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

a personalised rego. Doesn’t he think he’ll get caught?’
    â€˜The bloke’s staying at the motel,’ Dev says.
    Felicity’s drumming her fingers on the table. ‘Someone must be paying him,’ she says. ‘The police will be keen to have him for questioning.’
    â€˜This is presuming he is after Joel, Felice.’ Max is buttering his toast. ‘Though they’ll still want to talk to him for not stopping after the accident.’
    Mei gives me a tiny smile. She’s looking down at the table a lot today and twirling her hair around her fingers. She does that when she’s worried.
    â€˜So, as far as we know, we’re safe as long as we don’t go into town or pass the motel?’ Dev asks Felicity.
    She nods. ‘But we have to be careful.’
    â€˜What if Joel and I went for a ride, every now and then, in the opposite direction?’ Good old Dev, he’s trying to make things seem more normal. Everyone looks at Felicity. She seems to understand. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and catches a corner of it between her teeth. Even like that she’s pretty.
    â€˜You still have to be careful. He may roam, try to find you. He may not be alone.’ But Felicity’s tone has lost its force and Dev knows he’s won; he smiles at her and she blushes. Oh no. That’s all I need – Felicity falling for Dev. I get up with my dirty plate and Mei follows me to the sink.
    â€˜What’s wrong?’ she whispers.
    â€˜Felicity.’
    â€˜She’s great, isn’t she?’
    â€˜Yeah, too good by half.’
    â€˜Oh.’ Mei knows what I mean. ‘I don’t think she’s after Dev. She’s just doing her job, besides . . .’ Then she stops.
    â€˜Besides what?’ But Mei doesn’t say. There’s no point trying to get something out of Mei once she’s decided to keep quiet. Instead we go outside to pick the vegies for the dinner we’ll be cooking that night.

16
    Mei’s happy exercising the horses with Felicity today, so Dev and I go for a ride. Being forced to hole up at the farm doesn’t rest easy with Dev. Nor me. If Shawn Houser warned me to stay away from the pool because he wanted to swim, I’d still dive in if it was what I’d planned. Why should someone else control our lives? Though that ute will do more damage than Shawn Houser if it finds us.
    Felicity has given Dev a mobile with numbers preset into it; all he has to do is hit the number seven and it will ring her phone. She’s acting like we’re going to the front-line of a war zone, but we’ll be fine. We’re going in the opposite direction to town; that ute will have no idea where we are.
    I’ll never tire of riding with Dev. When I’m old enough I’ll get a bike of my own. The rumble of the engine shakes me up to my neck, growling as we exit the corners, roaring when Dev shifts through the gears. When no one’s around we go faster than Gran would like. We’re doing that now, and I see a flash out the corner of my eye. Was it anything? When I look back nothing’s there. I’m more jumpy than I thought.
    We scream down a dirt track and turn left into another. The whole place is crisscrossed with tracks. So farmers can get to different paddocks, I guess.
    Then suddenly, the bike squeals. I hang onto Dev as we brake, skidding sideways, the engine still thumping. Dev’s staring up the track, his boots on the gravel, and I see it too. The ute’s ahead of us. Parked on a side road. It looks asleep but I’m not fooled. Nor is Dev. How did it get there? We get a good look at the ute while it’s quiet. I wasn’t wrong – it’s a monster straight out of hell.
    Dev makes a decision: he revs the engine and turns. Soon we’re racing back the way we came. I check behind us and instantly regret it. The ute lurches out from the side road and practically flies