‘Have the car wait for me here at ten o’clock tomorrow morning,’ I said. He’d shut down Aiden’s tablet. I handed him mine. ‘Just so no one gets in touch,’ I said. Just so no one can track my whereabouts, I thought. ‘I’m spending time with my brother. Your son.’

And Dad just nodded. Smiled and put a hand to my cheek.

‘Take care,’ he said. ‘Both of you.’

‘I’ll tell Mum you couldn’t stop me,’ I said.

‘That’s okay,’ he said. ‘I think it’s time I told her some things of my own.’

17

17

Xena passed Zorro over to Aiden and then fell into step with me.

‘Can’t get rid of you guys,’ she said. ‘No offence, but you’re like a bad smell.’

‘Thank you for helping my brother,’ I replied.

She laughed. ‘Hey. An accident. We’re going through an underpass after the storm and found this shivering … mess in a yellow dress, of all things. Holding a dog. I felt bad for the dog, not for the mess in the dress. I’d’ve just taken the dog but I couldn’t split him from the freak in yellow, so no choice. Amazing how they perked up after a spell in front of a fire. Even tried to feed ’em, but I guess they weren’t hungry.’

‘Thank you.’

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes. The park was behind us now and we were travelling through deserted streets. Aiden walked ahead, chatting with Ziggy. They seemed to have forgotten their differences, judging by the way Ziggy was smiling at something Aiden was saying.

‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

‘Headquarters,’ said Xena. ‘A house a few streets away.’

‘Headquarters of what?’

Xena looked at me, shook her head and smiled.

‘I’d forgotten you don’t know nothing,’ she said. ‘The rich kid. Why should you know? Tell me something, princess …’

‘Stop calling me that,’ I said, ‘or I’ll punch your lights out. My name is Ashleigh.’

She stopped and laughed. She laughed so hard that she had to bend over double. Everyone stopped and looked back at her. It took a minute for her to recover and when she did, she waved a hand at the group. We started moving again.

‘Sorry, Ashleigh,’ said Xena, still smiling. ‘Us women shouldn’t put each other down. We’ve got enough problems with men doing it. Anyway, I was goin’ to ask. What’s your place like, eh? Tell me about where you live.’

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Big place, I reckon. Lotsa security. Your own gardens, so you grow craploads of veggies. Solar sail covering the roof – am I right? Plenty of shade and plenty of electricity. Maybe you sell some of the juice you can’t use to any poor people around. If you’ve got any poor people around.’