The box was handmade and beautiful. Pieces of different coloured timber joined together to make a star pattern with diamonds around the outer edge and sides.

Fin ran her hand over it, sat on the floor and opened the lid. Inside were photos and documents. She lifted the photos, the first was a picture of Cody surrounded by others.

She studied each person and concluded that they were his family. He said he had a mother, father, two brothers, a brother-in-law, a sister and a niece. A younger lady held a little girl dressed in pink so Fin figured they were Cody's sister and niece.

The older man and woman must be his parents because the man looked a lot like Cody. His fair hair was grey at the temples but his eyes were the same treacle brown, which Fin loved so much.

The younger man in the photo had dark hair. Fin thought he could be Cody's brother or brother-in-law. That meant two people were missing, one brother and his brother-in-law or two brothers. Perhaps one of them had taken the photo.

Fin turned the picture over. She couldn't read the scrawled writing but thought she recognised the word, Cody. She'd never asked him how to spell it so wasn't sure. She put the picture to one side and then lifted the next.

It was a photo of Cody with a fishing rod grinning at the camera. Again, on the back, she read what she thought said, Cody.

There were other photos of his different family members and some of him drinking a beer, holding a hammer, and playing with a football. In most of the pictures, he looked younger.

The next photo puzzled Fin. There were two Cody's. They looked younger and had their arms around each other beaming at the camera. This had to be the brother missing from the first photo.

She looked from one to the other trying to decide which one was Cody but she couldn't tell. They looked so much alike. Fin grinned. Maybe Cody was a twin. She turned the photo over and read Cody and... She studied the word but couldn't read it.

The handwriting was scribbled and she wasn't good with running writing. Fin put the photo aside and thought she'd ask Cody when he returned.

Next, she lifted two plastic cards. Each one had a photo on it. They both looked like Cody. Fin studied the words. One had his first name on it. The other had a name she'd never seen before. It started with the letter B. Fin wondered if it'd been spelt wrong because the letters looked jumbled. What struck her the most was that the last name wasn't Compton.

A surge of worry rippled through her. She frowned while studying the cards. Why did Cody have two driver's licences? She knew this was what they were because Findlay had one. She strained to read the name that followed Cody. Again, it was too hard for her. She couldn't understand why it didn't say Compton.

Fin put the licences aside, along with the photo of what she thought were twins and then lifted a large piece of paper from the box. The first word she could read. It said Death. She recognised it because they had been reading the vampire story and Cody had taught her this word.

The word that followed was much longer. She sounded it out. C said C like cat. E said E like egg. R said R like run. T said T like top. That meant the first part of the word said KERT k.e.rrr. t. That didn't make sense. There was no way she was going to be able to read it. She let her eyes scan the rest of the page. There were lots of words and names in small letters but the word death stood out. A surge of panic gripped Fin's stomach as the memory of Cody's nightmare came back to her.

"What are you doing?"

Fin dropped the paper and looked up into Cody's enraged face. His shadow hand, stretched long, the fingers like claws, bony and accusatory. The moment, like a heavyweight, pushed against her chest and stopped her airflow. She shuffled backwards as he strode into the room, her shoulders hit the wall; she froze and stared at him.

"Who the fuck said you could go through my things?" He grabbed her by the arm, yanked her to her feet and slammed his palm against the wall. "These are my private things!"

No words would come. Fin bit her lip as he shook her hard, her head jerked on her shoulders.

"You don't fucking touch my private things! Especially after I told you not to!" He shoved her onto the bed, stared at her with a look she didn't recognise, and then gathered the papers and tossed them, along with the photos, back into the box.

Fin watched him slam the lid closed, lift the box, and turn to face her. She huddled into the corner. She'd never seen him like this. His pupils dilated and turned his brown eyes black. The colour drained from his face.

He grabbed her by the chin, his thumb and forefinger dug into her cheeks. The veins in his neck strained as his jaw tightened. She felt his heated breath on her skin. "You stay out of my fucking stuff!" he hissed. "I give you a safe place to live and food in your belly. I've never mistreated you and you do this!" he jerked her head as he spat the words. "Is this how you repay me? Snooping into my private things. How can I trust you?" he rammed her backwards and then stormed outside slamming the doors behind him.

Cody dropped the box onto the tray of the truck and punched the shed wall leaving indentations in the corrugated iron before he stopped and ran his hands through his hair. Fuck. What had just happened?

Seeing Fin looking through the box sent spears of rage straight to the base of his skull. He hadn't been able to control the eruption of emotions which exploded from every function of his intelligence. He sucked in a huge breath and then released it to calm his raging brain.

The trigger had been pulled. An overwhelming sense of distrust and loathing made his body shake. Cody held his hands out in front of him. They trembled out of control.

A sharp piercing ring shot through his head. The sound dropped him to his knees. He clamped his hands over his ears. "Fuck...! Not again! This isn't happening!" Sweat broke out on his face. Cody curled in the foetal position as he panted in and out.

The woman was poison. She had changed everything. By touching his stuff, she had brought him back to this. Fuck. Why had he taken any notice of her in the first place? Why had he brought her to his haven?

In the recess of his mind, Cody saw the Bell Ringer laughing. The bastard knew his privacy had been compromised in every way.

Snake would have worked out where Fin was by now and informed Findlay. They would come in search of her. They'd come when the wet dried and now she knew his secret. She wasn't stupid. Another sharp pain pierced his skull. Cody gripped his head tighter. The bitch had made him teach her to read for this very purpose.

He couldn't forgive her. Her incomprehensible lack of respect for a person's privacy had sent him back to a place he didn't want to be.

He couldn't go there.

Couldn't let her have that kind of control.

Copyright © 2025 Donna Fieldhouse. All rights reserved.

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