Page 36 of Bond

Rochelle comes straight to me, and I wrap my arm around her.

“Is he going to be okay?” Cairo wants to know. Bull hesitates, glancing at Jill before answering. “I don’t know, brother. Josie and Skinny are going to stabilise him until Jett can get here. We’ll know more then. In the meantime, can you clear up here while I go to the airfield to pick them up?”

Jill looks up at his comment, “I have family coming in to help with the bodies. You’ll know some of them.”

Bull tilts his chin at Jill, “Thanks, Jill. I’m going to check on Noni, then I’m leaving.”

Cairo waves him off, “Go. We’ve got this, Pres.”

Looking around at the destruction we’ve got to clean up, tiredness washes over me. All this for drugs and a man who can’t understand that no means no and that you can’t own people. Jason groans at my feet, and I kick him, “Fucking arsehole. All this for drugs and not understanding that people can’t be owned.” I kick him once more for good measure, then turn to Cairo, Jill, and Rochelle. “Let’s get the bodies piled up over there; there’s a ground sheet in the office of the garage. Cairo can start towing the vehicles to the yard, and we’ll crush them down. Once the street is clear, hopefully by then Jill’s people will be here, and we’ll deal with the bodies and this fuckhead.” I kick Jason again before asking, “Does that sound like a plan to everyone?”

Rochelle and Cairo nod. Jill answers, “Sounds good to me. Let’s tie this piece of shit up to that grating and get to it.”

Cairo and I grab Jason and tie him to the grating in front of one of the shops, then get to helping the women drag bodies onto the tarpaulin. Noni joined us halfway through clean-up, not saying anything, just getting stuck in with the rest of us. We’d heard a plane land followed by a helicopter about ten minutes ago, so weweren’t surprised when Bull pulled up at the clinic and bodies piled out, hurrying into the clinic.

“Keep me updated; I’ll be back to finish helping as soon as I find out what’s going on,” Noni asks us, hurrying to the clinic.

She blows past a group of people who seem to appear out of the shadows, giving them a quick wave and greeting. There were three men and a woman. Two of the men we immediately recognised, and the other two we could see straight away were family to Jill just from their looks, and she threw herself into the arms of the male as soon as he appeared and burst into tears.

“Where the hell did you all come from?” Cairo wonders, holding out his hand to Rory and then Sean Whyte. They laugh and pull us into back-slapping hugs.

“Jaq dropped us off,” Sean answers him.

“It’s good to see you,” I say, tugging Rochelle closer to me. “Roch, we were with this lot in Afghanistan for a little while. Sean, Rory, this is my Old Lady, Rochelle.”

“Nice to meet you, sorry it’s under these circumstances,” Rory replies before turning towards the woman who was rubbing a hand over Jill’s still-heaving shoulders. “That’s Amy—she’s mine and Sean’s. That’s Joel over there; his wife is Julie, and she’s in with Jett, Hannah, and Cassie. Jill is Joel and Amy’s youngest sister.”

We greeted everyone before explaining what we were doing.

“Have you got a backhoe?” Sean asks.

“Yeah,” I reply, “and we’ve got a bunch of trees that need planting as windbreaks over the road near where the campsite will be going.”

Rory claps his hands, “Well, let’s get to it! Sean, Joel, Amy, and I can do that for you if one of you comes and shows us where the trees are and where the trees are to be planted.”

“I’ll go with you,” Cairo replies, “Let me get the vehicles towed first.”

“What about him?” Joel wants to know, nodding towards the sniffling Jason.

“Oh, he’s mine and he’s croc food. He doesn’t deserve a burial,” Jill answers, all traces of tears gone from her face.

“I’ll take you to the boats,” Rochelle offers up gleefully. Up until now, she’d been quiet, working with the rest of us but not saying much. I’d wondered if it was all too much for her, but at the glee in her voice, I was guessing that it wasn’t bothering her.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” I say, going over to Jason. I untie him, pick him up, and throw him over my shoulder in a fireman’s lift. “Lead the way, ladies.”

It doesn’t take long to get to the boats, and I toss Jason on the floor of the nearest one as Jill and Rochelle get in. Untying the boat, I jump in as Jill starts it up and reverses slowly out into the river.

“How far out are we going?” I ask.

Rochelle and Jill exchange a look, “About two kilometres, we don’t want to feed the crocs too close to the hotel. You don’t want them to get used to being able to feed here, or you’re going to have problems. The farther away, the better.”

Jason was sobbing behind his gag, his eyes wild as he looked around the boat for a way to escape. Rochelle must have realised the same thing because she squats down next to him and pushes his head back so that he can look at her as she speaks to him, “Stop looking for an escape, Jason; there’s nowhere to go. I wantyou to think on something, though, as you take your last breath. This would have been avoided if you’d left me alone. Now you’ve lost everything, and don’t think what’s left of the gang is going to come looking for you because Dindi is already taking over and will be running it from now on.” She flicks his forehead and tells him again, “It’s not nice being on the other side of torture, is it? I hope you’re remembering every last one of those women that you hurt and killed. Jill’s going to make you hurt. Seems fitting that you’re taken out by a woman after all the ones you’ve hurt.” Thinking she’s finished, I hold my hand out to help her back up, but she hits him with one last thing before she’s done. “Oh, and Jared was killed by Dindi. I found that out last night when I got information for the MC on you. Thought you’d want to know that you were weakened from the inside.” Taking my hand, she allows me to pull her up.

Jill cuts the boat engine, motioning towards the riverbank. “This is a good place.” Along the bank, there are several eyes reflected in the moonlight, and I can just make out the shapes of crocodiles in the dim light.

“How do you want to do this?” I ask Jill.

“Stand him up on that side of the boat, I’ll take care of the rest,” she replied. Grabbing him by his arms, I lift him when he starts to buck and squirm. Jill hits him on the temple with the back of a knife, dazing him enough for him to slump in my hold.

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