Gone Phishing

by Bowes, K T

  Dane narrowed his eyes and leaned forward and Sophia saw Darren wince and draw back, leaving his brother alone in the alpha’s sights. “I invited you because I need you,” he hissed. “If you’re not up to the job, just say and I’ll put you on the first bus outa here.”

  “I hit people!” Animal glared at Dane as though the other boy didn’t know that small fact. “This is like the boringest road trip ever.”

  Dane sat back in his chair and viewed the big man until Animal dropped his gaze, cheeks pinking at the edges. “I hope it stays that way,” he said, his voice level. “Have a good time, man. A few drinks, maybe get laid. You’ve had half the fee and you’ll get the other half when we hit Hamilton, same as Darren.” He leaned forward again, his tone acerbic, cutting through Animal’s childish sulk like a sabre. “But if I need you, I expect you here. Not joy riding a truck, not drawing that much attention to yourself; just here, where I asked you to be. Do we understand each other?”

  Darren nodded, his head moving like a clockwork toy but Animal forced out a grunt and kept his body still. Dane pushed his half-drunk coffee aside and stood, gripping Sophia’s hand and yanking her up with him. “Meet you by the ute when you’re finished,” he said, eyeballing both boys. “We’ll make camp and I can drop you in town. I’ll need the truck for this evening and you can get a late bus back or walk to the site.”

  Darren put a hand into his pocket and dragged out the ute key, handing it over and then drawing his fingers back as though scared of contacting Dane. His eyes strayed to Sophia’s breasts and then back to Dane’s face and she felt a shiver of fear run through her. Outside in the street she exhaled and sickness turned the coffee in her stomach to a nauseating paste. Dane led her away from the garage, skirting the block of businesses and back to the ute without being seen by the salesmen on the forecourt. They clambered into the back of the ute and Dane threw the keys over the head rest and onto the driver’s seat. “Did the farmer really let Darren borrow this vehicle?” she asked, her heart sinking to her knees.

  Dane shrugged. “Probably not.”

  “So, we could be riding around in a stolen ute?” she asked, her voice wavering. Dane shrugged again, his expression calm and non-committal. “Why didn’t we bring my car or yours?”

  Dane smiled at her as though she knew nothing. “Too far,” he answered. “Mine would crap out for sure and yours might have crapped out. I needed something newer with more power. If we have to go off-road we can in this, but at least we won’t need rescuing because we broke down.”

  “Do you think Darren nicked it?” Sophia’s voice wobbled. The determined shake of Dane’s head offered little comfort.

  “Na. I told him not to.” He reached for her hand and squeezed her writhing fingers. “We took the plates off, anyway. We’ll only be tugged if Darren drives like a bozo and he hasn’t so far.”

  “You can’t drive without reggo plates,” Sophia said, her stomach clenching and driving the coffee into her gullet.

  “Stop worrying; we’re not.” Dane stroked the back of her hand with his thumb.

  “You nicked plates too?”

  Dane shook his head. “Borrowed. Soph, stop worrying, will you? Just trust me.”

  Chapter 19

  Misplaced Affections

  The campsite on the outskirts of Palmerston North offered basic facilities, a passable shower block and communal kitchen. Sophia used the bathroom, washing her face in cold water and staring at herself in the mirror, trying to decide if the pretty girl who stared back at her had completely lost her mind. Emerging, she discovered two tents set up, one behind the ute and the other at the side.

  “That’s yours,” Darren told her, pointing to the one at the back. “We’re allowed two tents and one vehicle at each pitch. The guy at the desk came over to warn us to behave. Said he didn’t realise we were kids.” He screwed up his face. “Animal’s twenty next month. That shut him up, but he still threatened us.”

  Sophia watched Dane bang in tent pegs, his face lined with concentration as he wielded the lump hammer with force and precision. She shuddered at the calculating sense of violence in his eyes. “Good job Animal’s here then,” she said, forcing brightness into her tone. Darren’s face fell.

  “But you needed me more, aye?” he replied, face earnest and pleading. “I drove good, didn’t I?”

  Sophia nodded. “You did, Darren. I usually feel sick on long journeys but I didn’t at all with you driving.”

  “Didn’t you?” Eager to please he leaned closer and Sophia’s eyes widened at the realisation he was breathing in her scent. The hammering stopped and she took a step backwards. “I think I got nabbed by that speeding camera just inside Bulls township.” His fingers twitched as he reached out to touch her hair.

  “Darren!” Dane’s voice sounded loud and clear on the quiet camp site. “Didn’t you want to ask Sophia about Maddie?”

  When Sophia dared to allow her gaze to settle on Dane’s dark head, she saw the temper flare in his eyes and knew he’d been suckered. “What about her?” she asked, keen to disperse the violent cloud of jealousy emanating from her boyfriend.

  “Nothing really.” Darren turned his back on Dane, shoving his hands deep into his pockets out of harm’s way. He wrinkled his nose. “How’s she doing?”

  “I don’t see her much.” Sophia refused to let Dane catch her eye and the hammering began again, sending the tent pegs through the top soil and deep into the earth’s core. If he kept going, he’d tunnel them a quick way to the UK and her brother, Matt. She swallowed, wishing he’d return the messages she left over a week earlier. He needed to know Edgar’s plans.

  “Does she have a boyfriend?” Darren made the enquiry with feigned interest and Sophia’s wooden replies showed little effect. He stared at her like a whipped puppy and she took advantage of his distraction.

  “She cries for you every night.”

  “Ah yep.”

  “Wishes you’d call her, take her flowers and a ring.”

  “Cool.”

  “I’d love to be her chief bridesmaid.”

  “Great.”

  “I’ll pay for the wedding. Fifty guests, a three course meal and all the trimmings.”

  “Sophia?” Darren took a daring step forward and she moved back, instinct and self-preservation in every centimetre of the reaction. She didn’t reply and Darren pressed on. “If you weren’t shagging Dane, do you think you’d go out with me?”

  Sophia took a huge swallow and glanced back at the tent. The fly sheet fluttered in the light breeze but Dane’s sudden absence gave her cause for alarm. Discarded pegs lay by a plastic bag but the heavy hammer wasn’t nearby.

  “Darren.” Dane’s voice came from behind her and the other boy’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, pupils flaring like sunbursts and the whites showing around fast disappearing irises. “Piss off and make your tent.”

  Darren swallowed and scurried away. Sophia heard the dull sound as Dane hefted the lump hammer and thumped it into his palm a few times. She turned and put her hands against his chest. “He’s only asking,” she said, her voice light. “But thank you for rescuing me.”

  Dane’s lips twitched. “He’s not just asking, Soph. And he lied; made me think he still liked Maddie.” He shook his head as Darren loped around his tent still looking backwards, tripping over a taut rope and pitching onto it face first. A grunt came from inside as Animal rolled out his sleeping bag. “Geez, that kid’s a worry,” Dane said with a deep sigh. “I don’t think he’ll make it to twenty at this rate.”

  “You won’t really hurt him, will you?” Sophia asked and Dane shrugged.

  “Depends what he does. Never say never.”

  Sophia glanced back at the other boys’ tent, biting her lower lip as a scuffle broke out inside. “I hope you’re laying across the front of my tent for protection,” she mused, relieved when Dane leaned down and kissed her neck.

  “You bet.”

  Chapter 20

  Fr
om Bad to Worse

  “Don’t leave anything nickable in the tent,” Dane advised, flattening out his sleeping bag across the space in front of the flap. “We’re not staying.”

  “Where’re we going?” Sophia plonked her pillow at the head of her sleeping bag and sat up, shoving her pyjamas underneath.

  “Back to the garage for a snoop around.”

  “Oh. Can bugs get in here?”

  “Nope.” Dane lay on his back with his hands behind his head and watched her move around the small space. “The fly sheet will protect you against the flying sort and I’ll be here to deal with Darren.”

  Sophia chewed her bottom lip and stifled a giggle. “You’re horrid, Dane McArdle.”

  Dane smirked. “I can sleep in the van if you’d rather. You should’ve said how you felt.”

  She slapped his thigh. “You don’t mean that.”

  Dane closed his eyes. “Na, I don’t. I felt livid with him until he fell over that rope and landed on Animal.” A snort escaped his lips. “I think they gave each other a black eye.”

  “Awesome. They should be okay picking up a couple of emos after a few beers.” Sophia put her hand over her mouth and her shoulders heaved. “We should stop!” she hissed. “They’ll hear us.”

  Dane rubbed his eye and yawned. Sophia shifted across and laid her head on his bicep, sighing at the sense of security the man-boy gave her. “Why are we going out tonight?” she asked. “I’m seeing Melody tomorrow. Let’s just stay here and snuggle.”

  “I’m very tempted.” He wrapped his arm around her neck and turned on his side, pressing soft lips against hers. “But I didn’t give your phone back because I’ve been watching the conversation.”

  Sophia waited, her breath tight in her chest. “I left the laptop at home,” she whispered when Dane didn’t continue. “Like you said.”

  He nodded. “I know.” Then he sighed. “They talked this morning and he’s resigning from his job on Monday. But it’s obvious they also talked on the phone in between the last Facebook message and the one I saw today. No new emails for ages and I’m not sure why. Maybe her tech guys have access to the email server at the garage and she doesn’t want them to know.”

  “How do you know they talked another way?”

  Dane’s expression grew serious and a dark curl slid into his eyes, bouncing against his eyelashes as he stared at her with sadness. “She asked how it went with the realtor.”

  “Realtor? No! What did Edgar say?”

  Dane stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “He said it went well. He’s sending the house to auction and should be ready to leave within a couple of months.”

  Sophia closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. The effort hurt her chest and her rigid body lay like a plank of wood. She swallowed, grateful when Dane pulled her into his chest and ran his hands over her hair, soothing her and not expecting a reply. “It’s over,” she blurted as the tears came, streaming from her eyes and nose in equal measure. “There’s nothing I can do to change it.”

  “It’s okay,” he whispered in her ear. “Don’t get desperate, Soph; it’s not a good feeling.”

  She heard his words, but the emotions arrived regardless, boxing her in misery and telling her that everything she tried to do would still leave her rejected, abandoned and homeless.

  “You can move in with Bob and Ellen,” Dane breathed into her hair. “I’ll find somewhere else to go.”

  Sophia shook her head against his tee shirt and felt the wetness spread in a wide arc, taking her make up with it and imprinting an image of her face on his chest. “Promise me you won’t sacrifice your security for me,” she begged, her chest hitching with the effort of speaking. “I don’t want to live with Bob.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Dane soothed, never ceasing his steady stroking of her hair. “If he’s moving south so soon, you either go with him or live with your mother and both those plans don’t work. I get it Soph, I promise I do. I’ll talk to Bob when we get back tomorrow.”

  “No!” Sophia wriggled and tried to break free, pulling away and feeling Dane’s sleeping bag slip beneath her. “If you do that, I’ll never forgive you!”

  He grabbed her wrists and kept her pinned, pushing his leg across her in self-defense as Sophia kicked out. When she brought her knees up together, he dumped her on her back and lay on top, pressing her body full length beneath his. The static hiked, time stopped and they stared at each other for a millisecond before Dane’s lips found Sophia’s. The kiss contained a force of its own as two lost kids trod a dangerous road which promised to make both their situations a whole lot worse. Dane’s hands glided up Sophia’s thigh and he reacted to the feel of the creamy skin beneath his rough palms. Her hands moved to the back of his neck, pulling him closer and locking her ankles behind his knees. They tumbled together in a frenzy of need, fingers, lips and overwhelming desire. She pushed a hand beneath his tee shirt and touched the downy hair on his chest and something in her snapped, locking up the brakes in her heart.

  Dane’s fingers snaked inside her underwear, questing and seeking and she froze, the realisation dawning even before she found the words. The teenage boy she fell in love with morphed into a full-grown male without her paying enough attention. Everything about him seemed to overwhelm her and their first sexual encounter unravelled before her; not a thing of beauty and rightness but a quick shag in a thin skinned tent, overheard by two stupid boys on a camp site in broad daylight. Sophia’s collapsing world hit her like a piece of uncontrolled space debris and she reeled, inside and out.

  “No!” She said the word and pulled away, scooting to the other side of the tent and yanking her skirt back down to cover herself. Dane lay on his side, his mouth half open and a stunned look on his face. The hurt in his eyes drove a knife deep into her chest and she shook her head, panicking. Guilt assailed her, condemning her for ruining his second time and with shaking fingers she unzipped the tent and dived outside face first.

  Giving Darren a wooden smile as he returned from the shower block with a towel around his neck, Sophia headed for the toilets and stood in a cubicle in a state of flux. She cried, blew her nose and then made a decision. By the time Dane McArdle hauled his bruised ego from the tent and searched for her, Sophia was long gone, striding back towards Foxhall Motors and the root of all her troubles.

  Chapter 21

  Nothing to Lose

  “I want to see the lady owner and I want to see her now.” Sophia stood her ground before the perplexed salesman from earlier, ignoring his attempts to close his computer as home time approached. Noises filled the showroom as glass doors slid closed and keys jangled.

  “You can’t,” he replied, dragging a lightweight jacket from the back of his chair and slipping his arms into the sleeves. “I told you, she’s in tomorrow.”

  “I see her now or I call the cops.” Sophia sank into his visitor’s chair and folded her arms. The walk into town without phone or money cost her. Blisters budded on the soles of her feet and sweat ran down her back and into her knickers. Even behind her knees felt sticky. A kind bus driver stopped and let her ride part of the way for free, assuming she was a student starting her Saturday clubbing early. “I’m not kidding. Call her.” Sophia shoved the phone towards him, the cord dangling across the table and swiping several sheets of paper onto the floor.

  “I’ll call the cops instead,” he warned, his tone angry. He reached for the handset and Sophia stood, putting her finger on the button to make sure he didn’t.

  “She’s committing fraud,” Sophia snapped, her face determined. “Get the police; see if I care. I’ll tell them everything.”

  The man’s eyes shot towards a glass office in the far corner and then back again. “I’ll phone from in there,” he said and Sophia stood up, her feet raw and painful.

  “Do it here,” she snarled. “Where I can hear.”

  With a sigh he picked up the handset again and dialled a number, speaking to someone else
before Sophia heard a woman’s tones echo through the phone. “There’s a girl here,” the salesman said, sounding nervous. “She came in earlier asking to deal with a lady and now she’s back. No, she only wants you.” He paused and his eyes roved over Sophia’s dishevelled appearance. “About eighteen,” he said, turning his back on the girl. “No, I don’t know what she wants.”

  He disconnected the call, removed his jacket and hung it back over his chair. “She said she’ll be ten minutes,” he said, his tone reluctant. “You need to wait here.”

  Sophia sat, her feet smarting, her sandals cutting into her flesh and her back soaked. She felt like the worst advert for sanity in the world and steeled herself to look inadequate against the woman who threatened her entire existence. “Please can I wash up before I meet her?” she asked the salesman and he nodded and jerked his head towards a bathroom near a service counter. He watched her walk across the shiny floor, suspicious of every move she made. “Don’t nick the soap,” he called to her retreating back.

  The bathroom provided little sanctuary. The sparse environment catered for customers needing to toilet a small child or touch up their lipstick, not a teenage girl with two ruined relationships and nowhere else to turn. Sophia washed her face and dried it on the harsh paper towels, slapping her cheeks to give her colour. Then she returned to the sales floor and sat in her seat, waiting for the hatchet to fall on her life.

  She’d read the bones of a woman’s magazine and shredded a tissue by the time a fancy black vehicle roared to a stop in front of the showroom window. The salesman stood and grabbed his jacket, not bothering to fix it around his shoulders for a second time. “She’s here,” he announced. “And Saturday’s her day off so she won’t be happy!”

  The car door slammed and Sophia closed her eyes, praying the woman would be elderly, ugly and nothing like the profile picture. Then she’d drive home to Edgar and rub his arrogant nose in his error, dancing on his stupidity with victorious steps.