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My trust in him is fractured. And trust is not something I give away easily. Been there, done that, learnt the lesson the hardway. And even though I lowered my walls with Col right from the very beginning, they're firmly all the way back up now.
Gran did say I should hear him out. So, okay, I'll hear the guy out. I'm not stupid. Pigheaded, yes. But not stupid.
"First things first," Col says, breaking the silence. "Thank you."
I stare out at the empty highway straight ahead of me, determined not to look at him. "For what?"
"For driving. When your grandmother suggested we fly?—"
"She doesn't know. And she doesn't need to know." I can feel my jaw pulse. "One of us sitting on this car isn't an arsehole."
"I'm not an asshole. I'm simply doing my job."
"Simply doing your job means you're going to— Oomph!" The entire car gets shoved forward. I almost slip off. "What the fuck was that?"
Col jumps off the hood, turns to look behind us, and then his eyes go wide. "Holy fucking shit."
He retreats and waves his arm frantically. "Get over here. Now!"
"What on earth…" I take my time getting off the bonnet, because I will not give him the satisfaction of automatically doing what he says, but when I spin around, I see what's got Col so worked up.
"Shit. Okay. Okay. Don't panic," I mutter, quietly enough so that Col can hear me, but our two closest new guests cannot.
How did I miss the mob sneaking up on us from behind?
"What do we do?" he hisses back.
One of the jacks snaps his head to Col.
"Eeep," he yelps.
"Stay still," I tell him. "And stay quiet."
"Are we going to die?"
I don't take my eyes off our new visitors. "No, we are not going to die. Kangaroos aren't normally aggressive."
"Thought the same thing about you until recently."
"Hey, I'm not the one who— You know what, we can take this up later. We have a slightly bigger problem on our hands."
"About twenty problems."
I'd agree with Col's assessment. We seemed to have crossed paths with a mob, a group of kangaroos, of about twenty or so. Two jacks, males, have come up to the rear of the car. I'm assuming one of them is responsible for giving the car a shove. The rest of the mob, females and joeys, behind them, look at the scene with interest, but keep their distance.
Kangaroos live wild out here, and believe it or not, despite being one of the things tourists love most about Australia, they're actually a pest. A lot of farmers hate 'em since they compete for feed with their livestock, and they can do a lot of damage.
But not me.
I love all animals. I respect them. There's no bullshit with animals.
Unlike humans…
I glance over at Col. He's scared shitless, and as furious as I am with him right now, I don't like seeing anyone like this.
"It'll be fine," I reassure him. "We just need to get back into the car, which should be relatively easy since…"
Thwump, thwump, thwump.
