Page 81 of Stockman's Showdown

Yet Bree was clever, so something else must have triggered her to make that assumption, compared to how she’d looked last night, when Bree wrote the words of a dead man on the floor of what she called the murder room.

‘You have to see it from Charlie’s point of view,’ continued Bree. ‘For the last sixty years, Charlie has lived with the consequences of his brother’s actions.’

‘How?’ With four younger brothers it made Ryder step back with his brow ruffling.

‘Even though Charlie has had a pretty full life, he was like Mia, hiding from her ex out at Elsie Creek Station. Charlie stayed out there to escape the looks, the frowns, and the fingers pointed at him whenever the local rodeo was on in town. Darcie told me that Jack Price had made some good friends out here. So, when their head stockman was murdered, people needed someone to blame, and Charlie became the easy target. Resentment like that tends to stick around here a lot longer than anywhere else.’

‘It was hardly Charlie’s fault.’

‘I know. But with Harry missing, and that damning bit of evidence he drew in chalk—the one I didn’t even know existed until yesterday—it was enough for some of the locals, especially those on the rodeo committee, to take it out on Charlie.’ She gave a sigh, with her voice softening. ‘It’s why Charlie isn’t having a funeral for Harry.’

Didn’t that tug at Ryder’s brow with concern. ‘Why not? Charlie’s been searching for his brother, he’d—'

‘Because Charlie thinks it’ll just stir up that bush telegraph into a feeding frenzy, and he doesn’t want to be around to hear it. Would you?’

‘No. You?’

That evil grin of hers showed she was ready to play dirty.

‘I’d dare any of them to say it to my face. It’s why Charlie doesn’t want me here, because he knows I’ll have a go at them.’

‘And that’s why I’m the bodyguard.’ Because if anyone dared to say anything to Charlie, especially to Bree, he’d defend them. Without question.

But Bree would also complain that she could fight her own battles—which was why she was never shy in speaking her mind.

Pity that most of the battling going on these days was between Bree and himself.

She then looked him up and down, a subtle curl forming at the corners of her luscious lips, with her eyes flickering with a devilish shimmer, before turning and walking towards the pub’s kitchen. It was a great view of her swinging those hips in that dress. ‘Did you find out who Ghost is?’

‘In between setting up cameras and arming my brothers with Glocks? Yeah, I did.’ Ryder crossed his arms, eyeing her carefully.

Bree tilted her head, a smirk tugging at her lips. ‘You armed your brothers with handguns?’ From that look, she already knew all about it.

‘It seemed like the right thing to do. Guess what else seemed like the right thing to do?’ He leaned in slightly. ‘I’m buying a Ghost mask so you can teach me how to play.’

Thirty

Late that night, Ryder took the night shift, kicking his brothers out to spend time with their partners. With his boots resting on the boardroom table, he kept one eye on the monitors, making a record of any activity happening on Leo’s property. On the other side of him stood the creation of string lines showing the trajectory of the shot, with the murder file spread out before him, next to his bottle of bourbon and glass.

‘Don’t you sleep?’ Bree stood in the doorway, carrying a jug of ice that he’d bet was filled with her homemade gin.

‘Is this where I tell you off for sneaking around?’ He tilted his head to admire the way she slinked into the room to peer at the wall of television monitors. Still in that pretty dress and boots that showed off her legs from town.

‘Much happening?’

‘Nope. But we worked out they do sentry rounds every hour—if they remember. I doubt they’ll do much tonight.’

‘Why?’

‘Leo is away, back tomorrow. Left his—what do you call them?’

‘Balding gorillas.’

He gave a quick grin. ‘They’re in charge, drinking beer, watching the football, tucked up inside the air-conditioneddemountable they’ve got.’ He pointed to the screen on the left. ‘There’s only four of them.’

‘What’s Marcus doing?’

‘Trying to get search warrants as quietly as possible, which means getting the okay for our highly illegal surveillance footage, without anyone tipping Leo off.’

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