Page 36 of Stockman's Stowaway

‘Leo isnota cattleman.’ Ryder’s deep voice echoed like a death whisper in the air, silencing everyone. As an astute businessman, Ryder could read people to cut through the bull. ‘Leo is not what he says he is, and that makes him dangerous in my book.’

‘Whatever he is, I don’t want him here for Mia’s sake.’

‘Is Mia okay? Did she have a panic attack or something?’ Ash asked, concerned.

‘Yeah,’ Cap clenched his fists, barely containing that rage. ‘If I ever see that bloke who hurt Mia, I doubt I’ll be able to control myself.’ Which was unheard of. Cap never got mad, unless for family. Since when did he consider Mia like family?

‘Where is Mia?’ Ash asked. While Ryder arched an eyebrow at Cap, then side-glanced Dex who had also cocked his head at Cap.

‘Hiding at Bree’s.’ He turned for the cottage, should he go see her?

‘Don’t worry, Bree will protect her, brother.’ Dex patted Cap’s shoulder. ‘That redhead even scares me when she gets into mother-bear mode.’

‘ButIwant to protect Mia.’ Cap dropped his head as his words rang in his ears and in the surrounding air. Sighing heavily, he patted Sarge, the loyal friend indeed.

‘Why was Mia panicking over Leo?’ Dex asked with a shrug.

‘Leo knows her ex, Gavin.’The scumbag.‘Leo was going to hire Gavin as the mechanic or something, to work on that lithium mine site.’ Which was right next door. Even though there were hundreds of acres between them, it had to be spinning Mia out to realise her ex might be that close. ‘We should go back to keeping the gate locked.’

‘We can’t,’ said Ryder. ‘Charlie and Bree run their branding business, or whatever it is that Bree does, and the caretakers do get visitors. Charlie said they only lock the front gate when no one is at the homestead. Which is rare. But that’s not theissue, here.’ Ryder shook his head. ‘CEOs do not bother doing job interviews with ground crews like mechanics.’ Ryder’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. ‘You know, the whole lithium mining deal of Leo’s wasn’t right from the get-go. He must have paid someone off to ignore the land zone regulation to get that mining permit issued in the first place.’

‘You’re probably right,’ said Cap. ‘Mia said Leo’s mine never did an environmental impact study on the place, either. And that’s part of the application process.’

Ryder cocked his head slightly. ‘How does Mia know this?’

‘Mia does those reports for the mines and the government.’

‘So she’s qualified to do our pastures?’ Ash asked.

‘Over-qualified.’ Cap and his brothers had no fancy education or degrees, but a lot of calluses they’d earned from the never-ending life lessons of living in the outback. ‘Can you see now why I want Mia’s help?’

His brothers nodded, except for Ryder.

Cap ripped off his hat and raked fingers through his hair. ‘Yesterday Mia helped me work out the set-up for the wildlife corridors that’ll be windbreaks to stop any future dust storms. It won’t cost us very much money, except for Mia’s wages, plus she’s got some great ideas to improve pastures that feed our stock.’

Finally, he had Ryder’s attention.

‘Mia may be here due to an ugly situation, and if I ever see that Gavin, I’ll—’

‘Oi? You never get violent.’ Ash’s brow creased with concern.

‘I believe our family’s peacemaker here,’ said Dex, tossing his thumb at Cap, ‘was going to throttle Leo if he didn’t leave.’

‘I saw that.’ Ryder’s heavy hand landed on Cap’s shoulder as he lowered his head to meet Cap’s eyes. ‘Mate, I’m going to ask, just this once and once only. So don’t tear my head off when I say this.’

‘Go on.’ Cap raised his chin, preparing for the worst, especially when Ryder spoke cold hard truths.

‘Don’t you think you’re getting a little too involved with a woman who’s running from her ex? I saw how Mia was when Leo showed up, she was terrified.’ Ryder pointed back to the house.

‘I saw that, too.’ Ash gave a slow nod.

‘How bad?’ Dex asked, he’d been at the kennels while all this went down.

‘It wasn’t good.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ Cap sighed heavily, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

‘What makes you think she’ll stay and not run the first chance she gets?’

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