Page 72 of Stockman's Stormcloud

‘Ryder can go to hell.’ Bree tossed the rest of her tea into the sink, slamming her mug on the counter. ‘Pop, I’ll get changed and grab our guns. Bring your cuppa and snacks. I’ll meet you at the Razorback, after I make a few phone calls.’

‘You’re not calling him, kid. Please say you forgot his number.’

‘I have to, Pop. They’ve accused me of stealing their cattle. And don’t you have a vet inspection to get to, Dex?’ Bree slammed her bedroom door shut behind her.

Charlie started swearing under his breath as he jammed food and drinks into a cooler and poured the rest of the hot tea from the tea pot into two travel mugs.

‘Who is Bree calling?’ Dex asked Charlie.

With a heavy head, Charlie slung on his hat by the back door. ‘The devil, son. She’s calling the devil.’

Twenty-three

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Ryder’s deep voice hammered hard over the dusty sunburnt soil like a gunshot blast. He stood with hands on hips, with Dex’s younger brothers, Ash and Cap gathered in the shade of the tall, railed area.

To Sophie, it looked like a rodeo ring, but Dex told her it was the drafting yards, a place where they sorted out the cattle.

Dex closed Sophie’s car door and with a determined stride, in a set of jeans that blessed that man’s body, he approached his brothers. ‘I designed that cradle and I want to see it working. Don’t worry, I brought the nurse with me.’

The way Ryder glared at her with such open hostility, Sophie meekly shrugged, hiding her camera behind her back.

With Mr Purrington happily napping on the couch back at the cottage, Dex had given her a chance to take photos of cattle. Up close. So, of course, she wouldn’t say no.

‘Sophie won’t be a bother, she’ll just be taking photos. It’s her thing.’ Dex even gave her an encouraging smile. ‘Just stay this side of the fence and you’ll be fine, Sophie.’

Even though she was keen to take photos, she hesitated because of that evil-eyed glare she’d copped from Ryder. That man was a bully, just like Bree. They’d make the perfect bossy couple, if they didn’t hate each other.

As an outsider, Sophie could see both sides of this story. Bree and Charlie had pinched a herd of cattle that they’d hidden from the old owner’s son when the property went up forsale. Twice. One herd at Wombat Flats, the other in the Scary Forest. So, they had the skills.

But she’d just heard the redhead’s side to know Bree hadn’t been home to steal the eighty head of cattle.

But to be fair to Ryder, Bree could have simply answered him and not been so annoyingly secretive as if playing some game.

But there was a secret—a big one—that Bree and Dex shared, and that’s what irritated Sophie more. Even if it shouldn’t. She wasn’t Dex’s girlfriend, she was his nurse.

‘You should be resting, bro,’ said Ash.

‘I’m staying.’ Dex scowled at Ryder. ‘And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, that BS you pulled on Bree earlier was so wrong on so many levels.’

And there he goes, defending Bree again. Sophie just didn’t understand what made Bree so special.

Yet, Sophie was better than this, she never got jealous over anyone, and she certainly didn’t think such horrid things about another woman. It was so unlike her to be like this. Bree wasn’t her enemy. Bree was nothing to Sophie, yet it felt like Bree was everything standing in the way of what she wanted, which was Dex.

It was so, so, wrong.

She wanted to slap some sense into herself over her own foolishness. Especially when everyone at the hospital had said Bree and Charlie were nice people. She could see that in Charlie, yet she struggled to see it in Bree, who’d only been mean to poor Dex, especially while he was ill.

‘Did you find out where Bree was last night?’ Ash asked.

‘Bree can give us a stack of names as an alibi. One of them is the Station Hand, who we all know, as well as the local fire chief.’ Dex crossed his arms over his chest, only to stop because of his sore rib that seemed to burr up his anger. ‘But Bree is ticked off. Big-time. I’ve never seen her like this. It’s an eerie anger, that if aimed at me, I’d be watching my back because I know how cunning that woman is.’

‘So do I. It’s why I had to ask,’ Ryder growled, his angerflaring up again. And Ryder was scarier than Dex.

‘Yeah, well, because of what you did, Bree’s got Charlie moving the Razorback—that Charlie has owned since the 80s—and she’s taking Pandora back to their shed. It wouldn’t surprise me if they move out.’

Sophie stopped herself from shrugging at that point. Bree had clearly pointed out to Charlie that they didn’t own the property, they were just tenants. And tenants moved house. Having moved herself to play tenant, she got that bit.

Ash shook his head with Cap frowning at Ryder. ‘We can’t let that happen,’ said Cap. ‘Charlie and Bree are good people. Bree’s done a lot for me and Mia. You need to apologise to Bree.’

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