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She took a breath, her chest heaving, her head pounding harder with every point she’d hammered home.

‘This man had been in and out of foster care all his life. Had no one to keep him on the straight and narrow. But you do, Owen. You have a family who loves you and want the best for you. Who are bending over backwards to try and get you to sort your shit out.’ She waved the phone in the air. ‘Is this what you want? To end up killing someone or harming yourself? To have your mother and father and brother grieving for the rest of their lives because you couldn’t pull your head out of your arse long enough to realise how lucky you are that so many people care about you?’

A small but definite shake of his head.

‘Where does Cole think you are tonight?’

‘Playing Minecraft with my friend Tom.’

‘Was Tom here?’

‘No. He’s … he doesn’t do this sort of shit. He’s at home with his parents.’

A story that went part way to explaining why Cole had allowed his brother out of his sight. ‘And how are you getting home?’

‘I told Cole I was staying the night. He said it was okay. I could do it as a reward for working so hard this week.’

‘And you thought it was fine to lie to the brother who has put his trust in you so you could come and put your life in danger instead.’

A heavy silence surrounded them, as if her words had sucked every background noise from the space, leaving them in a vacuum.

‘Are you going to tell him?’ He met her gaze for the first time since she’d confronted him.

‘No.’ Pushing her phone back into her pocket, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her head so they were eyeball to eyeball. ‘You are.’

Chapter 14

Driving the backroads on a moonless night with so much adrenaline pumping through her veins took all her concentration. Owen sat in the passenger seat, rigid, stunned into silence by her lecture and the frog march to her house to collect her car. Whether or not her download was responsible for his apparent remorse or whether it was the anticipated reaction of his brother to news of his antics wasn’t clear. As long as one of them did the trick, it didn’t matter.

Cole lived on a small property on the outskirts of town. Nowhere near the Christmas tree farm he was currently responsible for, as well as his wayward brother. All of that plus holding down his farrier job. No wonder he was happy to offload Owen for a night.

‘Turn right in two hundred metres.’

Following Siri’s directions, Hannah navigated the bumps of the entry road and turned into a rocky driveway leading to a small, neat weatherboard cottage. The house was in darkness but a spotlight lit up the yard as soon as they approached.

Hunched over and sullen as a shutdown horse, Owen lumbered up the steps and hovered before the door, clearly not jumping for joy about making his confession. But owning up to his behaviour was the first step in making good.

Hannah rapped her knuckles against the timber frame and before long, a shirtless, trackpanted Cole appeared, squinting into the light.

‘Hannah?’ He blinked the sleep from his eyes as he zeroed in on his brother. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Owen has something to tell you.’

‘Can’t you tell him?’ In the shadow of the porch light, Owen’s eyes were hard to read but the tremor in his voice said it all.

‘If you’re old enough to be out doing what you were doing, you’re old enough to own up to your mistakes.’ She pinned a well-practised death stare on him. ‘Or did nothing I said have any impression on you?’

Cole scratched his head, the muscles in his six-pack rippling as he raised his arm. ‘Can one of you please tell me what’s going on?’

‘Hannah caught me car surfing.’ Head lowered, words mumbled.

‘She caught you what?’ Cole’s pitch immediately spiked, his eyes flicking wildly from one of them to the other. ‘For fuck’s sake.’ He winced in Hannah’s direction. ‘Sorry.’

‘Oh, believe me, I said worse than that when I caught them in the car park.’

‘Right.’ Cole rubbed a palm across his mouth. ‘You’d better come in.’

Sitting at Cole’s kitchen table while his miscreant brother admitted to a litany of misdemeanours was not how she’d imagined spending time with the hunky farrier. Well, fantasised rather than imagined. Generally after reading too many chapters of one of the sizzling novels in her reading pile. Always with the lights off and her hands under the covers. The thought set her cheeks burning but thankfully neither the man nor the boy noticed. Owen was busy spilling his guts about the lies he’d told and the transgressions he’d acted out with his mates; to his credit, he included every small, painful detail. Cole was taking it all in, a heavy frown creasing his brow, a vein above his left eye pulsing wildly. Finally, Owen reached the part in the story where Hannah had appeared on the scene.