Fifty-one
Sitting high in the saddle, holding the reins with one hand, Charlie leaned over the neck of his horse to push open the front gate. He tipped his hat to Harper as she slowly drove under the tall archway holding the sign with its intricate metalwork proclaiming Elsie Creek Station . She used to admire it, now it made her sweaty hands tremble as she struggled to grip the steering wheel.
The nerves just got worse, churning her stomach into sour butter, the further she followed Bree’s yellow Kombi down the long dirt driveway.
She was about to face the Riggs brothers.
The sun sank lower, creating a splashy display of fiery reds and oranges across the sky. It was glorious. But it also meant it was time for the brothers to sit at their outdoor table, knock back a beer or three, to then argue over whose turn it was to cook dinner.
Bree had said Harper owed them an explanation. So, she prepared herself for a frosty reception, hoping that the Riggs brothers had the patience to listen to what she had to say.
The simple weatherboard farmhouse came into view, with the four brothers gathered around the table. It made her want to spin the car around and escape.
Yet with Bree in her Kombi, and Charlie riding on horseback, Harper had her own private security detail, normally given to politicians about to front a hostile crowd. But those politicians had never met a more hostile crowd than the Riggs brothers, who now stood on their porch ready to defend their home and family.
‘Come on.’ Bree opened Harper’s car door. ‘You can do this.’
‘What is she doing here?’ barked out Dex, coming down the steps.
‘STOP. All of you.’ Bree blocked off Dex, who started stepping away from the fearless redhead. ‘Harper is here to explain herself, and you all owe her the decency to listen. You told me I had the right to get involved with your family business. You all agreed to this. So this is me stepping in for your family. So, trust me when I say you’ll want to hear what Harper has to say.’
Ryder looked at Bree for a long beat, then gave Harper the nod to go ahead.
But it was the angry glare from Ash that had Harper struggling. It was Ash she needed to speak to most, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to get that private one-on-one conversation, she had to do this in front of everyone.
So, with a deep breath, she stood before the brothers towering over her from their place on the verandah. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was.’
‘Why didn’t you?’ Ash scowled like Dex, with his arms crossed over his chest.
‘Because I didn’t want you to look at me like you do now, filled with hate.’
‘Are you here to take Mason away?’
‘You being a senator’s daughter, you’d have enough political connections to take him away, right? They said Mason arrived on a private jet. Where were you?’ Dex was scary angry. Harper stepped back, but Bree was at her side.
‘One question at a time, and she can answer you all.’ Bree gave Harper an encouraging nod. ‘They deserve to know everything.’
Again, Harper took a big breath and spilled the one answer Ash needed to hear. ‘I would never take Mason away, I swear it. I came out here to make sure he was okay, especially when I’d learned about the twenty-eight-day caveat.’
‘What caveat?’ demanded Dex, with Cap arching his eyebrows, both looking to Ash.
‘That if I didn’t want Mason, I could give him back,’ Ash replied to Dex, but he never took his eyes off Harper. ‘And that will never happen.’
‘Good.’ And she meant it.
But Ash stood firm and was as expressionless and cold as Ryder.
‘We were told you were overseas when your parents died? Why didn’t you come back?’ Cap spoke next. His face was the only friendly one out of the brothers, as if trying to help her, somehow.
‘I had been a victim of a car bomb from a terrorist attack in Belgium. My team had died, and I’d suffered a severe concussion. It was when I was in the hospital that I learned my parents had died. My. Parents. With my sister .’ Her words echoed with her grief shown for all to see. She couldn’t and didn’t want to hide it anymore. Bree had been right, she was grieving and had the right to grieve.
But she also had the right to fight for what she believed in. Her story.
‘Before I could get medical clearance to fly back to Australia, arrangements had already been made to bring Mason here as per Gemma’s will.’
‘You could have stopped it,’ said Ash.
‘I didn’t want to.’
‘Why not?’
‘From the day Mason was born, we promised Gemma that if anything happened to her, Mason would go to his father.’ Even though the tears welled up in her eyes, she stared at Ash.
‘Why should I believe you now, when you told me you were practically an only child?’
‘I was. I never lied,’ she implored. ‘My mother had Gemma when she was sixteen and put her up for adoption. I knew nothing about Gemma’s existence until I was fifteen. I’d just come home from school when Gemma knocked on our front door and introduced herself. Her adoptive parents had died and she’d tracked Mum down. As an only kid, it was the best thing to suddenly have this older sister. And my parents, especially my father, quickly accepted Gemma into our family. Gemma never knew who her father was—Mum never talked about it—but she did have a wonderful father–daughter bond with my father, like I did. Gemma wanted the same for Mason … You should know Gemma was coming to see you.’
Ash blinked fast in a flutter. ‘When?’
‘Soon after Mason was born, Gemma and I started planning this road trip together, but we had trouble finding you. You kept moving around.’
‘You were after him for the maintenance,’ said Dex with a snarl.
Dex was such a dick!
Harper spoke to Ash, ignoring the others. ‘We were never after money because we were doing it for Mason. Ash, you said yourself, you wanted to know who Mason’s mother was for your son’s sake. Gemma was doing the same with you as Mason’s father.’
‘Gemma talked about me?’ Ash’s brow shifted, his cold stance starting to defrost.
‘I have a photo of you two.’ She pulled out her purse. ‘You two met at a B&S ball in Longreach.’ Her hand trembled as she held out the photo.
Ash’s eyes widened at the photograph. ‘I remember that.’ He took off his hat to rake his fingers through his thick hair. ‘We spent the entire weekend together and had a blast. And then the weekend was over. I headed west, Gemma headed south. She said she was on contraception, so I thought we were protected.’
‘Gemma said the same. She didn’t realise she was pregnant until I came home for Christmas and found her being sick in our bathroom. She suffered badly with morning sickness, but she always said it was worth it the day Mason was born. Gemma loved Mason. Mum and Dad did, too. They built him a nursery and everything. They adored their grandson.’
‘Where was this?’
‘Adelaide. But they did build this playground for Mason in our summer house on the beach in Queensland. But not in the ski chalet at Thredbo, Gemma said Mason hated being cold and refused to go outside and play in the snow.’
‘Coz, he’s half Territorian, missy, where it’s summer every day.’ Charlie winked at her, while patting the mane of his horse, it somehow eased the thick tension in the air.
‘How did your parents, and Gemma, die?’ asked Cap.
Harper swallowed, allowing the tears to fall. She had nothing to hide. ‘They were in the city centre of Adelaide. My mother and Gemma, with Mason, were meeting my father for lunch. Dad had been in some heavy negotiations at Parliament House, so said the guys from ASIS—’
‘Who?’ Cap asked.
‘The Australian Secret Intelligence Service—ASIS.’ Ryder spoke for the first time. ‘They’re Australia’s equivalent of the CIA or MI6. Why were they involved?’
‘ASIS said threats had been made against my father over his position on a NATO international war trade agreement. Given my parents’ deaths occurred at about the same time as the car exploded in Belgium, landing me in hospital, ASIS had to investigate. But it turned out their deaths were just a tragic accident.’
‘How were they, um …’ Ash asked softly, the empathy shining in his eyes, as his stance softened even more.
‘My family, along with a dozen other innocent people, were waiting for the traffic lights to change to cross the road when a car ploughed into them. The news reports all say that the driver just lost control.’
‘Mason?’
‘Gemma had pushed Mason’s pram out of the way, he was safe and unharmed. My father,’ she said through the tears, ‘he copped the full impact trying to shield his family.’
Ash patted his hand over his chest, his eyes sullen as his voice softened, ‘I’m so sorry for your loss.’
She faltered at his sincerity.
‘When did you find out that they’d…’
‘A few days later, while in hospital on the other side of the globe. A family friend took care of Mason and set about trying to find you. They also arranged for my parents’ house to be packed up.’ When she finally made it back to Australia two weeks later, the house had been empty. She’d hated the house being so quiet, expecting her mother to walk through the front door with her father, trying to work out their time schedules for a dinner date.
‘So why did you come here?’
‘When they told me they’d found you and they were going to fly Mason out to you, I just started driving. Once I realised I was in the middle of nowhere, that there was no turning back, I began writing this speech that I practised as I drove. The plan was to introduce myself to you, Ash, and to see my nephew again—’
‘To take him.’ Dex scowled.
‘No.’ She ignored Dex, focusing on Ash. ‘I was going to tell you, that my parents had set up a trust for Mason.’
‘For what?’
‘For school fees, university fees. Or, I don’t know, medical fees for braces or something. I wasn’t planning to take him away. Come on, I’ve never even babysat a pot plant before I came here. But Mason is the last of my family and I’m doing what my family wanted. I’ve always been here for Mason to ensure his safety.’
‘That’s why you bought the fire extinguishers, the first-aid kit for the house,’ said Cap.
She nodded, never looking away from Ash. It was Ash she had to convince. ‘Ash, you told me how unsure you were about keeping Mason, from the beginning. You said that if it turned out that you wanted to give him up after the 28-day period, then I would have taken him, but not unless that happened. I was never going to take him without you making that decision first, all I was doing was trying to protect Mason. Remember the reason for me agreeing to go to Wombat Flats?’
‘Yeah...’
‘Well don’t leave us in suspense. What was it, besides playing tourist,’ demanded Dex.
‘Harper went because I told her I was going to use the trip to Wombat Flats to bond with my son.’
And he did.
‘Is that true, brother?’ Cap asked. ‘Were you thinking of giving Mason up?’
Ash rubbed his eyes, sighing heavily, then opened them to focus on Harper. She felt them stab straight through to her wounded soul. ‘I was. But not anymore.’
Good. It’s what she’d hoped for Mason’s sake.
But she understood his brothers were being protective, and they’d fiercely fight for Mason, too. It’s what she’d always hoped for Mason’s sake.
‘But you have the political weight to take Mason away from Ash, any time.’ Dex was such an arsehole, stirring the pot.
‘Dex, do you know what the first rule to déjà vu club is? Oh wait, she’s already told you all this!’ Bree was Harper’s hero, giving her a nod of encouragement to continue.
Harper turned and removed a box of paperwork from her car. She took another deep breath, wiped away her tears, straightened her shoulders, and squarely faced the brothers. ‘Because Mason lives here , and because this is his home, and to prove to you all —’ she glared at Dex with determination. ‘I am not here to take Mason away, instead I’ve learned how to save this station .’