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Sweating bucketloads, he tried to keep his balance as his boots sank deeper into the swampy sludge of decaying leaves. Mozzies and midges danced in the soupy humid air that reeked of mud, rotting vegetation, and brackish river water, but he wasn’t going to move.

Not now the mother had arrived.

And this little lady was the meanest man-eating mother of all.

Of course she’d show up, eventually. They always did.

The woman behind him stepped closer, a twig breaking under her shoe. ‘Can I—’

‘Shh.’ Stone shook his head at the female tourist who’d got him into this mess. ‘Get back, Romy.’

Romy Radford was the worst kind of distraction. One he did not need while dealing with another tricky life-and-death situation, especially when these beasts never played by the rules.

‘Don’t listen to him. Get closer.’ Romy’s offsider, Julian Fenwick, was a dick. Yet, for a prize tool bag, he’d done the right thing by remaining on top of the riverbank, like he’d been told.

If only Romy had done the same.

But no, of course not.

Romy just tucked her dusty blonde hair behind her ears, and with her camera strapped to her chest by some gadget, she moved closer.

‘Don’t!’ Stone scowled at her, and he hated frowning at the females, but she needed to stop. ‘Not while the mother is here.’ He pointed to the slow running river that shimmered under the mid-morning light.

From behind her camera, Romy’s soft gasp was like a knife slicing through the silence.

You think she’d quit?

Of course not.

Instead, Romy crouched behind a fallen log to zoom her camera in on the deadly creature.

She practically blended with the vegetation that formed a thick tangled curtain of vines draping down from the canopy like rope.

Clustered in the shade around her, the serrated edged ferns looked like crocodile teeth, while glossy-leafed wild gingers and their soft pink flowers emitted a zesty citrus tang to the air.

She might’ve looked cute getting her jungle on, but Romy was way too close to danger for Stone’s liking.

Well, hell, now he had to keep an eye on the mother and the pretty lady holding a fancy camera.

‘Easy, mother, I only took a few…’ Stone slowly shifted the warm dirt back over the eggs that gave off an animal-like musky scent.

He’d been careful not to disturb the nest too much, leaving the dirt mound just the way he’d found it, tucked at the base of a clump of spiky pandanus palms. Good hiding spot, too.

He’d only found it thanks to the mother’s slide marks that gave it away.

He put the lid on the simple blue cooler, slid the strap over his shoulder, keeping his spear close in hand. Even though his instincts were screaming at him to run, Stone knew better, and slowly backed away from the ultimate killing machine.

Tipping the scales just shy of half a tonne of flesh, the mother stretched to just on two-and-a-half metres from snout to tail. She might not be as big as her sisters, but she belonged to the family of Australia’s deadliest creature, the saltwater crocodile.

‘Back up, Romy.’

‘No. I want to see her.’

The crocodile moved stealthily, the water barely rippling, but her primal pungent stench of death became prominent when she gave a guttural growl that had the hairs standing on the back of his neck.

Julian, safe on the bank, called out, ‘Will she attack us?’

It’s what Stone was trying to avoid.

As he continued to back up, the crocodile crawled out of the water, poised to attack.

‘Easy, mother. I get it. We’re going now.’

The crocodile stood before her nest, her growl low and eerie. But it was loud enough to roll through his chest and echo in the thick scrub.

‘She just rang the alarm. We’ve gotta move. Now. ’

A trail of bubbles rose from the river’s surface, a sure sign that backup was coming.

‘What is it?’ Romy swivelled with her camera.

‘The father is coming, and you do not mess with the bull. This is his harem and his babies. Remember, these swamp puppies are man-eaters. The top of the food chain.’ And Stone did not have the backup for this type of meet-and-greet, not today.

But the pretty little filmmaker didn’t move.

Annoyed that she was risking her own safety, Stone scowled at her with heat. ‘Do you have a death wish, Romy?’