Free Brutal Revenge by James Raven

“Then we'll just have to give the treasure back
and try to talk the islanders out of going to the police. I don't see what else
we can do.”
    “And supposing they
don't take it so lightly? Supposing they don't let us leave?”
    “We still have the
shotguns,” Parker reminded him. “We'll
just have to hang around until we can fix up a boat or until the ferry
comes across from the mainland. Don’t forget they still won’t want the
authorities to know about the treasure.”
    There was a
heavy silence between them which lasted several seconds. Then Stewart got to
his feet and said, “There's no way these
people are going to let us leave here without paying for what we've
done.”
    “Oh, come off it,” Parker said. “They can
live with it. Granted, we had to clobber the
goon at the house, but he'll survive.”
    “I'm not thinking about
him,” Stewart said, switching his irate gaze to Hodge. “I'm thinking
about the girl.”
    Hodge flew at Stewart, grabbing him by the throat, and yelling
for him to keep his mouth shut. It took both the
others to pull him off. As they held onto him he continued to stare at Stewart, his eyes cold and fanatical .
    “Go on,” Parker
said. “Tell us about the girl.”

    *

    “Then she's dead,” Parker said
incredulously, after hearing what Stewart had to say. “You've fucking murdered
her!”
    Stewart poked a rigid finger at Hodge.
    “He murdered her. Not me. I tell you I've
never seen anything like it. The man's a ruddy psycho.”
    As Hodge tried to
struggle free Parker let go of his arm and smacked a fist into his face.
    Hodge reeled backwards, lost his footing,
and fell sprawling to the ground.
    He was quick to recover, though, and came
back at Parker with a tiger's speed. But Parker had already re trieved the shotgun and as Hodge got to within
arm's length he let fly with the
barrel, which landed with a heavy thud on the other's chest.
    Hodge was still gasping for breath as Parker sent the butt crashing into his
stomach. This time Hodge went down and was in no hurry to get up. He turned on
his back, clutching his stomach, and looked up.
    Parker stood over him, panting, trying hard
to contain his rage. “Until this is over I'll put up with you,” he seethed. “But afterwards
you’d better watch your back, because
the first chance I get I'm going to make you regret ever having been
born.”
    Parker braced himself for an attack which didn't come.
    Hodge stayed where he was, started to reply and thought better
of it. He let his eyes carry the message that told Parker, in no uncertain terms, that he, too, had better watch his
back from now on.
    Parker took a deep breath and turned away from him.
    “For now we'll forget about what's happened
and con centrate on getting off the island. I
suggest we go down to the village right now and see if we can find an
outboard engine or something. If there
aren't any, maybe we can get one of the fishing boats going.”
    Stewart shook his
head. “No way. We'd need all the parts for that, and they're in the sea.”
    “Then we'll just have to go down and get
them, won't we?” Parker said irritably. “Because if we don't get away from this
place before morning, we'll never get away.”

TWELVE

    There was a
blackness in front of his eyes that began toslowly break up like a jig-saw being dismantled piece bypiece. At first, light just trickled
through in small doses, revealing blurred images of an assortment of
objects around him. Gradually these
objects came into focus. The stout, glossy legs of a highly polished
table, a stone fire place and a threadbare rug on the floor with its
ends curling inwards.
    Eventually his vision widened enough to embrace
an entire
room that seemed to be lying on its side. He realized it was
his room, the familiar belongings of a lifetime about him. And suddenly he remembered with startling clarity
what had happened and why it wasn't the right way up.
    Ross Mor pushed himself
up on one elbow and winced at