‘A boy kingpin?’ said Davey, checking back into their conversation. ‘Face it, kid, you’ve fucked us all. Including yourself. You’ve brought the monster of Blackbeard on us all.’

‘Then help Shelby, who is the one idiot in this room who’s actually got a plan to stop him!’ shouted Forest.

‘You don’t get to say anything!’ shouted Mackerel.

Someone started hammering on the door and they all fell still.

‘Ahab? Are you okay?’ It was Ned’s voice. ‘I’m sorry, but the noise is waking the guests. Won’t be long until someone calls the police.’

‘They can’t catch me out after curfew,’ said Mackerel, thinking, I can’t go to prison now.

He fled the room, leaving Shelby behind.

Mackerel was smoking his vape on the front porch of Homeward. He’d checked on Kane and, once he was assured he was all fine and well, he’d come back out to calm down and wait for Shelby.

When Ahab’s ute pulled up, Shelby climbed out first, giving Mackerel a quick squeeze of the arm and heading inside to be with her son.

Ahab approached him slowly, coming to stand beside him and lighting his own cigarette.

After a moment, he said, ‘Are you going to be able to stop? When the temptation is real, when it’s right in front of you? When it comes down to it, will you be able to walk away?’

‘Me walking away isn’t the problem,’ said Mackerel. ‘I know exactly where that path leads. I’ve been there.’

‘Okay,’ said Ahab, turning, the cigarette between his teeth. ‘But will you be able to stop her?’

That’s what he was worried about. Haltingly he said, ‘She just . . . wants her life back. She’s not doing this for money, she’s doing it for Davey.’

‘Which means she won’t walk away until she gets what she wants.’ Ahab held the cigarette in his teeth a bit longer. ‘How is that any different from Blackbeard?’

‘Are you crazy?’ Mackerel had to look at him. ‘It’s completely different. Nothing like Blackbeard!’ He couldn’t believe Ahab would even make that comparison. ‘Chips was murdered in cold blood!’

‘You think whatever product she cooks won’t hurt people? Of course it will. How is that different from Blackbeard?’ said Ahab. ‘And if someone finds out Shelby can cook, how long until they have her locked up in a shipping container somewhere, forced to cook ice for one gang or another?’

‘We were both brought up in this world. You know that if anyone can do this, it’s me.’ He hoped that didn’t sound arrogant. It was just the truth. ‘There’s risks, but it’s the only way to get everything back to how it was. If she can’t decide to take that risk, then who can?’

‘You don’t believe that. That’s her talking.’

‘And it’s her decision to make.’