Fourteen
Cap watched Mia disappear around the back sheds with her head down and Willow trotting after her.
He held his hand to his cheek, stunned she’d kissed him. Even grinning that maybe, just maybe, she did like him.
Unexpectedly it made something change inside him.
Hope swiftly heightened his level of protectiveness, which then spun into a fury, that anything dared to threaten Mia’s safety when he’d promised to keep her safe!
His hands clenched into fists, and he stormed to the front of the house where this Leo was talking to Ryder, while Ash held back Sarge by the dog harness, with Dex coming over from the kennels.
‘What do you want?’ Cap wanted the idiot who’d dared to scare Mia gone. And now.
A little older than Ryder, but just as tall, with jet-black hair, Leo looked like any other cattleman, complete with jeans, shirt, and black hat and a three-day growth peppered across his strong jawline. So, how was he part of the mine?
Leo held out his hand. ‘Hello, we haven’t officially met. I’m Leo.’
‘I know who you are.’ Cap crossed his arms over his chest. Normally he was the peacemaker who’d greet people and hear them out. But not this time.
‘Well then, straight to business, I see. I’m here with another offer on the property.’ The man even smiled with his dark eyes all shiny as if amused.
‘Not interested.’ Cap glared at the man as Dex, the professional street fighter, came up behind him. It only gave him courage.
‘As my brother said, we’re not interested.’ Ryder held out an envelope to Leo. It was the same type of envelope Harper had delivered, containing the mine’s first offer to buy the place. Even then, it was less than what they’d paid for the place that was now their home. Was Leo playing them for fools?
‘Just look at the offer and call me and I’ll come out and transfer my funds to pay in full today. Hey, I’m right next door.’ Leo pointed east, while his grin was dark, almost menacing even.
‘No.’ Cap shook his head. He did not want the neighbour anywhere near this place. ‘If you want to talk to us, it’ll be at the pub or somewhere else in town. Not here.’ He wanted Mia safe. ‘Never come back here unannounced again, or I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.’
A growl, deep and loaded with warning, cut through the air. It came from Sarge.
Ash let go of the dog’s harness, stepping away from the fiercely protective ex-riot dog that stood beside Cap.
But there was more than one growl. Cap’s entire dog pack had stealthily snuck up behind them, with their hackles raised.
‘Easy…’ Cap wasn’t telling them off, when it was in their nature to protect their pack.
‘I’d back away slowly, if I were you, mate .’ Dex gave his signature smirk, as he rocked on his heels. ‘And you might think twice about coming back, now that the dogs have their eye on you.’
‘Hey, I’m just a businessman. We can be neighbourly, can’t we?’ Leo held out his open palms; they were callus free and on one wrist was an expensive watch.
Then he pointed to the house, where Mason was peeking through the childproof gate with his nanny dog, Ruby, at his side. ‘Is that child safe with these dogs?’
‘Oi.’ Ash frowned, pointing at Leo. ‘It was you who dropped that anonymous tip-off to the cops about me abusing my kid.’
Leo gave a lopsided grin. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. But is Bree around? I’d like to—’
‘Leave. Now .’ Ryder stood right in Leo’s face. ‘And never come back.’ And when someone like Ryder gave anyone the death look , you knew instinctively that he was a man who had the lethal power to back up his words.
But Leo only narrowed his dark eyes at Ryder for a long beat while remaining spookily calm and collected as if sizing him up. ‘Hmph. I see we’ve skipped the civilities to slide straight into the stage where we’ll just let our lawyers do the talking. See you later, gentlemen, or do you prefer the term cow boys .’
The insult was made worse by Leo tipping the brim of his hat as he climbed back into his vehicle, even grinning at them as he drove away.
‘That’s not a miner’s vehicle. It’s got none of their ID numbers or safety lights on it.’ Cap pointed to the dust stirred by Leo’s ute tearing down the track towards the front gate. ‘Leo’s not a miner. Is he a cattleman?’ He had callus-free hands unstained by the dirt and dust that was usually a sign of a man who worked on the land.
‘Maybe Leo’s more of a mining manager, dressing up to play cowboy,’ suggested Dex.
‘Harper said Leo’s mining company was buying up cattle country,’ said Ash. ‘Wouldn’t you want a cattleman to manage your properties, or know what to look for—’
‘Leo is not a cattleman.’ Ryder’s deep voice echoed like a death whisper in the air, silencing everyone. As an astute businessman, Ryder could read people to cut through the bull. ‘Leo is not what he says he is, and that makes him dangerous in my book.’
‘Whatever he is, I don’t want him here for Mia’s sake.’
‘Is Mia okay? Did she have a panic attack or something?’ Ash asked, concerned.
‘Yeah,’ Cap clenched his fists, barely containing that rage. ‘If I ever see that bloke who hurt Mia, I doubt I’ll be able to control myself.’ Which was unheard of. Cap never got mad, unless for family. Since when did he consider Mia like family?
‘Where is Mia?’ Ash asked. While Ryder arched an eyebrow at Cap, then side-glanced Dex who had also cocked his head at Cap.
‘Hiding at Bree’s.’ He turned for the cottage, should he go see her?
‘Don’t worry, Bree will protect her, brother.’ Dex patted Cap’s shoulder. ‘That redhead even scares me when she gets into mother-bear mode.’
‘But I want to protect Mia.’ Cap dropped his head as his words rang in his ears and in the surrounding air. Sighing heavily, he patted Sarge, the loyal friend indeed.
‘Why was Mia panicking over Leo?’ Dex asked with a shrug.
‘Leo knows her ex, Gavin.’ The scumbag. ‘Leo was going to hire Gavin as the mechanic or something, to work on that lithium mine site.’ Which was right next door. Even though there were hundreds of acres between them, it had to be spinning Mia out to realise her ex might be that close. ‘We should go back to keeping the gate locked.’
‘We can’t,’ said Ryder. ‘Charlie and Bree run their branding business, or whatever it is that Bree does, and the caretakers do get visitors. Charlie said they only lock the front gate when no one is at the homestead. Which is rare. But that’s not the issue, here.’ Ryder shook his head. ‘CEOs do not bother doing job interviews with ground crews like mechanics.’ Ryder’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. ‘You know, the whole lithium mining deal of Leo’s wasn’t right from the get-go. He must have paid someone off to ignore the land zone regulation to get that mining permit issued in the first place.’
‘You’re probably right,’ said Cap. ‘Mia said Leo’s mine never did an environmental impact study on the place, either. And that’s part of the application process.’
Ryder cocked his head slightly. ‘How does Mia know this?’
‘Mia does those reports for the mines and the government.’
‘So she’s qualified to do our pastures?’ Ash asked.
‘Over-qualified.’ Cap and his brothers had no fancy education or degrees, but a lot of calluses they’d earned from the never-ending life lessons of living in the outback. ‘Can you see now why I want Mia’s help?’
His brothers nodded, except for Ryder.
Cap ripped off his hat and raked fingers through his hair. ‘Yesterday Mia helped me work out the set-up for the wildlife corridors that’ll be windbreaks to stop any future dust storms. It won’t cost us very much money, except for Mia’s wages, plus she’s got some great ideas to improve pastures that feed our stock.’
Finally, he had Ryder’s attention.
‘Mia may be here due to an ugly situation, and if I ever see that Gavin, I’ll—’
‘Oi? You never get violent.’ Ash’s brow creased with concern.
‘I believe our family’s peacemaker here,’ said Dex, tossing his thumb at Cap, ‘was going to throttle Leo if he didn’t leave.’
‘I saw that.’ Ryder’s heavy hand landed on Cap’s shoulder as he lowered his head to meet Cap’s eyes. ‘Mate, I’m going to ask, just this once and once only. So don’t tear my head off when I say this.’
‘Go on.’ Cap raised his chin, preparing for the worst, especially when Ryder spoke cold hard truths.
‘Don’t you think you’re getting a little too involved with a woman who’s running from her ex? I saw how Mia was when Leo showed up, she was terrified.’ Ryder pointed back to the house.
‘I saw that, too.’ Ash gave a slow nod.
‘How bad?’ Dex asked, he’d been at the kennels while all this went down.
‘It wasn’t good.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Cap sighed heavily, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
‘What makes you think she’ll stay and not run the first chance she gets?’
Cap glared at Ryder and his wise words.
‘You’ve always had a soft heart, always the first to help strays.’ Ryder nodded at Sarge, a rescued police dog. ‘Mia isn’t—’
‘I know she’s not part of the pack. I’m not stupid.’
‘Bro, you care for her. We all see that.’ Ash scratched the bristles on his chin, his brow ruffling as if a thought had just emerged. ‘Do you know what a rebound is?’
Cap scoffed. ‘What are you on about now?’
‘It’s when a woman uses a guy to help her get over a relationship. And rebound relationships never last. Trust me on that,’ said the ladies’ man who’d had the reputation of never dating a woman longer than two weeks. ‘Before I met Harper, I loved being the rebound guy, because I knew a woman wasn’t looking for anything long term.’
Dex scowled, crossing his beefy arms over his chest. ‘Women aren’t worth the hassle in my book. Don’t trust them.’
But Mia was worth it in Cap’s eyes. He didn’t know how he knew that—or when, or why he’d come to that conclusion—he just did.
‘After what Mia’s been through, bro, you might want to be careful about getting too attached to her,’ said Ash.
‘Too late, the softie already is. Just look at him.’
‘Lay off.’ Cap wanted to wipe that smirk off Dex’s face.
‘Look, none of us want to see her break your heart when she leaves,’ said the normally heartless man Ryder.
‘Mia’s not going anywhere.’ Not if Cap could help it.
‘That’s if Mia isn’t already packing after Leo’s little visit.’ Dex was such a dick!
‘She won’t. She isn’t. I’m not—’ Arseholes . Cap spun around and walked away. He hated how his brothers saw straight through him.
What irked him more was they were right.
If given the opportunity, Mia would leave the first chance she got, especially with Leo’s visit reminding her why she was hiding out here in the first place. Mia had every reason to run.