, it’s what he doesn’t say that you have to listen to.
    Dev’s turning to go when Mick calls a few guys over. ‘We’ll go with you through town, mate. Better than a lone bike. You won’t be noticed that way.’
    How cool is that? Mick and three guys put on helmets. No one groans or complains. The youngest smiles at me; he looks about seventeen. He shakes my hand. ‘I’m Ben,’ he says.
    â€˜Joel,’ I answer.
    â€˜Yeah, I know.’ Guess he overheard Dev and Mick talking, and he says it like he cares about me.
    It makes me look at him closely. I’d like to ask him why he cares, but we’re moving out to the bikes. Most have Harleys like Dev’s. They wheel them out to the road. ‘No noise after ten, we were told at check-in,’ Mick says and I hear the grin in his voice.
    I always like riding with Dev but this is the first time I’ve ridden in a group. The growl of the engines is amplified because it’s on all sides. It’s like we’re in a fighter-plane formation and we’re being escorted out of enemy territory. It makes me realise why people like riding in a club; it makes you feel you’re safe and you belong.
    We slow down past the local motel and that’s when I get a lurch in my gut. It’s the ute. It’s crouching there in the car park, the streetlight casting horrific shadows over it. All its lights are out, but it looks as if it could spring to life any second.
    I see Dev point it out for Mick. This time I note the rego; it’s so easy I’ll never forget it. Then we ride for a few more minutes. Mick salutes us and the bikers hug the ground as they wheel around and leave. We turn back onto the highway.
    This time when we reach the gravel road Dev drives straight through the farm gateway. There’s no one behind us.
    I take off my helmet. ‘Who were those guys? Are they a club? There’s not many of them.’
    â€˜Plenty more where they come from, mate. They call themselves the Longriders.’ Dev glances at me. ‘Mick used to visit me in jail, that’s how I met him, how I changed, and when I got out I rode with them. If I rode with a club again, that’s who I’d like to ride with.’
    I try not to think about whether that’s what he would rather be doing. ‘Why are they called Longriders?’
    Dev chuckles. ‘Because they’re going to ride for a long time. Forever, mate.’

15
    In the morning I wake up in a sweat. I’ve had the most horrific dream: the ute was alive. Its aerials could aim and shoot poison like a giant squid. Its lights were eyes that could swivel around and keep me in its sights. It had no driver, it didn’t need one. It knew where I was at every second of the day and would turn up wherever I went. Its wheels were turning into claws like a lobster’s and it was getting ready to swallow me through the bullbar when I woke up. ‘Just a stupid dream,’ I keep saying to myself. ‘I will take no notice of a nightmare.’ I say it again so my brain will take notice.
    I’m late to breakfast. Dev gives me a searching look but he doesn’t say anything.
    At the breakfast table we report that we saw the ute. Felicity’s not too pleased about what we did last night but Dev believes we have to tell her everything. Something we say may help them catch this guy and put Scott away for good. This is when I give her the rego. ‘It’s Killer1.’
    She looks at me, amazed. ‘How arrogant is that? To push someone off the road, with