Matt nodded.
“Assholes,” Georgie said. “I bet this is where they ship out the animals.”
“Animals?” Brandon asked.
She bit her lip and Matt grinned as Brandon said, “Spill it, Georgie.”
“I caught some animal smugglers the other day in the national park. Dot arrested them.”
“And you didn’t tell us because…”
“It was work business and not on our land,” she said.
Brandon glowered. “You promised no more secrets.”
“You don’t talk about army stuff.”
“Dot and Nhiari will want to know,” Matt interrupted, hoping to stop an argument. “There’s nothing we can do now, so how about we join the others? I could do with a swim.”
Georgie nodded and took his hand, not waiting for Brandon’s agreement.
Brandon growled but followed.
The tide was heading out giving them a small strip of sand on which to lay their clothes. Darcy had driven the ute closer and unpacked the bag of towels and the esky of drinks.
Georgie grabbed a tube of sun cream. “Will you do my back?”
Matt took the cream as she stripped off her T-shirt. Wow. He must have avoided looking at Georgie in her bathers in the past because there was no way he could have not realised how sexy she was. The tiny bikini left very little to the imagination and although he’d already seen her naked, the bikini was a complete tease. “With pleasure,” he murmured and proceeded to slowly rub the sun cream into her back making sure he didn’t miss a spot. By the time he was done, everyone else was in the water and all he wanted to do was drag Georgie behind the dunes and have his way with her.
“I need to cool off in more than one way” Georgie said.
Matt chuckled. “Me too.”
But he’d have to wait until they were alone.
Chapter 17
After swimming, Georgie wrapped her towel around her waist and wandered away from the group to stare across at Retribution Island. It looked no different than usual, but it was creepy to think Stonefish Enterprises had set up a camp so close to them. If the smugglers she’d caught had been bringing the animals here, then surely there was a boat nearby. She sighed. Maybe the boat was only here at the designated rendezvous times. Lee had indicated that Stonefish wasn’t finished with them yet.
“What’s wrong?” Matt asked, sliding his arm around her.
She stopped twirling her fringe. “I’m wondering when Stonefish is going to surprise us again.”
He kissed her forehead. “Yeah, it sucks not knowing. Did the guys you caught mention when their next rendezvous was?”
“No, but it’s got to be soon,” she said. “But that might change if Stonefish knows they were caught.”
“The police don’t have the resources to keep watch.”
So more animals would be lost. She scanned the beach. “You want to go for a walk?” Maybe she could find a clue and she was curious to look for the inlet Ed had mentioned.
He nodded. “Sure. We looking for anything in particular?”
She shrugged and put a couple of new water bottles in her backpack and slipped on her bright blue Ningaloo T-shirt and her shorts. “Maybe there are more tracks on the other side of those we found.”
The others were talking about the treasure, and Faith and Lara were rereading the plaque which listed the names of people who were on the Retribution. “We’re going for a walk.”
Brandon raised a hand in acknowledgement as he finished drying himself. “Be careful.”
