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‘Caesar is five-and-a-half metres long. And for your next question, he last tipped the scales at over two thousand pounds. Oh, and he’s very, very old.’ Stone held out the dried fish right near the beast’s nose. ‘Open up, big fella.’

The crocodile’s jaws slowly opened, and Stone tossed it right into his huge mouth.

Teeth were missing. But his sheer size was impressive, with his battle-scarred body so dark and weather worn.

Being as big as a boat, he’d be the scariest thing you’d hate to see on the river—it was the stuff of horror movies.

‘What happened to Caesar?’ She asked quietly, to not draw the beast’s attention.

Yet Caesar held the fish in his mouth, as his front paw gave a heavy thud to push him around in a slide to allow his alien-like eyes to lock on her.

Romy gulped air.

‘Caesar likes you.’

‘How do you know?’ The skin pricked along her spine as she took a wary step back.

‘Caesar has his eye on you.’

Again, she took another step back from the glass, her hand to her throat as she struggled to swallow down her fear. ‘That’s not comforting, you know.’ Caesar was truly the stuff of nightmares.

Stone didn’t seem fussed as he grabbed a large broom and began brushing down the sides of the massive monster. ‘Caesar gets algae build up and likes a good scratch.’

Caesar raised his massive snout, arching back to lift his wide chest, extending his neck upward while resting on his front paws. It looked like a yoga pose.

‘Is Caesar doing the upward-facing dog yoga pose?’ Even if he groaned like an old dog, with a dried fish hanging out of his mouth.

‘I believe he is.’ Stone’s laugh made her fear disappear.

She stepped closer to the glass wall surrounding Caesar’s expansive pen. ‘How did you end up with Caesar?’ They must have needed a crane to get him inside.

‘I found him walking in the middle of nowhere.’

‘What do you mean?’

Stone used the wiry broom like he was scrubbing at a muddy floor, rubbing the hard bristles against the crocodile’s side as it groaned again.

‘Caesar was strutting his stuff in the middle of this dried out flood plain. My guess is he’d lost his battle for his territory and got kicked out of his home, because he was pretty banged up when I found him. ’

‘They fight each other?’

‘The males do, for territory. And if food is scarce, they’ll eat their own kind to survive. They don’t do retirement well.’

‘So how old is…’

‘We guesstimate that Caesar is around 95. I’m hoping he’ll make a hundred so he can get one of those fancy letters from the king to celebrate his birthday.’

‘So, he’s okay in here.’ Was the panelling strong enough to hold something as big as Caesar, when the beast was three times as wide as Stone.

‘I tried to let him go, but Caesar refused to leave. It’s the same story with Snag. Bones I carted up to the higher freshwater rivers, where he’d be safe. But it only took the little bugger two weeks to crawl back home, demanding I let him back in.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘Every wet season, I’ll leave the gates open on high tide to give them the chance to skip to the flood plain.’ Stone nodded at the expansive land that connected to a river. ‘But they never do.’

‘Why would they want to, when they’re being fed so well, and have their private resorts to call home. They’d feel safe.’

‘Yeah, it’s home.’ Stone nodded at Caesar as he closed the door to his pen with a solid click. Then he noted the time on his watch. ‘I’ve gotta go. I’m chasing daylight.’ Stone headed back to the house with Finley’s wheels rumbling after him.

‘Your room is this way.’ Scooping up her bags by the front door, Stone passed the large dining table and headed down a small corridor, to push open a door.

‘The bed has clean sheets from the last backpacker. Just do the same when it’s your turn to leave.

’ His speech was so well rehearsed, like the way a hotel clerk checked in their guests.

‘Tucked behind the kitchen is the laundry, with plenty of septic-safe soaps and detergents. So please be wary of what shampoos you use while staying, if you don’t mind. ’

‘They’re safe. I understand about septics, from working in remote film locations in the past. Some of those places didn’t even have plumbing.’

‘Well, at least you have your own bathroom down here. Spare soap, toothpaste and towels are in the cupboard. There’s plenty of food in the fridge with stacks of snacks in the kitchen’s pantry.

Booze is in the outdoor bar where you’ll find the wi-fi password taped to the fridge.

’ He dropped her case beside the queen-size bed, then walked out, ripping off his dirty shirt to disappear in the other direction.

‘And your room?’

‘Other side of the house.’ His voice travelled down a distant corridor.

She found her way back to the dining room, as Stone returned to the kitchen pulling on a long-sleeved shirt he tucked into clean jeans, before sliding on a stockman’s wide-brimmed hat.

Now he looked like one of the Stock Squad in those clothes—not the crocodile wrangler who’d been tramping through the mud all morning.

‘My numbers are on the board next to the phone over there. Feel free to use it to ring your mother and tell her you’re safe,’ he said, while buttoning up his shirt, covering his tan and toned torso that made her stomach flutter.

‘If you know how to use a radio, there’s one by the bar with my call sign taped to it.

I don’t know when I’ll get back, as I have a feeling it’ll be a late one.

’ Stone squatted down to pat the turtle.

‘You be good, Finley, and assist Romy with her work. And I’ll expect an updated report when I get back about this documentary, direct from the director.

’ He then winked at Romy before closing the front door behind him.

‘I didn’t say I was doing it,’ she yelled.

‘ Don’t forget to call your mother .’ Stone’s laugh came from the other side of the door, soon followed by the sounds of the ute’s engine. Leaving her home alone with one turtle, a tank full of fish, and three fully grown man-eating crocodiles, all belonging to a guy she’d only met this morning.