Page 60 of Outback Skies


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“Mike’s team stopped that truckie and took him into custody.” They’d also put a tracker in with the drugs, which’d been left in a container at the docks. Eventually, a few days after the drugs had been dropped, they’d managed to nab a dealer as he came to collect the stash. But he was small-time, a peripheral part of the drug ring.”

Finn continued with his story. “At first, he said he didn’t know anything. But then, after Mike offered him a deal for a much-reduced jail sentence—the guy has a young family in Brisbane—he finally came up with some names. And one of them was Swampy. Said that he was his contact. But he only revealed that information on the day of your abduction. If we’d known earlier…” Finn ground his teeth together. If they’d known, perhaps they could’ve started tracking Swampy earlier. And stopped Garrett from abducting Indy. It was one of the myriad of reasons Finn still wanted to kill his brother.

“Swampy turned out to be the key to this whole thing. His real name is Dwayne Carey, and he was the right-hand man in this whole trafficking operation. Employed by an Italian businessman to do his dirty work. We finally put all the puzzle pieces together, corroborated the link between Swampy and the Italian man we already suspected of being the head honcho of this drug ring, and we had enough evidence to make our arrests.” The hard part was now going to be the long, drawn-out court case to prosecute The Italian—these guys were as slipperyas eels when it came to getting a conviction, but Finn believed his boss had enough evidence to make the charges stick.

“Oh, wow. I would never have guessed,” Indy replied. “Swampy didn’t seem… I don’t know, intelligent enough.” She pursed her lips and lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “But I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“Exactly. All that dumbass-truck-driver persona was just a cover, he’s a mean son-of-a-bitch. But he fooled most people, even me, so it was a good act.” He gave a cynical grunt. “The ironic part is, if Garrett hadn’t double-crossed Swampy by taking you and driving off with the getaway car, we would never have caught either of them. They had a boat waiting at the docks, filled with cargo and ready to sail to Indonesia. They would’ve got away scot free.” And possibly have taken Indy with them, but Finn didn’t like to even consider that scenario.

“Details are still sketchy, the doctors won’t let us interrogate Garrett properly yet. But it seems Garrett had a plan to overthrow Swampy and become the right-hand-man instead.” Funnily enough, Garrett’s greed had been his ultimate undoing. If Garrett hadn’t proceeded to play out his little coup attempt that night, if Swampy had been in the car with him like he was supposed to be, then Indy would never have escaped. “And Swampy was so incensed at Garrett ditching him, that he decided to change up the plan. Decided to kill me by exploding the house while he still could. He had some stupid idea that perhaps you and Garrett were in cahoots, and were going to warn the cops about the booby trap. So he wanted to finish me off; killing one cop was better than none. And I’d also seen his face, would be able to identify him, if I lived. But that was his first and last mistake. He didn’t count on you showing up, my brave, little, ninja woman.”

Indy took a while to digest all this startling information, and he watched the different emotions play across her face. Finally,she snorted, “I’m no ninja. Just a good, old-fashioned cowgirl who knows a trick or two.”

He smiled. That she certainly was.

“Did Swampy know Garrett was your brother?” she continued.

“Yeah, but once Garrett had proven himself to be the criminal he is, and once he’d persuaded Swampy how much he despised me and wanted me dead, Swampy decided he could use him as an asset. Garrett might be able to garner insider information that could be helpful. Which in the end proved wrong. All Garrett wanted was to weasel his way up the criminal ladder.”

Concern was etched in the lines around her eyes. “He wanted you dead? Garrett actually said that?” Indy asked, ignoring his other revelations.

Finn shrugged, but the motion hid a much deeper pain. “Seems like he did.”

“That’s a lot to deal with,” she said softly. “I still can’t believe you’re twins and you’re so…different.”

He couldn’t either. But he was over talking about Garrett.

“You have a bit of a white knight streak in you,” she said, with a cheeky grin.

“A what?”

“You need to rescue everyone,” she chided.

“It’s not everyone I want to rescue,” he said gruffly, pulling her in for a kiss, telling her with his body that she was the only treasure he wanted to keep safe.

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing,” she replied with a laugh when he finally let her up for air. “It’s what makes you, you.”

He’d never thought of it like that before. He wasn’t sure he had awhite knight complex, or whatever it was she’d said. But he did have a desire to help people. And he thought he’d inherited that personality trait from his father. His dad had beena good firefighter, strong and fearless. He knew that, because his whole team had come to see the family after his dad died. One of the guys had taken him aside and told him how brave his dad had been, and how it was the greatest honor in the world to die while trying to save someone else’s life. Finn must’ve taken his words to heart, but he didn’t remember a huge epiphany or anything like that. It’d just grown on him day by day that helping people who were unable to fight their own battles, by bringing down the bullies and low-lives in the world, was a good thing.

“Should I still call you Finn?” she asked, voice soft and melodious. “Or are you Griff?”

“Yeah, I like it.” He loved the sound of his name on her lips. She’d known him as Finn from the start, and he liked that she wasn’t from his old world. Liked that she didn’t know him as Griff. It allowed him to be a different person around her. A better person. A fresh start.

He wasn’t sure exactly how they were going to make this work yet. But he was committed. And so was she. He wasn’t prepared to live without her in his life, and he’d do just about anything to keep her. Nothing was a deal-breaker when it came to Indy.

But for tonight, he had some immediate plans that just couldn’t wait. And they involved using a few more packets from that stash of condoms on the table.

Rising on his elbow, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her. “And I like it even more when I hear you scream my name at the top of your lungs.”

“There won’t be any screaming tonight, Finn,” she answered subduedly. “Sasha and Alex are two doors away; I’m not going to—”

He cut her off by claiming her mouth with his, and running his hand between her thighs, eliciting a moan from deep in her chest.

EPILOGUE

INDY SIPPED HER drink and stared out over the billabong from the edge of the veranda. The air was warm, and smelled of a heady mix of the dusty outback and gum leaves, the sky full of stars so bright and crisp. A few revelers dotted the grassy slope, lit by the flickering flames of torches dotted around the edges. Some had even wandered down to the edge of the water, lured by the plop of fish surfacing to catch insects.

It was the perfect night for a perfect engagement party. Nash had finally asked Skylar to marry him. Everyone said it was about time, but Skylar was a complicated woman, and Nash hadn’t wanted to rush her. They’d been living together for nearly two years now, and that was more of a commitment, in Nash’s mind, at least, than a piece of paper. Of course, the party was held at Stormcloud, and of course, Skylar had done most of the catering—with lots of help from Bindi and Julie. Daniella had kept this weekend free of guests, so the staff could all join in and enjoy the party. It was mid-November and accommodation bookings were beginning to taper off anyway, in preparation for the wet season.

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