Page 49 of Stockman's Showdown

‘I know Charlie’s side better than anyone. I can help.’ She had to help.

‘Yeah, but…’ Dex winced as he looked at Ryder, who was shuffling the papers back into the folder.

‘Hey, that’s my great-uncle you’re discussing.’ She pointed to the photo Ryder was putting away.

‘You said you’d never met the man.’

She gritted her teeth at Ryder steepling his fingers together. Who put Ryder in charge?

‘Tell me the real reason why, Bree.’

‘I want Charlie to find those answers.’

‘We all want that,’ said Dex, sitting straighter in his seat.

But it wasn’t Dex she needed to get past, it was Captain Cupcake himself. And if she didn’t fess up, Ryder would keep digging until he got the answer he was looking for.

Fine.

She sat back, picking at the lint from her workpants. ‘I’ve been feeling guilty for not believing Charlie about Harry.’ It had been eating at her ever since they’d found those bodies in the cave. What’s worse, she’d never believed her grandfather, calling it an unhealthy obsession ever since they’d found her great-uncle’s car in the Stoneys.

She lifted her eyes and bared her soul to the man seated opposite. ‘This is my way of making it up to Charlie for not believing in him, and for my lack of support.’ At first, she’d shaken it off as the ramblings of an old man needing to tick some boxes in his sunset phase of life.

How wrong she had been.

Ryder nodded at her. No smirk. No sneer or jeer like she’d expected. ‘Thank you for your honesty. But you have to be brutally honest with us.’

‘Always.’ That was a no-brainer. Even if some people never believed her, she never lied. She just played with the truth.

‘It doesn’t go anywhere, what we discuss.’ Dex dropped his two-cents’ worth.

She’d kind of forgotten he was even sitting at the table, interrupting her negotiations with the dark, broody, bearded enemy. ‘Does that include your pillow talk with Nurse Kitty? Where is Sophie? Out shooting something with her camera?’

‘Night shift at the hospital.’ Dex sat back, sheepishly. ‘Besides, I’m not telling Sophie anything unless she asks.’

The corners of her lips curved. She knew that game well and played it that way all the time.

‘No. I know that smile, Bree, and I am not having any of that.’ Ryder stabbed his thick finger at the table. ‘If you want to be a part of this, Bree, you’ll tell us the whole truth and not keep anything back. I want all your cards on the table.’

‘Does that go for you, too?’ Because Ryder rarely showed his hand, and he was asking an awful lot of someone who didn’t like to share her secrets.

Ryder gave an affirmative no-nonsense nod. ‘And I want you to agree to no sneaky side missions where you run off, following some hidden agenda. If we do this, we do it together. Or we don’t do it at all.’

‘O-kay!’ She flung her hands in the air in frustration. ‘What more to do you want from me? Do you need me to sign a contract in blood, for you to file at some disciplinary court specially convened for wayward women?’

Ryder grinned at her as if he’d won that round.

She should’ve been ticked at agreeing to working with the enemy, but she was doing this for Charlie. And Ryder knew it.Well played, Ryder, well played.

Twenty

Finally.Ryder felt like he was finally starting to break through the many barriers surrounding the pretty little outlaw. He understood why Bree shielded herself, but she needed to know he wasn’t the enemy.

‘Would you like us to give you a run-down of where we’re at?’ This was him putting down the chips on the table, as per her request. ‘But I won’t show some images, okay?’

‘Sure. No icky stuff.’ Again, there was that rare hint of vulnerability in her eyes.

His chair scraped across the floor. ‘Dex, have you got that measuring tape?’

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