Page 63 of Stockman's Showdown

‘Dex and I have put more cameras along the border—don’t worry, Ash, we left yours in your paddock.’ Ryder pointed to the wall of monitors. ‘We’ve also put in an electric wire along the eastern border to keep the livestock away, like that small herd of water buffalo. We do not want any of our stock breaking that fence line, forcing us to go in there.’

‘So we’re just gonna let Leo keep his crop while stealing our water?’ Cap rubbed his wrinkled forehead as if fighting a migraine.

‘When I take Bree and Charlie into town this morning, I’m going to see Marcus. The police need to be involved now, and I have no doubt he’ll tell us that our job will be to do nothing. But we can defend our land. And I recommend we don’t tell the other girls anything. There’s no point in having them worry.’

‘Even Bree?’ Cap crossed his arms tightly over his chest while staring at the pistol on the table.

‘It was Bree who discovered they were stealing our water in the first place, and she tracked the water pipe all the way to that crop,’ said Ryder, leaning forward in his seat. ‘Without Bree we would never have found it.’

‘But we know where it is now.’ Dex rocked in his chair, cradling his coffee mug in two hands.

‘We also worked out how they’ve been monitoring us.’ Didn’t that make his blood boil, as he leaned closer to the table’s set ofmaps. ‘They’ve been using cameras, here, here, and here.’ Ryder pointed to the map of their own station! ‘It’s how Leo has been ten steps ahead of us. Call me paranoid, but I even swept this room for bugs.’

The tech-nut, Ash, sat higher with his eyebrows knitting together. ‘I didn’t know you had the gadget for that.’

‘Ryder’s got a lot of fun toys, brother.’ Dex matched Ash’s grin.

‘Concentrate, boys…’ Ryder’s voice was low and loaded. His brothers were acting like cowboys in the schoolyard when he needed them to think like soldiers. ‘We’ve set up surveillance on Leo’s property as we need to learn the details of their operation, including their patrol patterns. Later, Ash, we’ll use your drone to do a flyover, but it’ll have to be high so they’ll have no chance of accidentally spotting it.’

‘What about the drone’s noise?’ Ash asked.

‘Dex will do a drive-by in the grader with his stereo blasting. I want you to do a proper scan of his entire property to learn its layout. Look for any buildings, driveways, regularly used tracks, the lot.’

‘Shouldn’t you be leaving that sort of work for the police?’ asked Cap.

‘Marcus and his team won’t have the resources we do, and he’ll have a lot of red tape to trawl though before he can make a start. I don’t want Leo to know we’re onto him, but I want to know what that prick eats for breakfast. Where he parks his car. Who lives there. And how many men does he have working for him. Yesterday.’

‘How long have they been doing this?’

‘I don’t know, Cap. That’s the scary part. It’s what ticked off Bree the most.’ Ryder hated anyone upsetting his brothers or threatening his home, but what burred him up the most was anyone upsetting Bree.

‘Why did Leo pick the station next door, of all places, to start his operation?’ asked Cap. ‘There are plenty of other places he could’ve grown his crop, with better water resources.’

‘Bree mentioned we’re not near any flight paths, major towns, or main roads. And the only thing that prick didn’t get his lawyer to fight us on was our application to grow hemp.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘Leo’s been playing us from the day we moved in. I bet the reason he only offered us the bare minimum to buy us out was a smokescreen. He needed us to fight him over water rights, so he had an excusenotto build his mine. It was all a cover for his money-laundering operation and dope-growing venture.’

‘When did they lay down that water pipe?’ Ash asked. ‘It could have been anytime in the nine months since we rebuilt that dam.’

‘Nah, it’d be much more recent than that,’ said Dex. ‘I would’ve dug it up when I extended that fire break after they let out those wild dogs to attack our herd.’

‘I think they laid that pipe down around the time our cattle was stolen,’ said Ryder. ‘It fits Leo’s MO. We all know he had something to do with those rustlers and he would’ve used them as a distraction. Leo’s crew must have come in and put in that underground pipe when we were all so focused on finding our cattle on the west side that none of us were watching the east side.’

But now Ryder had an entire wall of cameras monitoring the boundary fence, including Elsie Creek Station’s front gate, as well as Leo’s front gate, and in particular that dope crop. It might be illegal, but Ryder was not going to sit around and wait. He had the equipment, he had the know-how, and he rarely slept, especially not when he had to protect his home and all who lived here.

‘While I’m in town, I’ll get some sensor lights and spotlights for around our houses. Do you guys need anything else? Or have any other suggestions for security?’ Ryder was all ears.

‘I hate living like this, with cameras, and spotlights, and guns.’ Cap’s shoulders sank as he dragged the Glock closer across the table. ‘How long will we be living like this?’

Ryder wished he could give a definite time frame, but he couldn’t. ‘I’ll talk to Marcus today…’

But Ryder wasn’t going to wait for Marcus, either. Bree’s idea of burning the crop sounded good, but it’d only engage the enemy, and that’s not what he wanted until he was ready. ‘If any of you see Leo, we act normal or ignore him. Cap?’

Cap scowled. ‘I don’t talk to the wanker. It’s Dex you should worry about punching Leo out.’

‘Believe me, I want to, brother. But as Ryder explained last night, we don’t know who or how many men Leo has working for him. We have partners to protect now.’

‘That’s why we need to be smart about this and not rush in guns blazing,’ said Ryder. ‘We need to know what we’re up against. We’ll know soon enough, now we’ve got Leo under surveillance.’

‘Are you going to tell Bree and Charlie?’ Cap asked.

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