Sharks, Matt Rogers [shoe dog free ebook TXT] 📗

said, ‘It’s fine. It went in and came out. Deeper than a nick, but not by much. There’s some flesh hanging loose.’

Lyla was pale. ‘Are you being serious?’

Slater said, ‘I’d wager we have different definitions of bad.’

Lyla shook her head, trying to compose herself. ‘I think so.’

She paused.

She said, ‘I have sterile sutures here, but I think you should go to a hospital and get them to do it. They have pain relief.’

Slater said, ‘Do it.’

‘Will…’

‘Pain relief is a luxury. We don’t have time for luxuries today.’

She shook her head like she couldn’t believe she was sitting on the sofa with a member of the same species.

She started suturing.

Slater went into his own head, went somewhere else away from the pain.

It worked.

He said, ‘So Teddy called.’

She said, ‘Don’t you want to talk about that after, dear?’

‘No.’

She shook her head again. It was the only response she could muster in the face of such madness.

Lyla took a deep breath and said, ‘Yes, he called. He said he was being held under duress but they’d allowed him one phone call.’

Immediately, Slater exchanged a glance with King.

King gave his head an imperceptible shake.

Slater returned with a similarly undetectable nod.

Unaware, Lyla continued. ‘He asked if Caleb and I were safe. I told him yes, we are. He said that he’d soon be out of this mess and said not to panic. He told me they’re keeping him in a safe house and he hasn’t been harmed. He made me promise not to tell anyone that I’d called, so I said of course I wouldn’t, and then as soon as he hung up I called you.’

Slater said, ‘Did he sound distressed?’

‘Yes,’ Lyla admitted. ‘His voice was shaking. Like mine is now.’

King couldn’t hide a grim smile.

Lyla looked up. ‘Did I say something funny?’

King said, ‘He knew you’d call us. It was a message.’

‘I’m sorry?’

Slater said, ‘Lyla, there’s some things about your husband you don’t know.’

She finished suturing the final stitch and rocked back to admire her handiwork, as if pretending he hadn’t spoken.

When no one spoke, it eventually forced her to fill the silence. ‘My husband and I tell each other everything.’

Slater shook his head. ‘No. Not everything.’

64

It didn’t compute.

She looked forlorn, her brow deepening, her wrinkles tightening. Like she’d been told the world didn’t function as she knew it. It might as well have been revealed to her that magic existed. There was inbuilt dismissal, a refusal to accept.

She said, ‘What are you saying?’

‘Nothing yet,’ Slater said, getting up from the sofa and rolling his sleeve down. His shoulder stung like all hell, but stinging doesn’t impede movement, so he was basically good as new. ‘I won’t talk until I’ve confronted Teddy. Even my friend here doesn’t know what I’m talking about.’

Lyla said, ‘Why is that?’

‘Because this whole debacle has me irrationally angry,’ King admitted. ‘And for me, that’s odd. Apparently if I know the full picture, I might do something to your husband you might not like.’

She sat in place, stunned. ‘Who are you two really?’

Fear emanated off her like a fever.

Slater said, ‘The same people we always were. But Teddy’s done certain things that you won’t believe, so we need to go talk with him.’

‘He’s being held hostage,’ she said. ‘You’ll get yourself killed.’

Slater ruminated on the right words, before realising they didn’t exist.

He said, ‘Will you stay here? Please. Just for another hour. That’s all we need.’

She threw her hands up in the air as emotion struck her. She didn’t want to cry in front of them, not again, so she levered her frail body off the cushions and tottered into the kitchen, out of sight. From there they heard the racking sobs floating through the house.

Slater bowed his head.

King said, ‘I need to know what you know.’

‘At the safe house,’ Slater said. ‘He’s waiting there for us.’

‘What’s he trying to get out of all this? He’s a harmless old man.’

‘Is he?’

Lyla reappeared before King could interrogate further. She’d composed herself. She rounded the sofa but didn’t stop there. She walked right up to King, so she could crane her chin up and stare him in the eyes.

She said, ‘Tell me you won’t lay a finger on my husband.’

‘I can’t promise—’

‘I’m not asking. Tell me.’

King sighed. ‘I won’t touch Teddy. No matter what.’

She reached her arms out and pulled him into a hug. After a moment’s hesitation, he reciprocated. Slater watched them embrace, watched King’s mass practically swallow up the old, small woman, and then she stepped away and wiped her eyes.

‘I just want all this behind us,’ she said. ‘I want our old life back.’

Slater couldn’t say what was in his heart.

This will never be behind you.

He nodded to King, and they walked out.

65

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the safe house by the port.

They didn’t bother with the strict surveillance procedure they’d used last time. King wanted to, but Slater ignored the concern and started striding up the shallow sand dune, navigating through the weeds.

King called after him.

When he caught up, Slater said, ‘There’s no one waiting for us. Just Teddy.’

‘What if he’s telling the truth?’ King said. ‘Did that possibility ever strike you? Is there some small chance this is all some conspiracy theory you concocted in your mind? What if there’s a weak old man down there who needs our help?’

Slater said, ‘There isn’t.’

They hadn’t crested the rise yet.

King reached out and clamped an iron hand down on Slater’s forearm.

Slater dismissed it, just kept walking. ‘Don’t do that.’

‘Try something.’

‘Really?’ Slater said, something burning behind his eyes. ‘That’s the road you want to go down?’

‘You’re not giving me a choice.’

‘I’ve got a dozen fresh stitches in me and I’ll still beat the shit out of you.’

King took his hand away, controlling his emotions, if only to prove that he could. He knew that’d get to Slater more than anything. Demonstrating his own rationality.

King said, ‘You’d better be right.’

‘Oh, I’m right.’

Then he set off like a man possessed.

King realised the dynamic had changed again. His own