BRAX's POV:

Knowing that it is no use trying to talk to Charlie when she's upset with me, I leave the house in search of Heath. I make my way down to the beach and see him coming out of the surf with his board. I race up to him.

"Hey, we need to talk" I say in a serious tone. He notices this, and places his board down in the sand.

"Is this about what we were talking about yesterday" He asks me. I nod, and proceed to tell him about last night's events, and explain to him what his part involves.

'although he isn't happy about what i've asked him to do, he agrees to do it. As soon as he leaves, I set my plan in motion. I pull my mobile phone out of my pocket, and head up the beach a little way.

'Jake,' I say, after a few seconds of dial tone, 'we need to meet.'

CHARLIE's POV:

I am in no mood for visitors. But someone won't quit knocking at the front door. Annoyed, I rush over to answer it, if only to tell the persistent knocker to go away.

To my surprise, it is Heath that is standing in the threshold.

I roll my eyes. 'Brax is not here.' I go to slam the door in his undeservedly smug face, but he holds his arm out and stops me.

'I'm not here to see him,' he says, ducking under my arm and letting himself into the house. He heads straight for the fridge.

'By all means Heath, come right in.'

Ignoring me, Heath goes on to say, 'He ahh, he actually sent me here.' He closes the fridge, empty handed. 'To check up on you. Hey, do you have any beer?'

Frustrated, I slam the door shut. 'No! We do not have any beer! Heath, why did Brax send you here?'

He shrugs. 'Beats me. I don't even know why he keeps hanging around here if you don't even have any alcohol. I don't understand what the draw is...'

'Heath! Will you please just go? I'm not in the mood for this.'

'Sorry, I promised Brax I'd stay here and look after you.'

'I don't need looking after.'

'Don't try to render me useless.

I'm growing more than impatient; I think Heath finally sees this. 'Look, Brax only sent me here because he knew you didn't want to see him, and he doesn't want you to be alone right now.' Apparently he hasn't seen it. 'Trust me, there are a thousand other places I'd rather be right now than stuck in a house with a p-m-s-ive you.'

'Do you think maybe there's a reason I didn't want to see Brax right now?'

'Of course there's a reason, but I just don't really care.'

'Then why are you here?'

'I already told you why.'

'Yeah, right, because Brax told you,' I say, rolling my eyes again. 'If he cared so much about me, then he wouldn't have – '

' – I don't want to hear it,' Heath interrupts me. 'Brax has done so much for you over the last few days – Charlie, he quit being a River Boy for you. And for what? So you could jump down his throat the second he does something you don't exactly agree with?'

'He lied to me about Jake breaking in! He knew it was him and he didn't tell me!'

'Yeah, because he wanted to protect you – in fact, that's all he ever seems to want to do these days. God only knows why. So why don't you get off your high horse and give the guy a break, and see what he's trying to do for you.'

I am completely shocked by what he's just said to me. He has no right to talk to me in that way! Especially not in my own house!

He then heads into the lounge room as if nothing has happened, sitting himself down on the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table and turning the TV on. You'd think he lived here. 'Got any pretzels?'

I am disgusted with him.

But maybe he did have a point.

BRAX's POV:

I wait in the secluded area for Jake to arrive. I came early to scope the place out, make sure I wasn't being set up. Finally, after about 15 minutes of waiting, I see Jakes car drive up the dirt road towards mine.

He gets out of the car and makes his way towards me.

"Brax..." he says as he makes his way towards me. "why am I here?"

" you are here Jake, because I told you to come" I say as I make my way closer to him and stare into his eyes "this thing with Charlie, trashing her place, threatening her life, it is going to stop... now"

"Darryl, Darryl, Darryl." He says as he takes a step back to give himself personal space. "you don't intimidate me... at all. And this 'thing' with Charlie will stop when she is DEAD. Yes, you heard... DEAD!" he smiles at me, and I am on the verge of losing control when I hear the police sirens sound as the squad draws closer.

I see the look on Jakes' face as he prepares to leave. I realise what he is about to do and pounce onto him, tackling him to the ground.

"No mate, you're not going anywhere". I say as we wrestle.

Suddenly he gains the upper hand on me and pulls out a knife. By the time the police arrive, I am in a headlock with a knife to my throat, with police with guns pointed at me surrounding me. This is not going like I thought it would. This is why you don't work with cops, I think to myself.

"POLICE! Put the weapon down!" Joyce yells, still pointing his gun, but still Jake refuses to let me or the knife go.

"Goodbye Darryl" he whispers in my ear as he swiftly draws the knife closer to my neck. Joyce quickly realises what is happening, and BANG!