Page 46 of Stockman's Showdown

‘The last time the station suffered a landslide was when Leo and his band of balding gorilla’s damaged the dam.’

Ryder glanced at Dex. They hadn’t thought of that.

‘Don’t stress, boys, the dam is fine. But…’ Then those luscious lips parted, her mouth widened to take another bite of her cupcake, where she chewed with shiny eyes.

The dramatic pause was driving him nuts.

And she knew it!

‘Bree?’ Ryder’s scowl got deeper—as did his voice. How in the hell did the simplicity of Bree eating a cupcake become the sexiest thing he’d ever seen on a woman. Who knew there was such a thing as seduction by cupcake!

But then Bree dusted her hands, her humour swapped with the sexy serious side of Bree. And that had him worried.

‘What did you find?’

‘One very long, industrial irrigation pipe.’ She scrolled through her phone to bring up a set of images and, without hesitation, she handed it over. ‘The irrigation pipe is embedded deep into the dam’s wall, then buried under the topsoil. It was pure luck I found it.’

‘And you followed it? To where?’ Because that’s what Bree did. She was fearless. And that had Ryder worried enough to start giving him ulcers. But at least Bree had come to them first and not gone off on her own—which was a big move for the brassy redhead who was so stubbornly independent. The woman set crocodile traps before breakfast, but here she was doing a show-and-tell.

‘I’ll give you one guess where it ran to.’

‘Leo’s.’ Ryder raked fingers through his hair.

‘Correct, cupcake. Don’t you get a gold star for being king of the class?’ She grinned, dragging over the station’s map that lived on the table. ‘I found the pipe here, and it runs in this direction. From the fence line, I saw nothing, no cameras, just yours. But I heard the two shots fired here.’ Using the map, she tapped at the station’s eastern border. ‘Monet flew over me, coming from the same direction where that little itty-bitty irrigation pipe had disappeared into the scrublands. Now what do you boys think Leo’s doing in there if he’s game enough to shoot at planes?’

‘He’s growing dope,’ Dex said with a scowl.

‘Aww, look who gets named dux of the class.’

Not Dex. He may have been expelled from school, but Dex was the underworld’s bare-knuckle champion, regularly known for brushing shoulders with the seedier side of life, who didn’t mind the recreational weed.

‘How big a crop are we talking about?’ Ryder asked Dex.

‘It must be substantial enough for Leo to steal our water supply like that.’

‘Did Finn ever mention anything to you about Leo?’ Ryder asked Bree, who double-blinked at him, as if struggling to understand how calmly her ex-husband fit in their conversation.

What would Finn say to Ryder about sneaking in kisses with Bree?

‘Finn warned me to watch my arse with Leo and to stay away from him.’ She then sat forward, to play with the handle of her coffee cup. ‘But I have a theory, if you want to hear it?’

Hell, yeah!‘Sure.’

‘It’s about time,’ mumbled Dex. ‘Don’t hold back.’

‘Do I ever?’ She gave Dex a grin. ‘Is it true Leo’s lawyers are always fighting you?’

‘Correct.’

‘It’d have to be costly keeping a legal team on a retainer like that.’

It was costing Ryder a fair chunk, too.

‘Out of all the legal matters that Leo is contesting, like the turkey nests and carbon credit scheme, does he have any chance of winning? Or is he just doing it to waste your time and money?’

Ryder rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting daily emails over some trivial matter from Leo’s lawyers. But the way Bree was watching him, she was seeing it from another angle. Bree also had the clever skill of reading people, too. ‘Do you think Leo is using the lawyers as a distraction for something else? You’ve known Leo a while—you’d know who we’re dealing with?’

The corner of her lips barely curled, subtly indicating she knew a hell of a lot more than she was letting on. ‘I think Leo’s up to plenty of naughty things—like laundering money to pay for his lawyers while relishing the game of pissing you off.’

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