Stockman’s Showdown (The Stockmen #4)

Twenty-five

‘ When were you going to tell us? ’ Cap slammed his fist against the table, in between pacing the length of the boardroom, where Ash, Dex, and Ryder were seated calmly at six that same morning.

‘I’m telling you now.’ Ryder frowned at his brother, who was normally the level-headed peacekeeper. ‘So sue me, if I wanted to let you two sleep.’ Because he knew they’d be up all night, racked with worry, from here on out.

Cap leaned his fists on the table. ‘You may be our big brother, but we’re not boys.’

‘I know that. Which is why you’re each getting one of these.’ Ryder slid three Glocks across the table, custom models from his personal arsenal—just a few of the many guns he’d legally designed as a registered gunsmith. ‘You’ll also get holsters, ammo, and two spare clips as backup for your rifles.’

‘Nice.’ Dex examined the weapon with a wry grin. Of course, Dex would be into them.

‘I don’t enjoy playing with guns.’ Cap raised his hands away from the pistol as if it was diseased.

‘Put it in the Tojo, do whatever you want with it,’ said Ryder, reaching for his coffee cup. ‘Listen, Cap. We’re defending our home, and I know you never hesitated that time we had to defend our herd from a pack of wild dogs.’

Cap closed his eyes for a beat, as if to dampen his temper, before sitting heavily in his seat to share an even heavier sigh.

‘Later today, when I come back from town, we’ll do some target practice.’

‘What else are we doing, bro?’ Ash picked up the Glock, getting a feel for the weight in his hand. ‘I’ve got my son and Harper to think about.’

‘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 of maps. ‘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 excuse not to 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.

Ryder nodded. ‘To stop Bree from running off and doing her own thing, I’ve agreed to keep her informed. But Bree has chosen not to tell Charlie.’ Hoping his brothers did the same with their partners. ‘Bree doesn’t want to give her grandfather any reason to stress. Charlie has enough to worry about.’

‘How is the murder investigation going?’ Ash pointed at the floor to the outline of a body drawn in chalk.

‘Bree and Charlie are going to see Porter this morning at the police station, and they’ll be making arrangements for Harry’s remains.’

‘Are you going with them?’ Ash asked.

‘I told Bree I’d drive them into town.’ Ryder glanced at his watch. ‘I’d better jump in the shower, or Bree will take off without me.’ He pushed the notebook into the middle of the table, along with two handheld radios, the same as the ones Dex and Ryder had clipped into their leather radio holsters. ‘These radios are encrypted. We’ll be using these handsets from here on out.’

‘Do you think Leo is listening in on us, too?’

Ryder nodded. ‘Monet mentioned her plane mechanic, Mickey, listens to the airwaves at the local airstrip and knew the police had come out here when we found those skeletons. I bet Leo is doing the same.’ And they used their handheld radios like a phone, sometimes a group chat with Ash, Dex and Bree telling bad dad jokes.

‘Won’t it tip Leo off if he can’t hear us anymore?’

‘Leo won’t hear anything. Not even static. These handsets operate on an encrypted frequency-hopping system, completely separate from standard channels. We can explain that it’s part of the communications upgrade for our intranet… Lastly, we need someone watching the cameras to note the times and numbers of Leo’s footmen doing their patrols. I know it might sound tedious—’

‘I’ll do it.’ Cap dragged the pen and notebook closer. ‘I’ll take first watch.’

‘Thanks.’ Ryder was glad to see Cap had calmed down.

‘I’ll be in the workshop next door, doing a service on the harvester, if you need me,’ said Dex, readjusting his radio harness.

‘I’ll have the satphone with me while I’m in town.’ Ryder headed for the door. ‘This is our home, and we have every right to defend it. And Cap…’ Ryder landed a heavy hand on his brother’s tight shoulder. ‘Have faith that we will win this.’

Cap nodded. ‘I know we will.’

Ash slipped on his radio harness. ‘I’ll go charge up the batteries on the drone. Mason will be awake soon. It’s my turn to do brekkie.’

Together Ash and Ryder walked across the homestead’s compound. The stars had faded, leaving the sky awash in soft pink and blue hues.

‘You okay, Ash?’

Ash raked fingers through his hair. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to keep this from Harper, when I usually tell her everything.’

‘Can Harper keep a secret?’

‘Harper’s better at it than me. Remember, she worked for the Australian Ambassador to Belgium, she would’ve had some sort of security clearance for that job.’

‘Yet sometimes you need to hide things to protect those you care about, so they don’t worry.’

‘So you and Dex were up all night? I could have helped.’

Ryder patted his baby brother on the shoulder. ‘You needed sleep. But you will be helping. Watching those cameras is a boring job.’

‘I don’t mind, I’ll drag my games down and play while watching those screens. I’ll get Harper to hit the shops to stock up my sugar stash and get us some snacks for the boardroom.’

‘Good idea. Won’t the games distract you?’

‘There is a pause button, dude.’

‘I never got into those video games.’ Then he remembered something. ‘Hey, who is Ghost?’

‘Ghost?’ Ash cocked an eyebrow at Ryder as they paused at the front steps to the farmhouse.

‘Last night Bree mentioned this Ghost. She said to ask you. He’s some British Special Forces guy who wears a mask and goes by the name of Ghost. Is he a character in some movie or something?’

‘Bree must be talking about Simon Ghost Riley from Call of Duty .’ Ash scrolled through his phone as they entered the shade of the front porch. ‘That’s him. He’s a legend in the game. A kick-arse SAS soldier who wears this skull-patterned balaclava and dark sunglasses all the time. No one has seen his face.’

Ryder took the phone and zoomed on the image of Ghost, who looked like a soldier of the hardcore, specialised military variety.

‘You know…’ Ash tilted his head at Ryder. ‘Ghost is a hardened, no-nonsense soldier, who’s fiercely loyal to those he cares about. He reminds me of someone I know, like a big brother who acts like he’s got ice in his veins.’

Ryder grunted, passing Ash’s phone back.

‘You and Ghost share the same build. Any reason why Bree mentioned Ghost to you?’

‘Hmph.’ Ryder ignored him as he climbed the steps.

Ash skipped up the steps beating Ryder to the front door where he held it, wearing the boyish grin that his son Mason had inherited. ‘Did you wear any of those scary masks like Ghost, when you were in the Army?’

‘No. Face paint or black masks to not reflect any light.’ But he was going to research more on this Ghost character if Bree had not only likened him to Ryder, but if she had some mask fetish. It’d be something to occupy his time while watching the surveillance cameras later. Dex had told him that Bree made swords and lances in the smithy’s forge for customers who did live-action role-playing, and Bree had also mentioned cosplay. For a man who didn’t know how to play, he was keen to learn more—especially after that kiss last night.