BACKWOODS RIPPER: a gripping action suspense thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

side and tried again. “Lizzy, I’m sorry. I over-reacted. We do want your help. Please.” Paige stopped talking and waited while Lizzy stood there thinking. As well as anger, Paige saw a momentary flicker of pleasure in the woman’s eyes. The look appeared and vanished so quickly, Paige wondered if she even saw it. Could Lizzy enjoy having so much power over her?
    “When I heard Hal cry out, I just …” Paige put her hand on her belly, hating herself for playing the pregnancy card. “I’m a bit emotional.”
    Lizzy looked from Paige’s face to her belly then nodded. Paige let out a breath and swallowed hard. If it had been anyone else, Paige didn’t think she’d have any problem with asking for help. Begging Lizzy left a sour taste in her mouth, but she had no option, except to placate the women until they got Hal to a hospital.
    “I see you found something,” Lizzy said pointing at the sticks in Paige’s other hand.
    Paige nodded, relieved the woman’s anger had dissipated. Lizzy nodded to Soona, and the big woman took the sticks from Paige’s hands.
    Paige looked down at Hal. His eyes were closed, but his breathing sounded even. She noticed that the snake bite had been bandaged and felt a pang of regret for judging Lizzy so harshly. They’d obviously been administering first aid. Her eyes drifted to Hal’s left leg and she sucked in her breath.
    His lower leg was swollen to at least twice its normal size. Just above his ankle she saw a gash deep enough to expose muscle and bone. Paige put her hand over her mouth to block the gasp that threatened to escape. She began to lower herself next to her husband when Lizzy’s arm shot out in front of her.
    “No,” she ordered. “You need to move back and let us do what we need to do.”
    Confused, Paige looked from the sticks in Soona’s hands to the crooked angle of Hal’s ankle, realisation dawned on her. They meant to straighten and splint his leg. She shook her head and started to protest, but Lizzy grabbed her shoulders and turned her away.
    “You wanted our help,” she reminded Paige. “We can’t get him in the ute unless we splint his leg.”
    “But the pain,” Paige moaned, and felt like the world had turned upside down. It seemed like only moments ago that she and Hal were laughing and making plans for the future. The next instant she found herself handing him over to two strange women, agreeing to let them hurt him in unimaginable ways. Her legs felt weak and her mouth suddenly dry.
    She walked on numb legs and stood behind the old Holden. Bitterly aware of her own cowardice, she crouched down and covered her ears. When the screaming shredded the air she closed her eyes and whispered “sorry” over and over. The horror of that moment eclipsed everything that had gone before in Paige’s life.

Chapter Three
    The shadows grew long across the bitumen as evening rushed to block out the day. Paige sat in the bed of the old Holden, one hand on Hal’s chest to feel its constant rise and fall, the other gripping the side of the tray. His eyes stayed closed and he slept. She brushed back a lock of brown hair from his damp forehead.
    After Lizzy and Soona had finished splinting Hal’s leg, he’d lapsed into unconsciousness. “Shock” was Lizzy’s one-word explanation for his condition.
    He stirred again when the three women eased him onto an old door which Soona found around the back of the factory, and lifted him onto the back of the ute. As the door landed on the bed of the Holden, Hal’s eyes had opened and he’d groaned before slipping back into unconsciousness.
    Paige dragged her eyes away from her husband and watched the road disappearing in front of her. On either side, lush bushes and shrubs turned from green to grey in the dusky light. At irregular intervals, towering gum trees lined the road. Paige stared blankly around seeing only isolation. Lizzy had convinced her that the two-hour drive to the nearest roadhouse would put Hal at