Page 49 of Stockman's Stormcloud

‘No. It’s my property. And I want to see what I covered your arse for.’

‘There will be nothing to see when I’m done.’

‘So, what are you waiting on? Daylight?’ He pointed tothe darkness where there wasn’t even a moon. ‘You know everyone will hear this pitiful excuse for a vehicle.’

‘Doubt it.’ She turned on the engine that reminded him of a gutless lawnmower. ‘You haven’t heard me yet. And you’ve been living here for how long? Especially you, who lives in a tent, closest to the shed.’

He arched an eyebrow at the red-headed witch steering them towards the shed that made up his workshop. How could he not know about this? ‘We work hard…’

‘Drink hard. And snore like you’re all chopping wood.’ She gave him a fleeting grin from behind the wheel. ‘I’m not judging, Stormcloud, not when I enjoy a jug of gin at sunset, too.’

‘So much so you made a still.’

She shrugged as the large spotlights swept across the back corner of the shed. ‘I have certain tastes, and I enjoy making things.’

She reversed the trailer to park it near the double doors of the room where he’d snapped off the padlock earlier.

‘I can’t believe Charlie doesn’t know about this.’

‘Charlie doesn’t ask questions.’

‘But if he knew, he wouldn’t have brought Porter out here, like he did today.’

‘Pop’s got tunnel vision when it comes to the whole murder investigation.’ She opened the double doors and fiddled with the light panel, and a bank of fluorescent lights came on.

‘I knew the lights worked. I could hear the buzzing.’

‘They won’t be on for long, not now you guys have redecorated the place and torn down that tarp covering the windows.’ She approached the false wall, only to pause.

Dex was dying to see.

‘Before I do the big reveal, shall we discuss the stage rules to this secret?’

‘Like what? A three-jug minimum?’ Dex narrowed his eyes at her. ‘I won’t tell.’

‘No. You’ll just hold this over me.’

‘You’d do the same to me.’

‘Oh, likeNurse Kitty.’ That grin of hers was positively evil.

He matched it with a scowl. ‘Oi, I was asleep.’

‘Oh, does that mean she’s in your dreams, huh?’ Bree laughed, tugging on a lever that shifted some mechanical lock, pulling back the wall. It opened to a spotlessly sterile room, as a crisp bank of lights highlighted a large slender still, like something out of a steampunk movie.

‘Is that copper?’ Brass pipes ran from the tall copper cylinder with coils curling down to another copper tank that held a brass tap at its base.

Bree said nothing, rolling over a wooden whisky barrel to rest directly beneath the tap. She popped open the barrel’s large cork, plonked a large funnel into the hole, then turned the tap on at the still and clear liquid freely flowed into the barrel. ‘Keep an eye on that for me.’

She then grabbed a hefty work trolley from the trailer and started loading up crates filled with bottles.

‘Is all that gin?’ It lined the wall.

Her boots scuffed on the concrete floor as she dragged the trolley to a stop. ‘What’s with the moronic questions, Stormcloud? Have you been hanging out with your blonde nurse too long?’

He must have said something to upset Nurse Kitty earlier, because Sophie barely spoke to him when she drove him back to the cottage, and then left in a hurry.

Good. He didn’t need that pretty little temptation fluttering in his periphery, not when he had a whopping big, highly illegal gin distillery standing before him. He could smell the potency of the alcohol as it filled the barrel. ‘This is quite the operation. So, before we pull it apart, gimme a tour.’

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