Prologue
The scream of cicadas filled the dusk air, sharp and incessant like a warning only nature could send. Somewhere in the distance, a magpie warbled, oblivious to the rising unease that simmered beneath the last golden rays of the Queensland sun.
In the outer fringe of Brisbane’s sprawl—where the roads started to fray into cracked bitumen and skeletal housing estates stood half-built like forgotten promises—a silence took root that felt more like a trap than peace.
A red Holden Commodore, its bonnet coated in a fine layer of December dust, sat idling outside one of those shells of a future home. The doors hung open. The inside reeked of sweat, beer, and teenage bravado. Four boys stood around a toolbox, their laughter sharp, unnatural. One of them ran his hand over a crowbar, like he was getting to know it.
“You reckon she saw us?” one asked.
The leader, a wiry figure in a leather jacket far too warm for a summer night, smirked.
“Course she did,” he said. “And we saw her. It’s a bit late for sorry now, eh?”
The others laughed, nervous but eager.
They didn’t know it yet, but they were already being hunted.
Out there, somewhere in the growing dark, a woman was moving with quiet steps, her hands bloodied but sure. She’d never held a spanner like a weapon before. Never swung a hammer with rage. Never felt fear this deep in her chest.
But they’d brought her here.
And she was going to make damn sure they didn’t walk back out.
