Page 57 of Stockman's Showdown

It should have annoyed him.

But not when Bree looked cute in her black skullcap that she normally wore in the Smithy’s shed. ‘Let’s go, daylight’s coming.’

‘Not you.’ He tugged on her jeans, pulling her back. ‘You stay on my six.’

‘Your what?’

‘It means you stay right behind me.’ He started walking with Dex beside him.

Bree followed, yakking away. ‘If I do that, I’ll walk on your boots, and one of us will trip over, then I’d make you blush with my swear words, and then I’ll feel worse for being so clumsy and might start a stampede of runaway wallabies to rush through the scrub that’ll set off all the alarms.’ Bree then did something so unexpected it stunned him to a standstill—she jumped up onto his back.

With arms wrapped around his shoulders in a piggyback, she whispered in his ear, ‘You know that saying, save a horse, ride a cowboy…’

‘Bree, play nice with Ryder,’ said Dex, chuckling. ‘The brother is armed to the teeth.’

Her legs had a decent grip on Ryder’s hips—pity he was facing the other way. Instead, he cupped her butt with a resounding slap and gave her denim arse a good squeeze.

‘Oi.’ She jumped off, rubbing her butt as she strolled past him with that sexy swagger of hers and tapped on their barbed-wire fence. ‘Now Dex, remember the last time you went through the scrub you got all kung-fuey over a bunch of incy wincy spiders?’

‘It was a bird spider that was the size of a freaking dinner plate.’ Dex positively shivered with that foolish grin. ‘Harper will back me up on that. She said hers was bigger.’

‘Will you two behave?’ They were like children. Ryder swiftly hiked over the fence, with Dex doing the same. ‘Come on.’ He held out his hand to Bree.

‘I might not play the part of a bunny who can jump tall buildings like Supergirl on steroids, but I can climb a fence.’

As if Ryder was going to miss his chance of holding her, to swiftly lift her over the fence. ‘Tuck your hair in.’ Even with the camouflage paint on, she was pretty.

Bree stepped back, tucking her hair away. ‘Got any wise words of wisdom from the war room, Captain Cupcake.’

Dex snorted in a deep snigger, desperate to stop laughing out loud. ‘Dare you to say that three times real fast.’ Dex nudged Bree as if they were in some playground.

‘Oi.’ Ryder scowled at the pair. ‘Stealth mode actually means being quiet! This isn’t some game. We’re now trespassing.’

‘Like Leo and his band of balding gorillas haven’t done it before.’ Bree drew out her hand-forged bushman’s knife as she crouched down and dug at the ground to locate the pipe that even had Dex arching his eyebrows in surprise. They both hadn’t seen it.

‘This way,’ said Bree, keeping her knife drawn. ‘Don’t worry, I heard you tell Dex about staying as low as a wallaby in case of any cameras. Try to keep up.’

‘I’d really like that girl if she didn’t scare me,’ mumbled Dex.

‘Yeah…’ Ryder followed Bree with Dex at the rear as they silently crept through the deep undergrowth of the scrublands of spindly grasses and low-lying shrubs, punctuated by the twisted trunks of eucalypts and acacias. Without the moon’s glow, the clusters of trees created a heavy darkness that made the air feel denser, carrying the scents of parched earth and dry vegetation. There was the occasional snap of a twig, or the rustle of dry leaves made by the wildlife that easily blended into a place where instead of streetlights and cars, there was only darkness, silence, and stars.

Bree stopped to brush the dirt and leaves aside, revealing the pipe’s junction.

‘What’s wrong?’ he whispered at her side.

‘It splits off into two.’ She pulled out the pipe join, exposing the hose running in two separate directions. ‘They’re not even bothering to bury it anymore.’ She removed her glove and held the pipe.

‘What are you doing?’

‘You can feel the water running through it. Shh… I can hear sprinklers running.’ She then inhaled. ‘Get a whiff of that.’

A strong, sickly sweet herbal scent carried on the breeze. It was cannabis. Ryder had been around Dex’s hemp crop enough to recognise the scent. It also wasn’t the first dope crop he had to do recon for, but then he’d had a military team to back him up. Today he had adult children.

Dex inhaled deeply, his cheesy grin growing. ‘It smells potent, people.’

‘You’re not taking any.’

‘Brother, at this stage all I have to do is walk through the field and the resin will stick to me. I can roll it off and hot knife it later. I’ll go this way.’

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